Langvie / German grammar / The German perfect tense with haben
The German perfect tense with haben.
You use the Perfekt tense to talk about past events and what you did earlier today or yesterday. It is the most common past tense in spoken German and appears in almost every everyday conversation.
Sentence structure with haben
To build the Perfekt, conjugate haben in the second position of the sentence. The past participle goes to the very end of the clause.
- Ich habe gestern gearbeitet.I worked yesterday.
- Wir haben am Nachmittag Tee getrunken.We drank tea in the afternoon.
Regular participles with ge- and -t
Regular verbs build their participle with the prefix ge- and the ending -t attached to the stem. If the verb stem ends in -t or -d, add -et instead.
| Infinitive | Participle | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| machen | gemacht | made / done |
| kaufen | gekauft | bought |
| hören | gehört | heard |
| fragen | gefragt | asked |
| spielen | gespielt | played |
| arbeiten | gearbeitet | worked |
| kosten | gekostet | cost |
- Er hat heute einen Kalender gekauft.He bought a calendar today.
- Hast du am Freitag einen Termin gemacht?Did you make an appointment on Friday?
Common irregular participles with ge- and -en
Many common verbs end in -en in the participle instead of -t. Some change their stem vowel, while others keep it.
| Infinitive | Participle | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| essen | gegessen | eaten |
| trinken | getrunken | drunk |
| schlafen | geschlafen | slept |
| lesen | gelesen | read |
| sehen | gesehen | seen |
| schreiben | geschrieben | written |
- Sie hat am Sonntag lange geschlafen.She slept for a long time on Sunday.
- Ich habe am Morgen einen Apfel gegessen.I ate an apple in the morning.
Exceptions to remember
- The participle never changes its ending for different pronouns and always stays at the end of the sentence. Wir haben gestern Kaffee getrunken.
- Irregular verbs often change their vowel completely in the participle. Sie hat ein Buch geschrieben.
Practice it in the course
This rule is chapter 23 of 31 in the A1 German course in Langvie, after German accusative pronouns: mich, dich, ihn and before German modal verbs können and wollen. In the app the chapter goes on with 8 exercises and a short spoken conversation with an AI partner, which opens with Was haben Sie gestern gemacht?
Choose the correct form of haben. Er ___ gestern nicht gearbeitet. (hast / hat / haben)
hat. The subject er requires the conjugated form hat. He did not work yesterday.
Practice this rule in Langvie.
Chapter 23 of the A1 course, with exercises, cards and a conversation in German.