Understanding the Present Perfect Tense in German

As you study the German language, you will come across the present perfect tense (Perfeckt), which is also called the compound past tense. Its used most often in conversation and there are a few rules you need to know in order to form and use it. This lesson will review those rules and is an important part of understanding German verb conjugations. Perfekt: The Present Perfect Tense The present perfect tense is formed by using one of three types of past participles: weak (regular), strong (irregular), and mixed. This past tense form is often referred to as the conversational past since it is most often used in spoken German when speaking about events in the past. In English, we say, We saw him yesterday. This can be expressed in German as, Wir sahen ihn gestern. (simple past,  Imperfekt) or Wir haben ihn gestern gesehen. (present perfect,  Perfekt). The latter form is also referred to as a compound tense because it is formed by combining a helping verb (haben) with the past participle (gesehen). Even though the literal translation of Wir haben ihn gestern gesehen, is We have seen him yesterday, it would normally be expressed in English simply as, We saw him yesterday. Study these example  German verbs  with their  past participle  forms in the  present perfect tense: to have haben hat gehabt to go gehen ist gegangen to buy kaufen hat gekauft to bring bringen hat gebracht You should notice several things about the verbs above: Some have past participles that end in  -t, while others end in  -en.Some use  haben  (to have) as a helping verb, while others use  sein  (to be). Keep this in mind as we  continue  our review of the German present perfect. Weak Verbs Regular (or weak) verbs are predictable and can be pushed around. Their past participles always end in -t  and are basically the third person singular with  ge- in front of it:   to play spielen gespielt to make machen gemacht to say, tell sagen gesagt The so-called -ieren  verbs (fotografieren,  reparieren,  studieren,  probieren, etc.) do not add  ge- to their past participles:  hat fotografiert. Strong Verbs Irregular (or strong) verbs are unpredictable and cannot be pushed around. They tell you what theyre going to do. Their past participles end in -en  and must be memorized:   to go gehen gegangen to speak, talk sprechen gesprochen Although there are various patterns that their past participles follow (and they sometimes resemble similar patterns in English) it is best to simply memorize past participles such as gegessen, gesungen, geschrieben, or gefahren. It should also be noted that there are more rules for verbs with separable and inseparable prefixes, though we wont get into that here.   Mixed Verbs This third category is also rather unpredictable. As with the other irregular verbs, the participles for mixed verbs need to be memorized. As their name implies, these mixed verbs mix elements of the weak and strong verbs to form their past participles. While they end in -t  like weak verbs, they have a stem change like strong verbs: to bring bringen gebracht to know kennen gekannt to know wissen gewut When to Use  Sein  as Helping Verb In English, the present perfect is always formed with the helping verb have,  but in German  some verbs require to be (sein) instead. There is a rule for this condition:   Verbs that are intransitive (take no direct object) and involve a change of condition or location use  sein  as a helping verb, rather than the more common  haben. Among the  few exceptions to this rule  are  sein  itself and  bleiben, both of which take  sein  as their helping verb. This rule applies to only a small number of verbs and it is best to simply memorize those that typically use  sein  as a helping verb. One thing that will help is to remember them is that most of these are intransitive verbs which refer to motion. bleiben  (to stay)fahren  (to  drive, travel)fallen  (to  fall)gehen  (to  go)kommen  (to  come)laufen  (to  run)reisen  (to  travel)sein  (to  be)steigen  (to  climb)sterben  (to  die)wachsen  (to  grow)werden  (to  become) Example Er ist schnell gelaufen. means He ran fast.