This introduction covers war, hatte, es gab — The Three Past Forms You'll Use Most within The imperfect of haben and sein (war, hatte, es gab) for GCSE German. Revise The imperfect of haben and sein (war, hatte, es gab) in Time Markers and the Three Time Frames for GCSE German with 10 exam-style questions and 15 flashcards. This topic shows up very often in GCSE exams, so students should be able to explain it clearly, not just recognise the term. It is section 1 of 4 in this topic. Use this introduction to connect the idea to the wider topic before moving on to questions and flashcards.
📖 war, hatte, es gab — The Three Past Forms You'll Use Most
German usually uses the perfect tense to talk about the past — but for sein, haben and es gibt, it uses a shorter form called the imperfect: war (was), hatte (had) and es gab (there was / there were). These three forms are everywhere whenever you describe what something was like in the past, so they are the first past-tense words to lock in.
Practice questions for The imperfect of haben and sein (war, hatte, es gab)
What is the imperfect (simple past) of 'ich bin' (I am)?
What is the imperfect (simple past) of 'ich habe' (I have)?
Quick recall flashcards
Es war toll.
It was great. A high-value opinion phrase for past description. Also: Es war langweilig (it was boring).
Ich war müde.
I was tired. war = imperfect of sein. Note the umlaut in müde (tired).