Headword
 Preterite (das Präteritum)
Level
 [D]
Language
 German
Topic
 Grammar
Definition
 The preterite is one of the forms of a German verb that refers to actions in the past. It is also often known as the simple past because the verb consists of only one word, as in English ‘walked’, ‘sang’, as opposed to using an auxiliary verb with a past participle (the perfect tense), as in English ‘have walked’, ‘has sung’.
Notes
 1. The preterite in German is also sometimes referred to as the imperfect and it can be translated into English in a variety of ways, e.g. ich kaufte (I bought, I used to buy, I was buying, I did buy, I have bought). There is very little difference in meaning between the preterite and the perfect tense but there are some variations in usage. Both the preterite and perfect relate actions or events which took place in the past; the perfect tends to relate isolated acts at a given/ precise moment in the past, while the preterite relates a sequence of actions in the past. The preterite is therefore the main tense of narrative and is the main past tense used in formal written German, for instance in novels and journalistic texts.

2. The form of the preterite in German depends on whether the verb is weak (regular) or strong (irregular):

  1. the majority of verbs are weak and add the following pattern of endings to the stem (i.e. the infinitive of the verb minus the -en ending): -te, -test, -te, -ten, -tet, -ten. So with kaufen (to buy), we have: ich kaufte, du kauftest, er kaufte, wir kauften, ihr kauftet, sie kauften.
  2. strong verbs add a different pattern of endings ( -, -st, -, -en, -t, -en) and their stem may show a vowel change from the infinitive, as in English (to sing > I sang). So with singen (to sing), we have: ich sang, du sangst, er sang, wir sangen, ihr sangt, sie sangen. The biggest change from infinitive to preterite can be seen with gehen (to go) > ich ging (I went), and sein (to be) > ich war (I was).
  3. a small but important group of verbs are slightly irregular in how they form the stem, but they tend to follow the weak pattern of endings. This group includes:

  • the modal auxiliaries:

können > ich konnte, dürfen > ich durfte.

  • the primary auxiliaries:

haben > ich hatte, werden > ich wurde.

  • the mixed verbs:

kennen (to know) > ich kannte,

wissen (to know) > ich wußte,

bringen (to bring) > ich brachte,

denken (to think) > ich dachte.
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Concept
 Categorisation
See also
 Aspect, Infinitive, Tense, Verb

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