Neu in Deutschland: 'hatte', 'war', 'es gab', imperfect tense singular & plural
I can use the perfect and imperfect tenses to understand the recent experiences of a young person arriving to live and study in Germany.
Neu in Deutschland: 'hatte', 'war', 'es gab', imperfect tense singular & plural
I can use the perfect and imperfect tenses to understand the recent experiences of a young person arriving to live and study in Germany.
These resources will be removed by end of Summer Term 2025.
Lesson details
Vocabulary and transcripts for this lessons
Key learning points
- Use the imperfect forms 'hatte', 'war', 'gab' to talk about the past instead of the perfect tense.
- Imperfect weak verbs are formed like 'lernen'.
- Imperfect strong verbs take the same endings as 'liegen'.
Keywords
Perfect tense - German two-word past tense using either 'haben' or 'sein' with a past participle
Imperfect tense - German single-word past tense, also called the simple past
Common misconception
The imperfect tense is never used in spoken German.
The most common irregular verbs 'haben' and 'sein' are very common in speaking, along with 'es gab'. Other verbs in the imperfect mainly appear in written texts.
Equipment
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Starter quiz
6 Questions
to believe, believing
to answer, answering
to be called, being called
really, very, whole, all the
just, fair
same, right away, equally
(I, he, she, it) was
(you all) were
(you) had
(you all) had
(we, they) were
(we, they) had
Exit quiz
6 Questions
I brought
I knew
I decided
I moved
I thought
lay
let, allowed
came
sat
went
started