Table of Contents
Overview of Talking About the Past
Talking about the past in German is one of the first bigger steps after the A1 level. At A2 you learn how to describe what you did yesterday, last week, or on your last holiday. In everyday German, speakers use two main forms to talk about the past: the preterite and the perfect. You also need typical time expressions that clearly show that something is not happening now, but already happened.
This chapter introduces the basic idea of past time in German and shows how these two past forms are used in daily communication. The details of each tense and of time expressions are treated in the following subchapters, so here we focus on the overall picture and how everything connects.
Why German Has Two Main Past Forms
In English you mostly use one basic form for the past, such as “I went”, “I saw”, “I did”. In German, there are two common forms:
- A past form that is built with one word, the preterite, for example:
“Ich ging.” - A past form that is built with two words, a helping verb and a participle, the perfect, for example:
“Ich bin gegangen.”
In spoken German the perfect is much more common for actions in the past, especially in the present-day language. The preterite appears more often in written texts like stories, reports, and also in some very frequent verbs in everyday speech.
Important: In everyday conversation, Germans usually talk about completed past actions with the perfect tense, not with long preterite forms.
So at A2 you start to recognize and use both forms, but you will often prefer the perfect in your own speaking.
Talking About Finished Actions
When you talk about something that is already finished, you normally use one of these two past forms. The choice depends on the verb and the situation.
Compare these pairs in English and German:
| English | Spoken German (typical) | More written / narrative German |
|---|---|---|
| Yesterday I cooked. | Gestern habe ich gekocht. | Gestern kochte ich. |
| Last year we traveled to Italy. | Letztes Jahr sind wir nach Italien gereist. | Letztes Jahr reisten wir nach Italien. |
| At 8 o’clock I was at home. | Um acht Uhr war ich zu Hause. | Um acht Uhr war ich zu Hause. |
You can see that some verbs, like “sein” and “haben”, appear very often in the short past form, even in normal conversation. Others are more natural in the perfect form when you speak.
When you describe a simple, single action that is finished, you choose one past form, put it in the correct position in the sentence, and support it with a clear time expression if needed. The coming subchapters will show you the exact building blocks and positions.
Past Actions in Sequence
In stories and short descriptions you often need to show a series of actions. In German you can simply put several past sentences together. The time is clear because of the tense and also because of words like “then” or “after that”.
Example in English and German:
| English | German (neutral style) |
|---|---|
| Yesterday I got up at 7, then I had breakfast, and after that I went to work. | Gestern bin ich um sieben Uhr aufgestanden, dann habe ich gefrühstückt, und danach bin ich zur Arbeit gegangen. |
Here the perfect tense is used three times to show a sequence of completed actions. Words like “dann” and “danach” help to show the order in time.
Important: In simple stories about your day, keep using the same past form (usually the perfect tense) for all main actions, and use time words like “dann” and “danach” to show sequence.
In more written, narrative German you might see more preterite forms in such sequences, especially in books or newspaper stories. At A2 you only need to understand that these are also past actions.
Mixing Past and Present
In real communication, past and present often appear in the same conversation. You might start with the present to give a general fact, then use a past form to give an example.
Example:
English:
“I usually work from home. Yesterday I worked in the office.”
German:
“Normalerweise arbeite ich von zu Hause. Gestern habe ich im Büro gearbeitet.”
The first verb shows a regular situation in the present. The second verb shows one specific finished event in the past. The time word “gestern” makes it even clearer that the second action is past.
It is important to notice that the present tense in German is sometimes also used for the future, but not for the past. For things that clearly happened before now, you need a past form, usually the perfect or, for some verbs and in some styles, the preterite.
Time Expressions for the Past
To talk about the past clearly, you use special time expressions that show “when” something happened. The grammar of these expressions, and the prepositions used with them, is handled later in detail. Here you only need to see how they connect to the idea of past time.
