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Lesson 7. Past Tense in German

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Now the foregoing 6 lessons are in the past and we’re starting the last but not least topic of this initial course.

Our today’s topic is Past Tense in German or How to say «I was in Berlin yesterday», «I bought new shoes couple of days ago», «I came back from Paris last week» and the most pleasing one – «I've learned German!»

Here we have to make a short introduction into correlation between German and English grammar tenses (at last!):

 

German Perfekt and Imperfekt (Past Tenses) are interchangeable. Imperfekt is rather typical for printed and official language (books, papers, reports etc.) and Perfekt – for spoken language and everyday’s communication. But such dividing is nevertheless tentative and not strict. We’ll focus upon Perfekt which is used in the spoken German language widely indeed.

 

 

German Perfekt consists of auxiliary verb haben (to have) or sein (to be) + Prtizip II (participle II) of the main verb. The construction of Perfekt has very much in common with the construction of English Perfect Tenses.

So, what about Partizip II? For most verbs they have a simple scheme: prefix ge- + verb stem + ending -t instead of -en:

to buy - kaufen = ge+kauf+t
to seek - suchen = ge+such+t

 

There are verbs in German which make Prtizip II in some different ways, for example just by means of prefix ge-:

to drive – fahren = gefahren (English: to work – worked, but to drive – driven)
to come – kommen = gekommen (English: to come – come)
to see – sehen = gesehen (English: to see – seen)
to sleep – schlafen = geschlafen (English: to sleep – slept)

 

Such irregular verbs you can find in the end of any dictionary or in the Internet.

Now, we’ll try to make correct sentences. What should we do? We put properly conjugated auxiliary verb upon the second place in the sentence (remember the “iron” rule?), and Partizip II (participle II) of the main verb goes into the very end of the sentence.

Ich suche eine Wohnung in Berlin – Ich habe eine Wohnung in Berlin gesucht.
Wir kaufen ein Auto – Wir haben ein Auto gekauft.
Er malt ein Bild – Er hat ein Bild gemalt. (malen – to draw, das Bild – picture)
Du arbeitest heute viel – Du hast gestern viel gearbeitet. (gestern – yesterday)

 

Exercise 1. Write sentences using the Past Tense – Perfekt.

Herr Schlapp kommt nach Hause. Was hat Herr Schlapp zu Hause gemacht?
(Herr – Mister)

1. Das Schlüsselloch suchen. (das Schlüsselloch – keyhole)
Er das Schlüsselloch .
2. Den Schlüssel ins Loch stecken. (der Schlüssel – key, das Loch – hole, opening, stecken – to put, to set, to plug)
Er den Schlüssel ins Loch .
3. Die Tür öffnen. (die Tür – door, öffnen – to open)
Er die Tür .
4. Sich vor den Fernseher setzen. (sich setzen – to sit down, vor den Fernseher – in front of TV-set (direction))
Er sich vor den Fernseher .
5. Ein Bier aus dem Kühlschrank holen. das Bier – beer, aus dem Kühlschrank – from the fridge, der Kühlschrank – refrigerator, fridge, holen – to get)
Er ein Bier aus dem Kühlschrank .
6. Sich ins Bett legen. (sich legen – to lie down, das Bett – bed)
Er sich ins Bett .

Hint

Listen to the answers

 

Exercise 2. Write sentences using the Past Tense – Perfekt.

Frau Fleißig kommt nach Hause. Was hat sie zu Hause gemacht? (Frau – Miss or Mistress)

1. Ordnung machen in der Küche. (Ordnung machen – to get in order, die Küche – kitchen)
Sie Ordnung in der Küche .
2. Geschirr spülen. (Geschirr spülen – to wash dishes, das Geschirr – dish, dishes, spülen – to rins, to wash)
Sie Geschirr .
3. die Fenster putzen. (die Fenster putzen – to clean windows, das Fenster – window, putzen – to clean)
Sie die Fenster .
4. die Wäsche bügeln. (die Wäsche bügeln – to iron laundry, die Wäsche – laundry, bügeln – to iron)
Sie die Wäsche .
5. die Kleider von ihrem Sohn nähen. (die Kleider nähen – to sew clothes, von ihrem Sohn – of her son, nähen – to sew, to needle)
Sie die Kleider von ihrem Sohn .
6. im Garten arbeiten. (der Garten – garden)
Sie im Garten .

Hint

Listen to the answers

As we mentioned, some verbs make Perfekt with auxiliary verb sein. These are mainly verbs of movement: to drive, to go, to come, to fly, or verbs of state change: to wake up, to stand up, to fall asleep, to grow, to die.

 

This is it!

Download this lesson in pdf

 

For those who’d like to download all 7 lessons in one file, we made these links:

7 lessonов in one pdf

7 lessonов in one mp3

Key to exercises in one pdf

 

Download full course German for beginners in 7 lessons

 

Additional information That’s all to our basic German course, and we hope you’ve managed everything to 200%. We thank you very much for the time we’ve been together. Now, as we promised, you are able to talk to your German friends via Skype, read books consulting a dictionary, use German web-sites and watch German YouTube-videos. If you feel like not having understood something, you can anytime review our course using audio lessons and workbook. After this course, motivated by your success, you will probably turn on the heat to travel to Europe which was impossible because of communication barriers. And maybe you have decided to work for a German company and move to the Old World, or you have recognized that there is nothing impossible or difficult in the new and concluded to about-face your life. Anyway, we wish you good luck for your initiatives! If you want to learn more about German, to work with native speakers and to polish your skills, we invite you to our webinars and conferences held by teachers from Germany and Austria. Learning German at our service and with the support of our professional team, you are going to score your achievements in a very short time, saving your most valuable resource – time – all the while as well. Detailed schedule of lessons you can find at our site: german.eustudy.ru

 

We thank you and wish you to succeed in German!

Your Team

 

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