Simple past
The simple past is a tense of verbs in the English language .
The German equivalent of the simple past is the past tense and in comparison with some Romance languages it corresponds to the Spanish Pretérito perfecto or Pretérito perfecto compuesto, the French Passé composé and the Italian Passato remoto .
education
For all persons the root word is simply used and the ending "-ed" is added. If there is an 'e', only 'd' is appended. Verbs that end in 'y' have the ending "i + ed" :
- 1st person singular: I listened .
- 2nd person singular: You listened .
- 3rd person singular: He / She / It listened.
- 1st person plural: We listened .
- 2nd person plural: You listened .
- 3rd person plural: They listened .
There are also irregular verbs , such as "to speak" :
- 1st person singular: I spoke .
- 2nd person singular: You spoke .
- 3rd person singular: He / She / It spoke .
- 1st person plural: We spoke .
- 2nd person plural: You spoke .
- 3rd person plural: They spoke .
The negative is formed with “did not” (or “didn't” for short ).
- 1st person singular: I did not speak .
- 2nd person singular: You did not speak .
- 3rd person singular: He / She / It did not speak .
- 1st person plural: We did not speak .
- 2nd person plural: You did not speak .
- 3rd person plural: They did not speak .
question
A “did” is placed in front of the question form . Speak is then not placed in the simple past , but is in the infinitive .
- 1st person singular: Did I speak ?
- 2nd person singular: Did you speak ?
- 3rd person singular: Did he / she / it speak ?
- 1st person plural: Did we speak ?
- 2nd person plural: Did you speak ?
- 3rd person plural: Did they speak ?
Note: The simple past is the first past. It expresses when something happened.
use
The simple past is used in:
- Actions in the past that have already been completed
- consecutive actions in the past
- occurring actions that interrupt actions in progress
- an act in the past, e.g. B. of which you know when it happened
It is also used for the If-Sentence Type II, cf. Conditional sentence in German, required.
The following words are signal words for the simple past:
- yesterday
- two months ago
- in 2003
- Saturday
- first
- then
- last week
- when
Irregular shapes (selection)
- to be → been
- to become → became
- to begin → began
- to bite → bit
- to blow → blew
- to break → broke
- to bring → brought
- to build → built
- to burn → burned / burnt
- to buy → bought
- to catch → caught
- to choose → chose
- to come → came
- to cost → cost
- to cut → cut
- to dig → dug
- to do → did
- to draw → drew
- to drink → drank
- to drive → drove
- to eat → ate
- to feel → felt
- to fall → fell
- to feed → fed
- to fight → fought
- to find → found
- to fly → flew
- to forbid → forebade
- to forget → forgot
- to get → got
- to give → gave
- to go → went
- to grow → grew
- to hang → hung
- to have → had
- to hear → heard
- to hide → hid
- to hit → hit
- to hold → held
- to hurt → hurt
- to keep → kept
- to know → knew
- to lay → laid
- to learn → learned / learned
- to leave → left
- to lend → lent
- to let → let
- to lie → lay
- to light → lit
- to lose → lost
- to make → made
- to mean → meant
- to meet → met
- to overtake → overtook
- to pay → paid
- to put → put
- to read → read
- to ride → rode
- to ring → rang
- to run → ran
- to say → said
- to see → saw
- to sell → sold
- to send → sent
- to set → set
- to shine → shone
- to shoot → shot
- to show → showed (the participle shown is irregular)
- to shut → shut
- to sing → sang
- to sink → sank
- to sit → sat
- to sleep → slept
- to smell → smelled / smelt
- to speak → spoke
- to spend → spent
- to spill → spilt / spilled
- to split → split
- to spread → spread
- to steal → stole
- to stick → stuck
- to strike → struck
- to swim → swam
- to swing → swing
- to take → took
- to teach → taught
- to tell → told
- to think → thought
- to throw → threw
- to understand → understood
- to wake → woke
- to wear → wore
- to win → won
- to write → wrote