German language past tense table comments. All transitive verbs, i.e.

In this lesson we will try to talk about the tense system in the German language. But before we begin to understand how these tenses are formed, let’s summarize the information about the verb in German.

So, there are three tenses in German: present (Präsens), past and future (Futurum). The past tense includes three types of tense forms: Präteritum, Perfekt, Plusquamperfekt. Let's try to figure out why each of the listed times is needed.

Present tense

If you want to talk about your habits, preferences or daily activities, feel free to use Präsens!

You are already familiar with its formation - see lesson 3. The endings that are added to the stem of the verb in this tense are easy to remember: there are not so many of them. It is also important to remember exactly when to consume them.

Präsens is used:

to indicate a repeated action. For example: Am Montag stehe ich immer um 7 Uhr auf - On Mondays I always get up at 7 o'clock;
to state a well-known fact, as well as in proverbs and sayings. For example: Die Erde bewegt sich um die Sonn - The earth revolves around the sun;
to denote an action that is happening at the present moment or relates to a period of time in the present: Ich kann nicht ans Telefon kommen. Ich mache Frühstück. - I can't answer the phone. I'm preparing breakfast;
to indicate a future action when a specific time is specified. Often used in colloquial speech, for example: Morgen gehe ich ins Kino. — Tomorrow I’m going to the cinema.

As you may have noticed, in Russian we use the present tense for the same purposes, so in this aspect the Russian and German languages are very close.

Past tense

As mentioned above, to denote the past, three tenses are used in German: Präteritum - the simple past tense, which is most often used in writing, Perfekt - the complex past tense, familiar to colloquial speech, and Plusquamperfekt, which indicates a long-completed action in the past. . We'll talk about each of these times a little later.

Important! Complex is the tense form that is formed using the main and auxiliary verbs.

Future tense

The future tense in German is also expressed in several tense forms: this Futurum I, the complex future tense, which is used to communicate possible plans, i.e. what you are going to do, and Futurum II, which is used to express assumptions regarding events or actions that have already happened. Although the tense form Futur II still exists in the language, it is now extremely rarely used.

Don't worry, you will learn more about both of these tenses in one of the following lessons, but for now let's summarize what was said above.

So, in the German language there are three tenses, but six aspectual and tense forms, each of which is used in certain situations.

Lesson assignments

To test yourself, try to answer the following questions:

How many tenses are there in the German language?
How many tense forms are used to indicate future tense?
What tense is used to indicate a universal fact?
What is a complex tense form?
How many tense forms are used to indicate the past tense?

There are 3 tenses in German: past, present and future.
The future tense can be expressed using two tense forms: Präsens and Futurum I.
Präsens.
A complex tense form is formed using two verbs: auxiliary and main.
Three: Präteritum, Perfect, Plusquamperfekt.

They are used in three forms: colloquial (Perfekt), bookish (Imperfekt, or Praeteritum), as well as a special pre-past “plusquaperfect”. What attracts language learners of Schiller and Goethe is that the rules of usage are not so rigid. So, for example, in northern Germany the preterite is often used in colloquial speech. In Austria and Switzerland they will more often say in the perfect.

Conversational past tense form

In speech, Perfect is used to convey past events. In Russian it is called “past perfect tense”. The perfect is formed using the auxiliary verb haben or sein + For weak verbs, Partizip II is unchangeable, formed by adding the prefix ge- and the suffix -t to the stem of the verb. For example: machen - gemacht; malen - gemalt. Irregular verbs in the past tense in German cannot be explained logically. Their shape needs to be remembered. For example: gehen - gegangen, lessen - gelesen.

As for the use of one or another auxiliary verb, the rule is as follows:

It is worth paying attention to the fact that the rules for using auxiliary verbs differ in Germany and other countries. So, in Austria, Switzerland, Bavaria, South Tyrol (Italy) the verbs sit, lie, stand are used with sein. Although here we don't see any state change:

Ich bin gesessen - I was sitting.
Mein Freund ist auf dem Bett gelegen - My friend was lying on the bed.
Wir sind eine Stunde lang im Regen gestanden - We stood in the rain for an hour.

In Germany (and in its northern and central parts, not in Bavaria), the auxiliary haben is used in these cases.

Preterite

For verbs in the past tense in German, Praeterit is used in narrative and media texts. This is the so-called book version of the past.

Forming this form for regular verbs is very simple. You just need to add the suffix -t after the stem.

Compare: I'm studying. - Ich studiert. But: I studied. - Ich studierte.

The same as for the present tense, except for the singular person of the third number. There the form coincides with the first person.

Compare: I studied and he studied. - Ich studierte und er studierte.

