The Perfekt: Talking About the Past
A1How to say what you did yesterday — the tense Germans use for almost everything they say about the past.
A verb sandwich with two past parts
German's spoken past has two pieces: a form of 'haben' on position two, and the Partizip II at the very end of the sentence — the verb sandwich you know from the modal verbs, wearing a new filling. Regular verbs build the Partizip II with ge- + stem + -t, and it never changes again.
| Infinitive | Partizip II | Example |
|---|---|---|
| machen | gemacht | Ich habe die Hausaufgaben gemacht. |
| kaufen | gekauft | Wir haben ein Auto gekauft. |
| lernen | gelernt | Du hast viel gelernt. |
| spielen | gespielt | Die Kinder haben Fußball gespielt. |
| arbeiten | gearbeitet | Sie hat gestern gearbeitet. |
Beispiele — examples in context
Ich habe gestern einen Film gesehen.
I watched a movie yesterday.
Strong verbs: learn them as vocabulary
Strong (irregular) verbs build the Partizip II with ge- + a CHANGED stem + -en. You can't derive 'gegessen' from 'essen' by rule — but you only need a handful at A1, and you already know most of the verbs. Learn each participle like a new word, together with its verb.
| Infinitive | Partizip II | English |
|---|---|---|
| essen | gegessen | eaten |
| trinken | getrunken | drunk |
| lesen | gelesen | read |
| sehen | gesehen | seen |
| schlafen | geschlafen | slept |
| nehmen | genommen | taken |
| sprechen | gesprochen | spoken |
| schreiben | geschrieben | written |
Beispiele — examples in context
Wir haben Pizza gegessen und Cola getrunken.
We ate pizza and drank cola.
Movement takes sein
Verbs that go from A to B — gehen, fahren, kommen, fliegen, aufstehen — and verbs of change like 'werden' take 'sein' instead of 'haben' as their helper. The test: does the verb answer 'from where to where?' or 'into what state?' Then it's sein. Everything else, including all verbs with a direct object, takes haben.
Beispiele — examples in context
Ich bin um sieben Uhr aufgestanden.
I got up at seven o'clock.
Wir sind am Wochenende nach Berlin gefahren.
We went to Berlin on the weekend.
Ich bin zu Hause geblieben.
I stayed home.
Pro tip: this is THE German past
In spoken German, the Perfekt has almost completely replaced the simple past — a German telling you about their weekend will use it for every verb except two. Which two? 'sein' and 'haben' themselves — they have their own mini-past, 'war' and 'hatte', and that is genuinely all the Präteritum you need at A1. Ask 'Was hast du gestern gemacht?' and you can keep a conversation about the past alive all evening.
Beispiele — examples in context
Was hast du gestern gemacht? — Ich habe Deutsch gelernt!
What did you do yesterday? — I learned German!