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Sein in Past Tense

Sein Imperfekt

☰ List of all topics in the level A1

Level A1 Introduction Unit 1 Alphabet and pronunciation Unit 2 Diphthongs and constant combinations Unit 3 German nouns and their genders Unit 4 Articles in the nominative case Unit 5 Pronouns in the nominative case Unit 6 Verb sein in present Unit 7 Verb sein in imperfect Unit 8 Verb haben Unit 9 Present tense Unit 10 Modal Verbs Unit 11 Nominalization of verbs Unit 12 Adjective endings in nominative case Unit 13 Making plural nouns Unit 14 Numbers in German Unit 15 Accusative case Unit 16 Pronouns in accusative case Unit 17 Prepositions with accusative case Unit 18 Questions with interrogative pronouns Unit 19 Asking questions without interrogative pronouns

This lesson contains topics:

  1. Sein conjugation in past tense
  2. Forming questions with the verb sein

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Sein conjugation in the past tense

Singular Plural
1. person
ich war (I was)
wir waren (we were)
2. person, familiar form
du warst (you were)
ihr wart (you were)
2. person, polite form
Sie waren (you were)
Sie waren (you were)
3. person
er war (he was)

es war (it was)

sie war (she was)

sie waren (they were)

Examples:

Ich war gestern krank. (I was ill yesterday.)
Wir waren gestern krank. (We were ill yesterday.)
Du warst gestern krank. (You were ill yesterday.)
Ihr wart gestern krank. (You (plural) were ill yesterday.)
Sie waren gestern krank. (You were ill yesterday.) Polite form
Er war gestern krank. (He was ill yesterday.)
Sie war gestern krank. (She was ill yesterday.)
Sie waren gestern krank. (They were ill yesterday.)

Forming question with verb sein

Interrogative sentences, or questions, come in two varieties:

  1. Those that include interrogative pronouns such as who, where, and so on.
  2. Those that do not involve interrogative pronouns.

In German, when we ask a question without an interrogative pronoun, the sentence structure is similar to that in English, i.e., the verb replaces the subject as the first element in the sentence. The second element is the subject, and then it is a single object or a complex complement, as the case may be.

Ich bin Jan. (I am Jan.)
Bin ich Jan? (Am I Jan?)

Du bist nicht Jan. (You are not Jan)
Bist du nicht Jan? (Are not you Jan?)

Er ist Dr. Müller. (He is Dr. Müller.)
Ist er Dr. Müller? (Is he Dr. Müller?)

Sie sind Familie Schäfer. (They are Schäfer family.)
Sind sie Familie Schäfer? (Are they Schäfer family?)

Herr Schäfer ist krank. (Mr. Schäfer is ill.)
Ist Herr Schäfer krank? (Is Mr. Schäfer ill?)

Herr Schäfer war gestern krank. (Mr. Schäfer was ill yesterday.)
War Herr Schäfer gestern krank? (Was Mr. Schäfer ill yesterday?)

Herr Schäfer und seine Frau sind krank. (Mr. Schäfer and his wife are ill.)
Sind sie beide krank? (Are they both ill?)
Sind Sie beide krank? (Are you both ill?)
Ist sie krank? (Is she ill?)
Sind sie krank? (Are they ill?)
Sind Sie krank? (Are you ill?)

Mein Bruder ist Krankenpfleger. (My brother is a nurse.)
Ist dein Bruder auch Krankenpfleger? (Is your brother also a nurse?)
Nein, mein Bruder ist Arzt aber meine Schwester ist Krankenpflegerin. (No, my brother is a doctor but my sister is a nurse.)
Ist deine Schwester Ärztin? (Is your sister a doctor?)
Nein, meine Mutter ist Ärztin. (No, my mother is a doctor.)
Bist du auch Arzt? (Are you a doctor too?)
Ich bin Student. (I am a student)
Bist du Medizinstudent? (Are you a medical student?)
Genau. (Exactly)

Vocabulary building

mein-auto Car illustration

person illustration Hallo Herr Jäger. (Hello Mr. Jäger.)

person illustration Hallo, Herr Schäfer. Bitte, bitte. Wie geht es Ihnen heute? Sie kommen heute zu fuß. Ist Ihr Auto wieder kaputt? (Hallo, Mr. Schäfer. Please, please (Herr. Jäger signals Mr. Schäfer to have a seat.). How are you today? You come on foot today. Is your car broken again?)

person illustration Herr Jäger, ich war gestern krank. Heute bin ich gut. Mein Auto ist zu Hause. Ich will es heute nicht fahren. (Mr. Jäger, I was ill yesterday. Today, I'm good. My car is at home. I don't want to drive it today.)

person illustration Das war nur ein bisschen Grippe. Es war nicht so schlimm. Sie waren doch normal. (That was just a little bit of flu. It was not so bad. You were normal.)

person illustration Meine Augen waren auch rot. (My eyes were red too.)

person illustration Ja, sie waren rot, aber es war auch nicht so schlimm. (Yes, they were red, but it was not that bad.)

person illustration Herr Jäger, Sie waren sehr freundlich gestern. (Mr. Jäger, you were very kind yesterday.)

person illustration Und heute? (And today?)

person illustration Ja, heute auch. Sie sind immer freundlich. (Yes today also. You are always kind/friendly.)

person illustration Danke. (Thank you)

person illustration Bitte. (You are welcome)

Next day at the school

Erwin:   Hallo Jan. (Hello Jan)

Thomas:   Hallo. Ich bin aber nicht Jan. (Hello. I am not Jan.)

Erwin:   Aber gestern warst du Jan oder? (But you were Jan yesterday or?)

Thomas:   Nein, ich war auch gestern Thomas. (No, I was also yesterday Thomas.)

Erwin:   Okay mein Fehler. Entschuldigung. (Ok my fault. Sorry)

Thomas:   Kein Problem (No problem)

Erwin :   Tschüs (Bye)

Thomas:   Tschüs (Bye)

Wortschatz (Vocabulary)

gestern (yesterday)

heute (today)

Wie geht es Ihnen? (How are you?)
In short form this is, "Wie geht's?"
Wie (how) is an interrogative pronoun. "Geht" is the conjugated form of verb "gehen" (to go). We will start learning verbs and their conjugation from next lesson.
So the litteral meaning of "wid geht" is "how's going".

zu Hause (at home)

gut (good)

Ich will es heute nicht fahren. (I don't want to drive it today.)
will (want to) is conjuagated form modal verb wollen.
es (it)
fahren (to drive), for example, ich will Ihr Auto fahren. (I want to drive your car.),
Ich will Ihr Audi fahren. (I want to drive your Audi.)
Ich will Ihr Audi nicht fahren. (I don't want to drive your Audi.)

Sie waren doch normal. (You were normal.)
"doch" is a particle. Particles don't have meanings. They are just used to emphasize.
Similarly in the second dialog "Next day at the school", the sentence Ich bin aber nicht Jan. (Hello. I am not Jan.) has a particle "aber". "Aber" means "but", here in this sentence it is being used to emphasize.

immer (always)

der Fehler (mistake)

die Entschuldigung (sorry)

das Problem (problem)

Tschüs or Tschüss (bye (informal))

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