Tenses

Present tense

Used to...

• talk about activities, actions, and events that are currently happening.

• talk about activities, actions, and events that might not be happening right now, but are true right now (you currently have a habit, you do things on a weekly basis, you watch a show regularly...).

• talk about facts.

• talk, write, or explain in the 'dramatic present' ("The craziest thing happened last weekend. I'm walking down 5th Avenue, and then I bump into Beyonce herself.").

Regular verbs

How to conjugate regular verbs in the present tense:

Irregular verbs

How to conjugate irregular verbs in the present tense:

• Unfortunately, the present tense of irregular verbs can only be 'figured out' with familiarity. That is, there are no official rules or guidelines.

• Fortunately, irregular verbs in the present tense are conjugated 'weirdly' only in the du and er/sie/es forms. The other forms (ich, wir, etc.) are conjugated how you would if they weren't irregular (just like regular verbs).

  • Ex. Laufen (to walk) is an irregular verb. In the first person singular (ich), laufen conjugates just like it would if it was regular- with the -e ending (laufen --> ich laufe). However, in the second person singular (du), laufen unexpectedly adds an umlaut, which makes it an irregular verb (laufen --> du läufst).

Past Tense

There are a few ways to form past tense:

Seit or schon

1) A sentence in present tense can still refer to the past if it's written with "seit" or "schon," which are like the English word "since."

Ex. Ich arbeite seit 6 Monaten in Hamburg.

I've worked in Hamburg since 6 months ago.

Simple Past

2) You would use the simple past form of the verb if the verb/event happened in the past, but you're describing the verb/event as if it's still happening.

An example of when you'd do this is if you're telling your friend about what happened just yesterday: you're using the dramatic past.

The following endings are used for different types of verbs when forming the simple past.

Verbs that end in -te in the simple past have an extra-special form. These -te verbs are rather common, so a list of them is provided, as well as the ending rules for them.

It's important to memorize the simple past forms for these two irregular verbs: sein and werden.

Past Perfect

3) The past perfect is used when you're describing an event that already happened in the past like it's already completed. It's usually used for recently completed events: recent meaning that the event is still relevant to the present.

Ex. I wrote, I did write, I have written

The way that you would form the past perfect is as follows:

haben OR sein + past participle

1. haben or sein? : Haben is used most of the time. Sein is only used if the past participle...

a) expresses motion

Ex. gegangen (past participle of gehen (to go))

b) shows a change

Ex. geworden (past participle of werden (to become))

2. Past participle

a) The form of the past participle is (almost always) ge + verb stem + -t OR -en

There are a few exceptions to this rule:

i) If the stem of the original verb ends with -d, -t, consonant + -n, or consonant + -m, the ending of the verb is -et instead of -t or -en.

ii) If the original verb ends with -ieren, you don't need ge- in the beginning of the past participle.

iii) If the original verb begins with be-, emp-, ent-, er-, ge-, hinter-, miss-, ver-, or -zer, you don't need ge- in the beginning of the past participle.

iv) If there is any other prefix to the original verb, the ge- goes inbetween the prefix and the raw version of the verb.

Ex. anfangen --> an + ge + fangen --> angefangen

Pluperfect

4) The pluperfect is used when you're describing an event as something that happened before another past event.

Ex. I had been doing (when something else happened), I had done (something when something else happened)

The pluperfect is actually a combination of the simple past and past perfect tenses!

To form a pluperfect clause:

haben OR sein + verb

1) haben/sein must be in its simple past form (hatte/war, respectively)

2) the verb must be the past perfect participle.

You often see pluperfect clauses in the same sentence as a clause in a different tense.

Ex. Ich war traurig, weil ich mein Handy verloren hatte.

Bolded clause: a clause in the simple past

Bold and italicized clause: a clause in the pluperfect.

Comparison of simple past, past perfect, and pluperfect

One of the best ways to really grasp the differences between these forms is to see a summary of them side-by-side...

Simple past: I was writing as she drew.

Why? --> You're describing this past event like it's still happening

Past perfect: I have written my book.

Why? --> You're describing this past event like it already happened.

Pluperfect: I had written my book when she presented me with her drawing.

Why? --> You're describing this past event as something that already happened before the other event.