Past counterfactuals

Lesson 8 gave you hypotheticals about now: Wenn ich Zeit hätte, würde ich kommen. This lesson does the same thing about the past — things that did not happen, and what would have happened instead.

hätte / wäre + Partizip II. That is the entire form.

And you already own both halves. hätte and wäre come from Lesson 4; the Partizip II is the one you have been using in the Perfekt since A1. The only question is which auxiliary — and it is the same answer as in the Perfekt: verbs that take sein take wäre, everything else takes hätte.

So the recipe is mechanical: take the Perfekt, swap habe for hätte or bin for wäre, and leave the participle exactly where it was.

• Wenn ich mehr Zeit gehabt hätte, hätte ich mehr Deutsch gelernt.

  If I had had more time, I would have learned more German.

  both halves in the past — this is the shape to memorise

• Wenn ich früher gekommen wäre, hätte ich den Zug bekommen.

  If I had come earlier, I would have caught the train.

  kommen takes sein → wäre; bekommen takes haben → hätte

• Wenn ich das gewusst hätte, wäre ich nicht gegangen.

  If I had known that, I would not have gone.

• Ich hätte dir geholfen, wenn ich Zeit gehabt hätte.

  I would have helped you if I had had time.

  same sentence with the wenn-clause second

Now the word order, which is the only genuinely fiddly part. Inside the wenn-clause three verb forms end up stacked at the end, and the conjugated one goes last: …, wenn ich Zeit gehabt hätte. Participle first, hätte* after it.

In the wenn-clause: Partizip II, then hätte/wäre — the conjugated verb is always last.

In the main clause it is the reverse, because the conjugated verb has to be in position 2: …, hätte ich mehr gelernt. And when the wenn-clause comes first it fills position 1, so hätte* lands straight after the comma — exactly the "verb, comma, verb" shape you have been checking against since A1.

• Wenn ich das gewusst hätte, hätte ich dich angerufen.

  If I had known that, I would have called you.

  gewusst hätte, | hätte ich … angerufen

• Ich wäre früher gekommen, wenn du mir Bescheid gesagt hättest.

  I would have come earlier if you had let me know.

  du → hättest

Be clear about the difference from Lesson 8, because the two are one word apart and mean quite different things.

• Wenn ich Zeit hätte, würde ich dir helfen.

  If I had time, I would help you.

  now — I still might

• Wenn ich Zeit gehabt hätte, hätte ich dir geholfen.

  If I had had time, I would have helped you.

  the past — it is over, and I did not

Two modal forms are worth having, because they are how German says I could have and I should have: hätte … können and hätte … sollen. Note the double infinitive — no participle in sight.

• Ich hätte früher kommen können.

  I could have come earlier.

• Du hättest mir sagen sollen, dass du krank bist.

  You should have told me that you were ill.

That is as far as this goes. Ich hätte gekonnt, passive counterfactuals and anything with three stacked auxiliaries are not worth your time at A2 — these two phrases cover what people actually say.