What did they do then? Perfect, imperfect 'war', 'hatte', 'gab', compound nouns

A compound noun is made up of two or more nouns. Its gender comes from the final noun, e.g., 'die Partymusik' Some groups of verbs form their past participles following the same vowel changes, e.g., [ei] to [ie]; [e] to [o]. The imperfect tense is a one-word past tense, mostly used in written German, apart from some key verbs, e.g., 'es gab'. Sometimes the present tense is used to narrate past events. This is the 'historical present' and is mostly written. The purpose of the historical present is to make events feel more immediate or heighten the drama.