German grammar · Beginner (A1)
The perfect tense (Perfekt)
The everyday German past tense: haben or sein plus the past participle, how to form participles, and which verbs take sein.
How the Perfekt works
The Perfekt is the tense Germans use most when they talk about the past. It has two parts: a form of or in position 2, and the past participle (like English “eaten” or “gone”) at the end.
It translates both “I ate” and “I have eaten”.
- Ich habe eine Pizza gegessen.I ate a pizza. / I've eaten a pizza.
- Wir sind nach Wien gefahren.We went to Vienna.
- Hast du gut geschlafen?Did you sleep well?
Forming the past participle
Most participles start with ge-. Regular verbs end in -t; irregular verbs usually end in -en and often change their vowel, so learn them with the verb.
| Kind of verb | Pattern | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| regular | ge- + stem + -t | |
| irregular | ge- + stem (often changed) + -en | |
| mixed | ge- + changed stem + -t | |
| separable | prefix + ge- + … | |
| prefix be-, ver-, er-, ent- | no ge- | |
| ending in -ieren | no ge- |
Haben or sein?
Most verbs use . Use with verbs of movement from one place to another (, , , ) and change of state (, , ).
itself, (to stay) and (to happen) also use .
| with | with |
|---|---|
| (I worked.) | (I went.) |
| (I read.) | (I came.) |
| (I ate.) | (I got up.) |
| (I knew him.) | (I stayed at home.) |
| (I knew it.) | (I got tired.) |
Perfekt or Präteritum?
German has a second past tense, the Präteritum (simple past). It is mainly used in writing. In conversation, people use the Perfekt for most verbs, but the Präteritum for , and the modal verbs.
- Ich war gestern im Kino und habe einen tollen Film gesehen.I was at the cinema yesterday and saw a great film.
- Wir hatten keine Zeit.We didn't have time.
- Sie musste lange warten.She had to wait a long time.
- Was ist passiert?What happened?