Perfekt vs Präteritum: choosing a German past
German has two past tenses that often describe the same event: the Perfekt (ich habe gemacht) and the Präteritum (ich machte). The difference is mostly about register rather than time. One dominates speech, the other writing, and a handful of exceptions are worth knowing early.
Perfekt is the spoken past
In everyday conversation, Germans use the Perfekt for almost all past events: Ich habe gestern gearbeitet (I worked yesterday), Wir sind nach Berlin gefahren (we went to Berlin). It is a compound tense: a helper verb (haben or sein) in second position plus a past participle at the end.
Präteritum is the written past
The Präteritum (also called the simple past) dominates writing: news, novels, reports. Er ging nach Hause (he went home), Sie machte die Tür zu (she closed the door). In speech it sounds formal or storybook, so learners hear it far less, but you still need to recognise it to read.
haben or sein in the Perfekt
The Perfekt needs the right helper. Most verbs take haben: ich habe gegessen. Verbs of movement or change of state take sein: ich bin gegangen (went), ich bin aufgewacht (woke up), plus sein and bleiben themselves. Getting the helper right is half the battle with the Perfekt.
The verbs that stay Präteritum in speech
One exception matters: even in conversation, some very common verbs are normally used in the Präteritum rather than the Perfekt. Above all sein (ich war, I was), haben (ich hatte, I had), and the modals (ich konnte, ich wollte, ich musste). Saying ich bin gewesen is possible, but it sounds heavier than ich war.
Learn the participle with the verb
The hard, memory-heavy part of the Perfekt is the past participle, especially for strong verbs (gehen → gegangen, essen → gegessen). These forms cannot be derived, so they have to be learned directly. Verboteca drills participle forms as spaced-repetition cards alongside the Präteritum, so both pasts of a verb build together.