Telling stories with the Präteritum
When Germans speak about the past, they usually use the spoken past tense (Perfekt). However, in writing, storytelling, and for a few common verbs, we use the simple past tense, known as the Präteritum.
To form the simple past for regular (weak) verbs, add the Präteritum endings to the verb stem. Notice that the ich and er/sie/es forms are exactly the same!
| Pronoun | Ending | Example (spielen) |
|---|
| ich / er / sie / es | -te | spielte |
| wir / sie / Sie | -ten | spielten |
| du | -test | spieltest |
| ihr | -tet | spieltet |
Verbs ending in -t or -d
If a verb stem ends in a -t or a -d (like warten or trösten), adding another "t" directly to it would be hard to pronounce. To fix this, we insert an extra -e- before the ending. For example, warten becomes wartete.
Connecting past actions
When sharing childhood memories, you will often explain the consequences of an event. The words deshalb, darum, and deswegen are interchangeable and all mean "that is why," "therefore," or "so."
When you start a clause with one of these connectors, it takes the first position. To keep the verb in its required second position, the verb comes immediately after the connector, followed by the subject.
