Genau
Topic test · A2

Präteritum test

22questions
13minutes
60%pass mark
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Topic test

22 questions, easy to hard

Pick an option and press «Next». You can go back and change it. Anything left blank counts as wrong.

Gestern ich in Berlin.

I was in Berlin yesterday.

war. sein is mostly used in the Präteritum even in speech. bin gewesen is a correct Perfekt (common in the south) but it does not fit this gap: with it the sentence becomes Gestern bin ich in Berlin gewesen. habe gewesen is simply wrong.

Ich gestern arbeiten.

I had to work yesterday.

musste. Modal verbs are used in the Präteritum for the past. Their Perfekt (habe arbeiten müssen) is correct but heavy.

Ich seit 2020 in Köln.

I’ve been living in Cologne since 2020.

wohne — present tense. If you still live there, German uses the Präsens. English uses “have lived” here, which is exactly why this catches people out.

Er das Buch. (geben · Präteritum)

He gave me the book.

gab. geben is irregular: the stem vowel changes and it takes no -te. gegeben is the Partizip II, used in the Perfekt.

Which is a natural spoken sentence?

I was sick, so I didn’t work.

The first one. Each verb follows its own rule: sein → Präteritum (war), arbeiten → Perfekt. Two tenses can sit in one sentence and that is completely normal. The fourth isn’t wrong, but it sounds read out of a book.

Als Kind ich einen Hund. (haben)

As a child I had a dog.

hatte. haben is one of the six memorised verbs — in the past it doesn’t use an auxiliary, it goes straight to the Präteritum. hätte is the Konjunktiv: “would have”.

Wir zwei Stunden. (warten · Präteritum)

We waited for two hours.

warteten. The stem ends in -t, so an e slips in: wartete, in the plural warteten. The same goes for arbeiten · antworten · öffnen.

Sie nach Hause. (gehen · Präteritum)

She went home.

ging. In an irregular verb the stem can change completely and -te never appears. There is no personal ending either: ich ging · er ging.

Ich dich nicht. (sehen · Präteritum)

I didn’t see you.

sah. sehen → sah → gesehen. Learn the three forms together: infinitive, Präteritum, Partizip. Dictionaries print this trio side by side anyway.

Früher ich in Izmir. (wohnen · Präteritum)

I used to live in Izmir.

wohnte. Regular verb: wohn + te. früher means “not any more”, so the Präsens doesn’t fit here — the exact opposite of the seit sentence.

Er kein Wort. (sagen · Präteritum)

He didn’t say a single word.

sagte. There is no ending for er — it is the same as ich sagte. In the Präteritum the first and third person singular are identical in every verb, regular or irregular.

Ich nicht kommen, weil ich krank war.

I couldn’t come because I was sick.

konnte. The sentence has two memorised verbs at once: the modal können and sein. Both are Präteritum, both without umlaut — könnte and wäre would be the Konjunktiv.

Which one is NOT Präteritum?

Which one is not a simple past form?

gefahren — that is the Partizip II, part of the Perfekt (bin gefahren). The other three are Präteritum: fahren → fuhr · kommen → kam · lesen → las. If it starts with ge-, it isn’t Präteritum.

Gestern lange.

I worked for a long time yesterday.

habe ich lange gearbeitet. Two things at once: arbeiten is not on the memorised list, so it takes the Perfekt in speech, and because gestern moved to the front, the subject drops behind the verb. The second and third options leave the subject in front.

Es gestern den ganzen Tag. (regnen)

It rained all day yesterday.

regnete. The stem is regn, and an e slips in between the two consonants. Weather reports and storytelling are the two places where the written Präteritum shows up most.

Sie mir einen Brief. (schreiben · Präteritum)

She wrote me a letter.

schrieb. schreiben → schrieb → geschrieben. Everything with this pattern behaves the same way: bleiben → blieb · steigen → stieg.

Ich ihn seit fünf Jahren.

I’ve known him for five years.

kenne. There is a seit, so the acquaintance is still going on → Präsens. kannte would mean “I knew him (and no longer do)”. English says “I have known him”, which is what pulls people toward the Perfekt.

When speaking: Ich habe gearbeitet or Ich arbeitete?

I worked.

Perfekt. The Präteritum is the written language: books, news, fairy tales. In speech you only hear it with those six verbs. Ich arbeitete isn’t wrong, but in conversation it sounds like reading aloud — and it is rarer still in southern Germany and Austria.

What is the difference between musste and müsste?

had to / ought to

The umlaut changes the mood, not the tense. Ich musste arbeiten = I had to work. Ich müsste arbeiten = I ought to work (but I’m not). The same pair: konnte/könnte · wollte/wollte — wollen has no umlaut, so the two look identical.

Es einmal ein König. (sein · fairy tale)

Once upon a time there was a king.

war. Es war einmal… is the classic opening of a German fairy tale — and it is the Präteritum’s true home: storytelling. Perfekt in conversation, Präteritum in narrative.

The Präteritum is generally preferred in spoken language (on the street, in everyday life).

False. The Präteritum is used mostly in written language (newspapers, books, news). In spoken language the Perfekt is preferred.

Build the sentence: I used to read a lot of books as a child.

Tap the pieces to build the sentence

The Präteritum of lesen is las. When a time or circumstance phrase comes first, the verb moves to second position.
Quick rules

The rules in three lines

The full topic lives on its own page. This is only the core you need for the test.

  1. The six verbs take the Präteritum even in speech

    sein · haben and the four modals are used in the Präteritum, not the Perfekt, when you talk about the past. Even in everyday speech.

    war · hatte · konnte · musste · wollte · durfte

  2. Regular verb: stem + -te

    Drop the -en of the infinitive, add -te, then the personal ending. ich and er are again the same, both bare.

    machen → machte · wohnen → wohnte

  3. If it is still going on, it is not past

    A situation that started with seit and continues is Präsens in German. Unlike English, which says “I have lived here since 2020”.

    Ich wohne seit 2020 in Köln.

Traps

Commonly mixed up

Where a direct translation breaks. The hard questions come from here.

  • Ich habe gestern in Berlin gewesen.

    Ich war gestern in Berlin.

    sein neither takes haben nor wants the Perfekt in speech. Two mistakes in one sentence.

  • Ich wohne seit 2020 in Köln gewohnt.

    Ich wohne seit 2020 in Köln.

    If you still live there, it is a present tense, not a past one. The moment you see seit, it is Präsens.

  • Er gebte mir das Buch.

    Er gab mir das Buch.

    An irregular verb takes no -te; its stem vowel changes. geben → gab.

  • Gestern ich arbeitete lange.

    Gestern arbeitete ich lange.

    Once the time expression moves to the front, the verb has to stay in second position — the subject gets pushed behind it. The tense changed, the word-order rule did not.