Whether you’re trading stories with German friends or discussing the last financial quarter with your German business colleagues, you’ll need the German past tense to have a conversation about things that have already happened.
Learn the differences between Präteritum (simple past tense) and Plusquamperfekt (past perfect tense) and get practical advice on how to use Perfekt in daily spoken German.
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The German past tenses across the moods
In the German language, there are three tenses used to describe events before right this moment.
Germans most commonly talk about the past with Perfekt (present perfect). Präteritum typically only shows up in writing to describe events that have been completed before this present moment in time. On the other hand, Plusquamperfekt is used to talk about things that were finished occurring before another point in the past.
You can use these past German tenses with the Indikativ (indicative mood) to describe real events and the Konjunktiv (subjunctive mood) for hypothetical situations that were completed before the present.
| German Tense | When to use | Example |
| Indikativ Perfekt (perfect tense, indicative mood) | In conversation to describe real events that were completed in the past. | Ich habe den Bericht geschrieben. (I have written the report.) |
| Indikativ Präteritum (simple past tense, indicative mood) | In writing to describe real events that completed in the past. | Ich schrieb den Bericht. (I wrote the report.) |
| Konjunktiv II Perfekt (perfect tense, subjunctive mood) | Describe hypothetical or unreal past events. | Ich hätte den Bericht geschrieben. (I would have written the report.) |
| Indikativ Plusquamperfekt (perfect past tense, indicative mood) | Communicate a real, past event that had been completed before another past event. | Ich hatte den Bericht geschrieben. (I had written the report.) |
| Konjunktiv I Perfekt (perfect tense, subjunctive mood) | Report that someone else says a past action has been completed. | Er sagt, er habe den Bericht geschrieben. (He says he has written the report.) |
Indikativ Perfekt (present perfect tense, indicative mood)
Don’t be fooled! While the Indikativ Perfekt is the “present” perfect tense in the indicative mood, it’s by far the most common way Germans speak about real events completed in the past.
- Ich habe sie im Auto gefunden. = I had found it in the car.
- Sie sind schlecht gefahren. = You had driven badly.
You’ll use it when you want to tell a friend how you spent your weekend or to describe last week’s project progress with your employer.
The Indikativ is the mood used in the German language to communicate that you feel the information being shared is true or factual.
Forming and conjugating the Indikativ Perfekt
The Indikativ Perfekt is a compound tense, meaning it’s formed with an auxiliary verb (conjugated in the present tense) and a past participle.
[subject] + [haben/sein, conjugated to Indikativ Präsens] + [objects/additional info] + [Partizip II]
You’ll need two main skills to develop your sentences in Indikativ Perfekt:
- Select and conjugate either haben (to have) or sein (to be) as your auxiliary verb, according to your subject, in the Indikativ Präsens (simple present tense, indicative mood).
- Form a Partizip II (past participle) out of your main verb and move it to the end of the sentence.
Selecting and conjugating haben and sein in Indikativ Perfekt
Whether you select haben (to have) or sein (to be) as your Indikativ Perfekt auxiliary verb depends on the main verb of your sentence.
You must pick haben as your auxiliary verb when the main verb of your sentence is a:
- transitive verb, meaning a verb that takes a direct object
- verb that expresses mental or physical activities
- reflexive verb
- modal verb like wollen (want to) or dürfen (may)
Sein should be your auxiliary verb when your main verb:
- Describes movement from one place to another
- States a change of state or condition
- Is part of a small group of intransitive verbs that don’t take a direct object
Then you will either conjugate haben or conjugate sein as your chosen auxiliary verb according to the subject of your sentence. If your subject isn’t a pronoun, such as “the dog,” “Bill,” or “Rosetta Stone,” you’ll conjugate as though your subject was er/sie/es (he/she/it) instead.
| German Pronoun | Perfekt Haben Conjugation | Perfekt Sein Conjugation |
| ich I | habe | bin |
| du you (informal singular) | hast | bist |
| er/sie/es he/she/it | hat | ist |
| wir we | haben | sind |
| ihr you all (informal plural) | habt | seid |
| sie/Sie they/you (formal) | haben | sind |
Forming your main verb into Partizip II
Your last step for forming a sentence in the German present perfect tense is turning your main verb into a Partizip II (past participle). This is generally done in German by adding ge- to the start of the verb and replacing the verb’s ending with either -t or -en.
