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Original stories · German with English

Perfekt-Geschichten

German stories told the way German is spoken. Free to read in the browser, each with the English beside every paragraph.

About the series

Short German stories written for this library, each with an English translation beside every paragraph. Everyday settings, a small mystery or a turn at the end, and a length you can finish in one sitting.

They follow the rule of spoken German: past events are told in Perfekt, not Präteritum. Only the few verbs everyone uses in the simple past stay that way: war, hatte and the modal verbs like konnte or wollte. If you have learned German from conversation, or you speak it but rarely read it, the past tense sounds the way you hear it every day.

The series is graded: the A2 stories keep to common words and short sentences, the B1 stories are longer, with more dialogue and a wider vocabulary.

  • Ich bin nach Hause gegangen. (I went home.), never ging
  • Ich habe ihn gesehen. (I saw him.), never sah
  • Er hat die Tür aufgemacht. (He opened the door.), never machte auf
  • Ich habe den Brief geschrieben. (I wrote the letter.), never schrieb

A2 stories

B1 stories