Lesson 10: Perfect tense
In this lesson you will learn how to build the past tense in German using the perfect!
Building the perfect
The perfect is one of two common used ways to describe the past. It is most often used in spoken language, while the preterit, the other tense, is more used in written language. The perfect describes actions which where completed in the past and have an influence of the present, but don't worry too much about the exact definition - It is the most used way to speak about the past, it is basically everywhere.
You need two things to build the perfect: An auxiliary verb (either sein or haben) and the participle II/past participle.
Auxiliary
We already talked about how to conjugate both needed verbs, but let's look at the tables again:
sein (to be)
haben (to have), Verb stem: hab-
1. Person Singular
ich bin
I am
ich habe
I have
2. Person Singular
du bist
you are
du hast
you have
3. Person Singular
er/sie/es ist
he/she/it is
er/sie/es hat
he/she/it has
1. Person Plural
wir sind
we are
wir haben
we have
2. Person Plural
ihr seid
you (pl.) are
ihr habt
you have
3. Person Plural
sie sind
they are
sie haben
they have
Most verbs use haben as auxiliary. The ones that use sein are mostly verbs that describe a movement (gehen, fahren, rennen, ...), a change of state (aufstehen, sterben, wachsen, ...) and a few additional verbs (bleiben, gelingen, geschehen, passieren, sein, werden).
Building the Past Participle
The past particible is build with regular verbs by taking the verb stem, adding a ge- as prefix and a -t as suffix. Some examples:
Verb (stem)
Past Participle
Verb (stem)
Past Participle
lernen (lern-)
gelernt
kaufen (kauf-)
gekauft
lachen (lach-)
gelacht
lieben (lieb-)
geliebt
Bad news: Like with many things in German, many verbs are irregular, especially the often used ones. First of all, there are some patterns which behave differently:
If a verb stem ends with m, n, t or d then you add the suffix -et to make it pronouncable:
Verb (stem)
Past Participle
Verb (stem)
Past Participle
antworten (antwort-)
geantwortet
atmen (atm-)
geatmet
arbeiten (arbeit-)
gearbeitet
regnen (regn-)
geregnet
In verbs with separable prefixes the ge- comes after the prefix:
Verb (stem)
Past Participle
Verb (stem)
Past Participle
mitspielen (mitspiel-)
mitgespielt
einlegen (einleg-)
eingelegt
einkaufen (einkauf-)
eingekauft
aufhören (aufhör-)
aufgehört
However, if a verb has a prefix which is not separable, then it builds the participle without ge-:
Verb (stem)
Past Participle
Verb (stem)
Past Participle
bezahlen (bezahl-)
bezahlt
zerstören (zerstör-)
zerstört
erleben (erleb-)
erlebt
entdecken (entdeck-)
entdeckt
The same happens to verbs ending in -ieren:
Verb (stem)
Past Participle
Verb (stem)
Past Participle
fotografieren (fotografier-)
fotografiert
studieren (studier-)
studiert
markieren (markier-)
markiert
passieren (passier-)
passiert
These were the regular patterns, but of course many verbs are just irregular. Many, but not all, irregular verbs have the ending -en, and a lot of them have a vowel change in the stem. Here are some examples of irregular verbs:
Verb (English)
Past Participle
Verb (English)
Past Participle
sein (to be)
gewesen
sehen (to see)
gesehen
essen (to eat)
gegessen
trinken (to drink)
getrunken
gehen (to go)
gegangen
rennen (to run)
gerannt
riechen (to smell)
gerochen
geben (to give)
gegeben
helfen (to help)
geholfen
finden (to find)
gefunden
kennen (to know (someone))
gekannt
wissen (to know (something))
gewusst
lesen (to read)
gelesen
schlafen (to sleep)
geschlafen
Putting together the sentence
So you have your auxiliary and you have your past participle, now you just need to put together your sentence! The auxiliary takes the place the verb would have in a normal sentence, and the participle comes at the end of the sentence. Here some examples:
Subject
Auxiliary
Rest
Past Participle
Ich
habe
Geschichte
studiert.
Wir
sind
in den Zoo
gegangen.
Das Kind
hat
dem Hund den Knochen
gegeben.
The child gave the dog a bone.
Exercises