Hi everyone,
and welcome to our YourDailyGerman – Learn German Online – Course.
Today, we’ll start talking about the
Past Tense In German
or as we could also call it
The most important thing ever.
I’m not even exaggerating.
I really think that talking in past tense is the single most important thing to learn.
Just pay attention to what you talk about in a day, the majority of it will be about stuff that (has) happened – I did this, I did that. I was thinking this. I was drinking that. You get the idea.
In my opinion and experience, as long as you don’t know how to speak about the past in a language, it makes no sense to even start having conversations. You’re simply not ready.
I know lots of people say “Start speaking right away.” but I disagree.
Instead of starting to speak as fast as you can, the better approach is to start learning about the past tense as fast as you can.
And while I think this is a general truth about language learning, it is extra turbo hyper true for learning German because of… drumroll… German Sentence Structure, also know as
The Mess™
When we talked about present tense and prefix verbs, we learned about this weird feature of the verb going to the end.
Well, this also happens in past tense. In one of the two versions, to be precise.
- Ich trinke einen Kaffee. (present)
a) Ich trank einen Kaffee. (past A)
b) Ich habe einen Kaffee getrunken. (past B)
- Ich gehe nach Hause. (present)
a) Ich ging nach Hause. (past A)
b) Ich bin nach Hause gegangen. (past B)
I know you’re now like “Okay, I’m gonna go with past A, thank you very much.” but the problem is, for most verbs past B is idiomatic.
And this brings us to the main topic for this first part of the series. Before we dive into the grammar and structure, I think it’s good to have a little overview over the two types of past and when and how they’re used.
And that’s what we’ll do today, so if you’re ready, let’s jump right in :)
***
Past Tense in German – The Two Types
There are two simple facts about the past.
Number one: everything was better. And number two: everything was cheaper.
Take my grandfather’s iPhone. He got the JFK-Edition back in 1965 for as little as $10 and you know what…. it still works just fine and he even used it to knock down parts of the Berlin wa… wait, I think I got lost, I’m sorry.
Let me grab a beer real quick and start over.
So… in the intro, we’ve already seen that there are two types of past in German. We called them past A and past B. In proper grammar jargon, they’re called preterit and perfect. But we will actually call them spoken past and written past. Because those names are more intuitive, as you’ll see in a second.
German has two versions of the past:
- Spoken Past (Formally called Perfekt – looks like the English Present Perfect )
- Written Past (Formally called Präteritum – looks like the English Simple Past)
So, we have these two types of past and EVERY verb technically has BOTH forms.
So far, this setup is no different from English with the present perfect and the simple past. The family ties between German and English are really obvious here and the structures of the German and the English past forms “look” the similar.
- I saw a bird.
- Ich sah einen Vogel.
- I have seen a bird.
- Ich habe einen Vogel gesehen.
But the crucial thing we MUST get into our heads is this:
The past forms look similar in German and English.
But how the languages use the forms is different!
In English, there is a really clear distinction in meaning between “I ate” and “I have eaten“.
But German has echoes if that, the DNA is still there somewhere, but in practice, German does NOT have this distinction that English has. and German speakers learning English have a really hard time getting it right.
Here’s an example:
- I‘ve seen a unicorn.
- I saw a unicorn.
To an English speaker, there is a distinction between these two, but a German brain doesn’t feel it.
In German, when you want to say either one of these, you’d say this:
- Ich habe ein Einhorn gesehen.
Because for sehen, this version of the past, the spoken past, is the idiomatic choice.
And this choice of which past tense to use – perfect or simple past – depends on two things.
Spoken Past vs Written Past – The Difference
The first (and main) thing that determines which version of the past to use in German is the type of speech.
And that’s where we get back to the names spoken past and written past.
The spoken past is used in spoken German. And that includes for written “normal” language like SMS, E-mails, letters, chats, blogs, recipes and so on.
The written past is used when narrating a story, mainly in books or longer newspaper articles.
Take this sentence:
- I ordered a tea and began reading the newspaper.
