It is quite common to use the less complex "ich war da" instead or "ich bin da gewesen" or "sie konnte ihn sehen" rather than "sie hat ihn sehen können." Even in ordinary speech it is more usual to say "ich musste einen Arzt rufen lassen" than "ich habe einen Arzt rufen lassen müssen." "Er hatte einen Hund" is also possible in place of "Er hat einen Hunde gehabt."įorming the Present Perfect Tense in German: Colloquial accounts are in the present perfect: "Ich bin nach Hause gegangen und habe meinem Mann gesagt." There are a few exceptions, such as the verb "sein" and the modal auxiliaries. Indeed, many dialects do not even have a simple past, which is thus mostly reserved for written narrations. Indeed, they sometimes even mix the two tenses indiscriminately.Įven more important: in colloquial conversation, Germans use the present perfect almost exclusively. German speakers are not always careful in making this distinction, however. In German, as in English, the present perfect differs from the simple past, in that it describes past events that have present implications. Using the Present Perfect Tense (das Perfekt) in German: "risen," "written," "eaten," "sung," "slept," "brought," etc. Strong, or irregular, verbs generally (but not always) change the vowel in the stressed syllable and typically (but not always) add "-n" or "-en": Weak verbs add "-ed": "looked," "wanted," "worked," etc.
Weak and strong verbs form past participles differently. Some verbs long ago used "to be" as the auxiliary, and we find vestiges of this structure in biblical English or old nursery rhymes: The Lord is risen.Įlsie Marley is grown so fine, she won't get up to feed the swine, but lies in bed till eight or nine.
The name "present perfect" reflects the fact that the auxiliary verb, "to have," is conjugated in its present-tense forms.
The present perfect tense describes a past event that has present tense implications (compare the simple past "I cooked twice this week" with the present perfect: "I have cooked twice this week" - the former implies that that's all the cooking I'm going to do, while the latter suggests that I might cook more).Įnglish forms this tense with a combination of the auxiliary verb "to have" and a past participle: "I have noticed that," "She has gone there twice," etc.