The Perfect I (weak verbs and irregulars with haben)

I. Theory

Like in English, German contains various ways to convey actions that occurred in the past. Das Perfekt, also known as the present perfect, is frequently used in day-to-day conversation. This tense corresponds to several past forms in English:

Ich habe gesagt. I said, I did say, I was saying, I have said. Du hast gearbeitet. You worked, you did work, you were working, you have worked.

As you can see from the examples above, this tense can be used in various situations and carries a wider range of meaning than the various nuanced forms in English.

II. Forming Das Perfekt with Weak Verbs

The formation of the Perfekt is similar to that of the present perfect in English: an auxiliary verb and a past participle. For example: I have danced. (have = auxiliary verb, and danced = past participle).

The auxiliary verb takes its present tense form which conjugates according to the subject. This auxiliary verb is then combined with a past participle. For weak verbs, this participle is formed by taking the verb stem, adding a ge- prefix and a -t at the end of the stem. Verbs whose past participle are created in this fashion are known as “weak” verbs.

spielen Ich habe gespielt. tanzen Er hat getanzt. reden Wir haben geredet.

III. Word Order

In the standard German sentence, we find the predicate information between the auxiliary verb and the past participle.

Hast du gestern im Büro gearbeitet? Did you work at the office yesterday? Ihr habt den ganzen Abend getanzt. You danced the entire night. Sie hat die Tür geöffnet. She opened the door.

IV. Irregularities

There are a few instances in which weak verbs do not follow the typical formula when forming the Perfekt. Usually this involves the omission of the ge- prefix.

A. Verbs with inseparable prefixes

If a verb already has a non-separable (be-, emp-, ent-, er-, miss-, ver-, zer-) prefix, it does not take a ge- prefix in its past participle form.

besuchen: Ich habe meine Oma besucht. I visited my grandma. verhören: Sie haben den Verdächtigen verhört. They interrogated the suspect. erkennen: Sie hat ihn erkannt. She recognized him.

B. Verbs with separable prefixes

If a verb has a separable prefix, the ge- prefix becomes an infix and is placed between the verb’s original prefix and its stem.

absagen Sie hat den Termin abgesagt. She cancelled the appointment. nachfragen Ich habe bei der Firma nachgefragt. I checked in with the firm. einkaufen Hast du gestern einen Computer eingekauft? Did you buy a computer yesterday?

C. -ieren verbs

Verbs ending with -ieren, usually of latin origin, do not take a ge- prefix. They simply take a -t after their stem.

diskutieren Wir haben das Buch diskutiert. We discussed the book. studieren Sie haben Auslandsbeziehungen an der Uni studiert. They studied international relations at university. fasziniert Dieser Film hat mich sehr fasziniert. This film really fascinated me.

D. Weak verbs with vowel change

There is also a small group of weak verbs that feature a vowel change in their past participle. Some common verbs include: nennen, kennen, wissen, and denken.

bringen Er hat seinen Computer zum Park gebracht. He brought his computer to the park. stehen Weil wir keine Sitzplätze hatten, haben wir gestanden. Because we had no seats, we stood. wissen Ich habe nicht gewusst, dass du hier arbeitest. I didn’t know that you work here.