There are two options for us to translate it.
- Ich bestellte einen Tee und fing an, die Zeitung zu lesen.
- Ich habe einen Tee bestellt und dann angefangen, die Zeitung zu lesen.
And both are correct.
The difference is how they sound.
The first version sounds like it is taken from an autobiographical novel. No one would really say that in daily life.
The second one is how I’d tell my friends about my visit at the cafe.
Basically, you’ll pretty much always be in Spoken Past mode, unless you’re writing a story.
“So does that mean we don’t need the … the written past?”
Well, that would be too simple, so no.
Some verbs pretty much always use the written past. Like sein for instance, which is of course to be.
- I have been to Berlin.
- I was in Berlin.
Again, to an English speaker, there’s some kind of distinction between the two, but to a German brain, it’s really hard to grasp that.
In German, if you want to say either one of these, you’d say this:
- Ich war in Berlin.
That’s the written past, and it’s simply what’s idiomatic for the verb to be, regardless of the context.
Does the other version exist? Yes it does (we’ll learn how it looks later).
Would it be wrong to use it? No.
But if you want to sound like a normal native speaker, you need the Written Past for this one.
There are not very many verbs for which you actually need the Written past to speak normal German.
But those for which you DO need it are among the most common and most frequent verbs:
- helper verbs like sein, haben or werden.
- Modal verbs like können or müssen and so on.
- A few other basic verbs like finden or geben, both forms are idiomatic and it depends on the context.
Cool.
So that was the introduction and based on that we can now kind of build our past tense road map here.
- The spoken past is by far the most important thing, so we’ll learn how to build that first.
- Then, we’ll learn for which verbs we need the written past in daily life and learn it.
- And then we’ll go over the few verbs for which it really depends on context and meaning.
That’s where we’ll pick up next time :).
Hooray! Who’s hyped up?
Seriously though, once we’re done with the spoken past, German will feel kind of familiar already and you’ll be able to speak.
So get ready for the next episode.
Oh and bring some coffee, because it’ll be long and intense.
For today we’re done, though… well, almost. Because now it’s time for you to get active and recap in a little quiz :)
As usual, if you have questions or suggestions just leave me a comment. I hope you liked it and see you next time.
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Can you please add some Deutsche examples of past tense in quizzes??
Your way of teaching is awesome.
Danke schön!!
Can we speak German?
What do you mean??
Hi, my comment is not related to the post!
Is there a dark mode while reading the website? If not, can we add support for extensions like “Dark Reader”, please?
Once I enable it here, I always get a black screen. Thanks!
Dark mode button is in the bottom left.
Let me know what browser and device you#re on if you don’t see it.
All good, I found it, thank you so much!
For some reason, I didn’t notice before :)
I answered that we need both every day because of the common words I would use that require it such as finden and gehen. Also I am highly abstract :-)
As a geeky English teacher who has loved Deutsch since 7th grade, I honestly don’t see a difference between ate and have eaten. I study grammar for fun because I do a lot of SAT prep. Grammatically, I don’t see a difference. I get that German, like English, is idiomatic.
I am approaching my current German studies academically. I am more interested in reading and writing German and understanding the grammatical nuances. Through studying German, I am actually learning a lot about English.
Two questions for now:
1. When the hell do yo use möchten? Duolingo uses möchten along with other sources. But some sources say don’t use it. Note: I’m only 47, but I learned German formally in the late 80s and 90s. I have pre tear down this wall resources. I also learned from Here Wentz: ich denke daß und muß. Sorry as a Gen Xer I can’t find the quote or hyphen keys on my Kindle.
2. How does or did a German speaker physically write the es zett? What most Americans think of a the capital B?
Pardon my grammar. I keep switching between keyboards and they auto correct me. Hell, I am still trying to understand that ebooks are not a fad!
Danke.
1.)
This is a tricky question!
When you take a language class, there will definitely be contexts in which they teach you (and test you) to use “möchten”, but I don’t think I ever use it in daily life. With friends, I use “wollen”, with strangers or colleagues, I would use more impersonal things like “Es wäre schön, …” (It would be great if you could finish the report).