- lernen (learning) → gelernt (learned)
- schlafen (sleeping) → geschlafen (slept)
- fragen (asking) → gefragt (asked).
Indikativ Präteritum is the simple past tense in German
You can talk about actions completed in the past (that are no longer ongoing) using Indikativ Präteritum, which is the German language’s equivalent of the simple past tense in the indicative mood.
- Ich musste gestern lange arbeiten. = I had to work late yesterday.
- Du warst letztes Wochenende zu Hause. = You were at home last weekend.
- Sie hatten keine Zeit. = They didn’t have time.
Indikativ Präteritum is typically only used in writing and is not as commonly spoken as it is in English, but there are some situations where it’s used in the spoken German past tense.
Northern Germans speak in this simple past tense with sentences using verbs like sein (to be) haben (to have), as well as the six German modal verbs.
In central and southern Germany, however, it can seem out of place in conversation regardless of which verbs are being used. Instead, you’ll want to use the Indikativ Perfekt (German present perfect tense) to describe past events.
Tips for conjugating common German verbs into Indikativ Präteritum
Changing the spelling, or “form,” of a German verb to agree with verb tense and subject is known as “conjugation.” How exactly you change the spelling of German past tense verbs depends on whether you’re conjugating a strong, weak, or mixed verb.
Weak German verbs in simple past tense
For weak verbs that always follow normal conjugation patterns, the process is easy! Find your verb stem then add a Präteritum ending to it.
- Er sollte bei seiner Prüfung nicht schummeln. = He shouldn’t have cheated on his exam.
- Du probiertest vierzig verschiedene Eissorten. = You tasted 40 different kinds of ice cream.
| German Pronoun | Präteritum (Simple Past Tense) Verb Endings | Lernen (to learn) Conjugation |
| ich I | -te | lernte |
| du you (informal singular) | -test | lerntest |
| er/sie/es he/she/it | -te | lernte |
| wir we | -ten | lernten |
| ihr you all (informal plural) | -tet | lerntet |
| sie/Sie they/you (formal) | -ten | lernten |
Präteritum conjugation of strong German verbs
Conjugating strong German verbs, on the other hand, requires a little more study. This is because, unlike weak verbs, strong verbs don’t take regular -te and -t endings in Präteritum (simple past tense).
Instead, they will undergo a stem change, where the vowel in the middle of the verb will change to a different vowel or have a German umlaut added to it. These stem changes must be memorized because they don’t follow a single rule of thumb.
How to use mixed German verbs in Präteritum
As a smaller group of only about a dozen words, mixed German verbs combine aspects of both strong and weak verbs. More specifically, mixed verbs will have a stem change in Präteritum (simple past tense) like those you see in strong verbs, but they still take standard Präteritum endings just like weak verbs do.
How to form sentences in the simple past tense in German
Indikativ Präteritum (simple past tense) doesn’t affect word order; it just alters the Konjugation (conjugation), meaning it changes the spelling of the main verb of the sentence. This means you can still follow a simple Subject-Verb-Object word order.
[subject] + [Präteritum conjugated verb] + [objects]
- Ich hatte einen Unfall. = I had an accident
- Das war unsere Idee. = That was our idea.
- Ich wollte ein Stück Kuchen essen. = I wanted to eat a piece of cake.
Konjunktiv II Perfekt (present perfect tense, subjunctive II mood)
For information you don’t necessarily believe to be factual reality, such as hypotheticals, you apply the Konjunktiv II (subjunctive II) mood to Perfekt (present perfect tense).
- Ihr hättet das Problem gelöst. = You all would have solved the problem.
- Du wärst nach Hause gegangen. = You would have gone home.
- Ich hätte den Vertrag unterschrieben. = I would have signed the contract.
Grammatically, this will look much like a standard sentence structure for any regular Perfekt sentence. The only thing that will change is how you conjugate your auxiliary verb.
[subject] + [auxiliary verb, Konjunktiv II conjugated] + [additional info] + [past participle]
| German Pronoun | Konjunktiv II Haben Conjugation | Konjunktiv II Sein Conjugation |
| ich I | hätte | wäre |
| du you (informal singular) | hättest | wärst |
| er/sie/es he/she/it | hättee | wäre |
| wir we | hätten | wären |
| ihr you all (informal plural) | hättet | wärt |
| sie/Sie they/you (formal) | hätten | wären |
What is Indikativ Plusquamperfekt in the German past tense?
