Activities for Die schönsten Tage

Published by Lyrical Language on

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

TermMeaningP of SContext
abendsin the eveningadvabends
Benehmen (no pl)behaviorneut nounBenehm’n,
bereuento regret; repentreg verbbereut
damalsat that time, thenadvdamals,
entsetzthorrified, appalledadjentsetzt,
Erlaubnis (pl Erlaubnis)permission; permitfem nounErlaubnis
fragento askreg verbfrag’
Gesetz (pl Gesetze)law, ruleneut nounGesetz
Grenze (pl Grenzen)boundary, border; limitfem nounGrenzen
Konsequenz (pl Konsequenzen)consequence; consistency, rigorousness, strictnessfem nounKonsequenzen,
Kuss (pl Küsse)kissmasc nounKuss
lassento let; leaveirreg verbLass
schönbeautiful, lovely; nice, fine, good; really, considerablyadjschönsten
schwarzfahrento travel without a ticket , to fare-dodgeirreg verbschwarzgefahr’n,
teilento divide, split; sharereg verbteil’n
totdeadadjtot
trockendry, arid; without alcohol, off the bottle, on the wagonadjtrocken
verrücktinsane, crazy, madadjverrücktesten
weitfar, extensiveadjweit
wirklichreallyadvwirklich

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.

PronounForm of Imperative
ichverb stem + te
duverb stem + te + st
er/sie/esverb stem + te
wirverb stem + te + n
ihrverb stem + tet
sie/Sieverb 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
SingularPlural
First personich warwir waren
Second persondu warstihr wart
Third personer/sie/es warsie/Sie waren
haben: to have, to get – wir, sie
SingularPlural
First personich hattewir hatten
Second persondu hattestihr hattet
Third personer/sie/es hattesie/Sie hatten
teilen: to divide, split; share – wir, sie
SingularPlural
First personich teiltewir teilten
Second persondu teiltestihr teiltet
Third personer/sie/es teiltesie/Sie teilten
wollen: to want – wir, sie
SingularPlural
First personich wolltewir wollten
Second persondu wolltestihr wolltet
Third personer/sie/es wolltesie/Sie wollten
können: be able to do, know how to do; be allowed to – ich, er, sie, es
SingularPlural
First personich konntewir konnten
Second persondu konntestihr konntet
Third personer/sie/es konntesie/Sie konnten
wissen: to know; be aware of – wir, sie
SingularPlural
First personich wusstewir wussten
Second persondu wusstestihr wusstet
Third personer/sie/es wusstesie/Sie wussten
müssen: to have to, need to, must – wir, sie
SingularPlural
First personich musstewir mussten
Second persondu musstestihr musstet
Third personer/sie/es musstesie/Sie mussten