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 The person or thing doing the action described by the verb. + A 'helping' verb that is used to form the perfect tense. It goes with the past participle and is the verb which stays in the second position in the sentence. The auxiliary verbs in German are haben and sein. + the A form of the verb which indicates a completed action in the past. It corresponds to the '-ed' or '-t' ending in English, eg I played, I cycled, I slept. It is used with an auxiliary verb to form the perfect tense in German., 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)
Did you know?
For many years, the Brandenburger Tor was the main city gate separating East and West Berlin. However, since the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989, the Brandenburg Gate has now come to represent freedom, German unity and European harmony.
The Brandenburger Tor is one of most iconic constructions in Germany and is recognised throughout the world. It is one of the most visited sites – ł§±đłó±đ˛Ô˛ő·ÉĂĽ°ů»ĺľ±˛µ°ě±đľ±łŮ±đ˛Ô – in Berlin.
