Activities for Die schönsten Tage
Practice some of the vocabulary from this song and its past tense verbs using these flashcards, games and exercises.
Did you miss the analysis for this song? Find it here!
Activities
Vocabulary Exercises
We have only chosen 20 terms out of this song’s lyrics to form our vocabulary list, which can be found below. You can use the following activities to learn and practice this vocabulary.
Vocabulary Flashcards – Learn the vocabulary from this song with our sets of German-to-English and English-to-German flashcards, then test yourself with our interactive flashcards.
Vocabulary Games – Practice the vocabulary for this song using our memory and matching games and our word search puzzle.
Vocabulary Exercises – Fill in the missing vocabulary with drag and drop and fill in the blanks exercises.
Grammar Exercises
This song has a number of verbs in the imperfect tense, so it made sense to go over those. Full conjugations of these verbs can be found below. You can use the following activities to learn and practice these verbs.
Imperfect Verb Flashcards – Practice the imperfect verbs in this song with our sets of German-to-English and English-to-German flashcards, then test yourself with our interactive flashcards.
Imperfect Verb Games – Practice the imperfect verbs in this song using our memory and matching games.
Imperfect Verb Exercises – Practice the imperfect verbs in this song using our drag and drop, fill-in, and highlighting exercises.
Resources
Vocabulary List
Term | Meaning | P of S | Context |
---|---|---|---|
abends | in the evening | adv | abends |
Benehmen (no pl) | behavior | neut noun | Benehm’n, |
bereuen | to regret; repent | reg verb | bereut |
damals | at that time, then | adv | damals, |
entsetzt | horrified, appalled | adj | entsetzt, |
Erlaubnis (pl Erlaubnis) | permission; permit | fem noun | Erlaubnis |
fragen | to ask | reg verb | frag’ |
Gesetz (pl Gesetze) | law, rule | neut noun | Gesetz |
Grenze (pl Grenzen) | boundary, border; limit | fem noun | Grenzen |
Konsequenz (pl Konsequenzen) | consequence; consistency, rigorousness, strictness | fem noun | Konsequenzen, |
Kuss (pl Küsse) | kiss | masc noun | Kuss |
lassen | to let; leave | irreg verb | Lass |
schön | beautiful, lovely; nice, fine, good; really, considerably | adj | schönsten |
schwarzfahren | to travel without a ticket , to fare-dodge | irreg verb | schwarzgefahr’n, |
teilen | to divide, split; share | reg verb | teil’n |
tot | dead | adj | tot |
trocken | dry, arid; without alcohol, off the bottle, on the wagon | adj | trocken |
verrückt | insane, crazy, mad | adj | verrücktesten |
weit | far, extensive | adj | weit |
wirklich | really | adv | wirklich |
Imperfect Tense
The imperfect tense (also called the preterite in English and das Präteritum or das Imperfekt in German) is one of the two tenses* in German that is normally used to discuss events that happened in the past. The other tense is the perfect or das Perfekt.
Speaking about the past in German is much simpler than in English, which has multiple tenses with differences in meaning. The German imperfect covers most past tense occurrences and can be used to translate a variety of English tenses. Let’s take for example the verb arbeiten, meaning to work. Ich arbeitete can translate as I worked, I have worked, I was working, or I did work.
* There is also the pluperfect tense, used to discuss an action that occurred prior to an aforementioned time in the past, but we’ll leave that for a later discussion.
Use of the Imperfect
Sounds simple right? If you’re speaking about the past, then you always use the imperfect. Well not so fast. Because the perfect tense (ich habe gearbeitet) can also be used and translated in the same ways.
So if they can both be used to mean the same thing, which tense should you use?
Unfortunately, there are no hard-and-fast grammatical rules. You could use either form and be technically correct. Rather, the choice of the imperfect or the perfect is a matter of style. There are also clear tendencies to be found in the use of native speakers:
- The imperfect tense is not commonly used in conversation.
- The imperfect is commonly used in written language, especially in newspapers and books.
- The verbs sein, haben, werden and wissen are typically used in the imperfect, even in casual speech.
- The six modal verbs (können, müssen, mögen, dürfen, wollen, sollen) are also typically used in the imperfect, even in casual speech.
- The imperfect is commonly used in written language, especially in newspapers and books.
- The imperfect is more common in northern Germany.
- The imperfect is often viewed as sounding fancier or being more eloquent.
Forming the Imperfect Tense
The imperfect of regular verbs is formed by adding the endings in the chart below to the verb stem.
Pronoun | Form of Imperative |
ich | verb stem + te |
du | verb stem + te + st |
er/sie/es | verb stem + te |
wir | verb stem + te + n |
ihr | verb stem + te + t |
sie/Sie | verb stem + te + n |
Please note that none of the verbs that appear in the imperfect in this song are regular verbs.
How to conjugate the past tense in German
To conjugate verbs in the simple past, we remove the infinitive ending -en and add the following endings:
The verbs sein/haben are irregular. They are especially important in the simple past:
Notes
- The verbs sein and haben are fully irregular in the imperfect. They are also very commonly used and should be learned. Their conjugations appear below.
- Many irregular verbs take a stem change in the imperfect. Examples below are können (konn-), wissen (wuss-) and müssen (muss-).
Conjugations
The following charts show the full conjugations of the imperfect verbs found in this song.
sein: to be
Singular | Plural | |
First person | ich war | wir waren |
Second person | du warst | ihr wart |
Third person | er/sie/es war | sie/Sie waren |
haben: to have, to get – wir, sie
Singular | Plural | |
First person | ich hatte | wir hatten |
Second person | du hattest | ihr hattet |
Third person | er/sie/es hatte | sie/Sie hatten |
teilen: to divide, split; share – wir, sie
Singular | Plural | |
First person | ich teilte | wir teilten |
Second person | du teiltest | ihr teiltet |
Third person | er/sie/es teilte | sie/Sie teilten |
wollen: to want – wir, sie
Singular | Plural | |
First person | ich wollte | wir wollten |
Second person | du wolltest | ihr wolltet |
Third person | er/sie/es wollte | sie/Sie wollten |
können: be able to do, know how to do; be allowed to – ich, er, sie, es
Singular | Plural | |
First person | ich konnte | wir konnten |
Second person | du konntest | ihr konntet |
Third person | er/sie/es konnte | sie/Sie konnten |
wissen: to know; be aware of – wir, sie
Singular | Plural | |
First person | ich wusste | wir wussten |
Second person | du wusstest | ihr wusstet |
Third person | er/sie/es wusste | sie/Sie wussten |
müssen: to have to, need to, must – wir, sie
Singular | Plural | |
First person | ich musste | wir mussten |
Second person | du musstest | ihr musstet |
Third person | er/sie/es musste | sie/Sie mussten |