Language/German/Grammar/Past-Tense-—-Part-1-—-Perfect-Tense
How to form the perfect (regular verbs)
To form the perfect tense, you use the auxiliary 'haben' and the past participle. The past participle is usually formed by adding the prefix "ge" and the ending "t" to the verb stem.
Example: kaufen (to buy)
| Present Tense | Perfect Tense | ||||||
| Pronoun | Verb | Pronoun | Auxiliary | Participle | |||
| ich | kaufe | ich | habe | gekauft | |||
| du | kaufst | du | hast | gekauft | |||
| er/sie/es | kauft | er/sie/es | hat | gekauft | |||
| wir | kaufen | wir | haben | gekauft | |||
| ihr | kauft | ihr | habt | gekauft | |||
| sie | kaufen | sie | haben | gekauft | |||
Some verbs form the perfect tense with the auxiliary „sein“. Those are usually verbs of movement.
Example: hüpfen (to jump)
| Present Tense | Perfect Tense | ||||||
| Pronoun | Verb | Pronoun | Auxiliary | Participle | |||
| ich | hüpfe | ich | bin | gehüpft | |||
| du | hüpfst | du | bist | gehüpft | |||
| er/sie/es | hüpft | er/sie/es | ist | gehüpft | |||
| wir | hüpfen | wir | sind | gehüpft | |||
| ihr | hüpft | ihr | seid | gehüpft | |||
| sie | hüpfen | sie | sind | gehüpft | |||
Specifics
It is typical for the German language that we construct words like in a modular system. So quite a few verbs exist not only in their basic form, but also with a prefix that changes their meaning.
Example: kaufen (to buy), abkaufen (to buy sth. from so.), aufkaufen (to buy out), einkaufen (to buy, to shop), verkaufen (to sell), zukaufen (to buy something in addition)
Some of the prefixes are dropped when the verb is the main verb in the main sentence.
Example: einkaufen --> ich kaufe ein.
These verbs form the participle by putting the "ge" between the prefix and the verb stem.
Example: einkaufen --> ich kaufe ein --> ich habe eingekauft.
Other prefixes are strictly attached to the verb stem.
Example: verkaufen --> ich verkaufe.
Those verbs don't add "ge" at all.
Example: verkaufen --> ich verkaufe --> Ich habe verkauft.
Irregular Verbs
- will be continued -
How to use the perfect tense
The perfect is the most used form of the past tense in German. In fact, in the spoken language you only use the perfect tense with the exception of the verbs "haben", "sein", "denken", "finden" and the modal verbs
(dürfen, können, mögen, müssen, sollen, wollen), which are often (but not necessarily) used in simple past. In written language, the perfect tense is dominant in all non-literary texts (e.g. correspondence, diaries, reports).