Indikativ Plusquamperfekt (past perfect tense, indicative mood) is a German past tense used to describe actions that were already completed before another event in the past. Think of it like saying you completed writing the report before your boss sent it in for approval yesterday.
It’s a sort of compound tense, where you conjugate your auxiliary verb according to Indikativ Präteritum (simple past tense, indicative mood) endings and change your main verb into its Partizip II (past participle) form.
This is a tense best reserved for more formal conversations, as it’s less common compared to Perfekt (present perfect tense) and features more challenging grammar rules. Think of it being great for the office or meeting new acquaintances in a formal setting.
To form a sentence in Plusquamperfekt:
- Choose either haben (to have) or sein (to be), conjugated as though they were in Präteritum (simple past tense) as an auxiliary verb.
- Your main verb will be placed towards the end of the sentence in its Partizip II (past participle) form.
[subject] + [haben/sein, Präteritum conjugated] + [objects/additional info] + [Partizip II]
- Er hatte das Fenster geöffnet. = He had opened the window.
- Ich war nach Hause gegangen. = I had gone home.
- Du hattest den Zug verpasst. = You had missed the train.
Haben and sein conjugation in Plusquamperfekt
Haben (to have) and sein (to be) are two auxiliary verb choices when forming a sentence in Plusquamperfekt (past perfect tense). You will select one or the other by the same parameters as you did for the Indikativ Perfekt (present perfect tense, indicative mood).
The auxiliary verb for your Plusquamperfekt sentence will need to be conjugated in Präteritum (simple past tense) according to the subject of the sentence (meaning the noun that is performing the action).
| German Pronoun | Plusquamperfekt Haben Conjugation | Plusquamperfekt Sein Conjugation |
| ich I | hatte | war |
| du you (informal singular) | hattest | warst |
| er/sie/es he/she/it | hatte | war |
| wir we | hatten | waren |
| ihr you all (informal plural) | hattet | wart |
| sie/Sie they/you (formal) | hatten | waren |
Once you’ve conjugated your auxiliary verb, you’ll typically place it right next to the subject of your sentence.
- Du hattest das Fenster geöffnet. = You had opened the window
- Ihr wart ins Kino gegangen. = You all had gone to the movies.
Konjunktiv I Perfekt (present perfect tense, subjunctive I mood)
In German, Konjunktiv I (subjunctive I) is used to report what someone else said. It’s common in journalism and in daily conversation to inform someone of what another person said.
You can use this German mood with the Perfekt (present perfect) tense to report that someone says, believes, or claims a completed action took place. Keep in mind that your reporting clause will conjugate its main verb as though it were in regular, present tense.
Forming and conjugating Konjunktiv I Perfekt
Two things will change when you apply Konjunktiv I to Perfekt:
- You’ll add a reporting clause at the start of the sentence, such as “he said” or “she informs me.”
- You’ll conjugate your auxiliary verb according to the subject and the Konjunktiv I verb conjugation.
| German Pronoun | Konjunktiv I Haben Conjugation | Konjunktiv I Sein Conjugation |
| ich I | habe | sei |
| du you (informal singular) | habest | seiest |
| er/sie/es he/she/it | habe | sei |
| wir we | haben | seien |
| ihr you all (informal plural) | habet | seiet |
| sie/Sie they/you (formal) | haben | seien |
Once you’ve got your Konjunktiv I Perfekt auxiliary verb and past participle, you’re ready to form a sentence that reports what someone has said.
[reporting clause] + [subject] + [auxiliary verb, Konjunktiv I conjugated] + [additional info] + [past participle]
- Sie behauptet, du habest die Wahrheit gesagt. = She claims you told the truth.
- Er sagt, ich habe den Bericht geschrieben. = He says I wrote the report.
Key Takeaways about the German past tense
The German past tense is a vital skill to master to describe events that have already occurred and are done occurring.
- The “present perfect tense” is called Perfekt in German and is the most common tense Germans use to describe the past.
- Präteritum (simple past tense) describes events completed before the present moment and is commonly used in writing.
- Use Plusquamperfekt (past perfect tense) to talk about events that were completed before another event in the past.
- The Indikativ is the “indicative mood” and describes real or factual events when applied to the German past tenses.
- You can combine Konjunktiv (subjunctive mood) with Perfekt in daily conversation to report that someone else described a past event or to describe a hypothetical situation in the past.
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