Perfekt or Präteritum? Which German past tense to use
In spoken German, use the Perfekt for almost everything in the past: Ich habe gestern Pizza gegessen. Use the Präteritum for sein, haben, the modal verbs and a few other very common verbs: Ich war müde. Ich musste arbeiten. In written stories, reports and news, the Präteritum is the normal past tense. Both tenses describe the same past; the difference is mainly one of style, not meaning.
Not the same as the English present perfect
English speakers often assume that the German Perfekt works like I have eaten and the Präteritum like I ate. It does not. In English you cannot say I have eaten pizza yesterday, because a finished time like yesterday needs the simple past. In German, Ich habe gestern Pizza gegessen is exactly what people say.
So the choice in German is not about whether the action is finished or connected to the present. It depends on two things: speech or writing, and the verb itself.
Ich habe gestern Pizza gegessen.I ate pizza yesterday.
Wir sind letzte Woche nach Hamburg gefahren.We went to Hamburg last week.
Hast du den Film schon gesehen?Have you seen the film yet?
In conversation: the Perfekt
When people talk about what they did at the weekend, on holiday or this morning, they use the Perfekt with most verbs. It is formed with haben or sein in position two and the past participle at the end of the sentence. Verbs of movement from one place to another and verbs that describe a change of state take sein: gehen, fahren, kommen, aufstehen, einschlafen, werden. Most other verbs take haben.
Ich habe bis zehn Uhr geschlafen.I slept until ten.
Dann bin ich in die Stadt gefahren.Then I went into town.
Wir haben zusammen gekocht.We cooked together.
The verbs that stay in the Präteritum
A small group of verbs is used in the Präteritum even in speech, because the Perfekt forms sound heavy. These verbs are so frequent that you need their Präteritum forms from A1 or A2.
| Verb | Präteritum (spoken) | Perfekt (possible, but less common) |
|---|---|---|
| sein | ich war | ich bin gewesen |
| haben | ich hatte | ich habe gehabt |
| können | ich konnte | ich habe gekonnt |
| müssen | ich musste | ich habe gemusst |
| wollen | ich wollte | ich habe gewollt |
| dürfen | ich durfte | ich habe gedurft |
| es gibt | es gab | es hat gegeben |
| wissen | ich wusste | ich habe gewusst |
In a typical spoken story the two tenses mix naturally: Am Samstag war ich in Köln. Ich hatte keine Zeit für das Museum, aber ich habe den Dom besichtigt. (On Saturday I was in Cologne. I didn't have time for the museum, but I visited the cathedral.)
With modal verbs and an infinitive, the Präteritum is almost always preferred: Ich musste lange warten rather than Ich habe lange warten müssen, which is correct but sounds complicated.
Common mistake
Ich bin gestern sehr müde gewesen und habe keine Zeit gehabt. is wrong; correct: Ich war gestern sehr müde und hatte keine Zeit.
The Perfekt of sein and haben is grammatically correct but sounds heavy in conversation. With these two verbs, speakers almost always use the Präteritum.
In writing: the Präteritum
In novels, fairy tales, newspaper reports, CVs and formal accounts, the Präteritum is the standard past tense. A report about an accident or a story about a trip written for a school task will use it throughout.
Es war einmal ein König.Once upon a time there was a king.
Der Zug kam mit zwanzig Minuten Verspätung an.The train arrived twenty minutes late.
Nach dem Studium arbeitete sie drei Jahre in Wien.After university she worked in Vienna for three years.
Emails and text messages, on the other hand, are closer to speech and normally use the Perfekt: Ich habe deine Nachricht bekommen.
North and south
There is also a regional pattern. In southern Germany, Austria and Switzerland, the Präteritum has almost disappeared from everyday speech, and even war is sometimes replaced by bin gewesen. In northern Germany you will hear more Präteritum forms in conversation, such as ich ging or ich kam, though the Perfekt is still more common. If you learn the standard pattern above, you will sound natural everywhere.
What about the Plusquamperfekt?
When you need to show that one past event happened before another, German uses the Plusquamperfekt, formed with hatte or war and the past participle: Als wir ankamen, hatte der Film schon angefangen. (When we arrived, the film had already started.) It works much like the English past perfect and is the same in speech and writing.
What to learn first
Start with the Perfekt and the participles of the most common verbs, and learn war, hatte and the Präteritum of the modal verbs at the same time. That covers almost all spoken German. Learn the full Präteritum when you start reading longer texts, usually at A2 or B1, and when you do, learn irregular verbs in three forms: fahren, fuhr, ist gefahren.
The grammar pages on the Perfekt, Präteritum and Plusquamperfekt have the forms and more examples. The list of irregular verbs gives all three forms, and the list of verbs with sein in the Perfekt shows which verbs take sein. You can practise with the Perfekt test and the Präteritum test.
Written by: Fatih Ün, German teacher · Last updated: