You recall from previous chapters that German verbs always have to have conjugational endings. That's also true in the irregular past tense. You already know those endings.

Table 13-9. Irregular Past Tense Conjugations

As you can see, there's nothing new about the conjugation of the irregular past tense. Once you know the stem, you merely use the endings you already know.

Did you notice that, like in the past tense of regular verbs, the pronouns ich, er, sie, and es do not add a conjugational ending to the stem?

Exercise 13-2

Fill in the correct past tense form of the verb in parentheses.

• Meine Tante (wohnen)_______ in den Vereinigten Staaten.(My aunt lived in the United States.)

• Ich (lieben)_______ Brot mit Käse. (I loved bread and cheese.)

• Wohin (fliegen)_______ ihr? (Where did you all fly to?)

• Ihr (spielen)_______ oft Fußball. (You all played soccer often.)

• Ich (hören)_______ keine Musik. (I didn't listen to any music.)

• Sie (sing.) (gehen)_______ ins Kino. (She went to the movies.)

• (sprechen)_______ du mit Thomas? (Did you speak with Thomas?)

• Er (sehen)_______ Frau Schmidt im Büro.(He saw Ms. Schmidt in the office.)

• Die Kinder (antworten)_______ auf französisch.(The children answered in French.)

• Wir (singen)_______ auf deutsch. (We sang in German.)