Posted by The German perfect tense is just one out of the three ways to remark on events that happened in the past and can liken to the English past participle tense. It is the generally approved past tense used in Speech in German and termed “polite” unlike the Präteritum and Plusquamperfekt which are perceived as being “proud” by some when used.
How is the Perfekt tense formed?
To make the perfect tense in German, the auxiliary verbs “haben” or “sein” is required together with the Partizip II of the verb. That is, auxiliary + Partizip II = Perfekt. The auxiliaries haben and sein are both translated as the English verb “to have” irrespective of their meaning of “to have” and “to be” respectively.
While forming a sentence, for the Hauptsatz, the auxiliary verb is conjugated in present tense in the second position to the subject while the derived Partizip II/ past participle of the verb is taken to the end of the sentence and for the Nebensatz, the Partizip II is placed at the second to last but the auxiliary at the very last position. This is illustrated below.
| Sentence type | German | English Translation |
|---|---|---|
| Hauptsatz | 1. Wir haben ein neues Auto gekauft. | We have bought a new car. |
| Nebensatz | 2. Wir ziehen um, weil meine Eltern ein Haus gekauft haben. | We are relocating because my parents have bought a house. |
**It is important to note that the usage of the auxiliary alone as well as the Partizip II does not make it a Perfekt tense. Rather, both must be used in combination.
When to use haben or sein to form the perfect tense
The auxiliary verb “haben” is used when the verb does not involve motion. That means the verb does not require movement from point A to point B. But when the verb involves motion i.e, it requires movement from point A to point B or a change of state, you must use the auxiliary verb “sein”.
Certain German verbs use both “haben” and “sein” as their auxiliaries at different circumstances such as when the action is being done by someone different from the subject or the sentence contains a direct object. For example fliegen; “Ich bin nach Berlin geflogen” and “Ich habe das Flugzeug nach Berlin geflogen”. In the first sentence, the subject is not the pilot and has no direct object while in the second sentence, the subject is the pilot and has a direct object.
**Note: Because Zustandspassive is formed with sein, it can resemble the perfect tense of a sentence. Nevertheless, in such instances, sein is used for all verbs categories and translated as “to be” instead of “to have”. This is how to differentiate them in English. E.g “Das Fleisch ist gekocht” (the meat is cooked), “Das Auto ist gefahren” (the car is driven).
Perfect tense with auxiliary verbs (Hilfsverben)
| Verbs | Auxiliary | Derived Partizip II | English past participle |
|---|---|---|---|
| haben sein tun werden* | haben sein haben sein | gehabt gewesen getan geworden | had been made/ done would |
| German | English Translation |
|---|---|
| 1. Sie hat Frühstück gehabt. 2. Ich bin nie so glücklich gewesen. 3. Was habe ich getan? 4. Das Haus ist gemalt worden. | She has had breakfast. I have never been so happy. What have you done? The house has been painted. |
Perfect tense with weak verbs (regelmäßige Verben)
| Verbs | Auxiliary | Derived Partizip II | English past participle |
|---|---|---|---|
| machen | haben | gemacht | done/ made |
| klettern | sein | geklettert | climbed |
| kochen | haben | gekocht | cooked |
| German | English Translation |
|---|---|
| 1. Was hast du gemacht? 2. Die Pflanzen sind geklettert. 3. Ich habe das Essen gekocht. | What have you done? The plants have climbed. I have cooked the food. |
Perfect tense with strong verbs (unregelmäßige Verben)
| Verbs | Auxiliary | Derived Partizip II | English past participle |
|---|---|---|---|
| werden*1 | sein | worden/ geworden | been/ became |
| fahren*2 | sein/ haben | gefahren | driven |
| lassen*3 | haben | lassen/ gelassen | let/ left |
- Note:
*1 Werden has two types of Partizip II form. For the perfect tense as both a main verb and an auxiliary verb in the active voice, geworden is used. While for the perfect tense in the passive voice, it is geworden.
*2 Fahren uses both haben and sein depending on whether it is used as a transitive or an intransitive verb respectively i.e whether there is a direct object or not.
*3 Lassen uses gelassen as the Partizip II when there are no other infinitive verbs in the sentence but when it is used instead in an Ersatzinfinitiv sentence i.e with another infinitive verb like in Lassen + infinitive without zu, then the Partizip II form stays as lassen. ↩︎
| German | English Translation |
|---|---|
| 1. A— Alles ist neu geworden. (Active voice) B— Alles, was neu gemacht worden ist, sieht gut aus. (Passive voice) | Everything has become new. Everything that has been made new looks good. |
| 2. A— Mein Vater hat das Auto nach Berlin gefahren. (With direct Object) B— Mein Vater ist nach Berlin gefahren. (Without direct object) | My father has driven the car to Berlin. My father has driven to Berlin. |
| 3. A— Ich habe das Haus gelassen. (one verb) B— Ich habe die Flasche stehen2 lassen1. (two verbs) | I have left the house. I have let the bottle stand. |
Perfect tense with mixed verbs
| Verbs | Auxiliary | Derived Partizip II | English past participle |
|---|---|---|---|
| nennen | haben | genannt | (Nick)named |
| denken | haben | gedacht | thought |
| rennen | sein | gerannt | run |
| senden | haben | gesandt | sent |
| brennen | haben | gebrannt | burned |
| bringen | haben | gebracht | brought |
| wissen | haben | gewusst | known |
| kennen | haben | gekannt | known |
| wenden | haben | gewandt | turned |
| German | English Translation |
|---|---|
| 1. Das Tier ist so schnell gerannt. 2. Wie lange hast du das gewusst? 3. Ich habe an dich gedacht | The animal has run so fast. How long have you known that? I have thought of you. |
Perfect tense of verbs ending with –ieren
| Verbs | Auxiliary | Derived Partizip II | English past participle |
|---|---|---|---|
| stornieren | haben | storniert | terminated/ canceled |
| studieren | haben | studiert | studied |
| gratulieren | haben | gratuliert | congratulated |
| passieren | sein | passiert | happened |
| German | English Translation |
|---|---|
| 1. Er hat den Kauf storniert. 2. Sie hat Mikrobiologie studiert. | He has canceled the purchase. She has studied microbiology. |
Perfect tense of separable verbs (trennbare Verben)
| Verbs | Auxiliary | Derived Partizip II | English past participle |
|---|---|---|---|
| stattfinden | haben | stattgefunden | taken place |
| abreisen | sein | abgereist | departed |
| einschlafen | haben | eingeschlafen | slept off |
| beibringen | haben | beigebracht | instilled |
| German | English Translation |
|---|---|
| 1. Die Party hat am Montag stattgefunden. 2. Susan hat eingeschlafen. 3. Ich bin vom Flughafen schon abgereist. | The party has taken place on Monday. Susan has fallen asleep. I have already departed from the airport. |
Perfect tense of inseparable verbs (untrennbare Verben)
| Verbs | Auxiliary | Derived Partizip II | English past participle |
|---|---|---|---|
| verkaufen | haben | verkauft | sold |
| erkennen | haben | erkannt | recognized |
| unterschreiben | haben | unterschrieben | signed |
| übersenden | haben | übersandt | transmitted |
| German | English Translation |
|---|---|
| 1. Ich habe die Unterlagen unterschrieben. 2. Wir haben schon mal Kleidungen verkauft. 3. Hat das Netz noch nicht übersandt? | I have signed the documents. We have once sold clothes. Has the network still not transmitted? |
**Note: all of the examples in English can be replaced with the simple past tense and still be translated by online dictionaries the same way in German. This is just the foundational basics.