Lesson 23: Verbs in the Perfekt
23.1 The Two Parts of the Perfekt
The two parts are:- a so-called auxiliary or “helping” verb, of which there are only two, and
- the Partizip II, or the past participle, and this is unique to each verb.
The helping verb is conjugated to match the subject and it is placed, as you know, in Position 2.
Then we place the Partizip II at the end of the sentence. This might seem very odd at first, but you will get used to it. (It is the same sentence structure you used for the separable verbs, the modal verbs, and constructs with werden.)
We'll take one more step and then put all the pieces together in section 23.3.
23.2 Sein or haben?Here's how to determine which helping verb you need for which verb.
Sein is used as a helping verb for verbs that indicate:- movement from A to B
- a change of state
- sein itself or staying put
Verbs with sein as their helping verb:
| Movement from A to B | gehen, fahren, reisen, springen, wachsen |
| A change of state | aufwachen, einschlafen, sterben, verschwinden, passieren |
| sein itself or staying put | sein, bleiben |
Below is a list o