In this lesson, you will learn how to form the perfect tense with haben, you can also find rules on how to choose verbs that form the perfect form with haben. You will also learn when to use the past tense and when to use the perfect tense.
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How to form perfect tense with haben?
Which verbs form the perfect tense with haben?
Past tense or Perfect tense?
The perfect tense with sein
How to form perfect tense with haben?
Pattern:
Perfect tense = haben/sein + participle II
Above is the formula for actually building the perfect. Since in this lesson we are talking about the perfect with haben, look at some examples:
Mia hat den ganzen Tag Mathe gelernt.
Wir haben schon lange nicht miteinander gesprochen.
Er hat den Film bereits gesehen.
Compere these three sentences with the formula. In declarative sentences, the auxiliary verb haben comes on the second place, and the participle II comes on the last. Haben is marked in red, and participle II in green.
Which verbs form the perfect tense with haben?
The following verbs form the perfect tense with haben:
- most transitive verbs (verbs that require an accusative object):
Ich habe meine Oma besucht.
Wir haben ein neues Haus gekauft.
Nikola hat ein interessantes Buch gelesen. - reflexive verbs:
Er hat sich rasiert.
Ich habe mich angezogen.
Wir haben unswirklich gefreut. - modal verbs, when they stand alone in a sentence:
Ich habe das nicht gekonnt.
Wir haben das gewollt. - verbs that mark weather conditions:
Es hat stark geregnet.
In der Nacht hat es einen halben Meter geschneit. - Intransitive verbs that describe a state without a time limit:
Ich habe 9 Stunden geschlafen. (BUT: Ich bin um 8 Uhreingeschlafen.)
Click on:
Grammar Contents
Past tense or Perfect tense?
Both the past tense and the perfect tense describe the past in the German language. But there are differences in their use. We can use the past tense when making statements about events that happened in the past.
Unlike the perfect, the past tense is usually only used in written language, especially in stories, novels or reports. When we talk about the past in everyday conversation, the perfect tense is most often used. Exceptions are the verbs sein, haben and werden, which are rarely used in the perfect tense and are therefore also used in the spoken language in the past tense. Modal verbs are also included. This is how it would look:
Mia: Hallo Hannah! Was gibt’s Neues bei dir?
Hannah: Ich war letzte Woche in Wien.
Mia: Wieso?
Hannah: Ich hatte ein paar Tage frei und wollte mit meinem Mann das Schloss Beldwedere besuchen und noch ein paar Sehenswürdigkeiten in der Stadt besichtigen.
Mia: Sehr interessant! Was habt ihr sonst noch gemacht?
Hanna: Wir haben auch Wiener Schnitzel und Sachertorte probiert. Letztlich haben wir alte Freunde getroffen. Die ganze Woche war sonnig und wir haben es sehr genossen.
As you can see in spoken language not only one tense is used.
The perfect tense with sein
If you want to know which form of the perfect tense with sein, click on the lesson:The present perfect tense with sein
See more:
Present Perfect Tense
Present Perfect Tense with Sein
Verbs with Prefixes in the Perfect Tense
Past and Perfect Tenses in English and German
Participle I and Participle II