Some typical English and German examples:
| English | German |
|---|---|
| yesterday | gestern |
| the day before yesterday | vorgestern |
| last week | letzte Woche |
| last year | letztes Jahr |
| two days ago | vor zwei Tagen |
| a week ago | vor einer Woche |
| in 2019 | 2019, im Jahr 2019 |
| when I was a child | als ich ein Kind war |
You place these expressions at the beginning of the sentence or later in the sentence to set the time. Both positions are normal, and the detailed word order comes in later chapters.
Example:
“Letztes Jahr habe ich in Deutschland gearbeitet.”
“Ich habe letztes Jahr in Deutschland gearbeitet.”
Both sentences talk about the past. The time expression “letztes Jahr” makes the time frame very clear.
Important: In German, a time expression alone is not enough to show the past. You still need a past tense form of the verb.
So you combine correct verb forms with suitable time phrases to create a clear picture of when something happened.
Describing Past Habits and Repeated Actions
Sometimes you want to say that something happened regularly in the past. In English you can say “I used to” or “I always did”. In German you often use the same past forms you already know, and then add words like “immer”, “oft”, or a time expression.
Examples:
English:
“When I was a child, I always played outside.”
German:
“Als ich ein Kind war, habe ich immer draußen gespielt.”
The verb “war” is a short past form of “sein”. The verb “habe … gespielt” is in the perfect. The word “immer” shows that this was a habit, something repeated. You do not need a special special tense form like in English “used to” for this kind of idea.
At A2, it is enough to be able to say that something was regular by using:
Time clause or phrase + past form + adverb of frequency
For example:
“Früher bin ich oft ins Kino gegangen.”
“In the past I often went to the cinema.”
Past in Questions and Short Answers
To talk about the past, you also need to ask and answer questions about what other people did. The structure of questions in the past follows the same basic word order principles as in the present, but with the past tense forms of the verbs.
Example dialog in English and German:
English:
“Where were you yesterday?”
“I was at home.”
German:
“Wo warst du gestern?”
“Ich war zu Hause.”
English:
“What did you do on the weekend?”
“I went to the mountains.”
German:
“Was hast du am Wochenende gemacht?”
“Ich bin in die Berge gefahren.”
Here you see that the question and the answer both use past forms. At A2 you learn to build such questions and to give short, correct answers that refer to a past time.
Reading and Listening About the Past
At A2 you also start to read and listen to simple stories, biographies, and reports. These texts combine time expressions with both main past forms. You may see many preterite forms in written texts, especially for very common verbs like “sein”, “haben”, “gehen” and “kommen”.
Your goal at this level is:
Understand that all these forms talk about past time.
Recognize time expressions that fix the time frame in the past.
Notice sequences of actions and words like “dann”, “später”, “nachher”.
Even if you cannot yet produce all these forms perfectly, you can already understand simple texts about past events, holidays, weekends, or life histories.
Building Confidence with Past Narratives
Talking about the past is one of the best ways to expand your active German. You can use it in many simple communication situations:
Describe your last holiday.
Talk about what you did yesterday.
Tell someone about your last weekend.
Explain your past work or study experience.
Tell a short life story with basic dates.
To do this successfully, you combine three elements:
- Suitable past tense forms, usually the perfect tense, sometimes the preterite.
- Clear time expressions that fix “when”.
- Connectors like “dann”, “danach”, “später” that show sequence.
In the next subchapters you will learn the exact forms, endings, and patterns that you need to build these sentences safely and correctly.
Vocabulary from This Chapter
| German | English |
|---|---|
| die Vergangenheit | the past |
| das Präteritum | preterite (simple past) |
| das Perfekt | perfect tense |
| fertig, abgeschlossen | finished, completed |
| die Handlung | action |
| die Gewohnheit | habit |
| früher | in the past, earlier |
| gestern | yesterday |
| vorgestern | the day before yesterday |
| letzte Woche | last week |
| letztes Jahr | last year |
| vor zwei Tagen | two days ago |
| vor einer Woche | a week ago |
| damals | back then |
| als ich ein Kind war | when I was a child |
| dann | then |
| danach | after that |
| später | later |
| normalerweise | normally, usually |
| oft | often |
| immer | always |
| erzählen | to tell (a story) |
| berichten | to report |