Hello everyone,
I hope you’re doing great and are ready for some German learning action! Because today, I have a really nice review quiz for you about the following amazing topic:
Which past tense to use?
Hooray!
This is actually an exercise I’ll be adding to one of the articles of my grammar course.
There was a really basic old school “quiz” there and when I saw that again recently, I was like “This REALLY needs a do-over .”
And then I thought why not make it a bit more elaborate and also share it with you here, so you can check if the topic is maybe something you need to look into a bit.
It’s really important when it comes to sounding idiomatic, after all.
So yeah, that’s the quiz we’ll do today, but I’ll ALSO give you a quick rundown of German Past Tense and the specific issue we’ll be practicing today.
Past Tense in German – A Quick Recap
In German, we basically have two core options to form a normal past of a verb, which I call spoken past and written past (or real past).
The formal names are Perfekt (Perfect) and Präteritum (preterit), but I don’t find those very intuitive and they’re also potentially misleading.
Why?
Because on the surface, the two German past options often look a lot like the English Present Perfect and Simple Past.
- I have eaten a steak.
- Ich habe ein Steak gegessen.
(present perfect – Spoken Past)
- Ich aß ein Steak.
- I ate a steak.
(Simple past – Written Past)
However, the “paradigms” of using the two are completely different.
In English, there’s a very clear distinction between when to use the Perfect and the Simple Past and there’s a difference in meaning. So the choice depends on the context and what you want to say.
In German on the other hand, there is NO relevant difference in meaning between Spoken past and Written past; at least not as far as normal daily life is concerned.
Instead, it comes down to “What sounds good.”
For the vast majority of verbs, this depends on whether you’re using it in what I call “spoken German” or in “written story telling”.
By spoken German I mean of course actual speaking, but also everyday writing like chats or emails, forum posts or diary entries.
By written story telling, I mean primarily novels, a research paper or journalistic pieces.
Most German verbs (like 95% of them) use Spoken Past in Spoken German, while all verbs pretty much use written past in written story telling. (Hence the names for the two types of past.)
- Ich habe ein Steak gegessen. (You’d text this to a friend)
- Ich aß ein Steak. (You’d write this in a novel)
And using the “wrong” past version is not technically wrong, but it’s just not idiomatic at all. And for all those verbs, the Written Past is something you don’t really need to worry about and that you can just pick up slowly over time through exposure.
However, there are a few verbs that do use the Written Past even in spoken German.
They’re not many, but they happen to be the most common and important verbs, and we DO need to learn the Written Past for those if we want to speak idiomatic German.
Those verbs are the helper verbs (haben, sein, werden) and the modal verbs (können, müssen, wollen…).
They do have both versions of the past – every verb does. But the Written Past is just way more idiomatic, even in spoken German.
And then, there are a bunch of common everyday verbs like gehen, finden, wissen or sehen that also use the Written Past.
But for those, it actually depends.
For wissen for example, both options are more or less equally idiomatic.
- Wusstest du das?
- Hast du das gewusst?
For most of the others, we can use the following rule of thumb:
When using the literal sense, it goes with Spoken Past.
When using a figurative/abstract sense, it goes with Written Past.
Let’s take geben for example.
It can mean to give, but it’s also the German way to say “there is/are…” .
And you’d use Spoken Past for the former and Written Past for the latter.
Literal Meaning:
- I gave you a kiss.
- Ich habe dir einen Kuss gegeben…. this is idiomatic when speaking
- Ich gab dir einen Kuss .. sounds like from a novel
Figurative/Abstract Meaning:
- There used to be unicorns here back in the day.
- Früher gab es hier Einhörner…. this is idiomatic when speaking.
- Früher hat es hier Einhörner gegeben… this is not wrong, but less idiomatic than the other option
And note that it is completely irrelevant, which past option we have in English. It doesn’t matter.
You pick the German version based on the German “paradigm”.
That’s why soooo many Germans (including me) keep using the wrong past in English. Our brains just can’t really grasp the distinction in meaning because it’s simply not relevant in normal German.
All right.
Now, this was a quick overview and it was probably a bit overwhelming for some of you.
