Präteritum (Simple Past) with Irregular Verbs in German

Es war einmal eine schöne Prinzessin, die lange, prächtige Haare hatte. Sie wohnte in einem großen Turm, der weder Treppe noch Türen hatte. Eines Tages kam ein Prinz zum Turm und schrie: “Hey, warum sehen die Verben in diesem Märchen so komisch aus?” und Rapunzel schrie zurück: "Darüber spricht Herr Antrim in dieser Lektion.”

In our previous grammar lesson, we talked about when to use the Präteritum tense and how to form it with regular verbs. Today, we're diving into the mysterious world of irregular verbs in the Präteritum tense.

All Präteritum Lessons

6 German Tenses vs 12 English Tenses

Präteritum Basics with Regular Verbs

Präteritum with Irregular Verbs

Präteritum with haben & sein

Past Tense of Modal Verbs

When to Use the Präteritum Tense

As a quick reminder, both the Perfekt and Präteritum tenses talk about past events, but the Perfekt tense says, "This is done!" while Präteritum claims, "This was happening." Although, in reality, Germans often opt for Perfekt in conversation and Präteritum in writing or storytelling. Now, let's crack the irregular code.

Irregular Präteritum Verbs Basics

The basics of irregular verbs in the Präteritum tense are similar to the basics of the regular verbs. The ich and er, sie, es forms of the verbs don’t get an ending and the other forms simply take the same endings they did in the present tense.

The downside is that the stem for each verb is weird. There are some patterns, which we will talk about in a bit, but for the most part, you simply have to memorize each irregular verb as you come across it with this tense.

gehen - to go 

Let’s start with a very common verb: gehen. The stem of this verb in the Präteritum tense is “ging”. You could use it in the following sentences:

Ich ging die Straße entlang. -
I went along the street.

Du gingst damals gerne in die Stadt. -
You liked going into the city back then.

Der Prinz ging ein bisschen weiter. -
The prince went a bit further.

1958 gingen wir ins Kino um Angriff der 20-Meter-Frau zu sehen. -
In 1958 we went to the movie theater in order to see Attack of the 50 Foot Woman.

Ihr gingt gemeinsam zum Konzert. -
You went to the concert together.

Meine Freunde gingen zur Party. -
My friends went to the party.

So you see we have the base form of the verb “ging” and then we add endings. Ich and er, sie, es don’t get endings. Du requires -st. Wir -en, ihr -t, sie, Sie -en.

helfen - to help

Let’s try it with the verb helfen. The stem of this one becomes “half”.

The verb "helfen" is also a dative verb. If you want to know what dative verbs are and how to use them, click here.

How would you conjugate the verb “geben”? I’ll give you a hint, the base form is “gab”.

And the correct conjugation is:

When to Add E with Irregular Präteritum Verbs

If a German verb’s Präteritum base form has an S or ß it needs an E between the base form and the endings for du and ihr. You can see this in the verb “lesen”, which becomes “las” in the Präteritum tense. Here is the full conjugation.

My student’s favorite verb in this tense is usually essen. The Präteritum version is aß. The conjugation of it is:

Now let's try it with the verb sitzen. The base form is “saß”. The correct conjugation of sitzen in the Präteritum tense is:

Similar to what happens in the Präsens tense D & T require the extra E, too. Take the verb “finden” as an example. The base form is “fand”.

Another example would be the verb “tun”, which becomes “tat” in the Präteritum tense.

Now we'll try it out with the verb “verstehen”, which becomes “verstand” in the Präteritum tense. The correct conjugation of “verstehen” in the Präteritum tense is:

What are weak verbs in the Präteritum tense and should you care?

There is a category of verbs in the Präteritum tense that some teachers call “weak irregular verbs”. They do this, because there is a stem change, but the verb still ends with -te, which makes it look and act like a regular verb.

I don’t use this explanation, but I wanted you to be aware that it exists, in case you read someone else’s explanation online and you are wondering what is going on.

An example of this is the verb “bringen”, which is “brachte” in the Präteritum. This makes the full conjugation:

As you can see, if you just start by knowing that “bringen” becomes “brachte” in the Präteritum tense, you don’t need to classify them in a new category of verb, as the endings (-st for du, -en for wir and the 2 sie’s and -t for ihr) are the same as all of the other irregular verbs.

In fact, those are the same endings we use for regular verbs too, if you just think of the base form of a regular verb as whatever the usual stem is plus -te.

My complaint with the idea of weak irregular verbs is that it complicates things more than is needed. If a verb is regular, lose the -en at the end and add -te followed by the conjugation ending, if needed.

If a verb is irregular, memorize the base form and add a conjugation ending, if needed. Making students learn that some verbs have a stem change and a -te at the end is just unnecessary memorization.

Let's conjugate the verb “denken”, which becomes “dachte” in this tense. The correct conjugation should be:

How to Know What Stem-Change an Irregular German Verb Will Use in the Präteritum Tense

Now, I know what you are thinking, because it is the same reaction I get from my students every year that I teach this. How in the world do you know what a verb is going to change into with this tense? It seems so arbitrary.

Well, unfortunately, the short answer is that you are just going to have to memorize them. The good news is that there are patterns that verbs follow. You may have already noticed some of them as we went through the examples.

When you take a step back and view the verb in the three main parts (infinitive, Präteritum, and Perfekt), you can see these patterns.

For example: Some verbs change from EI in the infinitive to IE in the Präteritum and Perfekt forms.

Some verbs have an E in the infinitive, an A in the Präteritum and an O in the Perfekt. For example:

There are quite a few other patterns that verbs follow, so instead of listing them all out in this post, I put it into a PDF that you can download for free by clicking here. 

Präteritum Reading Comprehension Practice

Obviously the video for today so far is lacking in examples, so let’s try out a story that mixes irregular and regular verbs in the Präteritum tense.

In einem kleinen Dorf lebten freundliche Menschen. Eines Tages entschieden sich einige von ihnen für ein Abenteuer.

Ein junger Mann namens Timo führte die Gruppe. Gemeinsam gingen sie den ganzen Tag durch den Wald. Timo erzählte Geschichten, und die anderen hörten zu.

Am Nachmittag trafen sie nette Leute aus einem anderen Dorf. Sie lachten, sangen und machten sogar ein Lagerfeuer.

In der Nacht hörten sie Tiere im Wald, aber das störte sie nicht. Sie fühlten sich sicher und genossen die Zeit.

Nach der Reise kehrten sie ins Dorf zurück. Timo erzählte die Geschichte, und alle lauschten gespannt.

Das Dorf hatte eine aufregende Zeit erlebt, und die Erinnerungen wurden zu spannenden Geschichten, die man sich noch lange erzählte.

If you're eager to polish the skills you learned in this video, consider joining my Deutschlerner Club. It will take you through the A1 and A2 levels of German and will have you speaking with natives in no time.

If you're ready for the next adventure, click here to learn about using modal verbs in the past in German.