And when I order in shops or bars, I’ll say “Ich nehme…” or “Ich hätte gern…”
“möchten” to me sounds a bit formal, like a mom telling off her kid in a serious way “Ich möchte nicht, dass du so mit deiner Schwester redest.”
Let me know if that helps.
2)
“ß” -the most common way is to write it like the printed letter BUT with the straight line going below the rest, like in g.
Here’s a good image:
Thank you! Yes, that helps a great deal. Now I understand that mochte is the past tense of mögen. Also, awesome visual! Thank you. You’re awesome! I never thought to look that up on YouTube. ☺ At least my Eszett won’t look like the American capital B.
Happy to help :)
Not that anyone asked, but as a native English speaker, the distinction between perfect and simple present for me is the difference between stating a fact or giving an answer to a question for the former and telling a story or giving background for the latter.
Stating a fact: “I have been to Berlin.” That tells me you’ve been to Berlin and I don’t expect more. Same with I have eaten. I have read that book. Etc.
Telling a story: “I was in Berlin.” This has me waiting for a second sentence. Like, if you said that and stopped talking I’d probably say, “You were in Berlin when…what…the wall fell?” And same goes for any of the rest. Like, “I ate” seems way too abrupt even if technically it counts as just saying a fact. Like, my brain says, “You ate what? Or when?” It’s too blunt to stand alone so it needs more. I would never say “I ate.” I would say, at minimum, “I ate today.” If all I want to say is I ate, saying “I have eaten” feels gentle enough to be stated and left alone.
Yeah, these differences between perfect and simple past are something a German native speaker will get wrong consistently because our minds do not have these distinctions hard-wired.
I also was thinking this as I read the examples. “I have been to Berlin.” Is stating a fact about yourself and I associate it with yes or no questions (“have you or haven’t you?”) The other tense is based in narrative rather than quick fact.
Hallo Emanuel. I cannot find a list of this “few verbs that usually go with written past” on line. in your dictionary there is something that underline this? When I look for a verb i see there is
“Perfect (main)….
and Past form….”
but I don’t know what is more common to use.
Danke für deine Hilfe!
Hi Emmanuel, most of my records or progress are not saved and i don’t know why.
i have to start each topic all over.
I’d need a bit more information.
What is not saved? Where do you see that it’s not saved?
Hi! So I’ve been really enjoying using your blogs alongside other self-teaching materials. For example, I’ve been using BBC Bitesize GSCE grammar page (similar exam structure to mine) but when I’ve been looking at past tense on there, the two options it gives me are “perfect” and “imperfect” – with no mention of preterite, or the distinction between spoken and written past. The distinction they make there is that the perfect describes events that have happened generally in the past, and the imperfect describes events which occurred at a specific point in time.
Basically every teach-yourself-German guide I’ve found has a slightly different definition or distinction, so I’m pretty confused!
“preterite” is the English translation of the German “Präteritum” which comes from Latin and is equivalent to “simple past”.
The distinction between English “imperfect” and “simple past” is not exactly intuitive or useful for the average learner, and I think also a lot of teaching material does not really “gets” the terms.
These uncertainties about the jargon terms are one of the reasons why I am using my own terms, namely “spoken past” and “written past”. These two, I made up. They’re based on usage in everyday spoken German.
What you need to learn as a learner is that there are two ways to talk about an average event in the past and you need to know for which verb which of the two ways is the idiomatic choice. For like 95% percent of verbs that’ll be “spoken past” (hence the name) while the other version occurs mainly in writing. For a small group of verbs (which are VERY common), you need the “written past” even in spoken (like “sein, können, wollen etc.). That doesn’t mean that the spoken past doesn’t exist for those. It’s just less idiomatic/common.
If you dig really deep, you can find some differences between “spoken past” and “written past” that go beyond just usage, but that is nothing a learner should worry about before c1 level.
