How to use the simple past in German?

The simple past in German is used to talk about past events, mainly in literature. This past tense is formed using only one word, unlike the more conversational perfect tense.

For example, when telling the famous story of the four intrepid animals in the picture below, someone would most likely use the simple past tense to say…

simple past tense

Sie gingen nach Bremen.

Translation: They went to Bremen.

In this post, we’ll discuss how to form the simple past and when you might want to use this tense as opposed to the perfect tense. Let’s get started!

The German simple past and perfect tense are both used to discuss past events and are most often translated the same way. For example:

• simple past tense

  Ich ging in den Wald.

  Translation: I went into the forest.
• perfect tense

  Ich bin in den Wald gegangen.

  Translation: I went into the forest.

However, though these two tenses share a meaning they are quite different in style, so we’ll use them in different contexts:

• Expect to see simple past in literary language or narrative writing (e.g. fiction, non-fiction, and other print media). This tense can be used when speaking out loud, but it’s usually used in formal or pre-written speech, like in the theater.

  To illustrate, here is a quote from Die Leiden des jungen Werther (meaning The Sorrows of Young Werther) by famous 18th century author, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe:

  simple past

  “Letzthin kam ich zum Brunnen und fand ein junges Dienstmädchen, das ihr Gefäß auf die unterste Treppe gesetzt hatte und sich umsah, ob keine Kamerädin kommen wollte, ihr es auf den Kopf zu helfen.”

  Translation: “The other day, I came to the fountain and found a young servant girl who had put her vessel on the lowest step and looked around to see whether no friend wanted to come to help her put it on her head.”

• Use the perfect tense when speaking or writing informally (e.g. personal emails, text messages) or in writing that reflects the spoken language (e.g. reported speech and quoted speech).

  perfect tense

  “Hallo Oma, ich bin gestern in Berlin gegangen.”

  Translation: “Hi grandma, I arrived in Berlin yesterday.”

So, you can expect to hear and use the perfect tense in colloquial situations, but might see the simple past when reading a book or newspaper article.

The rules you’ll follow to form the simple past in German depend on the verb’s class. German has three verb classes:

• regular / “weak” verbs → add endings

• irregular / “strong” verbs → change the stem

• mixed class verbs → some endings, some stem changes

Each verb class forms the simple past slightly differently. Let’s first see how to form the simple past with each verb class and then we will move on to see how these forms change depending on who does the action, that is how to conjugate the simple past verbs.

To conjugate verbs in the simple past, you’ll take the simple past form we created above and add conjugation endings, which agree with the subject of the verb. We use the same conjugation endings for regular verbs, irregular verbs, and mixed class verbs.

You will probably notice that these endings are old acquaintances as they are the same as the present tense endings, with two exceptions: the ich form and er/sie/es form add no ending at all.

Simple past word order is just like present tense word order. For example, yes/no-questions are formed by bringing the verb to the start of the clause:

Negations of simple past clauses are formed with nicht:

You can learn more about how to form clauses in our posts on German word order and German negation.

In this post, we discussed:

• Usually, the simple past is the more formal and literary sibling of the perfect tense and is rarely used in colloquial speech. With some verbs, though, the simple past is still common in colloquial speech.

• Different verb classes form the simple past differently:

  • Regular verbs follow a rule when forming the simple past: add -te.

  • The simple past of irregular verbs must be memorized.

  • The simple past of mixed class verbs must also be memorized, but you’ll also add -te.

• The conjugation endings of simple past verbs is very similar to that of present tense verbs, except there is no ending in the ich (meaning I) form or the er, sie, es (meaning he, she, it) form.

Ready to study? Check out our list with the most common German simple past forms or get practicing using our German simple past exercises. Happy learning!