If you want to dig deeper, check out my articles about the past tense here:
- German Past Tense – Part 1 (An Overview)
(this is a general overview) - German Past Tense 2 – Spoken Past
(How to build the ge-form and when to use haben and sein) - German Past Tense 3 – The Written Past
(How to build the Written Past and when do we need it) - German Past Tense 4 – When to use which past
(Detailed look at which verbs need the Written Past in spoken German and in which contexts)
The last of these articles is basically what I explained in condensed form just now and what we’ll practice today.
The Exercise
And many of you are probably now thinking “Oh damn… I’ll have to read that first before doing the exercise, so I am well prepared.”
But I’ll actually say… don’t!
The point of this exercise is NOT that you score 100%. The point is at least in part to CHECK how well you’re doing with this stuff and if you actually need to review it.
So I really recommend you do the exercise first and see how it goes and only if you find that you have some gaps, then you should invest the time to read up on it.
And also, as always with these exercises, I have tried to build in a progression and I’ll provide a little explanation with each answer so you can discover and learn the “rules” as you go. This can be much more effective for learning than just reading an article.
So yeah… I know you might feel a bit anxious, but just dive in. You’re not here to score, you’re here to learn :).
What we’ll do is I’ll give you a sentence in English (in past tense) and you have to pick which German past version is more idiomatic.
When you click “hint”, you’ll see the German version of the sentence, but in present tense, so you can kind of also practice translating a little bit.
And then, like I said, I’ll give you the correct German past version, along with a little explainer.
So… are you ready? Seid ihr bereit?
Then let’s go. Viel Erfolg!!
Oh and just to make sure… all questions are about what’s idiomatic in normal spoken German.
***
***
So, how was it?
Let me know in the comments how you did and if it was too easy or too hard.
I feel like it’s a bit of a shaky area for most learners, but maybe I’m wrong and you all crushed it.
If not, please do the exercise again in a couple of days to see if you’re doing better the second time around.
Oh, and of course let me know all the questions you might have about this stuff in the comments and I’ll clear it up as best I can.
So yeah, that’s it for today. I really hope you enjoyed it and learned a thing or two.
Have an amazing week and bis zum nächsten Mal!!
In the quiz question that uses “hatten”, the answer talks about it being a helper verb—but in that question it’s not being used as a helper, the speaker simply had something (fun, in this case). I guess the rule is just that “haben” like “sein” tends to use the written past, whether it’s helping or not?
Oh yeah, that was misleadingly phrased by me. What I mean is that the verbs that CAN be helper verbs (haben, sein, werden) go with written past usually, regardless of what they’re doing.
I got 8/12 lol. this was a tough one.
though I guess some answers could be true but you counted false, (however you noted in description for results that also x was also possible but only less idiomatic.)
p.s: a short question: if u want to say:
would you say:
right?
so a p.p sentence in english transfers to a simple past in german? (so the simple past in german could mean whether p.p/simple past in english yeah?)
Many of the questions are about “What’s most idiomatic/natural”, and yes, that doesn’t mean that the other option is wrong :).
Your example sentence with “Gerüchte” is correct.
A present perfect sentence can be preterit or perfect in German. It depends on what’s idiomatic/natural for the given sentence/verb and mode of speech.
TY. today I wanted to say something with past tense “aussehen” but I didnt know which one to use.
if you would add “aussehen” and “klingen” to the list of verbs, that’d be beneficial because they are way too common.
and also:
could u say which are more idiomatic?
“aussehen” is one of those where written past sounds better, but you can find spoken as well, in the South.
For “klingen”, I definitely prefer “klang” over “hat geklungen”.
I did far better than I expected, 12 right. I think given a few seconds to come up with an answer I’m going to get this correct more often than not. Spur of the moment while speaking, not so sure.
Thanks for this. I missed two, but those were the two that I tried to overthink. When I just followed instinct, I got them correct.
Ich habe es besser geschafft, als ich dachte aber „gewesen“ verwirrt mich immer. Ich bin nicht sicher warum
100%, very proud!
FYI it’s not very idiomatic in English to say “I’ve been at home” either. It’s hard to explain because there are a few contexts in which you might say it, like if someone accuses you of a crime and you say, “That’s impossible, I’ve been home all day!” But usually you would just say, “I was (at) home.”