My opinion is that it’s best to let go of all the terms as much as possible because you’ll end up in deep linguistics if you really try to pin them down.
I believe my system is a very good guide to speaking idiomatic German, which is what most people are after.
Let me know if that helps :)
All right, I have to add something.
I took a look at the BBC page you mentioned and the way they divide “perfect tense” and “imperfect tense” is unhelpful and the way they describe them in their blurb is factually wrong. It seems to be lifted straight from a description of the ENGLISH language, but that does NOT apply to how German past tense works.
A quote:
This is awful.
In my opinion, a learner is 99,999% certain to walk away with a completely wrong impression.
– I saw Star Wars yesterday. It was awful.
This is a one time event, not a description of routine. Still, it will use what they call “perfect tense” and NOT imperfect.
– Last week, I forgot my phone at the pool. But I got it back.
Again, a one time event, and it has zero repercussions in the present (because my phone is back). Still, it will use what they talk about under “perfect tense” in German and NOT imperfect.
I’m a bit shocked, to be honest. I would have expected the BBC to have better quality control.
Take their course with a big fat grain of salt.
Thanks so much for your reply – that clears things up a lot! To be honest, my main goal at the moment is to pass my N5 exam (roughly equivalent to GSCE, hence the BBC page) and from experience of doing other language exams at that level, I don’t really need a lot of linguistic knowledge or jargon names for things. Considering I have a speaking exam and a writing exam, I’m entirely happy using spoken and written past to distinguish.
Re the BBC, I like using some of their resources because they’re designed with vocab-building in mind, but I usually turn to YDG or my dictionary for grammar help! Thanks for pointing out the blurb issue though, I’ll definitely bear that in mind!
Tossing out the traditional terms and renaming them “written past and spoken past” really helps. Suddenly I notice that I more or less only see written past in the news. And then, when I’m told the German brain doesn’t comprehend how the English brain understands “I ate” vs “I have eaten,” suddenly all of it makes sense. I now know I never have to say things like, “ich ass Brot.”
I’m really happy about this feedback because pretty much ALL the teaching-sphere insists that using the “proper terms” is important, regardless of how un-intuitive, unknown or clunky they are. What I found was that often the definitions for a term in English and German do not actually line up even if the name is the same.
Hi Emanuel
Have you covered this topic here “imperativ”
No, not yet.
I’m that girl who asked for ” conjunction topic” remember?
My A1-A2 level exam is approaching in just 13 days from now.
Emanuel, tell me if my goal setting is right way to learn this lanuage or not.
For these exam, I have set this target of “qualitative approach” which is – mugging up all grammar rules, trying to learn basic conversation starters for writing email, blog, dialogue. For speaking exam preparing prior answers for most common asked ques etc.
But is this approach right ? Because in long term, I really want to that I can talk, write and think like a fluent german speaker if not native. Should I stick to this approach? Or adopt some other approach?
More than giving the exam and scoring good grades. I want that I should be capable in learning this language more.
Please let me know.
Danke Ihnen !!
So, Frau Madame
Were you able to do the A2 in 13 days? Does it work enough to pass the exam? If you don’t mind, could you kindly share how you clear the exam? I’m in rabbit hole that I just couldn’t finish and more I dig up, more stuffs spews out.
Well, if you have enough time I would like to hear more about your approach.
Schönen Tag noch
Aufwiedersehen
I just joined your website and when I press the quiz button, nothing happens.
The quiz has nothing to do with the membership.
What device are you using and which browser? I need some details, otherwise I can’t help because it’s working fine on my account.
never mind…alles Klar
The first question on the quiz is missing the verb have at the end.
Currently it reads: “How many basic forms for talking about the past does a German verb?”
But it should be: “How many basic forms for talking about the past does a German verb have?”
Jup, fixed it, thank you!
I am a native English speaker, married to a German, living in Germany, and I have been learning about the German language.
