Intermediate german
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Unit 12: The simple past tense 93<br />
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Patterns of stem vowel changes<br />
Many irregular and mixed verbs follow certain patterns when changing<br />
their stems in the simple past and the present perfect tenses. The five<br />
most common patterns are:<br />
Infinitive Simple past Past participle<br />
ei – i – i leiden litt gelitten to suffer<br />
reiten ritt geritten to ride<br />
schneiden schnitt geschnitten to cut<br />
ei – ie – ie bleiben blieb geblieben to stay<br />
scheinen schien geschienen to seem, to shine<br />
schreiben schrieb geschrieben to write<br />
i – a – u finden fand gefunden to find<br />
singen sang gesungen to sing<br />
trinken trank getrunken to drink<br />
ie – o – o fliegen flog geflogen to fly<br />
schließen schloss geschlossen to close<br />
verlieren verlor verloren to lose<br />
e – a – o brechen brach gebrochen to break<br />
sprechen sprach gesprochen to speak<br />
sterben starb gestorben to die<br />
• For more details on modal verbs in the simple past tense, see<br />
Unit 7.<br />
• For information on separable verbs in the simple past tense, see<br />
Unit 8.<br />
• For a list of irregular verbs, see pages 215–17.<br />
Exercise 12.1<br />
Write out the full simple past tense of the following verbs for all persons:<br />
ich, du, Sie, er/sie/es, wir ihr, Sie, sie.<br />
1 wohnen; 2 fragen; 3 arbeiten; 4 reden; 5 kommen; 6 schreiben;<br />
7 nennen; 8 gehen.