Preterite (Präteritum, Imperfekt, 1. Vergangenheit)

You will encounter this past tense mostly in written German or (very) formal speech.
Please note that colloquial German prefers the perfect.

The preterit is used to describe actions that happened in the past.

Preterite of weak and strong German verbs

ending weak verb
(ex. spielen – to play)
strong verb
(ex. sprechen – to talk)
1rst person sg -te ich spielte ich sprach*
2nd person sg -test du spieltest du sprachst
3rd person sg -te er/sie/es spielte er/sie/es sprach*
1rst person pl -ten wir spielten wir sprachen
2nd person pl -tet ihr spieltet ihr spracht
3rd person pl -ten sie spielten sie sprachen

* These forms do not take an ending.


 

 

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