One day, after I had learned conjugations for ‘sein’, I was proudly attempting to tell my wife and her sister that I have been to Heidelberg, even though I thought my translation sounded ‘left-handed’, “Ich bin schon mal in Heidelberg gewesen.” It turns out I was right about how it sounds. They both looked at me like I had two heads, and I was quickly corrected, “Du warst schon mal in Heidelberg.” I told them that was cool, because in English I don’t think we would have used the literal German translation, ‘I am already to Heidelberg been’, even when written. This led to a discussion about how to best learn another language.
We don’t learn our native language in a school, we learn it at home and on the street well before school; for example, my 3-year old neighbor corrects me when we walk and talk together. A school gives us the opportunity to analyze and correct what we have already learned.
Perhaps the distinction between ‘have been’ and ‘was’ would be more apparent if German used ‘haben … sein’ rather than ‘sein …. sein’ for the verb sein? and English adopted the German spoken ‘sein … verb’ model for most of the other verbs, as I believe I was and have been using here.
Actually, I wouldn’t look at anybody weird for saying
– “Ich bin schon in Heidelberg gewesen.”
It’s the less idiomatic choice, but it’s not wrong by any means and German native speakers do say it.
As for learning like children do… well, children have a LOT of circumstances set up that adults usually don’t have.
I recently read about a language learning approach that was inspired by how children learn but only took one kernel away:
– learn passively first
So you learn vocabulary, grammar maybe, try to read and listen, but do NOT try to speak for a while. Even as much as half a year of learning without speaking.
The reasoning was that children also spend a considerable amount of time just inhaling the language, while only saying a few single words here and there.
And I can say, at least for me, this non-talking approach works. I spend six months studying Italian vocabulary and listening to some audio dialogues and then I had to do my first reservation phonecall to Italy and it was painful but it worked. I had not produced any Italian to anybody before except myself in my head.
Interesting. I am learning French, German and Russian on my own. I use the Pareto Principle which concludes that you get the first eighty percent of the results with the first twenty percent of effort.
So I don’t work on speech at all. I do no more than read my target languages and also listen to some degree so I don’t get pronunciation completely wrong in my head.
That way I accumulate considerable vocabulary as well as the grammar necessary to enable me to understand sentences. I don’t have to concern myself with accuracy or even a full undestanding of the language that I read. Only enough for it to make sense to me when I read something. If I get something wrong when reading the newspaper even after trying to understand some grammar inflicted confusion, well….nobody is impacted by that except me.
Eighty percent of the ingredients of a language achieved with only about twenty percent of the effort. The real work of the language comes if I try to use it to communicate in that language. I have no interest in doing the remaining eighty percent of the work necessary to accomplish that skill.
To me, starting with just reading and listening is the way to go honestly, but I can see how it’s not for everyone.
Definitely not for everyone. I want to understand. Most people want to communicate. Because of that, they want to get to the communicate part right away.
for 1 can we say Ich habe in Berlin gebesucht.
for 2 can we say ich war in Berlin
would that make the two sentences different in german ?(if my prepositions are wrong sorry i havent learnt that yet)
You normally don’t use “besuchen” that much in German, and especially not for visiting countries or cities.
You’d translate both sentences as:
– Ich war in Berlin.
If you want to stress that Berlin is a place you’re “already” been to, you can throw in a “schon”.
Hope that helps.
Hi, is there a PDF file to odwnload for this article about past tense ?
I only saw pdf option for the second part.
Here’s what I remember about the use of the ‘simple past’ and the ‘present perfect’ in English, e.g., “I was in Berlin”, vs.”I have been in Berlin.”
“I was in Berlin,” means that at some time in the past, I visited or lived in Berlin. But now I am not in Berlin. That’s an action that started and ended in the past.
“I have been in Berlin,” means that I spent time in Berlin, and I may still be there. That’s an action that started in the past and continues, or may continue into the present. (Present Perfect)
Please submit corrections.
We’ll have to wait for a native speaker for the corrections.
To me, this simple past vs present perfect is still a source of mistakes :). Like… I think what you said is correct, but I’m not 100% sure.
