Simple Past Tense.

Präsentation zum Thema: "Simple Past Tense."—  Präsentation transkript:

1 Simple Past Tense

2 There are two basic verb tenses in German.
Conversational Past : a compound tense using a helping verb and past participle 2. Simple Past- a single verb tense VERY SIMPLE !

3 simple past a.k.a. narrative past Imperfekt literary past preterite

4 All German verbs form their simple past tense in one of three ways, depending on whether the verb is a… Weak verb Strong verb or…weak-strong verb

5 Formula: infinitive stem + “-te” + endings
The German weak verbs all follow a basic, predictable pattern. Formula: infinitive stem + “-te” + endings but which endings? (ich) (wir) -n (du) -st (ihr) -t (er) (sie) -n

6 What commonalities do you notice in the forms?
Weak Verbs: What commonalities do you notice in the forms? hören ich hörte du hörtest er hörte wir hörten ihr hörtet sie hörten There are NO endings on the “ich” and “er/sie/es” forms The 1st and 3rd person singular look alike The 1st and 3rd person plural look alike

7 VARIATIONS: • Verbs whose stems ends in -d, -t, or -m or -n following another consonant add an additional -e- before an -te, -test, or -tet ending:   INFINITIVES: reden, arbeiten, zeichnen, atmen   CONJUGATED: du redetest, du arbeitetest, er zeichnete, ihr atmetet.

8 But what does it mean in English?
Now you try a few: (spielen) Er _____________ Baseball. Er spielte Baseball. But what does it mean in English? He played baseball.

9 (kaufen) Seine Eltern ____________ein Auto.
Seine Eltern kauften ein Auto. and it means….? His parents bought a car.

10 See your teacher to get started!!
Now you are ready to talk about things that already happened! See your teacher to get started!!