Aim of this section is to learn how to speak about past events.
German
English
Ich habe heute viel gearbeitet. Ich bin bei meiner Freundin gewesen. Hast du sie gesehen?
I worked a lot today. I have been at my girlfriend. Did you see her?
rules
There are 3 tenses to speak about the past:
das Perfekt (Perfect)
das Präteritum (Preterite)
das Plusquamperfekt (Pluperfect)
We will concentrate at first on the "Perfekt" because it's almost always used and so the most important way to speak about the past.
Don't confuse the "Perfekt" in German with the "Present Perfect" in English. It doesn't have the same purpose.
How do you form the "Perfekt" tense ?
Hilfsverben (auxiliary verbs = "helping verbs")
There are two "Hilfsverben" in German:
haben (have)
sein (be)
When do you have to use "haben" and when "sein"?
You use "sein" when the verb shows a change of position or condition e.g. gehen (go), kommen (come), wandern (hiking)
You use "sein" when the verb shows a crossing of a "boundary" e.g. sterben (die), einschlafen (fall asleep)
You use "sein" when the verb is an intransitive verb (=verb without direct object)
For all other cases use "haben" as "Hilfsverb".
Another useful rule is that almost all weak verbs (see below) take "haben" as their "Hilfsverb". The only exception are the verbs "reisen" (travel) and "passieren" (happen).
examples:
Ich bin gestern gekommen. (I arrived yesterday.)
Er ist gerade gegangen. (He has just gone.)
Bist du schon eingeschlafen? (Did you fall asleep already?)
The "Hilfsverb" is conjugated as usual. The main verb is transformed into the "Partizip II".
What is the "Partizip II"?
Like in English there are three "Stammformen" (principal forms) for every verb. The "Partizip II" is the same as the "past participle" in English.
Deutsch
1. Stammform (Infinitiv)
2. Stammform (Präteritum)
3. Stammform (Partizip II)
machen
machte
gemacht
haben
hatte
gehabt
gehen
ging
gegangen
Englisch
1. principal form (infinitiv)
2. principal form (simple past)
3. principal form (past participle)
do
did
done
have
had
had
go
went
gone
How do you form the "Partizip II"?
As you already heard from Mr Wolf there are three groups of verbs:
weak verbs (regular)
strong verbs (irregular)
mixed verbs (irregular)
weak verbs
Weak verbs are easy to handle. They are regular and follow a rule.
To form the "Partizip II" of weaks verbs:
take the stem (=verb without the ending "en")
add "ge" in front of the stem
add "t" after the stem
examples:
machen (Infinitiv) -> gemacht (Partizip II)
fragen (Infinitiv) -> gefragt (Partizip II)
arbeiten (Infinitiv) -> gearbeitet (Partizip II)
A few weeks ago we dealt with separable verbs. They consists of prefix+stem+en. Here you follow the same rule.
Put the "ge" in front of the stem:
exception 2: inseparable weak verbs don't get the prefix "ge" but only the suffix "t"
examples:
besuchen (Infinitiv) -> besucht (Partizip II)
zerstören (Infinitiv) -> zerstört (Partizip II)
erholen (Infinitiv) -> erholt (Partizip II)
strong verbs
The second group are the strong verbs. They follow almost the same rules like the weak verbs
but unfortunately, some of them change the stem vowel and some of them change the whole stem.
To form the "Partizip II" of strong verbs:
take the stem (=verb without the ending "en")
add "ge" in front of the stem
add "en" after the stem
change the stem vowel or the whole stem for some strong verbs
Inseparable strong verbs behave similar to inseparable weak verbs. They also don't get the "ge" in front of the stem.
take the stem (=verb without the ending "en")
DON'T put the "ge" in front of the stem
add "en" after the stem
change the stem vowel for some strong inseparable verbs
examples:
verstehen (Infinitiv) -> verstanden (Partizip II)
erfinden (Infinitiv) -> erfunden (Partizip II)
bekommen (Infinitiv) -> bekommen (Partizip II)
mixed verbs
The third group are the mixed verbs. They behave like strong and weak verbs.
They've got the prefix "ge" and the suffix "t" like weak verbs but also change
the stem vowel like strong verbs. Fortunately, there are just 8 of them.
examples:
denken (Infinitiv) -> gedacht (Partizip II)
kennen (Infinitiv) -> gekannt (Partizip II)
bringen (Infinitiv) -> gebracht (Partizip II)
word order
There is an easy rule where you have to put the "Hilfsverb" and the "Partizip II" in a statement.
put the "Hilfsverb" after the subject
put the "Partizip II" at the end of the sentence
examples:
Ich habe sie gesehen. (I saw her.)
Ich bin in Cagayan gewesen. (I've been in Cagayan.)
Er hat ihr das Buch gebracht. (He brought the book to her.)
There is an easy rule where you have to put the "Hilfsverb" and the "Partizip II" in a question.
put the "Hilfsverb" at the beginning of the sentence
put the "Partizip II" at the end of the sentence
examples:
Hast du sie gesehen? (Did you see her?)
Bist du in Cagayan gewesen? (Have you been in Cagayan?)
Hat er ihr das Buch gebracht? (Did he bring the book to her?)
Cathy & Tom 