Native speaker of English #436478556 here. For me, “I was in Berlin” is the answer to the question “Where were you last week/month/year?” I was in Berlin answers that clearly. I wasn’t here, I was in Berlin. The complete five word phrase “I have been in Berlin” is a bit more fussy and proper. The one exception would be in a formal interview/deposition where a lawyer or officer of the law is asking you directly “Have you at any time ever visited a country other than the US?” Answer: Yes, I have been to Berlin. In its shortened form “I’ve been to Berlin” (the contraction immediately takes it down a stuffy notch or two) is more common and would be used to start off a sentence “I’ve been to Berlin and those dudes know how to party” or “I’ve been to Berlin a few times in my life”. It can’t be used to answer “Where were you last year?” The question almost NEEDS to have the word ‘have’ and ‘in’ in it. “Have you been in Berlin” Yes, I’ve been in Berlin. And then, it could mean 1956. Finally, one small detail: I was in Berlin – but – I’ve been to Berlin is more common.
Well enough of all those specific differences, they are confusing me and I know the difference. Look Emanuel, the real difference is that the “I was” or the past form refers to a specific or definite point in time, could be answering a question about that time, while the “I have been” or perfect form does not refer to a specific point in time. Kinda like “kein” and “nicht” or “the” and “a” but for the past.
Nice analogy, I like it!
I might be a bit too late here, but I wanted to add my perceived differences between “I have been to Berlin” and “I was in Berlin”. To me, if you use “was” instead of “have been” it implies you have been there relatively recently, or being in Berlin was the reason for missing something. For example, if someone asks “Where were you last week?” saying, “I have been in Berlin.” sounds extremely wrong. I can’t exactly explain it either, but it feels like there is also some innate time element that lets you know which form you should use. It’s confusing to think about for me and I can see how that would be annoying to try and learn.
From what I’ve gathered in the comments (and this topic came up in several threads here on this site), having a time element like “last week” or “when xyz happened” definitely triggers past tense.
Your comment confirms that.
But it’s as you said… I have sort of stopped making a conscious effort. I’ll live with getting it wrong from time to time :)
Native speaker of English #436478559 here, I’m definitely too late but for any non-native English speakers still confused about this, I might be able to help clear things up just a little more.
As you’ve all already pointed out, past simple is used for a specific moment/period in the past (I lived in Berlin in the ’80s, it was wild; I went to Berlin last week/last year/in 1980).
Present perfect is used for several reasons, but the important one here is the idea of a life experience. If you’ve played the drinking game “Have you ever..?”, then you’ll know what I mean. That question asks about experience (e.g. “Have you ever danced with unicorns?”), and, apart from yes/no, the answer must also be in the present perfect, with any further (specific) information in past simple (Yes, I have – I danced with unicorns once when I was tripping).
So past simple is specific (think, last week)
while present perfect is general (think, whole life)
If anyone wants, I can (try to) explain the other uses of present perfect, but the main other idea with P.P. is that an action started in the past and hasn’t finished yet/is still true/results are in the present. E.g. “I have lost my key” = “I lost my key yesterday but I still don’t have it/I can’t get into my apartment” (result).
Source: used to teach English as a Second Language (possibly quite badly)
Hope that helps
I like the life experience angle!!
There are actually multiple threads about this topic in various comments sections on this site, all with slightly different attempts at explaining it. The more angles the better :). Maybe one day I’ll actually have a feeling for it!
Ich weiß nicht, wie man das sagt. * rewrite in past tense
Is that your homework?
Difference in Meaning:
“I have been to Berlin.” = I’ve visited there. It’s off my bucketlist. (location/vacation)
“I was in berlin.” = an answer to: Hey, haven’t seen you around lately… (Time)
Oh, great examples. Danke!!
Hi guys,
I’m new here. I have been using this platform for 1 day, and I’m finding it fantastic.
I want to thank Emanuel to let me in, without paying any fees. I want to thank all the people who pay for the students who can’t, and therefore study here free. Thank you all the members of this blog once again!
I am looking forward to learn a lot of different things here in future.
Regards
Jay
Welcome :)!