German · Chapter 2 · Lesson 21 · Grammar primer
War and hatte: was and had
Even Germans who tell everything else in the perfect say war and hatte. Two short tables and you can talk about yesterday.
The short version
Say war and hatte, even when you speak
German speakers tell stories in the perfect tense, but war and hatte are the exception: they use the short simple past forms everywhere, even in casual talk. Ich bin müde gewesen is correct, but ich war müde is what people say. Learn these two forms before any other past tense.
Ich war müde und hatte keine Zeit.
War and hatte: the two you need first
and have their own simple past forms, and they are the most useful ones in the language. Notice that and er / / are the same word, with no ending at all.
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| war | |
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er / | war | |
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Some everyday sentences:
war .- I was at home yesterday.war gut.- That was good.Er war .- He was not here..- We had no time..- She had two children.?- Were you afraid?
Speakers use these two even when everything else in the story is in the perfect. war is the natural way to say I was tired; the perfect version, , is correct and common in the far south and Austria, but sounds roundabout in most of Germany.
Going further: Modal verbs in the simple past and the rest of the guide, when you want them. This lesson does not need them.
Practice
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10-question session
One question at a time, mixed across the exercises in this lesson. Miss one and it comes back round before the end.
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Lesson 21 of 24 in this chapter