The Simple Past: Regular Verbs
Learn the Präteritum of regular verbs — the written past tense of reports, stories and official letters — and when German prefers it to the Perfekt you already know.
A second past tense — and why German needs it
At A2 you learned to talk about the past with the Perfekt: Ich habe in Berlin gewohnt. That remains the normal past tense of conversation. But open a newspaper, a novel or a letter from an office, and you will meet a different form: Ich wohnte in Berlin. This is the Präteritum, the simple past, and at B1 you need to read it everywhere and write it yourself.
The division of labour is about register, not meaning. Ich habe gewohnt and ich wohnte describe exactly the same event. Spoken German — and informal messages — prefer the Perfekt; written German — reports, narratives, minutes, official correspondence — prefers the Präteritum. You already use the Präteritum of two verbs without thinking about it: war and hatte, which you met at A2. Nobody says ich bin gewesen in everyday speech; war is simply shorter. The same convenience now extends to every verb.
This lesson covers the regular pattern — the so-called weak verbs, which form the Präteritum with -te. The irregular verbs follow in the next lesson.
Früher wohnte ich in einem kleinen Dorf bei Hannover.
I used to live in a small village near Hanover.
In writing, wohnte replaces habe gewohnt — same meaning, different register.
Die Firma suchte lange nach neuen Mitarbeitern.
The company searched for new employees for a long time.
Ich hatte damals wenig Geld, aber ich war zufrieden.
I had little money back then, but I was content.
war and hatte, familiar from A2, are Präteritum forms — you have been using this tense all along.
The -te pattern
The rule is refreshingly simple. Take the verb stem — machen becomes mach-, lernen becomes lern- — and add -te plus the personal ending: ich machte, du machtest, er machte, wir machten, ihr machtet, sie machten.
Two details deserve attention. First, the ich-form and the er/sie/es-form are identical: ich lernte, sie lernte. There is no extra -t in the third person, unlike the present tense. Second, the endings after -te are the ones you know from other tenses: -st for du, -n for wir and sie, -t for ihr.
Separable verbs behave exactly as they do in the present: the prefix goes to the end of the clause. Er kaufte am Samstag ein. In a subordinate clause with weil or dass, the whole verb stands at the end, reunited: ..., weil er am Samstag einkaufte.
Ich lernte jeden Abend zwei Stunden Deutsch.
I studied German for two hours every evening.
Meine Tochter spielte damals oft mit den Nachbarskindern.
My daughter often played with the neighbours' children back then.
The ich-form and the er/sie/es-form are identical: ich spielte, sie spielte.
Wir wohnten zuerst zur Miete und kauften später eine Wohnung.
We rented at first and bought a flat later.
Er kaufte am Samstag für die ganze Woche ein.
He did the shopping for the whole week on Saturday.
Separable verbs split in the Präteritum just as in the present: kaufte ... ein.
Stems ending in -t or -d: the extra e
When the verb stem ends in -t or -d, the ending -te would be impossible to pronounce, so German inserts an e: arbeiten becomes arbeitete, warten becomes wartete, reden becomes redete. The full set for arbeiten: ich arbeitete, du arbeitetest, er arbeitete, wir arbeiteten, ihr arbeitetet, sie arbeiteten.
The same insertion happens after a few other awkward stem endings, such as öffnen — öffnete and regnen — regnete. The test is your own mouth: if -te will not attach smoothly, an e slips in first.
These forms look long on the page, but they follow the rule mechanically. Read them aloud a few times — ar-bei-te-te — until the rhythm feels normal. You will meet them constantly in written accounts of work and daily routine.
Mein Vater arbeitete dreißig Jahre bei derselben Firma.
My father worked at the same company for thirty years.
Wir warteten fast eine Stunde auf den Bus.
We waited almost an hour for the bus.
Es regnete den ganzen Tag, und niemand öffnete die Fenster.
It rained all day, and nobody opened the windows.
regnete and öffnete also take the inserted e.
Choosing between Präteritum and Perfekt
When do you actually use the new tense? In speech, keep the Perfekt: Gestern habe ich lange gearbeitet sounds natural; gestern arbeitete ich lange sounds like a novel. In connected writing — a report about your first job, a summary of events, a formal letter — switch to the Präteritum. It carries a narrative smoothly from sentence to sentence without the constant habe ... ge- machinery.
There is also a regional note: in northern Germany the Präteritum appears somewhat more often in speech, while southern speakers use the Perfekt almost exclusively. As a learner you cannot go wrong with the standard division: Perfekt for talking, Präteritum for writing.
A practical exercise: take three sentences you would say about last week — Ich habe eine Wohnung gesucht — and rewrite each as a line from a written account: Ich suchte eine Wohnung. Doing the conversion in both directions cements the idea that the two tenses share one meaning.
In meinem ersten Jahr in Deutschland lernte ich die Sprache und suchte eine Arbeit.
In my first year in Germany I learned the language and looked for a job.
Typical written narrative: two Präteritum verbs carry the story forward.
Gestern habe ich bis acht Uhr gearbeitet.
Yesterday I worked until eight o'clock.
In conversation the Perfekt remains the natural choice.
Die Nachbarn organisierten ein Fest, und alle machten mit.
The neighbours organised a party, and everyone joined in.
Ich meldete mich sofort bei der Sprachschule an, weil der Kurs schon bald startete.
I registered at the language school immediately because the course was starting soon.
In the weil-clause the conjugated Präteritum verb startete goes to the end.
Check yourself
Quick checks on this lesson. Get at least three quarters right to mark it as completed.
Which sentence is the correct written-past version of "Ich habe in Köln gewohnt"?
Practise what you learned