The German verb system knows six different tenses.

1. When talking about the past, we can use:
   Imperfekt/Präteritum (past tense/simple past)
   Perfekt (perfect tense)
   Plusquamperfekt (pluperfect)
2. When talking about the present, we use:
   Präsens/Gegenwart
   This corresponds to the present tense in English.
3. And when taking a look into the future, we use:
   Futur I – Futur II / vollendete Zukunft (future tenses)

Following the links, you will encounter more detailed information on building and use of those six tenses.
We would like to familiarize you with the German terms for those six tenses so that you can also look them up in a German grammar.

German verbs are distinguished in three different groups:

• weak verbs:
  Weak German verbs are easy to handle.
  They follow the rules – and once you know their pattern, you can use them without any problems.
• strong verbs:
  Strong German verbs have regular endings – but they tend to change their stem when inflected.
• irregular verbs:
  Like so many other languages, German has a bunch of irregular verbs.
  There is just one way to deal with them – learn them by heart.

To help you succeed in that, this grammar provides you with a list of the most common irregular German verbs.