In English, the present perfect tense is used for past events that are linked to the present. This stands in contrast to the simple past tense, which refers to actions that were completed in the past:
present perfect They have not arrived yet.
simple past They arrived last week.
The present perfect tense in German
In German, it is not relevant whether a past event refers to the present in some way or if the action was completed in the past. Instead, the main difference in usage is based on the following:
➠the present perfect is generally used when speaking about the past, irrespective
of how long ago an event occurred; and
➠the simple past is mainly used in the written language.
Formation – the main principles
The present perfect is a compound tense, which is constructed with the appropriate form of haben or sein + the past participle of the relevant verb. There are three main patterns:
➠Regular verbs usually take haben and form the past participle by adding ge- + t to the
stem:
How did you do that?
-t and often undergo a vowel change:
Er hat Kaffee getrunken.
He drank coffee.
➠Verbs referring to movement or a change of state take sein:
Here are the forms in more detail
Regular verbs
Formation
The present perfect tense of most regular verbs is constructed by using the present tense of haben + the past participle of the relevant verb.
The past participle is formed with the stem of the verb, which is the infinitive without -(e)n. The prefix ge- is then added at the beginning and the letter -t at the end:
|
Infinitive
|
Stem
|
Past participle
|
|
|
hören sagen lächeln
|
hör sag lächel
|
ge + hör + t
ge + sag + t
ge + lächel +t
|
listened, heard said
smiled
|
Irregular verbs
The past participle of most irregular verbs are formed by putting ge- in front of the stem and -en at the end:
|
Infinitive
|
Stem
|
Past participle
|
|
|
lesen⇢ sehen waschen
|
les seh wasch
|
ge + les + en ge + seh + en
ge + wasch + en
|
read seen washed
|
Stem vowel change
Many irregular verbs have a stem vowel change:
|
Infinitive
|
Past participle
|
|
|
finden⇢
helfen schreiben fliegen
|
gefunden geholfen geschrieben geflogen
|
found helped written flown
|
Note that many German irregular verbs tend to be irregular in English. A good way to learn irregular verb forms is to work with a list of verbs, which you can find in most dictionaries.
There are verbs called mixed verbs which combine the characteristics of regular and irregular verbs as they change their stem vowel and add -t when forming the past participle. Here are some examples:
|
Infinitive
brennen ⇢
|
Past participle
gebrannt
|
burned
|
|
bringen
|
gebracht
|
brought
|
|
denken
|
gedacht
|
thought
|
|
kennen
|
gekannt
|
known
|
|
nennen
|
genannt
|
named
|
|
wissen
|
gewusst
|
known
|
Verbs taking sein
A number of verbs in German form their present perfect tense with
This group contains commonly used irregular verbs such as gehen ‘to go’, fahren ‘to go (by vehicle)’, kommen ‘to come’, ankommen ‘to arrive’, laufen ‘to run’:
Ich bin ins Kino gegangen.
I have gone/went to the cinema.
Seid ihr mit dem Auto gefahren?
Did you go by car?
Jörg ist den ganzen Weg gelaufen.
Jörg has run/ran the whole way.
There are also a few regular verbs indicating movement such as joggen ‘to jog’, reisen ‘to travel’, segeln ‘to sail’ and wandern ‘to hike’ which require sein:
Robert ist letztes Jahr durch Asien gereist.
Robert travelled through Asia last year.
Sie sind in den Alpen gewandert.
They went hiking in the Alps.
Verbs expressing a change of state
Another group of verbs indicates a process or a change of state. They include aufstehen ‘to get up’, einschlafen ‘to fall asleep’, sterben ‘to die’, wachsen ‘to grow’,
He has become/became an engineer.
Du bist aber gewachsen!
How you have grown!
Wir sind sehr früh eingeschlafen.
We fell asleep very early.
Other verbs – bleiben, passieren, sein
There are three other verbs which also take sein to form the present perfect: bleiben ‘to stay’, passieren ‘to happen’ and sein ‘to be’:
Wir sind nur eine Woche geblieben.
We only stayed for a week.
Was ist denn passiert?
What (has) happened?
Er ist noch nie in Berlin gewesen.
He has never been to Berlin.
Usage with haben
Sometimes, the verbs fahren and fliegen form their present perfect with haben when the focus is on the driver or pilot. However, this usage is quite rare:
Er hat das Auto selbst gefahren.
He drove the car himself.
Sie hat den Hubschrauber geflogen.
She flew the helicopter (herself).
Other points to watch out for
Note that some of the following verbs form their past participles without adding ge-:
➠Verbs ending in -ieren, such as buchstabieren ‘to spell’, probieren ‘to try’, reagieren ‘to react’, studieren ‘to study’, telefonieren ‘to telephone’:
Sie hat schnell reagiert.
She (has) reacted quickly.
Wir haben in Marseille studiert.
We studied in Marseille.➠Verbs with the inseparable prefixes be-, emp-, ent-, er-, ge-, miss-, ver-, zer-:
Ich habe mit Kreditkarte bezahlt.
I (have) paid by credit card.
Der Kellner hat mir die Suppe empfohlen.
The waiter (has) recommended the soup to me.
Separable verbs form their past participles by placing ‘ge’ between the separable prefix and the main verb:
When did you arrive?
Hast du gestern ferngesehen?
Did you watch TV last night?
Word order
In a main clause the relevant form of haben or sein is the second element and the past participle moves to the end:
Er hat die Tür aufgemacht.
He (has) opened the door.
Wir sind nur eine Woche geblieben.
We only stayed for a week.
In subordinate clauses, the appropriate form of haben or sein is usually placed in the last position. It is preceded by the past participle:
Es stimmt, dass er früher in Tirol gelebt hat.
It is true that he used to live in the Tyrol.
Ich denke, dass sie mit dem Auto gefahren sind.
I think that they went by car.
Using the simple past instead
Although the present perfect is normally used when talking about past events, it is quite common to use the simple past tense of modal verbs in spoken German:
Ich konnte gestern nicht kommen.
I couldn’t come yesterday.
Was wolltest du eigentlich kaufen?
What did you actually want to buy?
Note also that the present perfect of haben and sein is often replaced with the simple past forms:
Ich habe Urlaub gehabt. ➞ Ich hatte Urlaub.
Ich bin im Kino gewesen. ➞ Ich war im Kino.