Tenses and moods

das Präteritum

In English: simple past (the written past)

The one-word past tense, used mainly in writing: stories, news reports, biographies. In speech it is normal only for sein, haben and the modal verbs (war, hatte, konnte). It means the same as the Perfekt; the difference is one of style.

Example: Es war kalt, und der Wind wehte stark.

Related lessons

• The Präteritum of sein, haben and the modal verbs (A2)
• The Präteritum of regular and irregular verbs (B1)

See also

das Perfekt das unregelmäßige (starke) Verb das Plusquamperfekt