252. The Imperfect (Simple Past) Tense

252.  The Imperfect (Simple Past) Tense

When we looked at the Perfect Tense, we talked briefly about the Imperfect Tense (also known as the Simple Past Tense). You may have noted that the Imperfect Tense is not used so much in speech but mostly in newspapers, letters, stories, fairly tales and written documents & reports.

The first encounter children have with this tense is with their fairy tales and stories. They hear and learn to recognise the different forms of verbs which divide into Regular and Irregular Verbs just like in English.

Regular Verbs & Formation  (the  't'  sound distinguishes it from the Present Tense like English)

ich spielte

du spieltest

er, sie es  spielte  (Note NO  't'  ending)

wir spielten

ihr spieltet

Sie spielten

sie spielten

Irregular Verbs & Formation  (Note that a change in vowel indicates the tense change - all good dictionaries will have a list of the most common Irregular Verbs and the changes are various, again like English but there are many similarities)

Examples

  sehen                       kommen                      schwimmen

ich  sah                          kam                             schwamm

du   sahst                       kamst                           schwammst

er    sah                          kam                             schwamm

wir  sahen                      kamen                         schwammen

ihr   saht                         kamt                           schwammt

Sie  sahen                       kamen                        schwammen

sie   sahen                      kamen                         schwammen

Semi Regular Verbs  -  some verbs change the vowel but have regular endings ... e.g.

      bringen                    wollen                       wissen

ich brachte                     wollte                        wusste

du  brachtest                  wolltest                      wusstest

er   brachte                     wollte                        wusste

wir  brachten                  wollten                       wusste

ihr   brachtet                    wolltet                       wusstet

Sie  brachten                   wollten                      wussten

Modal verbs,  sein and haben  and some verbs of perception regularly use the Imperfect forms in conversation.

For the Table of Principal Parts of Verbs, see Post 209 where the many of the common irregular verbs are listed.