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     Table of Contents Chapter 15 15.2.2.2 Strong verbs with change of vowel
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Chapter 15: Past Tenses

  15.2.2.2 Strong verbs with change of vowel

singen
(stem sang)
trinken
(stem trank)
laufen
(stem lief)
sprechen
(stem sprach)
essen
(stem aß)
schlafen
(stem schlief)
  ich sang ich trank ich lief ich sprach ich aß ich schlief
  du sangst du trankst du liefst du sprachst du aßt du schliefst
  er/sie/es sang er/sie/es trank er/sie/es lief er/sie/es sprach er/sie/es aß er/sie/es schlief
  wir sangen wir tranken wir liefen wir sprachen wir aßen wir schliefen
  ihr sangt ihr trankt ihr lieft ihr spracht ihr aßt ihr schlieft
  sie sangen sie tranken sie liefen sie sprachen sie aßen sie schliefen
 

For clear comparison, we have here a table of the endings of the simple tenses (simple present and simple past tense) for weak and strong verbs. As we can see, the endings in present tense for weak and for strong verbs are the same. Here the only difference is in the change of the vowel (mostly) in second and third person singular.

weak verb - present tense ending weak verbs - imperfect ending strong verbs - present tense ending strong verbs - imperfect endings
  e te e -
  st test st st
  t te t -
  en ten en en
  t tet t t
  en ten en en

What we can also see is that the endings of the imperfect are really different. The weak form uses actually the conjugation of the present and adds an t(e) to it.
The strong verbs are even lazier, they just use the same endings like the present tense, and only the stem is changing. How to know which conjugation to choose is described more in detail in chapter 15.3.7.
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