German tenses of verbs allow your reader or listener to understand wann (when) an action or state of being occurs within your sentences. If you’re just getting started in the world of German grammar, then you’ll be happy to know there are only six German verb tenses—and you’re likely to use only two or three of them in daily conversation. Get an easy overview of the six German tenses for verbs and find out which ones you can start with as you form your first sentences in the German language.
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What are the German tenses of verbs?
The German tenses of verbs are used to help people communicate and understand when something was or when an event or action happened. They work alongside the German cases to give structure and clarity to your expressions. Each German verb tense affects verbs in German uniquely in order to make it clear which tense is being used. In total, there are three simple German tenses to start out with, and three perfect German tenses you’ll learn afterwards.
The six German tenses you’ll need to remember are:
- Präsens (simple present)
- Präteritum (simple past)
- Futur I (simple future)
- Perfekt (present perfect)
- Plusquamperfekt (past perfect)
- Futur II (future perfect)
Starting simply with the 3 simple German verb tenses
The ideal way to get into the German tenses is by starting with the three simple German tenses. They’re key to helping you learn to grammatically distinguish between past, present, and future without having to alter the structure of your German phrases as much as you will with the three perfect German verb tenses.
Präsens (simple present)
Your first German verb tense to master will be Präsens (simple present). Not only does it require the least amount of German grammar knowledge to use, but it is also the most commonly used verb tense in German because it describes the here and now. Take some time to review the German conjugation of verbs to make this tense easier to form and understand.
Follow this simple formula to write your first sentences in Präsens:
- [subject] + [verb, conjugated] + [additional information]
Simple present sentence examples:
- Ich lerne Deutsch. = I am learning German.
- Wir arbeiten heute viel. = We are working a lot today.
- Er fährt mit dem Bus. = He travels by bus.
Präteritum (simple past)
Though this German past tense is not used very often at all in speech, Präteritum (simple past) can be an easy transition from the present tense to the past tense because it is so similar to Präsens (simple present). Your sentence structure will remain the same as in the simple present, and the only difference is how you conjugate your verb of choice.
In most cases, other than irregular German verbs, to conjugate a verb in Präteritum you’ll simply add a -te- after the main part of your verb, but before your regular verb ending.
Check out the examples below of present verbs compared to their past conjugation:
- du sagst (you say) → du sagtest (you said)
- er lernt (he learns) → er lernte (he learned)
- wir machen (we make) → wir machten (we made)
Use this easy formula you’ll recognize from simple present to make your first expressions in simple past:
- [subject] + [verb, conjugated] + [additional info]
Simple past sentence examples:
- Sie spielten letzte Woche Fußball. = You played soccer last week.
- Ich war gestern sehr müde. = I was very tired yesterday.
- Er las ein spannendes Buch. = He read an exciting book.
Futur I (simple future)
Whether you want to make plans with friends, foretell the future, or simply discuss what could happen or be, Futur I (simple future) has you covered. To form the simple future tense in German, you’ll have to adjust your sentence structure a bit more. This time, you’ll place a conjugated version of werden (will) after the subject of your sentence and kick your main verb all the way to the end of the sentence.
Something helpful to remember is that your main verb, which is now at the end of the sentence, will be in its infinitive form, meaning the basic version of the verb. In most cases, this infinitive verb will end in -en.
Use this simple formula to form your first expressions about the future with Futur I:
- [subject] + [werden, conjugated] + [additional info] + [verb infinitive at the end]
Simple future sentence examples:
- Du wirst bald ankommen. = You will arrive soon.
- Ich werde Deutsch sprechen. = I will speak German.
- Er wird den Brief morgen schreiben. = He will write the letter tomorrow.
Understanding the 3 perfect German tenses
While you might not jump into a German perfect tense right away, it can be helpful to get an overview of them and know what your next step will be after the three simple German tenses. The German word for “perfect” is perfekt, which is a German cognate, meaning the two words look and sound the same with the same meaning.
All three perfect German tenses require a conjugated auxiliary verb like haben (have) sein (to be) or werden (will) to come after the subject of your sentence, with a past participle at the end of the sentence.
Tips for forming past participles
To form a past participle in German, start by selecting a regular German verb like sagen (to say) or lernen (to learn).
Take the stem of that verb (meaning the core part of the verb usually without the -en ending) and put it through the formula below:
- ge- + [verb stem] + -en or -t
See a few examples below to get an idea of how this principle works in action:
- sagen → gesagt
- kommen → gekommen
- lernen → gelernt
Need extra examples to practice more? You can learn German with Rosetta Stone’s app to get immersive instruction and practical examples to guide you through your language learning journey.
Perfekt (present perfect)
Don’t be fooled! While Perfekt is the “present perfect,” this tense is the most common way Germans talk about actions completed in the past. To put it simply, use the present perfect instead of the simple past to talk about the past in German. Due to how useful this tense is in daily conversation, you’ll start your journey of mastering the perfect German tenses here.
Make your sentences in Perfekt using the following formula:
- [subject] + [auxiliary verb, conjugated] + [additional info] + [past participle]
Present perfect sentence examples:
- Es hat stark geregnet. = It has been raining heavily.
- Sie haben das Spiel gewonnen. = They have won the game.
- Wir sind früh angekommen. = We have arrived early.
Plusquamperfekt (past perfect)
If you want to describe an event that happened before another event or time in the past, then you’ll write or speak in Plusquamperfekt (past perfect). In the same way that simple past sentence structure is similar to simple present (except for how you conjugate your verb), the German past perfect has the same sentence structure as present perfect except for how your auxiliary verb is conjugated.
You’ll conjugate your auxiliary verb as though it were in the simple past tense, with the -te- ending coming after the stem of your verb but before the regular verb ending.
Utilize the same formula shown below as you would for Perfekt to express yourself in Plusquamperfekt:
- [subject] + [auxiliary verb, conjugated] + [additional info] + [past participle]
Past perfect sentence examples:
- Ich hatte das Buch schon gelesen. = I had already read the book.
- Wir hatten Kaffee gekocht. = We had made coffee.
- Du hattest ihm geholfen. = You had helped him.
Futur II (future perfect)
Rounding out our six German tenses of verbs, Futur II (future perfect) communicates that an action will be completed by a certain future point in time. In English, we often use the verb phrase “will have.” This tense is unique from the other two perfect German tenses because it uses a conjugated form of werden (will) as its auxiliary verb rather than haben (to have) or sein (to be), either of which is put at the end of the sentence instead.
Show your mastery of the six German tenses as you write out a sentence in Futur II with the formula here:
- [subject] + [werden, conjugated] + [additional info] + [past participle] + [haben or sein]
Future perfect sentence examples:
- Sie werden das Problem gelöst haben. = You will have solved the problem.
- Du wirst angekommen sein. = You will have arrived.
- Ich werde die Aufgabe gemacht haben. = I will have done the task.
Key takeaways for the tenses in German
Austrian and German languages have a lot of overlap with English in how tenses are used. Here are the key takeaways to know about the German tenses of verbs:
- The German tenses of verbs let the reader or listener know when the message of your sentence happens, happened, or will happen.
- The three simple tenses are the easiest tenses to start out with, and the perfect tenses should be learned secondly.
- Past, present, and future tenses all have unique ways of adjusting verbs.
- Perfect tenses require an auxiliary verb and a past participle.
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