A1 · GRAMMAR

Past Tense: Perfekt

The main way to talk about the past in conversation is the Perfekt: 'Ich habe Pizza gegessen' (I ate pizza). The structure is similar to modal verbs: the auxiliary verb (haben or sein) is conjugated in the 2nd position, and the main verb goes to the very end in the Partizip II form. In this lesson, you will learn how to form Partizip II and when to choose haben or sein.

In this lesson

1. Structure

haben/sein in 2nd position + Partizip II at the end.

Ich habe Pizza gegessen.

I ate pizza.

2. Regular: ge- ... -t

machen → gemacht, kaufen → gekauft.

3. Irregular: ge- ... -en

essen → gegessen, schreiben → geschrieben (best learned by heart).

4. No ge- prefix

Verbs ending in -ieren and starting with be-/ver-/er-: studiert, besucht, verstanden.

5. haben or sein?

sein: movement/change of location (gehen, fahren, kommen) and change of state (aufstehen), plus sein and bleiben. Everything else takes haben.

Ich bin nach Berlin gefahren.

I went to Berlin.

💡 Learn irregular verbs in three forms: essen – isst – gegessen. The top 20 irregular verbs cover a large portion of everyday conversation.