German tenses restructure a sentence to communicate whether something happened in the past, present, or future. The German Perfekt tense is popular in spoken German more than in written German, to describe past events relative to the present. Once you’re comfortable forming German sentence structure for simple, present-tense statements, you can expand your linguistic toolbox by learning how to craft expressions in the German perfect tense.
Table of Contents
What is the Perfekt tense in German?
While Perfekt is the “present perfect” tense in German, it is the most commonly used way Germans talk about things that have been done in the past. Telling your grandmother about your trip to the German beer garden last week, recounting the tale of an adventure from your vacation to the Alps, and excitedly sharing the story of your favorite meal from last holiday season all require the use of the German perfect tense.
To master the skill of using the Perfekt tense in German, you’ll need to practice two skills: selecting haben (to have) vs. sein (to be) as your auxiliary verb and transforming your main German verb into a participle. Once you’re able to do so, other German past tense constructions will make more sense, too! These two skills represent the major grammatical changes between the Perfekt and the simple present statements you’ve likely been making up to this point.
The importance of context for the German perfect tense
Because German is a highly contextual language, you’ll need to include information in your sentence to show whether the past action about which you’re speaking is finished being performed or not. For example, Ich habe hier gewohnt (I lived here) tells the story that you once lived here, but do not live here anymore.
On the other hand, saying Ich habe hier seit 2018 gewohnt (I have lived here since 2018) lets the listener or reader know that you lived here in 2018 and are continuing to live here until today. Both of these German phrases use the Perfekt tense, but the inclusion of time reference helps your audience know the action is still ongoing.
Sentence structure for the German perfect tense
Making a sentence in the German Perfekt tense looks a lot like it does when you make a sentence in the present tense. The only difference is that you have to move your main verb, transformed into a past participle, to the end of the sentence. Where the main verb used to stand in the sentence is replaced by an auxiliary verb, either haben or sein, which is conjugated according to the subject of the sentence.
Follow this word order to correctly write or speak a sentence in the German present perfect tense:
[subject] + [auxiliary verb, conjugated] + [additional info] + [past participle]
See the sentences below for examples of this word order in action:
- Maria ist nach Hause gegangen. = Maria has gone home.
- Wir haben keinen Vogel gesehen. = We had not seen any birds.
Tips for choosing haben vs. sein as your auxiliary verb
The perfect present tense in German requires the addition of an auxiliary verb, which helps support your main verb and communicate to the audience which tense you’re using. In Perfekt, you get two options: haben (to have) or sein (to be). The auxiliary verb you must choose depends entirely on your main verb.
Sein is the correct choice for any main verb that:
- implies movement, such as rennen (to run) or reisen (to travel)
- shows a change in condition or state of being, like aufwachen (to awaken) and gefrieren (to freeze)
- is stative or an exceptional verb that doesn’t describe movement or change but belongs to a small group of verbs that take sein anyway (This includes passieren (to happen) and bleiben (to stay), among others.)
Otherwise, all other main verbs in the German language will require you to select haben as your auxiliary verb. Think of haben as the default choice, meaning if your main verb doesn’t fit one of the three criteria above for choosing sein, then you can feel confident in choosing haben.
Regardless of whether the correct auxiliary verb for your sentence is haben or sein, it will have to undergo German conjugation to properly fit into your expression. For the Perfekt tense, both haben and sein are conjugated as though they were in the regular, present tense.
Conjugating haben for your perfect tense
Identify the subject of your sentence, meaning the “who” or “what” is performing the action of the sentence, then alter the spelling of haben based on the haben conjugation chart below. Keep in mind that nouns that aren’t pronouns, like Kimberly or der Supermarkt (the super market), are treated in conjugation as though they were er (he),sie (she), ores (it).
| German Pronoun | Haben Conjugation |
| ich (I) | habe |
| du (you, informal) | hast |
| er/sie/es (he/she/it) | hat |
| wir (we) | haben |
| ihr (you, informal plural) | habt |
| sie/Sie (they/you, formal) | haben |
- Ich habe deine Telefonnummer vergessen. = I have forgotten your phone number.
- Die Kinder haben ein Haustier gekauft. = The children have bought a pet.