My partner definitely has a tendency to say things like “Yesterday I’ve been out to lunch with my mother,” which sounds very strange. From now on I will try to cut him some slack remembering that German doesn’t have a distinction between “I was” and “I’ve been” :D
Also – saying this as an American with a lot of British friends, so open to correction – I believe that British English is similar to German in that the past perfect is fairly standard in spoken language. A British person would typically say something like, “I’ve brought you something” whereas to an American that sounds odd. But I still don’t think that would apply to “I’ve been at home.”
I took ‘boring party’ to be a matter of opinion, not fact, so maybe a more clear-cut example would be helpful?
I’m not sure what you’re getting at. It is certainly a matter of opinion, like anything you say with the opinion-finden, and hence we need “fand” and not “habe gefunden”. Please help me out, what I’m missing.
I am very happy with my score. Got a 10/14 only after studying German for a year or so. Do you think it is possible to take a Goethe Zertifikat B1 after a year and half of study? From your experience
From 06h30 yesterday morning I was struggling to understand how a Latin based word like “perfekt” came to denote a German tense. I conclude it’s a legacy of the Holy Roman Empire.
I’m going to stick with “perfekt” as the word through which my mind makes its best connection. I have my theory as to why the perfect tense is used for speaking. It’s got to do with human beings living in community. It’s used when you give answer for the to-do list that was assigned to you. “Haben” as an auxiliary verb also denotes ownership of the state of an actioned object.
Now you’re giving account to the farmer:-
Now you’re with your friend: –
What you got?
Lol, you’re onto something there with that theory (spoiler: the origin of the ge-form).
As for the origin of the use of the perfect tense for speaking… that comes from the Southern regions of Germany and it just spread. The further North you go, the more common the preterit is, and it used to be even more.
As for the name “Perfect”… without looking it up, here’s my half knowledge.
It does come from Latin grammar analysis and for a long time, German (and English) grammarians have tried analyzing languages through the Latin lens.
The name “Perfect” was used because the tense/mode expressed that a deed was completed and that this completion is relevant.
In English, this is kind of alive still.
– I’ve read this book.
– I read a book yesterday.
The second sentence is just about you doing something in the past and whether or not you “completed” anything is not important.
Slavic languages express this aspect of “perfecting (completing)” by prefixes a lot of times.
In German, this notional difference between preterit and perfect can still be seen if you dig deeper into writing, especially novels.
That’s the reason why novels are written in simple past… because you’re talking about stuff that happened and it doesn’t matter if they’re completed now.
However, this distinction has faded A LOT in German, and in spoken German, it really comes down to what sounds natural.
In a way, people still perceive a difference between “Ich habe die Pferde gefüttert” and “Ich fütterte die Pferde”. The first one talks about your accomplishment, the second about what you were doing at some point. But the latter version is just super unnatural in spoken German and sound like it’s from a novel.
I note with some astonishment that Latin’s auxiliary verbs are “esse” and “habere”. So it is the Holy Roman Empire’s influence (via Bavaria & Austria &?).
In a German household, would an individual defend themselves by emphasizing “habe”? e..g
“I note with some astonishment that Latin’s auxiliary verbs are “esse” and “habere”. So it is the Holy Roman Empire’s influence (via Bavaria & Austria &?).”
Yeah, that’ possible.
I did a quick search now and here’s a good discussion on German Stackexchange
https://german.stackexchange.com/questions/56463/what-is-the-origin-of-the-two-past-tenses-in-german
I can also recommend the Belle Lettres Videos, though they’re in German.
https://www.belleslettres.eu/content/verb/tempus-aspekt-prateritum-perfekt.php
And yes, we do stress “habe” in the spoken past for emphasis.
I followed the first. I’ve saved the second.
Now that I think about it, the English “have” does not come from Anglo-Saxons, rather the Romans. As you said in the North they were not big on the perfect, and the Angles, Saxons & Jutes were from the north.
I’ll leave you be now.
If you scroll down the Belles Letters page a bunch, you can find the written version of the article which is probably a lot easier to follow than the audio.
Now that you mention that, I will do it. I’ve been analyzing a Handelsblatt dated 16 Okt 2023. I’m now on page 6. Besides new vocab, what I look forward to is a construction which I have not encountered before. I’ve only encountered one new construction in the last 2 pages in that newspaper. I want to hit a brick wall, I want to sigh and think “What are they up to now?”
