The Präteritum is the past tense of writing, storytelling and description, and it is the normal spoken past for sein, haben and the modal verbs. Weak verbs insert -te between the stem and the ending (machen → ich machte), while strong verbs change their vowel instead (gehen → ich ging). Crucially, ich and er/sie/es share exactly the same form.
Examples
- Als ich klein war, wohnte ich in Hamburg.
- When I was little, I lived in Hamburg.
- Damals gab es noch kein Internet.
- Back then there was no internet yet.
- Früher musste ich um sechs aufstehen.
- I used to have to get up at six.
- Es regnete, und wir hatten keinen Schirm.
- It was raining, and we had no umbrella.
The mistake to avoid
Adding an ending to the third person: it is "er war" and "er machte", never "er wart" or "er machtet".
Where this fits in
The Präteritum: past habits & descriptions, German B1: Use the Präteritum (simple past) to talk about how things used to be, describe the past, and narrate ongoing actions interrupted by another event. While spoken German often uses Perfekt for events, Präteritum is standard for descriptions, storytelling, and modal verbs.