Simple past of common irregulars (wurde, wusste, es gab)

More Common Simple Past Verbs

Just like sein, haben, and the modal verbs, a few other highly frequent German verbs are almost always used in the simple past (Präteritum) rather than the spoken past, even in casual conversation.

Three of the most important are es gibt (there is), werden (to become), and wissen (to know).

Es gab (There was / There were)

To say "there was" or "there were", simply change es gibt to es gab. Just like in the present tense, the noun that follows it must be in the accusative case (notice einen König in the first example).

Wurde and Wusste

The simple past of werden (to become) is wurde. The simple past of wissen (to know a fact) is wusste.

Notice that wissen behaves a lot like a modal verb in the past tense: it changes its stem vowel to u and adds a -t-. As always with the simple past, the ich and er/sie/es forms are exactly identical.

Use wurde to describe historical transformations, getting older, or entering a new state.

Use wusste to describe facts you knew (or didn't know) in the past.

States vs. Sudden Realizations

When telling a story about the past, you will often mix these simple past forms with the regular spoken past (Perfekt).

Use the simple past for ongoing background states (what was, what you knew, what was there). But when a sudden event happens or an action is completed, you typically switch back to the spoken past.

Two common verbs for sudden events are bemerken (to notice) and erkennen (to recognize / to realize). Notice how the following sentences use the simple past for the ongoing state or feeling, but the spoken past for the sudden realization.