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According to dict.cc: darben | darbte | gedarbt That is, Präteritum: Ich darbte. Perfekt: Ich habe gedarbt.

You use Präteritum for events which are not yet completed or for which the time doesn’t matter. In novels for example Präteritum is used more often. There is a really good article in German on this topic: Präteritum oder Perfekt?

Ich kaufte einen Computer sounds wrong to me even in written form. Perhaps it would be okay if you're writing a novel and were describing the circumstances of buying a computer. But in a normal sentence I'd prefer Ich habe einen Computer gekauft. While: Das Wetter war schön am Dienstag. Ich lag den ganzen Tag in der Sonne. is perfectly ...

According to "Handbuch zur Deutschen Grammatik", that is called a "perfect infinitive" (p. 104). If "sein" is the infinitive, then "gewesen sein" is its perfect infinitive. Note that this is also used in the future perfect tense. yes, I believe you are correct. The Handbuch says (p. 113) Modals with perfect infinitives express a present-tense ...

This is not passive... it is a regular active sentence with müssen and a "infinitive-ized" (please indulge my lack of terminology) present perfect of "to be good" :) I am not native English but I'd say it is exactly this. I think the difference between the English sentences is: "It had to be good." I think the dominant meaning of that is that the concert ...

Update Wenn du Bayern als Gebiet meinst und nicht die bayrischen Dialekte: Die Verwendung/Nicht-Verwendung des Präteritums hängt wohl stark davon ab, ob jemand den bayrischen Dialekt spricht (wie es in ländlichen Gegenden üblich ist) oder nicht ("Zuagroasde"). Die des Bayrisch Mächtigen werden das Präteritum aus Gewohnheit oder instinktiv auch in der ...

For the spoken language, a good guideline is indeed to use the Perfekt, except for auxiliary and modal verbs and a few other very common verbs (can't say which ones, unfortunately). To expand on the example in splattne's answer (I wouldn't say "Ich lag den ganzen Tag in der Sonne", and sorry, I'm a bad narrator): Das Wetter war schön am Dienstag. Ich ...

So here is my try - the following verbs might be used in either way in spoken, sometimes depending on what you want to say, sometimes it is just random or personal preference or flow of speech: gehen - ging Should be used when gehen is applied in sense of "to work" or "to be" Ich wäre gerne zu deiner Party gekommen, aber es ging nicht. If you go ...

The problem here is that the different German dialects use Präteritum and Perfekt differently. E.g. "Ich habe am Bahnhof gestanden" is Upper German (Swiss), while "Ich stand am Bahnhof" is lower German (Berlin). Since almost everyone speaking German today is exposed to a wide variety of German usage through the media and is himself expected to switch between ...

Just as user what said in his answer, the use of Präteritum and Perfekt depends on the regional dialect. As a general rule, you will find the use of Perfect more frequently in the south of Germany, in Austria and Switzerland, while the use of Präteritum is more widespread in the north. I know some will beat me for that, but honestly, as a native speaker I ...

As a general note because people tend to confuse this: Obviously, many written texts use the Präteritum, even though one gets the impression that it is scarcely used in everyday life. Now, this does not imply that Präteritum is the past tense used in written form whereas Perfekt is the kind of informal spoken form of it. Nor does it mean that one needs to ...