I’m reading the Belles Letters article, and it is kind of mind-blowing. The logic behind written versus spoken past is really enlightening. This would be a great article to rewrite into human though. I’m sure I would struggle with a few of these sentences even in English.
I often don’t read your newsletter fully because I save it for later because I like it so much and then run out of time in the day. So in a way, you’re a victim of your own talent. “Once upon a time, there has been a dragon” is brilliant.
Also 10/14 but crucially, the difference between idiomatic and literal is SO helpful. Fand and ging makes so much more sense now. I just thought people were using them randomly to make me feel stupid.
You’ll probably pick up more of these pairs now that you’re aware.
For example
– Ich habe das Auto gesehen.
– Ich sah gut aus. (prefix verb here, in the abstract)
Lol, suffering from success :).
The newsletters are all in an archive here (for members), by the way, so you don’t need to keep the emails.
I was on the fence about the dragon bit because this exact sentence would NOT be “es hat einen Drachen gegeben” in German, but then I decided to run with it, because it’s just so iconic and German speakers do get the Perfect and simple past mixed up all the time in English.
Thanks for the great feedback!
Thank you Emanuel and the people who donated to this valuable website, i just got an account :)
First time here so very happy to have scored 10 out of 14. I’ve signed up so I’m looking forward to the next time. Vielen dank
Glückwunsch und willkommen!!
Long words slow down our thoughts, as well as our speech. How about calling these tenses “long past” and “short past”? It’s true in German and English. Also, it might explain the rules. When the sentence is already LONG (includes a helper or modal verb) we use the SHORT past. When the meaning is SIMPLE (not figurative) we have time for the LONG past. Does that help?
Hmmm, if that works for you, that’s perfect, but as a general perspective, I think it invites a lot of confusion.
When the sentence is already LONG (includes a helper or modal verb) we use the SHORT past.
I get where you’re coming from here, but a lot of modal sentences and sentences with “sein” and “haben” are super short.
– Ich war müde.
– Ich hatte keine Zeit.
– Ich musste arbeiten.
– Ich konnte nicht kommen.
So you’d need to add quite a lot of qualifiers or exceptions.
Still great to have it here as an option, the more angles the better.
So which answer is correct for question #2? I got an “Incorrect” for “konnte”, but then the explanation seems to imply that it is indeed the correct one.
Hmm, are you sure? I just checked and tried and it accepted “konnte” as “correct” (which it should).
I managed a not-too-shabby 10/14, from memory, when diving in “naked” a few days ago (ie, without reading the article), and a more pleasing 13/14 today after having read the accompanying article. The one remaining error was from thinking that “finding an apartment” was a sufficiently abstracted/complex use of “find” as to allow the written version to also be idiomatic. Ah well, live and learn ;-)
I imagine my relatively good performance was more indicative of having read the past tense article in the, aaah, not-too-distant past rather than anything worthier, but it does feel like the information is all starting to adhere a little better.
One small suggestion: “…which I call spoken past and written past (or real past). The formal names are Präteritum (preterit) and Perfekt (Perfect)”
=> Might be worth swapping these names around, since the natural correspondence is reversed.
Great catch!!!
Thanks a lot :)
I got 8 out of 14 right. I think this is a great quiz because it identifies areas that I am weak in. Before I took the quiz I didn’t even know this was an area I needed to work on.
I bombed colossally! Not ever having lived in a German-speaking country, I have almost no sense of what sounds good. But I do know past tenses are often conjugated with “ Sein” Bravo! I enjoyed the quiz.
I recommend doing it again after a couple of days and see how much of it stuck.
I would really thank all the people in here for learning, interacting and making this community a helpful place.
A special thanks for people that put efforts in explaining in a very simple way
Emanuel<3
Thank you for providing me access to the platform free of cost! As a student, this is incredibly helpful and greatly appreciated.
First time 8/14. A day later, 12/14. Of the 2 that I missed, one was ‘both idiomatic’, the other was ‘stehen’ and I should have gotten that one right. Bottom line – the literal vs abstract rule of thumb, with the exceptions you give, is essential and exactly why I rely on your lessons. This lesson automatically raises street cred by at least 25% and, more importantly, self-confidence by at least 50%. Congrats on another well-written lesson.