A2 → Grammar · Lesson 4 of 22

German Präteritum: War, Hatte & Modal Verbs in the Past

das Präteritum

Before this lesson: make sure you've covered Perfekt (Past Tense) first.

Präteritum is German's other past tense. In conversation, Germans almost always use Perfekt — except for sein, haben, and the modal verbs, whose Perfekt forms sound clumsy, so their Präteritum is used even in speech. You only need these essential forms.

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Infinitive	ich/er·sie·es	English
sein	war	was
haben	hatte	had
können	konnte	could
müssen	musste	had to
wollen	wollte	wanted to
dürfen	durfte	was allowed to
sollen	sollte	was supposed to

Full conjugation: sein & haben

Person	sein	haben
ich	war	hatte
du	warst	hattest
er/sie/es	war	hatte
wir	waren	hatten
ihr	wart	hattet
sie/Sie	waren	hatten

Memory trick: war/hatte and all five modal Präteritum forms end in a plain -e for ich/er/sie/es — no extra ending, unlike present tense.

⚠ Common mistake: Don't use Perfekt for sein/haben in everyday speech — "Ich bin müde gewesen" is technically correct but unnatural; Germans simply say "Ich war müde".

🎯 Quick check

"Ich ___ keine Zeit." (I had no time)

German Präteritum: War, Hatte & Modal Verbs in the Past

See it in action

Full conjugation: sein & haben

🎯 Quick check

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