One of the questions that comes up repeatedly at B1 level is: which past tense do I use? German has two main past tenses — the Perfekt and the Präteritum — and the choice between them is not random. It depends on whether you are speaking or writing, and on the specific verb involved.
The Core Rule: Register and Medium
- Perfekt is the past tense of spoken German and informal written communication (text messages, personal emails, casual letters).
- Präteritum is the past tense of written, formal, and narrative German — novels, newspaper articles, official reports.
In everyday conversation, Germans say Ich habe gestern gearbeitet (Perfekt), not Ich arbeitete gestern (Präteritum). The Präteritum form sounds bookish in speech and would strike most native speakers as unnatural.
The Exceptions: Verbs That Always Use Präteritum in Speech
Despite the spoken/written split, three categories are routinely used in Präteritum even in casual spoken German:
- sein → war (not "ist gewesen" in normal speech)
- haben → hatte (not "hat gehabt" in normal speech)
- Modal verbs → musste, konnte, wollte, sollte, durfte, mochte
You will almost never hear a German speaker say Ich bin gewesen or Ich habe gehabt where a simple war or hatte would do. Learn these Präteritum forms as vocabulary — they are unavoidable.
Forming the Perfekt
The Perfekt is built with an auxiliary verb (haben or sein) in the present tense, plus the Partizip II of the main verb.
The auxiliary verb: haben or sein?
Most verbs take haben. Use sein for verbs that express:
- Movement from one place to another: gehen, kommen, fahren, laufen, fliegen, reisen, steigen
- A change of state: werden, wachsen, einschlafen, aufwachen, sterben
- The verbs bleiben and sein themselves
- passieren and similar "occurrence" verbs
Common sein-verbs to memorise: gehen, kommen, fahren, laufen, fliegen, reisen, steigen, fallen, werden, bleiben, sein, passieren, ankommen, abfahren, einschlafen, aufwachen, sterben, wachsen
Forming Partizip II
Regular verbs: ge- + stem + -t
- machen → gemacht, kaufen → gekauft
Irregular verbs: ge- + stem (changed) + -en
- gehen → gegangen, schreiben → geschrieben
Verbs with inseparable prefixes (be-, ver-, ent-, er-, ge-, zer-, emp-, miss-): no ge- is added
- besuchen → besucht, verstehen → verstanden
Separable verbs: the ge- goes between the prefix and the stem
- aufmachen → aufgemacht, einkaufen → eingekauft
Comparison: Correct vs Incorrect
| Intended Meaning | Correct | Incorrect |
|---|---|---|
| I went to the shop (spoken) | Ich bin zum Laden gegangen. | Ich ging zum Laden. (literary in speech) |
| She had to leave (spoken) | Sie musste gehen. | Sie hat gehen müssen. (unnatural for simple past) |
| He was tired (spoken) | Er war müde. | Er ist müde gewesen. (unnatural) |
| We have visited Berlin | Wir haben Berlin besucht. | Wir haben Berlin gebesucht. (wrong — no ge- with inseparable prefix) |
| She came home | Sie ist nach Hause gekommen. | Sie hat nach Hause gekommen. (wrong auxiliary) |
B1 Exam Relevance
Sprachbausteine: Gap-fill tasks may require you to choose the correct auxiliary (hat vs ist) or recognise whether a Präteritum form is appropriate. Questions testing war/hatte/musste versus their Perfekt counterparts appear regularly.
Schreiben (letter/email writing): In the B1 writing task, you will often need to refer to past events. The correct register is Perfekt for most verbs, with Präteritum for sein, haben, and modals. A letter that uses Präteritum throughout (ich schrieb, ich fuhr) sounds overly formal and may be penalised for register.
Mastering this distinction is what separates learners who sound natural from those who sound like they are reciting a textbook.
Want to practise choosing the right past tense in realistic exam contexts? Our TELC B1 practice tests include Sprachbausteine tasks built around exactly these grammar points.