In this lesson, you will learn about the German present perfect tense, including how it is formed and when it is used. I will explain the use of the auxiliary verbs “haben” and “sein,” which are crucial for forming the perfect tense. Many learners find this aspect challenging, particularly when deciding whether to use “haben” or “sein.” That’s why we will proceed step by step through the process.
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What is the perfect in German?
How do we form the present perfect in German?
How do we form the participle II in German?
Auxiliary verb sein and verbs of motion
Auxiliary verb haben
What Is The Present Perfect in German?
The present perfect tense is one of the most important tenses in German grammar. It is almost always used when talking about the past. As in many other languages, it is a complex tense, which means that it is formed using auxiliary verbs and the participle II. The auxiliary verbs for building the present perfect are “haben” and “sein”. The auxiliary verb “sein” is used with verbs of motion and change of state, and “haben” with all other verbs.
But what exactly does that mean? We will give examples to see how it looks:
Lina has made a cake yestarday. The perfect is marked in red, as in English it consists of two parts.
The auxiliary verb comes second in the sentence, and the participle II comes last. We used the auxiliary verb haben, because the verb machen does not express movement. It´s true we move around, while making the cake, but it is not meant to move in a certain, closed space rather than in the sense of moving from one place to another, as Mateo does.
I will explain this in more detail later.
Mateo has ran this morning. Here it is a two-part perfect, but this time with the auxiliary verb sein, because the verb laufen expresses movement.
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Grammar Contents
How do We Form the Present Perfect Tense in German?
Let’s go a little deeper into the topic. We said step by step.
The present perfect is formed from the present of the auxiliary verbs haben and sein and the participle II, also called the perfect participle:
- Haben and sein have the role of an auxiliary verb here and have no meaning, when used independently they certainly have their own meaning. Here they are only used to form The Present Perfect Tense. Both verbs are used in The Present Tense, they change by person and in the main sentence they are in the SECOND position.
- The main verb in the sentence is in PARTICIPLE II, it never changes its form and it must be at the END of the sentence in the main sentence.
Let´s see how it looks in practice, here you have a tabular representation of how auxiliary verbs change by person and the main verb in participle II, which remains unchanged. We have two examples: the verb lernen and the verb kommen. Lernen is a regular verb and kommen is an irregular verb:
How Do We Form The Participle II in German?
This is how it is built for regular verbs:
ge + unchanging verb stem + (e)t
I give two examples because of (e):
machen = ge + mach + t
arbeiten = ge + arbeit + et
In the case of regular verbs, the Participle II never changes. As shown below, we add the prefix “ge-” in front of the unchanging verb stem and the suffix “-(e)t” after it. The choice between using the suffix “-et” or just “-t” depends on the final letter of the verb stem. You can read more about this in the lesson: The Present Tense of the Regular Verbs in the German Language (RegelmäßigeVerben), subtitle: Exceptions in the conjugation of regular verbs.
This is how it is built for regular verbs:
ge + unchanging verb stem + en
Here are two examples of irregular verbs, one has the verb stem changed, the other has not:
gehen = ge + gang + en
kommen = ge + komm + en
In the case of irregular verbs, the verb stem typically changes. Similar to regular verbs, we add the prefix “ge-” to the stem, and then attach the suffix “-en” after the stem. The most effective way to master irregular verbs is to memorize them.
You can find a list of irregular verbs categorized into groups here.
In this section, I have briefly explained how to form the past participle (Participle II) for both regular and irregular verbs. If you would like to learn how to build the past participle for other types of verbs, please refer to the lesson on Participle I and II.
Auxiliary verb sein and verbs of motion
Verbs of movement are for example: laufen (run), gehen (walk), fahren (drive, travel), rennen (run), springen (jump), fliegen (fly), … .
Verbs of motion are verbs that describe movement from one place to another. These verbs are also referred to as intransitive verbs, meaning they do not take a direct object (they do not have a noun in the accusative case unless accompanied by a preposition).
When forming the Present Perfect Tense with these verbs, we use the auxiliary verb “sein” in the second position of the sentence, conjugated appropriately for the subject. The main verb will be in the past participle form (Partizip II), which always remains unchanged and is placed at the end of the sentence.
For example:
Ich bin nach Hause gegangen. – I have gone home.
However, some verbs of motion can form the perfect form with both auxiliary verbs, haben and sein. These are, for example, the verbs: schwimmen and joggen.
But if there is an adverb for place in the sentence, that is, an adverb indicating a direction, then that verb can only go into the perfect form with sein.
For Example:
Ich habe geschwommen./Ich bin geschwommen. (I have swum.)
ALI: Ich bin zum Ufer geschwommen. (I have swum towards the shore.)
Ich habe gejoggt. /Ich bin gejoggt. (I have run.)
ALI: Ich bin durch den Wald gejoggt. (I have run through the wood(forest).)
All examples are correct. However, the variant with haben is used less.
Auxiliary Verb haben
Most verbs form the present perfect tense using the auxiliary verb “haben.” Below, I will list the specific rules for when to use “haben” in the perfect tense:
▪ all transitive verbs form The Present Perfect Tense with haben.
Transitive verbs require an accusative object. So you can always ask yourself the question with WHO? or WHAT?
For example:
I am reading a book. – (WHO or) WHAT am I reading? It is the same in German. In most cases, German and English coincide when it comes to transitive verbs.
Here is an example in German as well:
The PRESENT TENSE:
Ich lese ein Buch.
Was liest du? – Ein Buch.
What are you reading? – A book
The PRESENT PERFECT:
Ich habe ein Buch gelesen.
We now understand that the verb “lesen” requires an accusative object. We verified this by asking “Who?” for living beings and “What?” for things.
▪ all modal verbs if we use them alone in a sentence
For example:
Ich habe zum Arzt gemusst. (I had to go to the doctor.)
But if we use them with another verb, then we have to use TWO INFINTIVES.
For example:
Ich habe am Sonntag arbeiten müssen. (I had to work on Sunday.)
Although in spoken language you can also hear a variant with participle II.
For example:
Ich habe am Sonntag arbeiten gemusst.
▪ all reflexive verbs: sich freuen, sich ärgern …
▪ all impersonal verbs: es hat geregnet, es hat gedonnert …
▪ many intransitive verbs: schlafen, helfen, …
That is all on this topic. If you have any questions write to me, I will gladly reply to each questions.
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