The present perfect tense

Usage in English

In English, the present perfect tense is used for past events that are linked to the present. This stands in contrast to the simple past tense, which refers to actions that were completed in the past:


present perfect       They have not arrived yet.
simple past             They arrived last week.

The present perfect tense in German

In German, it is not relevant whether a past event refers to the present in some way or if the action was completed in the past. Instead, the main difference in usage is based on the following:

➠the present perfect is generally used when speaking about the past, irrespective
    of how long ago an event occurred; and

➠the simple past is mainly used in the written language.


Formation – the main principles


The present perfect is a compound tense, which is constructed with the appropriate form of haben or sein + the past participle of the relevant verb. There are three main patterns:

➠Regular verbs usually take haben and form the past participle by adding ge- + t to the

    stem:

            Wie hast du das gemacht?
            How did you do that?

➠Irregular verbs also usually use haben. The past participles tend to end in -en rather than

   -t and often undergo a vowel change:
            Er hat Kaffee getrunken.
            He drank coffee.
➠Verbs referring to movement or a change of state take sein:

            Sie ist mit KLM geflogen.

            She flew with KLM.
Here are the forms in more detail


Regular verbs
Formation



The present perfect tense of most regular verbs is constructed by using the present tense of haben + the past participle of the relevant verb.
The past participle is formed with the stem of the verb, which is the infinitive without -(e)n. The prefix ge- is then added at the beginning and the letter -t at the end:

Infinitive	Stem	Past participle
hören sagen lächeln	hör sag lächel	ge + hör + t ge + sag + t ge + lächel +t	listened, heard said smiled

Irregular verbs

Adding ge- + -en to the stem

The past participle of most irregular verbs are formed by putting ge- in front of the stem and -en at the end:

Infinitive	Stem	Past participle
lesen⇢ sehen waschen	les seh wasch	ge + les + en ge + seh + en ge + wasch + en	read seen washed

Stem vowel change

Many irregular verbs have a stem vowel change:

Infinitive	Past participle
finden⇢ helfen schreiben fliegen	gefunden geholfen geschrieben geflogen	found helped written flown

Note that many German irregular verbs tend to be irregular in English. A good way to learn irregular verb forms is to work with a list of verbs, which you can find in most dictionaries.

Mixed verbs – stem vowel change, but ending in -t

There are verbs called mixed verbs which combine the characteristics of regular and irregular verbs as they change their stem vowel and add -t when forming the past participle. Here are some examples:

Infinitive brennen ⇢	Past participle gebrannt	burned
bringen	gebracht	brought
denken	gedacht	thought
kennen	gekannt	known
nennen	genannt	named
wissen	gewusst	known

Verbs taking sein

A number of verbs in German form their present perfect tense with 

the present tense of sein + past participle. They can be divided into the following groups:

Verbs indicating movement from one location to another
This group contains commonly used irregular verbs such as gehen ‘to go’, fahren ‘to go (by vehicle)’, kommen ‘to come’, ankommen ‘to arrive’, laufen ‘to run’:

           Ich bin ins Kino gegangen.
           I have gone/went to the cinema.
          Seid ihr mit dem Auto gefahren?
          Did you go by car?
          Jörg ist den ganzen Weg gelaufen.
          Jörg has run/ran the whole way.

There are also a few regular verbs indicating movement such as joggen ‘to jog’, reisen ‘to travel’, segeln ‘to sail’ and wandern ‘to hike’ which require sein:

          Robert ist letztes Jahr durch Asien gereist.
          Robert travelled through Asia last year.
          Sie sind in den Alpen gewandert.
          They went hiking in the Alps.


Verbs expressing a change of state


Another group of verbs indicates a process or a change of state. They include aufstehen ‘to get up’, einschlafen ‘to fall asleep’, sterben ‘to die’, wachsen ‘to grow’,

werden ‘to become’:

          Er ist Ingenieur geworden.
          He has become/became an engineer.
          Du bist aber gewachsen!
          How you have grown!
          Wir sind sehr früh eingeschlafen.
          We fell asleep very early.

Other verbs – bleiben, passieren, sein

There are three other verbs which also take sein to form the present perfect: bleiben ‘to stay’, passieren ‘to happen’ and sein ‘to be’:

          Wir sind nur eine Woche geblieben.
          We only stayed for a week.
          Was ist denn passiert?
          What (has) happened?
          Er ist noch nie in Berlin gewesen.
          He has never been to Berlin.

Usage with haben


Sometimes, the verbs fahren and fliegen form their present perfect with haben when the focus is on the driver or pilot. However, this usage is quite rare:

          Er hat das Auto selbst gefahren.
          He drove the car himself.
          Sie hat den Hubschrauber geflogen.
          She flew the helicopter (herself).

Other points to watch out for

Some past participles don’t start with ge-

Note that some of the following verbs form their past participles without adding ge-:
➠Verbs ending in -ieren, such as buchstabieren ‘to spell’, probieren ‘to try’, reagieren ‘to react’, studieren ‘to study’, telefonieren ‘to telephone’:

         Sie hat schnell reagiert.
         She (has) reacted quickly.
         Wir haben in Marseille studiert.
         We studied in Marseille.➠Verbs with the inseparable prefixes be-, emp-, ent-, er-, ge-, miss-, ver-, zer-:
         Ich habe mit Kreditkarte bezahlt.
         I (have) paid by credit card.
         Der Kellner hat mir die Suppe empfohlen.
         The waiter (has) recommended the soup to me.

Separable verbs

Separable verbs form their past participles by placing ‘ge’ between the separable prefix and the main verb: 

         ankommen ➝ angekommen, fernsehen ➝ ferngesehen:

         Wann seid ihr angekommen?
         When did you arrive?
         Hast du gestern ferngesehen?
         Did you watch TV last night?

Word order

In a main clause the relevant form of haben or sein is the second element and the past participle moves to the end:

         Er hat die Tür aufgemacht.
         He (has) opened the door.
         Wir sind nur eine Woche geblieben.
         We only stayed for a week.

In subordinate clauses, the appropriate form of haben or sein is usually placed in the last position. It is preceded by the past participle:

         Es stimmt, dass er früher in Tirol gelebt hat.
         It is true that he used to live in the Tyrol.
         Ich denke, dass sie mit dem Auto gefahren sind.
         I think that they went by car.

Using the simple past instead 

of the present perfect

Although the present perfect is normally used when talking about past events, it is quite common to use the simple past tense of modal verbs in spoken German:
         Ich konnte gestern nicht kommen.
         I couldn’t come yesterday.
         Was wolltest du eigentlich kaufen?
         What did you actually want to buy?
Note also that the present perfect of haben and sein is often replaced with the simple past forms:
         Ich habe Urlaub gehabt.     ➞         Ich hatte Urlaub.
         Ich bin im Kino gewesen.   ➞         Ich war im Kino.