|
Perfect Tense
Usage
The German perfect tense is used to describe
actions or events that have occurred in the past. This tense is most
often used in conversational German.
The German perfect tense often corresponds to the English imperfect
tense, e.g. Ich habe Fußball gespielt = I played football.
N.B.! The past tense of haben, sein,
werden and modal auxiliaries is usually expressed in
the imperfect tense, even in conversational German.
|
|
Forming the perfect tense
As in English, the German perfect tense consists
of two parts: an auxiliary verb (haben or sein
in the present tense) and the past participle of the main verb (gelacht,
gegangen).
Weak verbs: sein/haben +
past participle
(ge + verb stem + (e)t)
|
lachen |
hat gelacht |
|
arbeiten |
hat gearbeitet |
|
reisen |
ist gereist |
Strong verbs: sein/haben +
past participle
(ge + verb stem + en)
|
nehmen |
hat genommen |
|
fahren |
ist gefahren |
|
gehen |
ist gegangen |
Many strong verbs change vowel in the
past participle. The participle stem may also have a consonant change.
|
| N.B.!
1. With separable verbs, the ge- goes between the
separable prefix and the stem of the verb: e.g. hat zugenommen,
ist abgefahren, ist kaputtgegangen
2. The ge- is omitted if the verb begins with an unstressed
inseparable prefix such as be-, emp-, ent-, er-,
ge-, ver-, zer-, or if it ends in -ieren (e.g.
hat besucht, erzählt, vergessen, studiert)
|
Grammatik