As you remember, regular verbs leave off the -en suffix and add personal past-tense suffixes to form the simple past (e.g., ich machte, du machtest, er/sie/esmachte, wir machten, ihr machtet, sie/Siemachten).
Irregular verbs, on the other hand, behave quite differently in two ways:
they go through a stem-vowel change
add different endings or leave them off
laufenrun, walk(simple past: ran)
ich lief
wir liefen
du liefst
ihr lieft
er/sie/es lief
sie liefen
gebengive(simple past: gave)
ich gab
wir gaben
du gabst
ihr gabt
er/sie/es gab
sie gaben
trinkendrink(simple past: drank)
ich trank
wir tranken
du trankst
ihr trankt
er/sie/es trank
sie tranken
Manche Taten sind zu schlimm - oder doof - für Wörter ... (some deeds are too bad - or dumb - for words ...)
After a failed therapy session, during which each character was to admit to the worst or dumbest deed they had ever done, Aschenputtel thinks that they might do better writing these actions down in semi-private journals. Unfortunately, somebody hacked into Aschenputtel's laptop and spilled it all ...
Aus dem Tagebuch von Dornröschen (from the diary of Sleeping Beauty)
Als ich noch eine Märchenfigur war, ging ich zu einem Stübchen im Turm und nahm eine Spindel von einer alten Frau an, die ich nicht kannte.
When I was still a fairy tale character, I went to a small room in the tower and took a spindle from an old woman, whom I didn't know.
Wegen meiner Tat schliefen alle am Hof 100 Jahre lang! Stell dir den Kulturschock vor, den wir alle erlebten!
Because of my deed, everybody slept for 100 years at the court! Just imagine the culture shock we all experienced!
Three more things to remember:
First, the endings differ from the weak verbs only in the first and third person singular.
Second, as you already may have guessed, there is no rule for the stem vowel change - the irregular form needs to be memorized for each verb.
And third, not all irregular verbs in the simple past are irregular in the present (e.g., beginnen, kommen) - irregularities are distributed irregularly across verb tenses to keep the language exciting and challenging for us all.
Separable and inseparable prefix verbs in the simple past
Remember that in the present tense, separable prefix verbs (with prefixes such as an-, auf-, aus-, mit-) are separated in typical main clauses. Separable prefix verbs in the simple past behave the same way. They are separated in typical main clauses, and stay with their prefix in subordinate clauses (e.g., dass, obwohl, weil).
In contrast, inseparable prefix verbs (with prefixes such as be-, ent-, ver-) stay with their prefixes come rain or shine. Try to figure out which verbs here are separable and which are inseparable ...
Rotkäppchen schrieb ... Dummerweise hielt ich an, um mit dem Wolf zu diskutieren.
Little Red Riding Hood wrote ... Stupidly, I stopped to talk with the wolf.
Ich lud ihn natürlich nicht zu meiner Großmutter ein, aber trotzdem fraß er sie auf, weil er von mir wusste, dass sie krank war.
I didn't invite him to my grandmother's [house] of course, but he still gobbled her up because he knew from me that she was sick.
Nur weil der Jäger vorbeikam, entkamen wir einem grausamen Tod!
Only because the hunter came by, did we escape a most gruesome death!
Ich hasse dieses miese Tagebuch! Ich vergaß fast dieses schreckliche Erlebnis, aber jetzt muss ich es neu erleben. Danke schön!
I hate this stupid journal! I almost forgot about this terrible experience, but now I have to relive it. Thank you very much!