{"id":1028,"date":"2010-07-14T22:29:11","date_gmt":"2010-07-14T21:29:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jabbalab.com\/blog\/?p=1028"},"modified":"2013-12-20T17:36:09","modified_gmt":"2013-12-20T16:36:09","slug":"past-tense-german-the-imperfect-tense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.jabbalab.com\/blog\/1028\/past-tense-german-the-imperfect-tense","title":{"rendered":"Past Tense German &#8211; The Imperfect Tense"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.jabbalab.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/perfect-tense1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-1029\" title=\"Imperfect Tense\" src=\"http:\/\/www.jabbalab.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/perfect-tense1.jpg\" alt=\"Imperfect Tense\" width=\"225\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.jabbalab.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/perfect-tense1.jpg 225w, http:\/\/www.jabbalab.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/perfect-tense1-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"prep-title\">German Imperfect Tense<\/h2>\n<p>Here we want to go through how you talk about the past in German. There are a few forms of the past tense in German. <\/p>\n<p>We were talking about the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jabbalab.com\/blog\/1011\/past-tense-german-how-to-talk-about-the-past-in-german\">perfect tense<\/a> in our last blog and in this article we will be looking at the <strong>imperfect tense<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Learn and enjoy the German language with <strong><span style=\"color: #faaf0f;\">Jabba<\/span><\/strong><strong><span style=\"color: #de2c2c;\">lab<\/span><\/strong>!<\/p>\n<div style=\"clear: both;\"><\/div>\n<h3 class=\"prep-title\">When to use the imperfect tense<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>To talk about situations in the past such which have no link to the present anymore:<\/li>\n<p><strong>For example:<\/strong><br \/>\nShe bought a red bag which she gave her friend. \u21e8 Sie <strong><span style=\"color: #faaf0f;\">kaufte<\/span><\/strong> eine rote Tasche, die sie ihrer Freundin <strong><span style=\"color: #faaf0f;\">schenkte<\/span><\/strong>.<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>A situation which describes how people felt in the past or how things were in the past:<\/li>\n<p><strong>For example:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I was glad when he came home. \u21e8 Ich <strong><span style=\"color: #faaf0f;\">war<\/span><\/strong> froh, als er nach Hause <strong><span style=\"color: #faaf0f;\">kam<\/span><\/strong>.<\/ul>\n<p><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>It&#8217;s also used when something used to happen regularly<\/li>\n<p><strong>For example:<\/strong><br \/>\nI played the piano every day. \u21e8 Ich <strong><span style=\"color: #faaf0f;\">spielte<\/span><\/strong> jeden Tag Klavier.<\/ul>\n<div style=\"clear: both;\"><\/div>\n<h3 class=\"prep-title\">Forming a past tense sentence in the imperfect tense<\/h3>\n<p>Forming a sentence with the imperfect tense depends on whether the verb is a <strong>weak verb<\/strong>, a <strong>strong verb<\/strong>, or a <strong>mixed verb<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><strong><u>Forming the imperfect tense with weak and mixed verbs<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>To form the imperfect tense of a weak verb, you need to change the ending and leave the stem as it is, the same way as you do in the present tense. With mixed verbs the ending is the same as the weak verbs, however the stem will also change as it does in the present tense.<\/p>\n<table class=\"grammar-table\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\">\n<tbody>\n<tr valign=\"TOP\">\n<th width=\"152\"><strong>Pronoun<\/th>\n<th width=\"152\"><strong>Ending<\/th>\n<th width=\"152\"><strong>Example<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<tr valign=\"TOP\">\n<td>ich<\/td>\n<td>-te<\/td>\n<td>ich machte<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr valign=\"TOP\">\n<td>du<\/td>\n<td>-test<\/td>\n<td>du machtest<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr valign=\"TOP\">\n<td>er \/ sie \/ es<\/td>\n<td>-te<\/td>\n<td>er \/ sie \/ es machte<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr valign=\"TOP\">\n<td>wir<\/td>\n<td>-ten<\/td>\n<td>wir machten<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr valign=\"TOP\">\n<td>ihr<\/td>\n<td>-tet<\/td>\n<td>ihr machtet<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr valign=\"TOP\">\n<td>sie \/ Sie<\/td>\n<td>-ten<\/td>\n<td>sie \/ Sie machten<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p><strong>Here are a few examples of how to get a weak verb into the past tense:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>spielen \u2013 to play \u2013 ich <strong><span style=\"color: #faaf0f;\">spielte<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>machen \u2013 to make, to do \u2013 ich <strong><span style=\"color: #faaf0f;\">machte<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Here are a few examples of how to get a mixed verb into the past tense: <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>kennen &#8211; to know \u2013 ich <strong><span style=\"color: #faaf0f;\">kannte<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>rennen \u2013 to run \u2013 ich <strong><span style=\"color: #faaf0f;\">rannte<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Some <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jabbalab.com\/blog\/880\/how-german-verbs-work-in-the-present-tense-part-1\">weak verbs<\/a> will change their spelling when used in the imperfect tense. This depends on which letter the stem of the weak verb ends with.<\/p>\n<p>If it ends with <strong>d, t, m or n<\/strong> you need to put an extra <strong>e<\/strong> before the usual imperfect ending.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For example:<\/strong> <\/p>\n<p>ich arbeit<strong>e<\/strong>te \u2013 I worked<\/p>\n<p>ich red<strong>e<\/strong>te &#8211; I talked<\/p>\n<p><strong><u>Forming the imperfect tense with strong verbs:<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The main difference between weak and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jabbalab.com\/blog\/924\/how-german-verbs-work-in-the-present-tense-part-2\">strong verbs<\/a> in the imperfect tense is that strong verbs have different endings.<\/p>\n<p>As with mixed verbs, the stem may change when going into the past tense.<\/p>\n<table class=\"grammar-table\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\">\n<tbody>\n<tr valign=\"TOP\">\n<th width=\"152\"><strong>Pronoun<\/th>\n<th width=\"152\"><strong>Ending<\/th>\n<th width=\"152\"><strong>Example<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<tr valign=\"TOP\">\n<td>ich<\/td>\n<td>&#8211;<\/td>\n<td>ich trank<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr valign=\"TOP\">\n<td>du<\/td>\n<td>-st<\/td>\n<td>du trankst<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr valign=\"TOP\">\n<td>er \/ sie \/ es<\/td>\n<td>&#8211;<\/td>\n<td>er \/ sie \/ es trank<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr valign=\"TOP\">\n<td>wir<\/td>\n<td>-en<\/td>\n<td>wir tranken<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr valign=\"TOP\">\n<td>ihr<\/td>\n<td>-t<\/td>\n<td>ihr trankt<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr valign=\"TOP\">\n<td>sie \/ Sie<\/td>\n<td>-en<\/td>\n<td>sie \/ Sie tranken<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p><strong>Examples:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>essen \u2013 to eat \u2013 ich <strong><span style=\"color: #faaf0f;\">a\u00df<\/span><\/strong><br \/>\nfahren \u2013 to drive \u2013 ich <strong><span style=\"color: #faaf0f;\">fuhr<\/span><\/strong><br \/>\ntrinken \u2013 to trink \u2013 ich <strong><span style=\"color: #faaf0f;\">trank<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>German Imperfect Tense Here we want to go through how you talk about the past in German. There are a few forms of the past tense in German. We were talking about the perfect tense in our last blog and in this article we will be looking at the imperfect tense. Learn and enjoy the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jabbalab.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1028"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jabbalab.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jabbalab.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jabbalab.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jabbalab.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1028"}],"version-history":[{"count":28,"href":"http:\/\/www.jabbalab.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1028\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15460,"href":"http:\/\/www.jabbalab.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1028\/revisions\/15460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jabbalab.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jabbalab.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jabbalab.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}