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Perfect (Perfekt)


When reading this chapter, please keep in mind:
Colloquial German loves the perfect tense (Perfekt).
German native speakers will always tend towards using the perfect when they tell you what happened yesterday at the office.

To use the German perfect yourself, please ...
... combine the present tense of the auxiliaries ‘sein’ (to be) or ‘werden’ (to become) with the past participle of the main verb of your sentence.

Building the German perfect tense:
sein’ or ‘haben’ (present tense) + past participle
Person auxiliary verb past participle auxiliary verb past participle
ich habe gespielt bin gegangen
du hast gespielt bist gegangen
er/sie/es hat gespielt ist gegangen
wir haben gespielt sind gegangen
ihr habt gespielt seid gegangen
sie haben gespielt sind gegangen

 

When do you use the auxiliary "to be" and "to have"?

For most verbs you need the auxiliary verb haben ("to have").
You use sein ("to be") especially for verbs that indicate location or a state.