Lesson 46 of 69 · A2, Unit 5: Grammar milestones
The simple past in stories
The simple past (das Präteritum) is the tense of written narrative: novels, news reports, fairy tales. Es war einmal ... (Once upon a time there was ...). You don't need to use it much in speech yet, but you need to recognise it.
Regular verbs add -te: machen → machte, wohnen → wohnte. Irregular verbs change their vowel and add nothing in the ich and er forms: gehen → ging, kommen → kam, sehen → sah.
By the end you can:
- recognise the simple past of regular verbs
- recognise the most common irregular simple past forms
- read a short story told in the simple past
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