Imperfect forms of haben und sein

The verbs sein (to be) and haben (to have) are irregular in all tenses.

Both verbs are almost always used in the imperfect rather than the perfect tense.

Here are the imperfect forms of sein:

Pronoun	Imperfect form	Translation
ich	war	I was
du	warst	you were (singular, informal)
er/sie/es	war	he/she/it was
wir	waren	we were
ihr	wart	you (plural) were
sie	waren	they were

Pronoun	ich
Imperfect form	war
Translation	I was

Pronoun	du
Imperfect form	warst
Translation	you were (singular, informal)

Pronoun	er/sie/es
Imperfect form	war
Translation	he/she/it was

Pronoun	wir
Imperfect form	waren
Translation	we were

Pronoun	ihr
Imperfect form	wart
Translation	you (plural) were

Pronoun	sie
Imperfect form	waren
Translation	they were

Here are the imperfect forms of haben:

Pronoun	Imperfect form	Translation
ich	hatte	I had
du	hattest	you had (singular, informal)
er/sie/es	hatte	he/she/it had
wir	hatten	we had
ihr	hattet	you (plural) had
sie	hatten	they had

Pronoun	ich
Imperfect form	hatte
Translation	I had

Pronoun	du
Imperfect form	hattest
Translation	you had (singular, informal)

Pronoun	er/sie/es
Imperfect form	hatte
Translation	he/she/it had

Pronoun	wir
Imperfect form	hatten
Translation	we had

Pronoun	ihr
Imperfect form	hattet
Translation	you (plural) had

Pronoun	sie
Imperfect form	hatten
Translation	they had

Here are some examples of how these verbs are used:

Als ich im Kindergarten war, hatte ich lange Haare. – When I was in kindergarten, I had long hair.
Sie hatten viele Geschwister. – They had lots of siblings.
Letzten Winter waren wir in der Schweiz. – Last winter, we were in Switzerland.

Question

Convert the following sentences from the present tense to the imperfect tense:

Sie hat nicht viel in ihrem Portemonnaie. – She doesn't have much in her purse.
Sie sind auf einer Party. – They are at a party.
Wir haben ein Boot auf der Nordküste. – We have a boat on the north coast.

Forming the pluperfect

Both haben and sein are used as auxiliary verbs. By using the imperfect forms together with the past participle of your main verb, you can easily form the pluperfect tense (also sometimes referred to as the past perfect).

The pluperfect tense is used to describe something that happened even earlier than an event we know had already taken place in the past. It used a lot in stories, for example.

Here are some examples of haben and sein as auxiliary verbs:

Die Maus hatte die Katze schon gesehen. – The mouse had already seen the cat.
Meine Grosseltern hatten die Berliner Mauer gesehen, bevor mein Vater geboren ist. – My grandparents had seen the Berlin wall before my father was born.
Sie waren schon ein Jahr in Linz gewesen, bevor sie ins Museum gegangen sind. – They'd already been in Linz for a year before they went to the museum.
Sein Opa hatte viel gejodelt, bis er die Operation haben musste. – His grandpa had yodelled a lot, until he had to have the operation.

Imperfect tenseImperfect forms of haben und sein