Perfekt with Haben

The Perfekt is the most commonly used past tense in spoken German. Whenever you want to talk about something that happened in the past — yesterday, last week, or years ago — the Perfekt is the tense you will reach for in everyday conversation.

In this lesson, we focus on forming the Perfekt with the auxiliary verb haben (to have). The vast majority of German verbs use haben as their auxiliary.

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How the Perfekt Works

The Perfekt is a compound tense built from two pieces:

1. A conjugated auxiliary verb (haben or sein) in the present tense
2. The past participle (Partizip II) of the main verb, placed at the end of the sentence

The basic formula:

Subject + conjugated haben + ... + past participle

Examples:

• Ich habe Deutsch gelernt. — I learned German.
• Du hast einen Kuchen gebacken. — You baked a cake.
• Er hat das Buch gelesen. — He read the book.
• Wir haben einen Film gesehen. — We watched a film.

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Conjugation of Haben in the Present Tense

Since haben acts as the auxiliary, you need to know its forms perfectly:

Person	Conjugation	Translation
ich	habe	I have
du	hast	you have (informal)
er / sie / es	hat	he / she / it has
wir	haben	we have
ihr	habt	you have (plural informal)
sie / Sie	haben	they have / you have (formal)

The conjugated form of haben always sits in the second position (V2 position) in a standard declarative sentence, while the past participle goes to the very end of the clause.

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When to Use Haben

Haben is the default auxiliary for the Perfekt. You use it with:

Transitive Verbs (verbs that take a direct object)

• Ich habe einen Brief geschrieben. — I wrote a letter.
• Sie hat das Essen gekocht. — She cooked the food.
• Wir haben das Auto gewaschen. — We washed the car.
• Er hat den Schlüssel verloren. — He lost the key.

Most Intransitive Verbs That Do Not Describe Movement or Change of State

• Wir haben lange geschlafen. — We slept for a long time.
• Er hat laut gelacht. — He laughed loudly.
• Das Kind hat den ganzen Tag gespielt. — The child played all day.
• Sie hat drei Stunden gearbeitet. — She worked for three hours.

Reflexive Verbs

• Ich habe mich gewaschen. — I washed myself.
• Sie hat sich gesetzt. — She sat down.
• Wir haben uns gefreut. — We were happy.
• Er hat sich rasiert. — He shaved.

Impersonal Verbs

• Es hat geregnet. — It rained.
• Es hat geschneit. — It snowed.
• Es hat gedonnert. — It thundered.

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Forming the Past Participle of Weak (Regular) Verbs

For regular verbs, the past participle follows the pattern ge- + stem + -t:

Infinitive	Stem	Past Participle	Translation
machen (to do/make)	mach-	gemacht	done/made
lernen (to learn)	lern-	gelernt	learned
kaufen (to buy)	kauf-	gekauft	bought
spielen (to play)	spiel-	gespielt	played
kochen (to cook)	koch-	gekocht	cooked
hören (to hear)	hör-	gehört	heard
sagen (to say)	sag-	gesagt	said
fragen (to ask)	frag-	gefragt	asked
wohnen (to live)	wohn-	gewohnt	lived
zeigen (to show)	zeig-	gezeigt	shown

Verbs with Stems Ending in -t, -d, -chn, -ffn, -gn

These verbs insert an extra -e- before the -t ending for pronunciation reasons:

Infinitive	Past Participle
arbeiten (to work)	gearbeitet
warten (to wait)	gewartet
reden (to talk)	geredet
öffnen (to open)	geöffnet
regnen (to rain)	geregnet
rechnen (to calculate)	gerechnet

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Word Order in the Perfekt

In Main Clauses

The auxiliary verb (haben) takes the V2 position, and the past participle goes to the end:

• Ich habe gestern einen Kuchen gebacken.

• I baked a cake yesterday.

• Mein Bruder hat das Auto repariert.

• My brother repaired the car.

In Questions

The auxiliary moves to the first position for yes/no questions:

• Hast du die Hausaufgaben gemacht?

• Did you do the homework?

• Hat sie den Film gesehen?

• Did she watch the film?

For W-questions, the question word comes first, then the auxiliary:

• Was hast du gestern gemacht?

• What did you do yesterday?

• Wo hat er das Buch gekauft?

• Where did he buy the book?

In Subordinate Clauses

When the Perfekt appears in a subordinate clause (after weil, dass, obwohl, etc.), the conjugated auxiliary moves to the very end, after the past participle:

• Ich bin müde, weil ich schlecht geschlafen habe.

• I am tired because I slept badly.

• Er sagt, dass er das Buch gelesen hat.

• He says that he read the book.

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Common Mistakes to Avoid

Forgetting the Past Participle at the End

Incorrect: Ich habe gemacht die Hausaufgaben. Correct: Ich habe die Hausaufgaben gemacht.

Using the Wrong Auxiliary

Some verbs require sein instead of haben (covered in the next lesson). For now, remember:

• If the verb takes a direct object, use haben.
• If the verb is reflexive, use haben.
• If you are unsure, haben is usually correct — it covers about 80% of verbs.

Confusing Past Participle with Infinitive

The past participle is NOT the same as the infinitive:

• Infinitive: machen → Past participle: gemacht (not "machen")
• Infinitive: lernen → Past participle: gelernt (not "lernen")

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Practice Sentences

Translate the following sentences into German using the Perfekt with haben:

1. I cooked dinner. → Ich habe das Abendessen gekocht.
2. She bought a dress. → Sie hat ein Kleid gekauft.
3. We played football. → Wir haben Fußball gespielt.
4. He said nothing. → Er hat nichts gesagt.
5. They heard the music. → Sie haben die Musik gehört.
6. I asked a question. → Ich habe eine Frage gestellt.
7. She showed me the photo. → Sie hat mir das Foto gezeigt.
8. We waited for the bus. → Wir haben auf den Bus gewartet.
9. He worked all day. → Er hat den ganzen Tag gearbeitet.
10. Did you learn German? → Hast du Deutsch gelernt?

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Summary

Concept	Detail
Structure	Subject + haben (conjugated) + ... + past participle
Weak verb participle	ge- + stem + -t (gemacht, gelernt, gekauft)
Stems ending in -t/-d	Add extra -e- (gearbeitet, gewartet, geredet)
V2 position	Haben takes second position in main clauses
Subordinate clauses	Haben moves to the very end
Default auxiliary	Haben is used with most German verbs (~80%)

The Perfekt with haben is the foundation of talking about the past in spoken German. Master these forms and you will be able to express the majority of past actions in everyday conversation.

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Additional Practice: Dialogue

Read this dialogue and notice how the Perfekt with haben is used:

Anna: Was hast du am Wochenende gemacht? (What did you do at the weekend?)

Ben: Ich habe am Samstag ein neues Buch gekauft und den ganzen Tag gelesen. (I bought a new book on Saturday and read all day.)

Anna: Das klingt gut! Hast du auch gekocht? (That sounds nice! Did you also cook?)

Ben: Ja, ich habe am Sonntag Pasta gemacht. Und du? (Yes, I made pasta on Sunday. And you?)

Anna: Ich habe Freunde besucht und wir haben zusammen Karten gespielt. (I visited friends and we played cards together.)

Ben: Habt ihr Spaß gehabt? (Did you have fun?)

Anna: Ja, wir haben viel gelacht! (Yes, we laughed a lot!)

Notice how every Perfekt sentence follows the pattern: conjugated haben in V2 position, past participle at the end.