The Perfekt Tense
We’re finally going to learn to talk about past events in German! You’re about to learn what’s called the ‘present
perfect’ tense in English, or Das Perfekt in German. (Don’t be confused by the word ‘present’ -- this is a past
tense that talks about past events -- it’s the English terminology that’s confusing.) Although there are two
different past tenses in German (as in English), the Perfekt that you are learning is used most often in
conversational (spoken) German. You will learn the other past tense (the narrative or simple past tense) in A2
German.
Ge-
The first thing we need to talk about when learning to form the Perfekt is the difference between
strong/irregular and weak verbs/regular verbs in German. We have the same difference in English, too. Consider
the following examples:
Machen Sehen
Gemacht gesehen
Weak verbs/ regular 90 % Strong verbs/irregular 10 %
Mach en – to do - gemacht sehen – to see - gesehen , sah
A is the radical vowel and it remains the same.
play - played gespielt en - gespielt speak - spoken sprechen - gesprochen
learn - learned gelernt en - gelernt give - given geben – gegeben . gab
Like English, German has a group of ‘regular’ (termed ‘weak’) verbs that always add a -t ending for the past
participle, but another very different group of ‘irregular’ (termed ‘strong’) verbs that add an -en. We will be
learning both kinds today, but for just now, we’re going to focus on the (easier) weak verbs.
To form the past participle of the German Perfekt tense for weak verbs, you need to take the stem of the verb
(the infinitive minus the -en ending) and add a ge- prefix and a -t suffix.
spielen – gespielt to play machen – gemacht to do fragen – gefragt to ask
wohnen – gewohnt to live arbeiten – gearbeitet to work reden – geredet to talk
, There are two exceptions to this nice regularity. The first ist that verbs that end in -ieren, like fotografieren,
diskutieren, studieren, etc., do NOT get a ge- prefix. (These verbs can be easily recognized as English-French
cognates, and they all end in -ieren, so it’s a pretty easy group to remember.)
Studieren – studiert to study manipulieren – manipuliert to manipulate repaireren – repariert to repair
The other exception is for inseparable prefixes, like ver-, be- and miss-. When a verb has an inseparable prefix, it
does NOT get a ge- prefix for the participle form.
Besuchen – besucht to visit erleben – erlebt to live verkaufen – verkauft to sell
What happens with separable-prefix verbs? As you might expect, the prefix gets ‘stuck’ back on to the participle
at the end, but the ge- prefix ends up in the middle of the word:
Zu-machen - ich mache die tur zu
Auf-raumen -
Wir sollen die Tür zumachen. We closed the door.
Hast du dein Zimmer aufgeräumt? Did you clean up your room?
Now that you can form the participle form of the verb, we need to learn the complete syntax for a past tense
sentence. To form a complete German past tense sentence, you need to add a helping verb, either ‘haben’ or
‘sein’. Let’s look at the verbs that take ‘haben’:
Ich habe Fußball gespielt. I have played football ge-
Maria hat zwei Semester Deutsch gelernt. Maria have learned German for two semesters.
Hast du deine Hausaufgaben gemacht? Did you do your homework?
As you can see, the helping verb (haben in these sentences) is conjugated to match the subject, while the
participle (ge-stem-t) remains constant. Also note that the participle occurs at the very end of the sentence,
while the conjugated helping verb is in the normal verb position (second element for statements, first for
questions).
We’re finally going to learn to talk about past events in German! You’re about to learn what’s called the ‘present
perfect’ tense in English, or Das Perfekt in German. (Don’t be confused by the word ‘present’ -- this is a past
tense that talks about past events -- it’s the English terminology that’s confusing.) Although there are two
different past tenses in German (as in English), the Perfekt that you are learning is used most often in
conversational (spoken) German. You will learn the other past tense (the narrative or simple past tense) in A2
German.
Ge-
The first thing we need to talk about when learning to form the Perfekt is the difference between
strong/irregular and weak verbs/regular verbs in German. We have the same difference in English, too. Consider
the following examples:
Machen Sehen
Gemacht gesehen
Weak verbs/ regular 90 % Strong verbs/irregular 10 %
Mach en – to do - gemacht sehen – to see - gesehen , sah
A is the radical vowel and it remains the same.
play - played gespielt en - gespielt speak - spoken sprechen - gesprochen
learn - learned gelernt en - gelernt give - given geben – gegeben . gab
Like English, German has a group of ‘regular’ (termed ‘weak’) verbs that always add a -t ending for the past
participle, but another very different group of ‘irregular’ (termed ‘strong’) verbs that add an -en. We will be
learning both kinds today, but for just now, we’re going to focus on the (easier) weak verbs.
To form the past participle of the German Perfekt tense for weak verbs, you need to take the stem of the verb
(the infinitive minus the -en ending) and add a ge- prefix and a -t suffix.
spielen – gespielt to play machen – gemacht to do fragen – gefragt to ask
wohnen – gewohnt to live arbeiten – gearbeitet to work reden – geredet to talk
, There are two exceptions to this nice regularity. The first ist that verbs that end in -ieren, like fotografieren,
diskutieren, studieren, etc., do NOT get a ge- prefix. (These verbs can be easily recognized as English-French
cognates, and they all end in -ieren, so it’s a pretty easy group to remember.)
Studieren – studiert to study manipulieren – manipuliert to manipulate repaireren – repariert to repair
The other exception is for inseparable prefixes, like ver-, be- and miss-. When a verb has an inseparable prefix, it
does NOT get a ge- prefix for the participle form.
Besuchen – besucht to visit erleben – erlebt to live verkaufen – verkauft to sell
What happens with separable-prefix verbs? As you might expect, the prefix gets ‘stuck’ back on to the participle
at the end, but the ge- prefix ends up in the middle of the word:
Zu-machen - ich mache die tur zu
Auf-raumen -
Wir sollen die Tür zumachen. We closed the door.
Hast du dein Zimmer aufgeräumt? Did you clean up your room?
Now that you can form the participle form of the verb, we need to learn the complete syntax for a past tense
sentence. To form a complete German past tense sentence, you need to add a helping verb, either ‘haben’ or
‘sein’. Let’s look at the verbs that take ‘haben’:
Ich habe Fußball gespielt. I have played football ge-
Maria hat zwei Semester Deutsch gelernt. Maria have learned German for two semesters.
Hast du deine Hausaufgaben gemacht? Did you do your homework?
As you can see, the helping verb (haben in these sentences) is conjugated to match the subject, while the
participle (ge-stem-t) remains constant. Also note that the participle occurs at the very end of the sentence,
while the conjugated helping verb is in the normal verb position (second element for statements, first for
questions).
