{"id":1011,"date":"2010-07-06T19:59:52","date_gmt":"2010-07-06T18:59:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jabbalab.com\/blog\/?p=1011"},"modified":"2015-02-08T21:16:06","modified_gmt":"2015-02-08T20:16:06","slug":"past-tense-german-how-to-talk-about-the-past-in-german","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.jabbalab.com\/blog\/1011\/past-tense-german-how-to-talk-about-the-past-in-german","title":{"rendered":"German Past Tense &#8211; How to talk about the Past in German"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.jabbalab.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/perfect-tense.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-1012\" title=\"perfect-tense\" src=\"http:\/\/www.jabbalab.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/perfect-tense.jpg\" alt=\"Past Tense German\" width=\"225\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.jabbalab.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/perfect-tense.jpg 225w, http:\/\/www.jabbalab.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/perfect-tense-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"prep-title\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.jabbalab.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/perfect-tense.jpg\">The Perfect Tense &#8211; A Common German Past Tense<\/a><\/h3>\n<p>We&#8217;re now going to jump back in time to the past tense in German. There are a few different forms of the past tense, but in this article we will be looking at the <strong>Perfect Tense<\/strong>. This is probably the most commonly used, especially in the spoken form.<\/p>\n<p>Learn and enjoy the German language with <strong><span style=\"color: #faaf0f;\">Jabba<\/span><\/strong><strong><span style=\"color: #de2c2c;\">lab<\/span><\/strong>!<\/p>\n<div style=\"clear: both;\"><\/div>\n<h3 class=\"prep-title\">When to use the perfect tense?<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>The perfect tense is used to talk about situations in the past:<\/li>\n<p><strong>For example:<\/strong><br \/>\nI have played football. \u21e8 Ich habe Fu\u00dfball gespielt.<br \/>\nShe has been to the cinema. \u21e8 Sie ist ins Kino gegangen.\n<\/ul>\n<div style=\"clear: both;\"><\/div>\n<h3 class=\"prep-title\">Forming a sentence in the perfect tense<\/h3>\n<p>The perfect tense is made up of 2 parts:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The first part is the present tense of either <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jabbalab.com\/blog\/1567\/the-german-verb-haben-to-have\">haben<\/a> or <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jabbalab.com\/blog\/1480\/the-german-verb-sein-to-be\">sein<\/a>. The majority of past tense German sentences are constructed using the verb <strong>haben<\/strong>, however when talking about something movement related, you would use the verb <strong>sein<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<li>The second part is the past tense version of the German verb called the <strong>past participle<\/strong>. This is equivalent to played, walked, gone etc. in English.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The first part is pretty straight forward. The second part, forming the <strong>past participle<\/strong> (the past tense German verb) is a little bit more involved. This depends on whether the verb is a <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.jabbalab.com\/blog\/880\/how-german-verbs-work-in-the-present-tense-part-1\">weak verb<\/a><\/strong>, a <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.jabbalab.com\/blog\/924\/how-german-verbs-work-in-the-present-tense-part-2\">strong verb<\/a><\/strong>, or a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jabbalab.com\/blog\/12308\/mixed-german-verbs\">mixed verb<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong><u>Past participle of weak and mixed verbs<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>To form the past participle of a weak or mixed verb, you add <strong><span style=\"color: #de2c2c;\">ge<\/span><\/strong> to the beginning of the verb and <strong><span style=\"color: #faaf0f;\">t<\/span><\/strong> after the stem of the verb. Here are a few examples of how to get a weak verb into the past tense:<\/p>\n<p>spielen (to play) \u21e8 <strong><span style=\"color: #de2c2c;\">ge<\/span><\/strong>spiel<strong><span style=\"color: #faaf0f;\">t<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>lachen (to laugh) \u21e8 <strong><span style=\"color: #de2c2c;\">ge<\/span><\/strong>lach<strong><span style=\"color: #faaf0f;\">t<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>lernen (to learn) \u21e8 <strong><span style=\"color: #de2c2c;\">ge<\/span><\/strong>lern<strong><span style=\"color: #faaf0f;\">t<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>sagen (to say) \u21e8 <strong><span style=\"color: #de2c2c;\">ge<\/span><\/strong>sag<strong><span style=\"color: #faaf0f;\">t<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Remember<\/strong>: With mixed verbs (as with strong verbs), the stem of the verb may change when going into the German past tense.