Verbs in the past tense in German are used in three forms: colloquial (Perfekt), bookish (Imperfekt, or Praeteritum), as well as a special pre-past "pluperfect". What appeals to language learners of Schiller and Goethe is that the usage rules are not so rigid. So, for example, in the north of Germany, preterite is often used in colloquial speech. In Austria and Switzerland, it is more often said in the perfect.
Past colloquial form
Perfekt is used in speech to convey past events. In Russian it is called "past perfect tense". The perfect is formed with the help of the auxiliary verb haben or sein + past participle. For weak verbs, Partizip II is invariable, formed by adding the prefix ge- and the suffix -t to the stem of the verb. For example: machen - gemacht; malen - gem alt. Irregular verbs in the past tense in German are not amenable to logical explanation. Their form must be memorized. For example: gehen - gegangen, lessen - gelesen.
Regardingthe use of one or another auxiliary verb, then here the rule is as follows:
- For verbs of motion and change of state, sein is used. Gehen, fahren, einschlafen, aufstehen, sterben - go, go, fall asleep, get up, die.
- Modal verbs are used with haben. As well as impersonal man, which is often grouped together with modals. Example: Man hat geschneit. - It was snowing. Or Man hat es mir geschmeckt. - I enjoyed it.
- Verbs with the reflexive particle sich are used with haben. For example: I bathed, I shaved. - Ich hab mich gewaschen, ich hab mich rasiert.
- Transitive verbs. Ich hab das Buch gelesen. - I was reading a book. Er hat ferngesehen. – He was watching TV.
It is worth paying attention to the fact that the rules for using auxiliary verbs differ in Germany and other countries. So, in Austria, Switzerland, Bavaria, South Tyrol (Italy), the verbs sit, lie, stand are used with sein. Although we don't see any state change here:
- Ich bin gesessen - I was sitting.
- Mein Freund ist auf dem Bett gelegen – My friend was lying on the bed.
- Wir sind eine Stunde lang im Regen gestanden – We stood in the rain for an hour.
In Germany (and in its northern and central parts, not in Bavaria) the auxiliary haben is used in these cases.
Preterite
For past tense verbs in German in narration and mass media textsPraeterit is used. This is the so-called book version of the past.
The formation of such a form for regular verbs is very simple. You just need to add the suffix -t after the stem.
Compare: I'm learning. - Ich student. But: I studied. - Ich studierte.
Personal endings are the same as for the present tense, except for the singular person of the third number. There, the form matches the first person.
Compare: I studied and he studied. - Ich studierte und er studierte.
We also use the past tense when we tell a fairy tale to our child, tell the biography of some famous person. Sometimes it is possible to speak in the preterite and in colloquial speech. For example, if you tell your friends about how you spent your vacation. For example: Ich war in Thailand. - I was in Thailand. Ich ging oft zum Strand. - I often went to the beach.
It is worth paying attention to the fact that, despite the fact that the language of narration is the simple past, one can still find the perfect in books and stories. It is used when there is a dialogue between two or more characters in the story.
Using the pluperfect
A compound tense in German is the so-called Plusquamperfekt. It is used to emphasize the relationship between two actions that happened in the past. Also used to indicate that one action follows from another.
Usually used with past tense verbs. In German, to emphasize the correlation of these actions, the words are used then (dann), after (nachdem), before (frueher), a month ago(vor einem Monat), a year ago (vor einem Jahr) and others.
Examples:
- Meine Freundin rief mich an und sagte mir, dass sie vor einem Monat nach Wien gefahren war. – My friend called and told me that she left for Vienna a month ago.
- Nachdem ich die Uni absolviert hatte, fang ich mit der Arbeit an. – After I graduated from university, I started working.
- Mein Freund hatte die Fachschule beendet, dann trat er ins Institut ein. - First, my friend graduated from a technical school, then entered the institute.
Modal German verbs in past tense
Mostly Modal Verbe is used in the simple preterite. This makes it easier to speak, you don't have to say three whole verbs if you use the perfect.
Compare: He shouldn't have been lying. - Er sollte nicht luegen. Ich hat nicht lugen gesollt. The second phrase is much more difficult to understand.
The past tense form for modal verbs is constructed simply. You just need to remove all umlauts and stems, add the -t suffix and a personal ending, and you get the conjugation of verbs in the past tense. The German language is, in principle, very logical.
The exception is the verb moegen. For him, the past tense form is mochte. I love reading newspapers. - Ich mag Zeitungen lesen. But: I liked to read newspapers. - Jch mochte Zeitungen lesen.
How to learn the past tense in German
The most common form is the perfect, so it should be learned first. If athere will be no problems with regular verbs and it is easy to remember everything, then it is better to learn the wrong ones in the form of a table. There are certain patterns, for example, “group ei - ie -i e”: Bleiben - blieb - geblieben; schreiben - schrieb - geschrieben, steigen - stieg - gestiegen. You can break all known verbs into similar subgroups and memorize them.
This table can be taken at first every time you come to a German lesson. Verbs in the past tense are easiest to remember this way.
As for the auxiliary sein and haben, it is easiest to memorize a group of the former. There are far fewer such verbs. That is why it will be easier to remember them. The conjugation of verbs in the past tense of the German language must be memorized together with the auxiliary. This is also shown in dictionaries. If there is (s) in brackets next to the verb, then the auxiliary verb will be sein, and if (h), then haben.