Sein conjugation in the German perfect tense
When sein is the correct auxiliary verb for your German perfect tense sentence, conjugate sein by changing its spelling according to the subject of the sentence, as you see in the table here:
| German Pronoun | Sein Conjugation |
| ich (I) | bin |
| du (you, informal) | bist |
| er/sie/es (he/she/it) | ist |
| wir (we) | sind |
| ihr (you, informal plural) | seid |
| sie/Sie (they/you, formal) | sind |
- Du bist zu spät gekommen. = You have arrived too late.
- Ihr seid alle nach Deutschland gereist. = You all have gone to Germany.
Forming a past participle out of your verb
Taking the main verb of your sentence, the action that is being performed, and transforming it into a past participle is something you might not realize you do in English all the time. What’s the past tense of “run”? Easy, “ran!” The past participle of “walk” is “walked.” You’re just changing the spelling of the word a bit to show your listener that you’re speaking about something from the past.
The German language does the same thing with its past participles: Simply change the spelling of the verb to show the information is about a past time. How you change the spelling of the verb to transform it into a past participle depends on which category of verb it’s in. You’ll find three verb categories in German: weak verbs, strong verbs, and mixed verbs. Which category each verb is in will need to be memorized, since there’s no real formula that organizes them.
Finding your German verb stem
Forming a past participle out of a German verb requires you to find the Stamm (stem) of that verb. The Stamm is the core, unchanging part of a verb found by dropping off any prefixes or endings, like -en, from the verb. For example, the Stamm of laufen (to run) is lauf- and the Stamm of denken (to think) is denk-. Once you have your Stamm figured out, it’s a simple process of plugging it into one of the equations below to construct your past participle.
Weak German verbs as past participles
Weak German verbs, also known as “regular verbs,” follow all the standard rules of conjugation and transformation into a past participle every time. This makes weak verbs the ideal place to start while you practice making past participles.
To turn a weak verb into a past participle, use this formula:
ge- + [verb stem] + -t
While other verb categories, like strong and mixed verbs, might have a vowel change in their stem when turning into a past participle, weak German verbs never experience a stem vowel change.
| German Weak Verb | Past Participle | English Translation |
| arbeiten | gearbeitet | to work |
| fragen | gefragt | to ask |
| hören | gehört | to hear |
| kaufen | gekauft | to buy |
| kocken | gekockt | to cook |
Making past participles out of strong verbs
The present perfect tense in the German language can significantly alter strong verbs, sometimes called “irregular verbs,” in their past participle forms. Not only will you have an ending of -en, as opposed to weak verbs ending in -t, but you will sometimes have a vowel change in the stem of the verb as well.
This is the formula for turning strong verbs into past participles:
ge- + [verb stem] + -en
| German Strong Verb | Past Participle | English Translation |
| geben | gegeben | to give |
| gehen | gegangen | to go |
| helfen | geholfen | to help |
| kommen | gekommen | to come |
| nehmen | genommen | to take |
How mixed verbs form into past participles
Some German verbs are called “mixed” because they take the rules of both weak and strong verbs when converting into past participles. Mixed verbs take the -t ending as past participles like weak verbs do, but they usually also undergo a stem change like strong verbs do.
Use this formula to covert mixed verbs into past participles:
ge- + [verb stem] + -t
| German Mixed Verb | Past Participle | English Translation |
| bleiben | geblieben | to remain |
| Brennen | gebrannt | to burn |
| bringen | gebracht | to bring |
| denken | gedacht | to think |
| haben | gehabt | to have |
Asking questions in perfect tense German
Asking a question in the German Perfekt tense is only one step away from making a statement. All you have to do is swap the place of the subject of the sentence with the place of the auxiliary verb of your sentence.
[auxiliary verb, conjugated] + [subject] + [additional info] + [past participle]
- Ist Maria nach Hause gegangen? = Has Maria gone home?
- Haben wir keinen Vogel gesehen? = Have we not seen any birds?
Key takeaways about the German perfect tense
The present perfect tense in the German language allows you to describe past actions just like in English.
- The German perfect tense alters word order and the spelling of verbs to communicate information about past events.
- Germans use the Perfekt tense most often to describe the past while speaking, but not always while writing.
- Select haben (to have) or sein (to be) as an auxiliary verb based on your main verb.
- Form your main verb into a past participle and move it to the end of the sentence for the German perfect tense.
0 Commentaires