Das Perfekt-The spoken past tense form

Das Perfekt-The spoken past tense form
To create this past tense you will need a helping verb (Hilfsverb), that will take second
position (where a verb normally goes in a sentence) and the past participial ( the verb that
does the talking) is at the end.
haben and sein are the two verbs that our Hilfsverben.
-sein is used when there is movement (point A to point B) or if there is a change
in state ( staying, waking up, falling asleep…)
-haben is used for everything else
Weak Verbs (schwache Verben)
-Take the stem of the word and add a ge- to the front of the word and a –t ending.
Ex: machen
stem-mach
past participle- gemacht
Ich habe meine Hausaufgaben gemacht.
–I did my homework.
-ieren verbs
-These words come from French and do not get a ge- in the front, but will get the
–t ending
Ex. reservieren
stem-reservier
past participle- reserviert
Ich habe ein Hotelzimmer reserviert.
-I reserved a hotel room.
-Verbs with inseparable prefixes, like ver-, be- and miss- it does NOT get a ge- for the participle form.
Ex: besuchen
stem-besuch
past participle- besucht
Ich habe meine Familie besucht. -I visited my family.
Strong Verbs (starke Verben)
-These are known as our super stem changers! That means that they change in their stem
and it is unpredictable. This means that these verbs in particular need to be memorized!
-These too get a ge- to the front of the word, but get a –en at the end.
Ex: singen
stem-sing
past participle-gesungen (vowel stem change)
Ich habe mit meinen Freunden gesungen.
-I sang with my friends.
Ex: gehen
stem- geh
pastparticiple –gegegangen (whole stem chage)
Ich bin in den Bergen gegangen. -I went to the mountains.
Both schwache and starke Verben
-Verbs with separable-prefix, like mit machen, auf räumen
- the prefix gets ‘smashed’ back on to the participle at the end, but the ge- prefix
ends up in the middle of the word
Ex: auf räumen
stem-auf räum
past participle- aufgeräumt
Hast du dein Zimmer aufgeräumt?
-Did you clean your room?
Ex:weg gehen
stem- weg geh
past participle- weggegangen
Ich bin weggegangen.
I went away
Mix verbs (There’s about 6 of them)
-These verbs act like a mix between the schwache and starke Verben
-They get a ge- and a –t and there is a vowel change in the stem
Ex: denken stem denk
past participle –gedacht
Ich habe das nicht gedacht.
-I hadn’t thought that.
Almost done…a couple more exceptions!
- Sometimes you use the helping verb sein instead of haben for verbs that meet both of
these criteria:
a) the verb indicates a change of position or condition, or a crossing of a
‘boundary’
e.g. gehen, kommen, wandern, sterben (=to die), einschlafen (=to fall asleep)
b) the verb is intransitive (= does NOT have a direct object)
e.g. fahren (ich bin nach Milwaukee gefahren, BUT ich habe mein Auto
gefahren)
- These verbs sein (to be) and bleiben (to stay) and passieren (to happen) take ‘sein’ as a
helping verb, although they don’t match the criteria above. Consider these examples:
Anna ist nach Deutschland geflogen.
Anna flew to Germany.
Ich bin um 7 Uhr nach Hause gekommen. I came home at 7 o’clock.
Bist du schon eingeschlafen?
Have you fallen asleep already?
Paul ist ein fleißiger Student gewesen.
Paul was a hard-working student.