Preterite

The preterite called ( from the Latin past tense for " what has gone before " ), often first past ( referred to as " first past" ) or unfinished past and formerly known in linguistics as a past tense, the past tense, which describes completed events - not only in Germans. In Austria, alternatively, to the name " Mitvergangenheit " used. I ran, you laughed or it rained are examples of verbs in the past tense. It is the main narrative in novels and reports. In the dialects and everyday language in the center and south of the German -language area the past tense is down to relict forms ( was and wanted ) disappeared, while in the north of Germany - is also used in oral language - quite strongly differentiated from perfect.

The term " imperfect " or its German translation " unfinished past" (French imparfait literally for " imperfect " ) refers to the French philology, which has influenced the German linguistics. It is misleading for the simple past of the Germans, because the past tense formed synthetically referred to here is not, or not exclusively the " unfinished past." Hence the name preterite is preferred.

Linguistic history

Linguistically, the past tense is the past tense, which is formed from the present stem ( as in Latin and today the imparfait in French ), and therefore aspektuell is marked as imperfective, in contrast to the other two verbal forms that may have past importance, the Aorist and the Perfect for which there are separate tense-stems in the Indo-European languages ​​for each verb. The older Indo-European languages ​​have this triple, aspectual differentiation of the past tenses ( tenses praeterita ), but it is lost in many modern languages ​​. Language History is the past tense in Germanic from the collapse of aorist and perfect forms old - that have nothing to do with the " Perfect" today's German Grammar - emerged, which is why " past tense " for this reason a proper name represents.

If in a language there is only one past tense, is not to speak of a past tense, but by the past tense, because this verb form then must designate both the completed and that are incomplete and the " Indeterminate ", which at one aspect of differentiation in the past to Perfect verbs, imperfect and aorist would functionally distributed. Nevertheless, it is spoken, for example, in the past tense of the Pali of an aorist, although this term is no longer justified by the loss of perfect / imperfect.

Formation of the past tense in German

Weak and strong verbs are conjugated differently.

On the verbal stem weak verbs - te is appended, followed by the respective personal ending. The 1st and 3rd person singular is always the same. Verbs whose root on t, d or consonant n / m ends have an e before the ending

Strong verbs undergo a sound change. The stem vowel is exchanged (so-called ablaut ), sometimes also the following consonant changes. The endings ( word endings ) are still similar to weak verbs, added after always same rules.

Examples

Special

Some irregular verbs have a tendency to be made regularly in all tenses. In colloquial language will be affected earlier. For example, some verbs are often bent slightly, even if they now belong to the most more traditional written language nor to the strong verbs. With many other once strong verbs weak diffraction has become well in the written language of the standard:

• Before: The dog boll.
• Today: The dog barked.

However, the opposite occurs. So at wave is the weak flexion, the conventional, which is waved pressed by colloquially become strong past participle. In dialectal level, the change from weak to strong flexion occurs not so rare; In Zurich German, for example, are to be reported during the 20th century, the verbs agree, deceive and convince some alternative, some become imperative sharply after already several others have gone this route in former times.

Sometimes can with verbs both the weak form ( hang - hung ) and the strong flexion (see: hang - hung ) are used. This may on one hand be due to the strong conjugation slowly but surely disappearing, on the other hand can be signaled by different use a difference in meaning:

• Otto hung the fur hat on the hook, then the cap then hung there all summer.
• The flash startled him and she was terrified.

In these cases, with difference in meaning is usually the intransitive, strong verb, the basic shape and the transitive causative derived therefrom, which is basically bent slightly. Example: I fell ( intransitive, strong) and, derived from the causative precipitated I = I did something fall ( transitive, weak). Not in this scheme fits with the Präteritumsformen grind grind / dragged that have very different meanings: The knife was honed ( sharpened ), but the wall was razed (destroyed), but also ( in the active): He has become the bucking dog veterinarian dragged ( pulled behind it). Yet another scheme is moving / moved: What motivated him to tackle, so that the stone was moving?

Function

In non-literary texts such as reports, the past tense expresses actions and operations that have been completed in the past and have no direct relation to the present. Is there a connection to the present, however, the perfect used. Example: In an autobiography, we find the phrase "I studied German in Munich ", which expresses a previous action or the action part of a narrated story. In an application you will not find this sentence, because the connection to the present is important, even if the operation is back for some time. It is therefore used Perfect: "I have studied German in Munich. "

In literary texts, especially novels, the narrative tense used is the past tense, but the presence of the expressed here within the narrated story. In the story there is no perfect - unless the novel is written in the present tense. The past is expressed by the pluperfect.

In spoken language, there are differences between the north and the south of the German -speaking world. Already in the 16th century continued in the Upper Germans Perfect against the past tense as a past tense by. An important reason for this was that due to the loss of - e at the end of a word the weak Präteritumformen with the 1st or 3rd person singular of the present coincided, for example, does (s) - makes. However, in the southern Germans, with the exception of the Swiss German, where there is absolutely no past tense, remained the Präteritumformen of his and the modal verbs, the phonetically clearly distinguished from the present tense of the 1st or 3rd person here in the spoken language alive.

In the Low German language area as well as in the Central German the preterite is used as before. In connection with the mass media, however, since the mid-20th century, the Perfect spreads in the non dialectal colloquial language in Northern Germany, which is accompanied by a simultaneous decline in traditional dialects in these regions.