





Study with the several resources on Docsity
Earn points by helping other students or get them with a premium plan
Prepare for your exams
Study with the several resources on Docsity
Earn points to download
Earn points by helping other students or get them with a premium plan
Community
Ask the community for help and clear up your study doubts
Discover the best universities in your country according to Docsity users
Free resources
Download our free guides on studying techniques, anxiety management strategies, and thesis advice from Docsity tutors
A comprehensive guide to learning the perfekt tense in german, focusing on the formation of the past participle for both weak and strong verbs. It covers the rules for forming the perfekt tense, including the use of helping verbs 'haben' and 'sein', and provides examples and exercises to reinforce understanding. Suitable for beginners learning german grammar.
Typology: Study notes
1 / 9
This page cannot be seen from the preview
Don't miss anything!
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 A 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).
Weg-gehen - weggegangen mitbringen - mitgebracht verstehen - verstanden In addition to the strong verbs, there is a very small handful (about six) of verbs that are called ‘mixed’ verbs, because they act like a mix between strong and weak verbs. They take a ge-+-t form like weak verbs, but their stem vowels change. Again, these verbs just need to be memorized. denken - gedacht bringen - gebracht kennen - gekannt Let’s try a few sentences again. These are all strong or mixed verbs.
Was ist das Partizip? Unten sehen Sie schwache (=weak) und starke (=strong) Verben. Füllen Sie die Lücken mit den richtigen Partizipien ein. Schwache Verben Starke Verben
Now we need to mix things up. Below are blanked out sentences: some verbs take ‘sein’ as a helping verb, others take ‘haben’. Try to determine which helping verb to use.
Strong Verbs : backen hat gebacken to bake beginnen hat begonnen to begin bieten hat geboten to offer bitten hat gebeten to ask, request bleiben ist geblieben to stay empfehlen hat empfohlen to recommend fahren ist/hat gefahren to drive, go fallen ist gefallen to fall fangen hat gefangen to catch finden hat gefunden to find geben hat gegeben to give gehen ist gegangen to walk, go gewinnen - hat gewonnen to win, gain haben (irreg.) hat gehabt to have halten hat gehalten to hold heißen - hat geheißen to be called helfen hat geholfen to help klingen - hat geklungen to sound kommen - ist gekommen to come laufen ist/hat gelaufen to run leihen - hat geliehen to lend lessen hat gelesen to read liegen - hat gelegen to lie, be lying lügen - gelogen to (tell a) lie messen hat gemessen to measure raten hat geraten to advise riechen - hat gerochen to smell rufen - hat gerufen to call, cry out schaffen - hat geschaffen to create scheiden - ist/hat geschieden to separate, depart schlafen hat geschlafen to sleep schlagen hat geschlagen to hit, beat schreiben - hat geschrieben to write schwimmen - ist/hat geschwommen to swim schwinden - ist geschwunden to disappear sehen hat gesehen to see sein (irreg.) ist gewesen to be singen - hat gesungen to sing sinken - ist gesunken to sink sinnen - hat gesonnen to meditate sitzen - hat gesessen to sit, be sitting sprechen hat gesprochen to speak stehen - hat gestanden to stand stoßen ist/hat gestoßen to bump, push tragen hat getragen to wear, carry treffen hat getroffen to meet trinken - hat getrunken to drink