Formstarker Verb: Stammvokal ändert sich + Personalendung (ich/er: keine Endung)
Meaning and usage
Strong verbs form the preterite by changing the stem vowel and adding no -te: gehen → ging, kommen → kam, sehen → sah, fahren → fuhr. The endings are short: ich and er/sie/es take no ending at all (ich ging, er kam), du adds -st (du kamst), wir and sie add -en, and ihr adds -t.
You use this form mostly in written German, in stories, letters and reports. In everyday speech most strong verbs prefer the perfect (ich bin gegangen), though war and a few others are common in speech too. The typical mistake is mixing the strong form with the weak -te ending: ich gingte, er kommte.
Examples 5
Deswegen kam ich gestern zu spät zum Unterricht.
That is why I was late for class yesterday.
Mein erstes Kind kam letztes Jahr zur Welt.
My first child was born last year.
Ich sah eine schwarze Katze ins Haus laufen.
I saw a black cat run into the house.
Die Leute standen auf und begannen zu singen.
The people stood up and began to sing.
Sie trafen sich das erste Mal in London.
They met for the first time in London.
Test yourself
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1 Sprachbausteine
Gestern meine Schwester sehr spät nach Hause.
Show answer
Correct answer: kam
The subject is meine Schwester, so er/sie/es, and the time word gestern asks for the preterite of kommen, which is kam with no ending.
- gekommen is a past participle and cannot stand alone as the verb here.
- kommt is present tense and does not fit with gestern.
- kommte wrongly adds the weak -te ending to a strong verb.
In this topic: Preterite
- machte, wohnte: Stamm + -te weak verbs form the preterite with -te
- arbeitete, redete, wartete adding a linking e before -te in the preterite
- ging, kam, sah past tense of strong verbs: stem vowel changes, no -te
- brachte, dachte, kannte, wusste mixed verbs change the vowel and add -te
- konnte, musste, wollte, durfte spoken past of the modals, without umlaut
- wurde: Er wurde Arzt. became, the past of werden as a full verb
- es gab there was, there were
- Er stand früh auf. Separable verbs split in the preterite too
Example sentences from Tatoeba, used under CC BY 2.0 FR. See sources.