A2 · Tenses
Building the past participle
gemacht, gefahren, telefoniert
Three patterns, and four situations where the ge- is left off.
The past participle is what the perfect is built from, and German makes it in three ways. Weak verbs take ge- … -t: machen → gemacht, arbeiten → gearbeitet. Strong verbs take ge- … -en and often change their vowel: fahren → gefahren, sprechen → gesprochen, schreiben → geschrieben.
A small group is mixed: it takes the weak -t and changes the vowel anyway. Bringen → gebracht, denken → gedacht, kennen → gekannt, wissen → gewusst. There are about nine of them and they are all extremely common.
The ge- is dropped in four situations, and the reason is the same in all four: the stress does not fall on the first syllable. Inseparable prefixes (verstanden), verbs in -ieren (telefoniert), and inside a separable verb the ge- moves in between rather than in front (angerufen).
Die Form
| schwach | machen → gemacht |
| stark | fahren → gefahren |
| gemischt | bringen → gebracht |
| untrennbar | verstehen → verstanden |
| -ieren | telefonieren → telefoniert |
| trennbar | anrufen → angerufen |
Die Regeln im Einzelnen
Weak verbs take ge- and -t.
Ich habe gestern gearbeitet.I worked yesterday.
Strong verbs take ge- and -en, usually with a vowel change.
Wir haben viel gesprochen.We talked a lot.
Inseparable verbs and verbs in -ieren take no ge-.
Ich habe das nicht verstanden.I did not understand that.
In a separable verb the ge- goes between prefix and stem.
Sie hat mich angerufen.She called me.
Genauer hingesehen
Learning the strong verbs efficiently
German has about two hundred strong verbs, of which perhaps eighty come up constantly. They fall into vowel families that repeat: i–a–u (singen, sang, gesungen; trinken, finden, binden), ei–ie–ie (schreiben, bleiben, steigen), ie–o–o (fliegen, ziehen, verlieren).
Learning them family by family is far faster than alphabetically, because one pattern delivers eight or ten verbs at once. And the three forms are worth storing together — infinitive, simple past, participle — since the simple past is needed for writing and for the subjunctive.
Ausnahmen und Sonderfälle (2)
-
a verb has two prefixes
the outer one decides where the ge- goes.
vorbereiten → vorbereitetto prepare → prepared
Separability is decided by the outermost prefix.
-
the stem ends in -d, -t or a cluster
an e appears before the -t.
arbeiten → gearbeitet, öffnen → geöffnetworked, opened
Otherwise the ending would be unpronounceable.
Woran man es erkennt
- ge-
- -t
- -en
- haben
- sein
- -ieren
Beispielsätze
Ich habe die Tür zugemacht.I closed the door.
Er hat den Brief geschrieben.He wrote the letter.
Wir haben lange diskutiert.We talked it over at length.
Sie hat das nicht gewusst.She did not know that.
Der Zug ist abgefahren.The train has left.
Noch 6 Beispielsätze
Hast du schon gegessen?Have you eaten yet?
Ich habe es vergessen.I forgot it.
Wir sind spät angekommen.We arrived late.
Er hat sich entschuldigt.He apologised.
Sie hat das Fenster aufgemacht.She opened the window.
Das habe ich nicht gedacht.I did not expect that.
Besonderheiten (2)
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The participle is also an adjective
Every past participle can be used as an adjective and then takes ordinary adjective endings: <z>ein geschriebener Brief</z>, <z>die geöffnete Tür</z>, <z>gebratener Fisch</z>. Learning the participle therefore pays twice, and menus are full of the second use.
-
Some verbs are weak in one meaning and strong in another
<z>Hängen</z> is strong when something hangs (<z>das Bild hat gehangen</z>) and weak when somebody hangs it (<z>ich habe das Bild gehängt</z>). The same split runs through <z>erschrecken</z> and <z>bewegen</z>, and in each case the weak form is the one with an object.
Die typisch deutsche Falle
Aufgepasst
Both errors come from putting ge- at the front by default. A verb in -ieren is stressed on the ending and takes no ge- at all; a separable verb takes it inside, between the prefix and the stem, because the prefix already carries the stress. The test that covers every case is the same one that decides separability: where does the stress fall?
The ge- goes where the stress begins.
Jetzt selbst
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