Present perfect (Von Ereignissen mündlich berichten)

Ich habe gestern Fußball gespielt.

In spoken language, we often use the present perfect tense to talk about something that
happened in the past.

The present perfect is formed from two parts:

a) In second position in the sentence is a simple clause with the auxiliary verb haben or sein.
It is conjugated as in the present tense.

b) The activity described in the sentence is expressed using the second verb at the end of the
sentence. This verb is in a special form, the past participle. Most past participles start with the
prefix ge-. The past participle in the present perfect tense is an infinitive form, meaning it is
not conjugated.

Grammatical terms in German:

das Perfekt: The present perfect is a verb tense that expresses an event in the past. It is
formed using the conjugated form of the auxiliary verb (haben or sein) and the past
participle.

Present perfect: auxiliary verbs

Most verbs make the perfect with the auxiliary verb haben. Verbs that could take an
accusative object always form the perfect tense with haben:

Max und Tarek haben mich zum Arzt gebracht.

Verbs that make the present perfect with sein are …

... verbs that express movement in a particular direction or signify a change of location,
e.g. gehen, fahren, fliegen, schwimmen and reisen:
Wir sind sofort zum Arzt gefahren.
... verbs that describe a change of condition or state that cannot be controlled,
e.g. einschlafen, aufwachen and passieren.
Ich bin im Krankenhaus aufgewacht.

... the verbs sein, bleiben and werden.

Ich bin drei Tage im Krankenhaus geblieben.

The past participle

The past participle of regular verbs ends in -(e)t.

The past participle of irregular verbs usually ends in -en.

For most verbs, the past participle begins with ge-. Some verbs which make the past participle
without ge- are:

• Verbs that end in -ieren

• Verbs with inseparable prefixes, i.e., be-, ent-, er-, ver-, zer-

In separable verbs, the -ge- comes between the prefix and the verb stem.

Examples: regular verbs

Infinitive Past participle

stürzen ge-stürz-t

passieren passier-t

aufwachen auf-ge-wach-t
Examples: irregular verbs

Infinitive Past participle

liegen ge-leg-en

verstehen verstand-en

mitnehmen mit-ge-nomm-en