What happened?

Was ist passiert?

Ask what happened, describe a fall or injury and make a polite request for a doctor in a fictional dialogue.

Was ist passiert? asks about an event. Ich bin gestürzt reports a fall; Ich habe mich verletzt reports an injury. A fall and an injury are different pieces of information. Rufen Sie bitte einen Arzt. asks another person politely to call a doctor.

Keep these past forms together: ist passiert, bin gestürzt and habe mich verletzt. They do not all use the same helper verb. With ich, use bin for this sense of fallen and habe for injured myself.

These phrases help explain an incident briefly. Ich bin gestürzt does not by itself say how badly someone is hurt. The lesson teaches language, not how to assess an injury.

For passieren meaning happen, the past form is ist passiert, not hat passiert. Do not turn this into a rule that every past event uses sein: the next phrase uses habe mich verletzt.

Ask: Was ist passiert? Report a fall: Ich bin gestürzt. Report an injury: Ich habe mich verletzt. Mich refers back to ich; it does not mean the injury was deliberate.

Cover the German and recall one question, two reports and one polite request. Check ist/bin/habe, keep mich in the injury report and keep Sie in the polite request.