A1 · GRAMMAR
Past Tense: war and hatte
When talking about the past, Germans usually use the Perfekt (which we'll cover next). However, for **sein** (to be) and **haben** (to have), the simple past (Präteritum) forms **war** (was/were) and **hatte** (had) are commonly used, even in spoken German. Their conjugations are simple and they are used very frequently.
In this lesson
1. sein → war
ich war, du warst, er war, wir waren.
Gestern war ich krank.
Yesterday I was sick.
2. haben → hatte
ich hatte, du hattest, er hatte, wir hatten.
Wir hatten keine Zeit.
We had no time.
3. ich = er
No ending for both: ich war – er war, ich hatte – er hatte.
4. Time expressions
gestern, letzte Woche, letztes Jahr, früher, vor zwei Tagen
💡 In spoken German, saying 'Ich war' instead of 'Ich bin gewesen' is much more natural. Don't try to convert *war* and *hatte* into the Perfekt.