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What are some simple rules for using the past tense in german??

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What are some simple rules for using the past tense in german??

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  1. if by past tense you mean the imperfect form, it is simple:

    regular words -ete, -etest, -ete, -eten, -etet, -eten

    ich öffnete, du öffnetest, er öffnete, wir öffneten, ihr öffnetet, sie öffneten

    however, there are a large number of ”strong verbs”, as in English:

    ich rannte, du ranntest, er rannte, wir rannten, ihr ranntet, sie rannten

    ich habe geöffnet, ich bin gerannt is not past tense but

    present perfect tense

    these two tenses can be used indiscriminately (unlike English)

    yaw


  2. You need to be more specific but in most cases past tense words in German start with 'Ge' and end in 't' or 'en' but not always.

    The past tense word (i.e. Gespielt/spiele) goes to the end of the sentence and habe goes after "Ich". If you're talking as 'we' then you say "Wir haben" rather than "Ich habe". If the past tense is referring to travelling (i.e. I went to Spain) then you don't use "habe" you use "bin" for example, Ich bin nach Spanien gefahren. Again if it's talking about 'we' then instead of using "bin" use "sind" as in "Wir sind nach Spanien gefahren."

    For example.

    "Ich spiele Fussball." - Present

    "Ich habe Fussball gespielt." - Past

    "Wir spiele Fussball." - Present

    "Wir haben Fussball gespielt."  - Past

    "Ich fahre nach Spanien." - Present

    "Ich bin nach Spanien gefahren." - Past

    "Wir fahre nach Spanien." - Present

    "Wir sind nach Spanien." - Past.

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