Preterite / Simple Past

The preterite describes actions that were completed at a specific time in the past, narrates sequences of events, and appears frequently in written narratives such as stories, reports, and newspaper articles. In everyday spoken German, the perfect tense often replaces the preterite for most verbs, though certain high-frequency verbs keep the preterite in speech.

Signal words that commonly accompany the preterite include time markers like gestern, vor zwei Tagen, letztes Jahr, and expressions such as damals and dann, which help place the action firmly in the past. These signal words guide whether the preterite or perfect is more natural and highlight the completed nature of the event.

Regular verbs form the preterite by adding predictable endings to the stem, making them straightforward to learn for narrating routine past actions. This section shows the typical endings for each conjugation class with clear German-to-English examples for practice.

Common telling and movement verbs in the preterite appear frequently in narratives and reports, so learning their forms aids quick and vivid past descriptions. This section lists useful verbs like sagen, gehen, kommen, bringen and shows their preterite forms with sample sentences.

Irregular verbs often change the stem vowel or undergo other modifications in the preterite, so they must be learned individually for fluent past narration. This section highlights high-utility irregular verbs with their preterite forms and example sentences.

The preterite narrates completed past actions, signal words anchor the time of events, regular verbs follow predictable patterns, and high-frequency irregulars must be memorized for smooth storytelling. Practice with telling and movement verbs to enrich your past tense narratives.