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Quick tips to choose Präteritum vs Perfekt in speech visualisation

Quick tips to choose Präteritum vs Perfekt in speech

Mastering German Tenses: Your Easy Guide: Quick tips to choose Präteritum vs Perfekt in speech
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Here are quick tips to choose Präteritum vs Perfekt in German speech:

  • Use Perfekt for about 90% of spoken German. It is the default past tense in conversations, dialogues, and informal speech because it sounds more natural and conversational.
  • Use Präteritum mainly in written German such as books, newspaper articles, stories, and formal texts.
  • Exceptions in speech: Präteritum is typically used for the verbs sein (was/were), haben (had), modal verbs (können, müssen, wollen, etc.), and wissen (knew). For these verbs, using Präteritum in speech sounds more natural.
  • Avoid using Präteritum for most other verbs in speech; it may come across as overly formal, robotic, or pompous.
  • Use Präteritum when narration or storytelling in writing but stick mostly to Perfekt in everyday conversation.
  • When adverbs of time like schon, oft, immer, noch, nie are used, Perfekt is often preferred even beyond speech.
  • If Präteritum forms are hard to pronounce (e.g., du schossest), Perfekt is preferred in speech and writing.

In summary, go with Perfekt for everyday spoken German, and reserve Präteritum for writing or formal narration, except for the special cases of the common auxiliary, modal, and wissen verbs where Präteritum is common even in speech. 2, 4, 5, 6

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