We also use the past tense when we tell a fairy tale to our child, or when we tell the biography of a famous person. Sometimes you can speak in the preterite and in colloquial speech. For example, if you tell your friends about how you spent your vacation. For example: Ich war in Thailand. - I was in Thailand. Ich ging oft zum Strand. - I often went to the beach.

It is worth paying attention to the fact that, despite the fact that the language of the narrative is the simple past, you can still find the perfect in books and stories. It is used when a story contains dialogue between two or more characters.

Using the plusquaperfect

The complex tense form in German is the so-called Plusquamperfekt. It is used to emphasize the relationship between two actions that occurred in the past. Also used to indicate that one action follows from another.

Usually used with past tense verbs. In German, to emphasize the relationship between these actions, the words then (dann), after that (nachdem), before (frueher), a month ago (vor einem Monat), a year ago (vor einem Jahr) and others are used.

Meine Freundin rief mich an und sagte mir, dass sie vor einem Monat nach Wien gefahren war. - My friend called and told me that she left for Vienna a month ago.
Nachdem ich die Uni absolviert hatte, fang ich mit der Arbeit an. - After I graduated from university, I started working.
Mein Freund hatte die Fachschule beendet, dann trat er ins Institut ein. - First, my friend graduated from technical school, then entered college.

German modal verbs in the past tense

Mostly Modal Verbe is used in the simple preterite. This makes speaking easier; you don’t have to say three whole verbs if you use the perfect.

Compare: He shouldn't have lied. - Er sollte nicht luegen. Ich hat nicht lugen gesollt. The second phrase is much more difficult to understand.

Constructing the past tense form for modal verbs is simple. You just need to remove all the umlauts and stems, add the suffix -t and a personal ending, and you have a past tense verb conjugation. The German language is, in principle, very logical.

The exception is the verb moegen. For him the past tense form is mochte. I love reading newspapers. - Ich mag Zeitungen lesen. But: I loved reading newspapers. - Jch mochte Zeitungen lesen.

How to learn past tense in German

The most common form is the perfect, so it should be learned first. If there are no problems with the correct verbs and everything is easy to remember, then it is better to learn the incorrect ones in the form of a table. There are certain patterns, for example, “group ei - ie -i e”: Bleiben - blieb - geblieben; schreiben - schrieb - geschrieben, steigen - stieg - gestiegen. You can break all known verbs into similar subgroups and learn them by heart.

You can take such a table at first every time you come to a German lesson. Verbs in the past tense are easiest to remember this way.

As for the auxiliary sein and haben, the first group is easiest to learn. There are much fewer such verbs. That is why it will be easier to remember them. The conjugation of verbs in the past tense of the German language must be memorized along with the auxiliary. This is also reflected in dictionaries. If there is (s) in parentheses next to the verb, then the auxiliary verb will be sein, and if (h), then haben.

A verb in German is a part of speech that denotes an action in time or a state and plays the syntactic role of a predicate and less often than other members of a sentence. According to grammatical functions, German verbs can be divided into full-valued ones... ... Wikipedia

Tense in German is a grammatical category of a verb that expresses the temporal relationship of events to a certain point in time: for example, to the moment of speech or to the moment of another action. There are three time stages: ... ... Wikipedia

This is a part of speech that denotes a sign of an action or a sign of a sign. Contents 1 Groups of adverbs 2 Degrees of comparison ... Wikipedia

A numeral in German is an independent part of speech that denotes the number of objects or their order when counting. Accordingly, German numerals can be cardinal or ordinal. The first to answer the question “wie... Wikipedia

The category of hypotheticalness is functional, semantic-stylistic- – one of the varieties of text categories, which is a system of multi-level linguistic means (including text), united on the text plane by a common function and semantics and intended to express a hypothesis and more... ... Stylistic encyclopedic dictionary of the Russian language

- ... Wikipedia

Shop opening hours law is a regulation in a number of countries that requires shops to close by a certain time of day. Most characteristic of Germany (German: Ladenschlussgesetz). There is no analogue in Russia.... ... Wikipedia

It originates in the early Middle Ages, when the languages of the ancient Germans began to contact each other, creating the basis for the formation of a common language. The earlier development of the German language is directly related to the development of the Proto-Germanic language, ... ... Wikipedia

Past tense, preterite (lat. praeteritum) is one of the modalities of the grammatical category of time, a form of a finite verb, used to describe a situation that took place before the moment of speech or before the moment described in speech.... ... Wikipedia

Present (German: Präsens) in German is the simple present tense, one of the six tenses of the German language. It serves to convey action at the present moment in time, both in the absolute and in the relative use of temporary forms... ... Wikipedia

Perfect is the most commonly used past tense in the German language. His education needs to be learned first. After all, it is used in colloquial speech and everyday life. This is the tense you will almost always use when talking about the past in German.

