German Perfect Tense with Past Participle Verbs / A2

 Past Participles

For being able to build comples sentences in daily spoken German language and to have better conversations with native German speakers you should also learn the fundamentals of the German perfect tense and the past participles.

When and How to use the German Perfect Tense

The present perfect tense is used in spoken language instead of simple past tense. This is why we should learn the past participles properly.

The German perfect tense is build with the help of haben / sein in the present tense and past participle of another verb. The helping verbs "haben / sein" are conjugated according to the subject of the sentence and takes the second position. The past participle of the other verb is placed at the end of the sentence.

When to use "Sein"

Verbs that express movement and change of state use sein. Movement means when the subject physically changes the locations.

 - Examples:

      gehen / fahren / rennen / fliegen / kommen / reisen / laufen

 

Change of state means when the subject's condition changes from 'State A' to 'State B'. This change of condition does not involve change of place.

    - Example:

        einschlafen / aufwachen / wachsen / sterben / verwelken / werden

How to construct the Past Participles

When it comes to learning a new grammar concept in German language, there are always a few exceptions, and the German perfect tense is no different! The construction of past participles varies based on the types of verbs.

1) Weak Verbs

The past participles of weak (regular) verbs are formed by adding 'ge' at the beginning and 't' at the end of the verb stem.

    - Example:

        ge + lern + t = gelernt

If the verb stem ends with d / t / m, the past participle is formed by adding 'ge' at the beginning and an 'et' at the end.

    - Example:

        ge + wart + et = gewartet

Past participles of the verbs ending in 'ieren' are formed without 'ge'. However, we do add 't' at the end of the verb stem. 

    - Example:

        studier + t = studiert

Here are some of the weak verbs in German language with their Partizip II forms:

English	German	Partizip II		English	German	Partizip II
to work	arbeiten	gearbeitet		to note down	notieren	notiert
to breathe	atmen	geatmet		to pack	packen	gepackt
to form	bilden	gebildet		to talk	reden	geredet
to need	brauchen	gebraucht		to say	sagen	gesagy
to follow	folgen	gefolgt		to play	spielen	gespielt
to ask	fragen	gefragt		to put / place	stellen	gestellt
to feel	fühlen	gefühlt		to search	suchen	gesucht
to believe	glauben	geglaubt		to dance	tanzen	getanzt
to interest	interessieren	interessiert		to call	telefonieren	telefoniert
to buy	kaufen	gekauft		to reside / live	wohnen	gewohnt
to cook	kochen	gekocht		to show	zeigen	gezeigt
to live	leben	gelebt		to supposed	sollen	gesollt
to lay	legen	gelegt		to want	wollen	gewollt
to make	machen	gemacht

2) Strong Verbs

The past participles of strong (irregular) verbs are a bit comples. The '-en' of the infinitive form remains as it is. There is no '-t' at the end of the verb stem. We do add '-ge' at the beginning. But, here's the comples part. The verb stem changes most of the times.

    - Example:

        gehen - gegangen

Sometimes, the vowels in the verb stem get rearranged.

    - Example:

        bleiben - geblieben

Here are some of the strong verbs in German language with their Partizip II forms:

English	German	Partizip II		English	German	Partizip II
to offer	bieten	geboten		to bite	beißen	gebissen
to bind	binden	gebunden		to request	bitten	gebeten
to break	brechen	gebrochen		to eat	essen	gegessen
to drive	fahren	gefahren		to fall	fallen	gefallen
to catch	fangen	gefangen		to find	finden	gefunden
to fly	fliegen	geflogen		to give	geben	gegeben
to stop	halten	gehalten		to help	helfen	geholfen
to sound	klingen	geklungen		to come	kommen	gekommen
to come	kommen	gekommen		to run	laufen	gelaufen
to read	lesen	gelesen		to take	nehmen	genommen
to close	schließen	geschlossen		to write	schreiben	geschrieben
to see	sehen	gesehen		to be	sein	gewesen
to sit	sitzen	gesessen		to speak	sprechen	gesprochen
to stand	stehen	gestanden		to wear	tragen	getragen
to meet	treffen	getroffen		to drink	trinken	getrunken
to become	werden	geworden		to wash	waschen	gewaschen

Study these strong and weak verbs partizip II forms and try yourself to build sentences in German past tense. 

We will study the seperable and unseparable verbs in another lesson.