German has a second past tense — the Präteritum (imperfect). It's the tense of writing and story-telling, but a handful of everyday verbs use it even in speech: war (was), hatte (had), es gab (there was), and the modals (konnte, musste). This lesson gives you all of them.
Work through each screen and answer the questions as you go. Collect ⭐ stars and press Start.
Two past tenses, two jobs:
Learn these in the Präteritum now: sein → war, haben → hatte, es gibt → es gab, and the modals. You'll say and write these constantly.
| ich war |
| du warst |
| er/sie/es war |
| wir waren |
| ihr wart |
| sie/Sie waren |
| ich hatte |
| du hattest |
| er/sie/es hatte |
| wir hatten |
| ihr hattet |
| sie/Sie hatten |
Note the identical ich = er again: ich war / er war, ich hatte / er hatte. Es war schön ("it was lovely") is your go-to holiday phrase.
The imperfect of es gibt is es gab — and, like es gibt, it takes the accusative:
Your holiday toolkit: es war, es gab, wir hatten — three imperfects that let you describe any past trip fluently.
For a regular verb, slot -te- between the stem and the ending:
| ich machte | wir machten |
| du machtest | ihr machtet |
| er/sie/es machte | sie/Sie machten |
Same for all weak verbs: spielen → spielte, wohnen → wohnte, kaufen → kaufte. The ich and er forms match again.
Strong verbs take no -te-. Instead the stem vowel changes, and ich and er have no ending:
| infinitive | er form |
|---|---|
| gehen (to go) | er ging |
| kommen (to come) | er kam |
| fahren (to go/drive) | er fuhr |
| sehen (to see) | er sah |
| essen (to eat) | er aß |
| geben (to give) | er gab |
Note the ß: essen → er aß keeps its ß. These strong forms are what make a written narrative flow.
Sort each imperfect: weak (adds -te) or strong (changes its vowel)?
Modals almost always use the Präteritum, even in speech. They add -te and drop the umlaut:
| present | imperfect (er) |
|---|---|
| kann | er konnte (could) |
| muss | er musste (had to) |
| will | er wollte (wanted) |
| darf | er durfte (was allowed) |
Umlaut gone: können → konnte, müssen → musste — no dots. The second verb still goes to the end: Ich konnte nicht kommen.
A simple rule of thumb for GCSE:
Mix them naturally: Ich war in Berlin und habe das Museum besucht. — war (imperfect) for "was", Perfekt for the action.
Tap an infinitive on the left, then tap its er imperfect form on the right.
Must-knows: sein → war, haben → hatte, es gibt → es gab — used even in speech.
Weak verbs: stem + -te- (machte, spielte, wohnte).
Strong verbs: change the vowel, no ending on ich/er (ging, kam, fuhr, sah, aß, gab).
Modals: add -te, drop the umlaut (konnte, musste, wollte, durfte).
Which tense: speak → Perfekt; write/narrate → Präteritum; the "must-knows" always Präteritum.
Next we join sentences together. Press Finish to see your score.
You've built the imperfect for AQA GCSE German. 🎉
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Next in the spine: Joining ideas — coordinating and subordinating conjunctions and the verb-to-the-end rule. Then lock this in with the Evaluate confidence quiz.
Next: test yourself in the Verify stage.