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Question about German Past Tense | ||
Tags: German | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| soclydeza85 Senior Member United States Joined 3908 days ago 357 posts - 502 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: German, French | Message 1 of 11 29 May 2014 at 2:26am | IP Logged | ||
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I always thought that you would use the "xxxxx-te" form of the verb in writing and "ich habe/bin........ gexxxxxt" form when speaking (I know the past participles are different depending on the verb class, this is just a generalization).
For example: Gestern habe ich Deutsch gelernt. (when speaking) and Gestern lernte ich Deutsch. (in writing) However, I accidentally used the (what I though was) the writing form when speaking with my tutor and she said it's okay to use it when speaking. Maybe I misunderstood this concept, but can someone clarify? Edited by soclydeza85 on 29 May 2014 at 2:27am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| 1e4e6 Octoglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4291 days ago 1013 posts - 1588 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Norwegian, Dutch, Swedish, Italian Studies: German, Danish, Russian, Catalan | Message 2 of 11 29 May 2014 at 5:35am | IP Logged | ||
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If I remember correctly, this is similar to Dutch, insofar as they can be used for both
written and oral registers. The present perfect usually refers to a recent event and/or an event related to the current situation. The preterite refers to an event that occurred in the distant past (at least in the opinion of the speaker), or in the past that has no influence upon the present. Other than that, perhaps a reason that there is a perception that the preterite is confined to written language is that the speaker forgot the forms of the strong verb preterites. Edited by 1e4e6 on 29 May 2014 at 5:45am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| beano Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4623 days ago 1049 posts - 2152 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Russian, Serbian, Hungarian | Message 3 of 11 29 May 2014 at 12:46pm | IP Logged | ||
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The simple past is used frequently in writing, which caused me a lot of problems when I started reading German books. Many common verbs have an irregular simple past and it's not always easy to link it back to the original verb. There are a lot of forms that just simply have to be learned.
In spoken German, the past participle form of the past tense is the norm. However a few simple past verbs can be heard in everyday use: ich war ich hatte ich dachte ich wusste ich kam I've also noticed that older people tend to make more use of the simple past when conversing. No doubt there will also be regional variations regarding the frequency of its use. The simple past also sometimes appears in set phrases like "das ging aber schnell" There are also more advanced structures, which invoke the use of the simple past. For example, sentences beginning with nachdem. Nachdem wir im Cafe gegessen hatten, liefen wir zum..... But bascially you can use the simple past whenever you want. It will always be understood. It just might not be the way most natives would phrase it. Edited by beano on 29 May 2014 at 12:47pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Sunja Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6086 days ago 2020 posts - 2295 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Mandarin | Message 4 of 11 29 May 2014 at 4:46pm | IP Logged | ||
According to the Wiki on "Präteritum" http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pr%C3%A4teritum: "lernte" is the definitive past (vollendete Vergangenheit). There's little if no bearing on what you're now doing. "habe gelernt" has more influence on that which you're doing now. Ich habe gestern (den ganzen Tag) Deutsch gelernt und heute lege ich mal eine Pause ein, for example. The rules are not really set in stone when it comes to spoken German. Both Präteritum and Perfekt are used in the German spoken where I'm located (Hessen). No one here uses solely Perfekt when speaking about things in the past. On the other hand, there's also a lot of "Mundart" (dialect) where I'm at. That's irrelevant to foreign speakers, but it makes the language more colorful and less black and white. To add on to what beano said, there are temporal clauses where it's more appropriate to use the Präteritum, noteably with "als" Als ich in Deutschland ankam, habe ich mich sehr wohl gefühlt Edited by Sunja on 29 May 2014 at 5:08pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Lassus Hexaglot (formerly Josquin) Senior Member Germany Joined 3848 days ago 36 posts - 67 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Italian, Swedish, Latin Studies: Russian, Irish, Japanese | Message 5 of 11 29 May 2014 at 6:24pm | IP Logged | ||
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It's true that Präteritum is more common in writing than in speaking, but it would be wrong to say Perfekt was only used in spoken language and Präteritum was only used in written language.
Generally speaking, Perfekt is used more often in German than the present perfect is used in English. Often, it's the usual tense for reporting past events: Gestern bin ich in die Stadt gegangen und habe mir Schuhe gekauft. Präteritum is mainly used for longer narrations: Es war einmal ein Mann. Eines Tages ging er in die Stadt und kaufte sich Schuhe. Dann... That's the main reason why you would find Präteritum more often in writing, as literature mainly consists of the narration of stories. 6 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Gustavo Russi Tetraglot Newbie Brazil Joined 3844 days ago 9 posts - 16 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, English, French, Italian | Message 6 of 11 29 May 2014 at 9:38pm | IP Logged | ||
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This subject actually regards many other european languages - French, Portuguese,
Italian, Dutch etc. As previously stated on this thread, you're not strictly forbidden to use the Perfekt in spoken language, nor the Präteritum in written language. It all depends on where you are - in Germany, it might be a lot more common to use these two verb tenses more freely than it is in France, for example. It doesn't mean it is impossible to happen, though. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| namsskogan Newbie Norway Joined 5596 days ago 18 posts - 53 votes Speaks: Norwegian* Studies: German | Message 7 of 11 29 May 2014 at 11:27pm | IP Logged | ||
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Here is an excellent blog which shows the basics of "spoken past" and "written past" in German:
German is easy - German past tense 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Gemuse Senior Member Germany Joined 4083 days ago 818 posts - 1189 votes Speaks: English Studies: German | Message 8 of 11 13 June 2014 at 12:31pm | IP Logged | ||
Why is Ein Tag in genitiv? Isnt genitiv used only when something belongs to someone/something? 1 person has voted this message useful |
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