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Lesson 5
Now that you are able to ask, answer and tell the most important things in the present tense, it is time to learn about telling something in the past tense. Unlike in English the tenses are not as strictly used in German. For example you can say "I have read a book yesterday"
instead of "I read a book yesterday". There is no difference in meaning and although the first sentence might be grammatically wrong, in every-day German it is quite common. And that is what these lessons are all about: talking and understanding every-day language.
What you will learn here, is a tense that is called present perfect. In it you can express almost everything that happened in the past.
Use the following formula to construct a sentence:
personal pronoun + form of "haben" + past pariciple
ich + habe + gelesen = ich habe gelesen (I have read)
In a sentence that would look like this:
Ich habe gestern ein Buch gelesen. (I read a book yesterday)
Please notice: start with the personal pronoun and the form of "haben", then put the rest of the sentence and only at the end put the
past participle.
| ich habe | gelesen | I have read (I read) |
| du hast | gelesen | you have read (you read) |
| er hat | gelesen | he has read (he read) |
| sie hat | gelesen | she has read (she read) |
| es hat | gelesen | it has read (it read) |
| wir haben | gelesen | we have read (we read) |
| ihr habt | gelesen | you have read (you read) |
| sie haben | gelesen | they have read (they read) |
| Sie haben | gelesen | you have read (you read) |
Unlike in English, there are lots of ways to create the right past participle of a verb. Many of them have a "ge" somewhere in the form, like
gelesen = read
geliebt = loved
But also many of them haven't. So the best way to learn them, is to memorize them by heart. Here are the past particples of some common words:
| besuchen | besucht | ich habe Dich besucht (I have visited you) |
| einladen | eingeladen | Ich habe Dich eingeladen (I have invited you) |
| schreiben | geschrieben | Ich habe Dir geschrieben (I have written to you) |
| hören | gehört | Ich habe es gehört (I have heard it) |
| sehen | gesehen | Ich habe es gesehen (I have seen it) |
| geben | gegeben | Ich habe es Dir gegeben (I have given it to you) |
| nehmen | genommen | Ich habe es genommen (I have taken it) |
| wollen/wünschen | gewollt/gewünscht | I habe es gewollt/gewünscht (I have wanted/wished it) |
| fragen | gefragt | Ich habe Dich gefragt (I have asked you) |
| antworten | geantwortet | Ich habe Dir geantwortet (I have answered you) |
| sagen | gesagt | Ich habe es Dir gesagt (I have told you) |
| helfen | geholfen | Ich habe Dir geholfen (I have helped you) |
| kosten | gekostet | Es hat 5 DM gekostet (It has cost 5 marks - it was 5 marks) |
| reden | geredet | Ich habe geredet (I have talked) |
| trinken | getrunken | Ich habe viel getrunken (I have drunk a lot) |
| kaufen | gekauft | Ich habe es gekauft (I have bought it) |
| lachen | gelacht | Ich habe gelacht (I have laughed) |
| schlafen | geschlafen | Ich habe geschlafen (I have slept) |
All the verbs above are used with a form of "haben" in the present perfect tense, but there are some other verbs, that are treated differently.
With verbs like "gehen, kommen, schwimmen ... (go, come, swim ...)" you use a form of "sein" instead of "haben":
personal pronoun + form of "sein" + past participle
ich + bin + gekommen = ich bin gekommen (I have come)
The past participles of these words are:
gehen = gegangen (gone)
kommen = gekommen (come)
schwimmen = geschwommen (swum)
bleiben = geblieben (stayed)
sein = gewesen (been)
verschwinden = verschwunden (disappeared)
....
Here are the forms of "sein (to be)" in case you don't remember them:
| ich bin | I am | Ich bin gekommen ( I have come) |
| du bist | you are | du bist gegangen (you have gone) |
| er ist | he is | er ist geschwommen (he has swum) |
| sie ist | she is | sie ist geblieben (she has stayed) |
| es ist | it is | es ist geboren (it is born) |
| wir sind | we are | wir sind hier gewesen (we have been here) |
| ihr seid | you are | ihr seid verschwunden (you have disappeared) |
| sie sind | they are | sie sind spazieren gegangen (they have walked - they have gone for a walk) |
| Sie sind | you are | Sie sind einkaufen gegangen (you have gone shopping) |
some useful words for the "past"
| yesterday | gestern |
| the day before yesterday | vorgestern |
| last year | letztes Jahr |
| last week | letzte Woche |
| the last time | das letzte Mal |
| one year/month ago | vor einem Jahr/Monat |
| one week ago | vor einer Woche |
| last Sunday/ Monday/ Tuesday/ Wednesday/ Thursday/ Friday/ Saturday | letzten Sonntag/ Montag/ Dienstag/ Mittwoch/ Donnerstag/ Freitag/ Samstag |
To make it easy for you, it is best to use the above words in the following way:
Letzte Woche habe ich
Mark und Christine geschrieben -
last week
i have written
to Mark and Christine.
Please notice:The order of words is different to the English language. Try to use it this way:
"words for the time like yesterday..." + form of "haben" or "sein" +
personal pronoun + everything else like "Dich,, dein Haus, ..." +
past participle.
If you are more fluent in German, you can use the other word orders as well. The meaning is slightly different each time. They are:
Ich habe letzte Woche Mark und Christine eingeladen.
Mark und Christine habe ich letzte Woche eingeladen.
Ich habe Mark und Christine letzte Woche eingeladen.
If everything is more or less clear now, then you can proceed with the Test.
Good luck!
Or would you rather have another look at the Index of all available lessons.
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