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For example:<\/strong><br \/>\nbringen (to bring) \u21e8 <strong><span style=\"color: #de2c2c;\">ge<\/span><\/strong>brach<strong><span style=\"color: #faaf0f;\">t<\/span><\/strong><br \/>\ndenken (to think) \u21e8 <strong><span style=\"color: #de2c2c;\">ge<\/span><\/strong>dach<strong><span style=\"color: #faaf0f;\">t<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><u>Past participle of strong verbs<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>To form the past participle of a strong verb, you again add <strong><span style=\"color: #de2c2c;\">ge<\/span><\/strong> to the beginning of the verb, but add <strong><span style=\"color: #faaf0f;\">en<\/span><\/strong> to the end of the stem. As with mixed verbs above, the stem may change when going into the past tense.<\/p>\n<p>lesen (to read) \u21e8 <strong><span style=\"color: #de2c2c;\">ge<\/span><\/strong>les<strong><span style=\"color: #faaf0f;\">en<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>fahren (to drive) \u21e8 <strong><span style=\"color: #de2c2c;\">ge<\/span><\/strong>fahr<strong><span style=\"color: #faaf0f;\">en<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>essen (to eat) \u21e8 <strong><span style=\"color: #de2c2c;\">ge<\/span><\/strong>gess<strong><span style=\"color: #faaf0f;\">en<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>trinken (to drink) \u21e8 <strong><span style=\"color: #de2c2c;\">ge<\/span><\/strong>trunk<strong><span style=\"color: #faaf0f;\">en<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><u>Putting it all together<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Now you know to use <strong><span style=\"color: #de2c2c;\">haben<\/span><\/strong> or <strong><span style=\"color: #de2c2c;\">sein<\/span><\/strong> and how to form the <strong><span style=\"color: #faaf0f;\">past participle<\/span><\/strong>, you can put it all together to form a sentence in the perfect tense:<\/p>\n<p>I have laughed so much \u21e8 Ich <strong><span style=\"color: #de2c2c;\">habe<\/span><\/strong> so sehr <strong><span style=\"color: #faaf0f;\">gelacht<\/span><\/strong>. (Literal: I have so much laughed.)<\/p>\n<p>I drove home yesterday. \u21e8 Ich <strong><span style=\"color: #de2c2c;\">bin<\/span><\/strong> gestern nach Hause <strong><span style=\"color: #faaf0f;\">gefahren<\/span><\/strong>. (Literal: I am yesterday home driven.)<\/p>\n<p>I have read a great book. \u21e8 Ich <strong><span style=\"color: #de2c2c;\">habe<\/span><\/strong> ein tolles Buch <strong><span style=\"color: #faaf0f;\">gelesen<\/span><\/strong>. (Literal: I have a great book read.)<\/p>\n<p><strong><u>A couple of exceptions<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>There are a couple of exceptions to look out for. These exceptions exist when the verb in its infinitive form begins with <strong>be<\/strong>, <strong>ge<\/strong> or <strong>ver<\/strong>. When this happens, the beginning of the verb stays the same.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For example:<\/strong><br \/>\nbesuchen (to visit): I have visited my grandma last week. \u21e8 Ich <strong><span style=\"color: #de2c2c;\">habe<\/span><\/strong> letzte Woche meine Oma <strong><span style=\"color: #faaf0f;\">besucht<\/span><\/strong>. (Literal: I have last week my grandma visited.)<\/p>\n<p>gewinnen (to win): Tom has won \u20ac100. \u21e8 Tom <strong><span style=\"color: #de2c2c;\">hat<\/span><\/strong> 100\u20ac <strong><span style=\"color: #faaf0f;\">gewonnen<\/span><\/strong>. (Literal: Tom has \u20ac100 won.)<\/p>\n<p>vergessen (to forget): We&#8217;ve forgotten our keys. \u21e8 Wir <strong><span style=\"color: #de2c2c;\">haben<\/span><\/strong> unsere Schl\u00fcssel <strong><span style=\"color: #faaf0f;\">vergessen<\/span><\/strong>. (Literal: We have our keys forgotten.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Perfect Tense &#8211; A Common German Past Tense We&#8217;re now going to jump back in time to the past tense in German. There are a few different forms of the past tense, but in this article we will be looking at the Perfect Tense. This is probably the most commonly used, especially in the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[26,3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jabbalab.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1011"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jabbalab.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jabbalab.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jabbalab.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jabbalab.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1011"}],"version-history":[{"count":28,"href":"http:\/\/www.jabbalab.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1011\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15736,"href":"http:\/\/www.jabbalab.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1011\/revisions\/15736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jabbalab.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jabbalab.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jabbalab.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}