German Perfect Tense

The perfect tense is used to discuss regular events in the past. Learn how to form the perfect tense using the auxiliary verbs haben and sein together with regular and irregular past participles.

What is the perfect tense?

The perfect tense is used to express things that have happened in the past in general. It is the most commonly used past tense in German.

It is used in letters, emails and spoken German.

It is used to describe something that you have done, but maybe do often and are likely to do again, eg:

• ich habe einen Film gesehen – I saw a film

This is different from the imperfect tense, which is used more often in written German for narratives and accounts of events, and to talk about one particular incident in the past, eg:

• ich sah das Brandenburger Tor – I saw the Brandenburg Gate

The perfect tense could be described as the most interesting of the German past tenses as, apart from the subject that always has to be used, there are two distinct parts to it. You also get to play with the word order.

Forming the perfect tense

The basic ingredients for the perfect tense are:

The subject + auxiliary verb + the past participle, eg:

• ich habe gelernt – I studied

ich (SUBJECT) habe (AUXILIARY VERB) gelernt (PAST PARTICIPLE)

• wir haben gewonnen – we won

wir (SUBJECT) haben (AUXILIARY VERB) gewonnen (PAST PARTICIPLE)

• der Junge ist gegangen – the boy went

der Junge (SUBJECT) ist (AUXILIARY VERB) gegangen (PAST PARTICIPLE)

Auxiliary verbs

An auxiliary verb acts as a crutch for the past participle.

The past participle can't function without the helping auxiliary verb. This means that we don’t translate it, but that it has to be there for the perfect tense to work properly.

The auxiliary verbs you use with the past participle are either haben (to have) or sein (to be).

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How to use auxiliary verbs

It's really important that you know all the present tense forms of haben and sein, as these are the two auxiliary verbs that 'help' the past participle.

To form the perfect tense, you use the present tense of haben and sein as the auxiliary verb.

Have a look at this table to remind yourself how they work:

When to use 'haben' and 'sein'

Now you need to know when you use these two auxiliary verbs.

You use haben with transitive verbs and sein with intransitive verbs.

Intransitive verbs

All verbs of motion are intransitive verbs. This means that the verb must describe a movement towards something, or from A to B.

Verbs of motion include verbs like laufen (to run), springen (to jump), schwimmen (to swim) or fallen (to fall).

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There are three important verbs that do not fit into the intransitive verb rule and have to use sein as the auxiliary verb: bleiben (to stay), werden (to become) and sein (to be). They do not express movement but they must take sein.

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Boats stay in the harbour (habe). This means that they do not move. They may bob around inside the harbour, but they do not go anywhere or move towards anything. So, habe (the ich form of haben) is for no movement towards something.

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Rubbish must go into the bin (bin). It must move into the bin. So, bin (the ich form of sein) is for movement.

Translating the perfect tense

The format of the perfect tense looks like a direct translation from English, especially if we look at an example with near-cognates, eg:

• ich – I
• habe – have
• gemacht – made

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But we should remember to translate ich habe gemacht as 'I made' rather than 'I have made'.

Here's an example using sein:

• sie – she
• ist – is
• gegangen – gone

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We should remember to translate sie ist gegangen as 'she went' rather than 'she has gone'.

Look at these other examples, and note the correct translation:

• ich habe Tennis gespielt – I played tennis (literally: I have tennis played)
• mein Bruder hat mir geholfen – my brother helped me (literally: my brother has me helped)
• wir sind zusammen gefahren – we travelled together (literally: we are together travelled)

Regular past participles

It's important to know how to form your past participle correctly. This is easy as long as you follow these steps:

1. Check whether the verb is regular or irregular

Check in a dictionary or on a verb list whether the German verb you want to use is regular or irregular. Try to remember which it is for the next time you use it. The dictionary or verb list will also usually tell you if the verb takes sein instead of haben.

2. Find the stem

Finding the stem on a regular verb is easy. Just take the -en or -n off the end of the verb. This will give you the stem.

3. Add the beginning and ending to the stem

Adding the beginning and ending to the stem is really simple too. For regular verbs, you just put ge- at the beginning of the stem and replace the now missing -en or -n with a -t at the end.

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To find the past participle of spielen (to play):

1. Check whether the verb is regular or irregular. The verb spielen is regular.
2. To find the stem, take off the -en, which leaves you with spiel-.
3. Then add the beginning and ending to the stem. For a regular verb, this is ge- at the beginning and -t at the end.

So, the past participle of spielen is ge + spiel + t > gespielt

The verb spielen is not a verb of motion, so the auxiliary verb must be haben.

To say 'I played' is therefore ich habe gespielt.

Past participles without 'ge-' at the start

Some verbs don’t add ge- to the beginning to form a past participle.

The reasons for this could be one of the following:

• they end in –ieren, eg studieren > studiert (however, apart from not starting with ge-, these verbs are regular)
• they start with an inseparable prefix such as be-, ent-, er- or ver-, eg verstehen > verstanden
• the main verb already starts with ge-, eg gewinnen (to win) > gewonnen (won)

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Examples in use

• Sie hat €100.000 gewonnen. - She won €100,000.
• Wir haben nichts verstanden.- We understood nothing.
• Mein Bruder hat in Passau studiert. - My brother studied in Passau.

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Separable verbs

Separable verbs consist of two parts - a main verb and a preposition, eg:

• auf + räumen > aufräumen (to tidy up)
• an + ziehen > anziehen (to put on)
• auf + stehen > aufstehen (to get up)

In English, we leave both parts separate in the past tense:

• he tidied his room up
• she put her coat on

In German, both parts have to be put back together to make the past participle, with ge- sandwiched in between, rather than added to the beginning as with regular and irregular past participles, eg:

• ich habe dich angerufen - I called you
• ich habe ferngesehen - I watched television

Perfect tense - word order

The last thing to remember when using the perfect tense is the correct word order.

The auxiliary verb has to go second (the second idea - not necessarily the second word) and then the past participle goes at the end.

Look at these example sentences:

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Think of the structure of the perfect tense as having three elements plus optional extras, such as objects or adverbs. Take this phrase: ich habe Tennis gespielt - I played tennis:

• element one: pronoun, eg ich
• element two: auxiliary verb, eg habe
• optional extra, eg Tennis
• element three: past participle, eg gespielt

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