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9 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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The Perfect Tense
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Unlike English, which uses the auxiliar verb to have (+ past participle of the main verb) for all perfect tense forms, the auxiliary verb in the perfect tenses in German may be 'haben' or 'sein' (keeping the same translation either way).
PRESENT PERFECT (= -ed) auxilary verb + ge- + past tense NB: transitive verbs always use 'haben'; intransitive verbs usually use 'sein'. PAST PERFECT (= had) past tense auxiliary verb + ge- + past tense |
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Meanings of the Perfect Tenses
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German PRESENT PERFECT is usually equivalent to the English past tense.
German expresses past events using either or both simple past and present perfect, the past perfect is always expressed by means of a compound tense utilizing hatt- or war- plus the past participle (both are equivalent to 'had'). |
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Seit + Present Tense = have been + -ing
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Indicates how long one has been doing something (which continues to be happening).
The dative preposition seit (since) often occurs with the adverb schon (already). (schon) seit + amount of time = (already) for + amount of time (schon) seit + specific time = (already) since + specific time |
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Past Participles of weak verbs
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If verb ends in -t, generally equate to English past participle -ed.
To determine the infinitive from the past participle of the majority of weak verbs, simply drop the prefix ge- and the ending -(e)t, and add -en to the stem. |
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Past Participles of strong verbs
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If end in -en, generally correspond to English past participles likewise ending in -(e)n.
hat gesungen/singen = has sung/sing hat gegeben/geben = has given/give hat getrunken/trinken = has drunk/drink |
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Past Participles of verbs with inseparable prefixes
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Will be identical with their infinitive. But participles occur with a helping verb (sein, haben); present-tense plurals stand alone
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Past Participles of verbs with separable prefixes
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ge- stands between the separable prefix and the stem.
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Principle parts
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The principle parts of a verb are the infinitive (sein) plus the third-person singular fomrs of the verb's simple past (war), past participle (ist gewesen); and present (ist).
sein, war, ist gewesen = to be, was, had been. |
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Translating Tip
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1. translate the subject
2. translate the compound verb as a unit 3. proceed by translating verb complements in what may seem to be reverse order since the German sequence is often a mirror image of English Viele deutsche Revolutionäre sind 1848 und 1849 nach Amerika gekommen. 1. Viele deutsche Revolutionäre = Many German revolutionaries 2. sind gekommen = came 3. nach Amerika = to America 4. 1848 und 1849 = in 1848 and 1849 |