Auxiliary verbs are used to form the perfect.haben orsein+ participle II(Partizip ll, 3rd form of the verb) semantic verb.

Auxiliary verbs haben orsein are not translated, they are only a variable part of the predicate. The meaning of the entire predicate depends on the meaning of the verb appearing in the form participles(Partizip ll, 3rd form of the verb), which is its unchangeable part and stands at the end of the sentence.

Ich habe diesels Buch gelesen. — I read this book.

Er ist early Berlin gefahren. — He came to Berlin.

Don't forget Partizip ll comes at the end of the sentence, picture to remember:

So, to form Perfect, you need to conjugate the auxiliary verb haben orsein(it comes in second place in the sentence), form correctly participle II(Partizip ll, 3rd form of the verb) and put it at the end of the sentence.

The first difficulty: which auxiliary verb to choose?haben orsein? Let's figure it out!

First let's review the verb conjugationsseinAndhaben. You need to know these two signs by heart.

Verbs with " sein"

With an auxiliary verbseinused:

1. all intransitive verbs,denoting movement in space:
aufstehen, begegnen, fahren, fallen, fliegen, gehen, kommen, reisen, etc.

2. all intransitive verbs,denoting a change in state, a transition to a new phase of the process,for example: aufblühen, aufwachen, einschlafen, entstehen, werden, wachsen or sterben, ertrinken, ersticken, umkommen, vergehen, etc.

3. verbs sein, werden, bleiben, geschehen, passieren (happen, occur), gelingen (succeed)

Notes

1. Verbs fahren And fliegen can also be used as transitive. In this case they are conjugated with the verb haben:
Ich habe das Auto selbst in die Garage gefahren.
Der Pilot hat das Flugzeug nach New York geflogen.

2. Verb schwimmen:
Er ist über den Kanal geschwommen. (= movement towards a specific goal)
Er hat zehn Minuten im Fluss geschwommen. (= movement in a confined space, without indicating the purpose of movement)

Verbs with " haben"

The rest of the verbs form the perfect withhaben:

1. all verbs, accusative case managers(=transitive verbs):
bauen, fragen, essen, hören, lieben, machen, öffnen, etc.

2. everything reflexive verbs:
sich beschäftigen, sich bemühen, sich rasieren, etc.

3. everything modal verbs:
dürfen, können, mögen, müssen, sollen, wollen.

4. Intransitive verbs,denoting continuous actions or states. These include:

a) verbs that combine with adverbs of place and time, but do not imply a change of place, state or movement in space:
hängen (= strong verb), liegen, sitzen, stehen, stecken, arbeiten, leben, schlafen, wachen, etc.

b) verbs that control the dative case and do not denote movement: antworten, danken, drohen, gefallen, glauben, nützen, schaden, vertrauen, etc.

c) verbs anfangen, aufhören, beginnen, denoting the beginning and end of an action.

In southern Germany, the verbs liegen, sitzen, stehen are used in the perfect with sein.

The components of the perfect have a single meaning and are not translated separately. Therefore, when you see the auxiliary verb haben or sein in a sentence, must be found at the end of the sentence the second part of a complex shape (participle II) and translate them into one word - a verb in the past tense. When translating, you need to pay attention to the order of words.

For example: Mein Bruder ist nach Moscow gefahren. — My brother went to Moscow. - For translation you need to “go” to the end of the sentence, but “ist” is not translated.

In dictionaries and lists of basic forms, verbs that form the perfect with sein are usually accompanied by a special mark (s).

Examples of verb conjugation in the perfect:

arbeiten - to work

ich habe gearbeitet

du hast gearbeitet

er hat gearbeitet

wir haben gearbeitet

ihr habt gearbeitet

The topic of the verb in German is very extensive: it includes tenses, participles, and voices. At first glance, it may seem that it is impossible to learn all this on your own, but do not rush to get upset: all grammatical topics are closely related to each other.

Let's look at the topic of tenses in German.

General information about tenses in German

To begin with, it is worth noting that the topic of tenses in German is much easier to understand than in English. Firstly, there is no continuous form of the verb Continuous, and, secondly, the rules of use are not so strict.

Temporal forms in German express the same as in Russian: present, past and future.

However, if there is one present tense, then there are three forms of the past, and two of the future. It’s strange, you might think, why do events in the past take three whole times?

To understand this, let's look at them in more detail.

In German it is called Präsens. You start learning a language with the present: you remember the place of the verb in a sentence and learn personal endings.

For example:

The simplest sentence in Präsens would look like this:

Wir lesen ein Buch. - We are reading a book.

This tense should be used when an event or action: