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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.
The Perfekt is a compound tense built from two pieces:
The basic formula:
Subject + conjugated haben + ... + past participle
Examples:
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.
Haben is the default auxiliary for the Perfekt. You use it with:
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 |
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 |
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.
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?
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.
Incorrect: Ich habe gemacht die Hausaufgaben. Correct: Ich habe die Hausaufgaben gemacht.
Some verbs require sein instead of haben (covered in the next lesson). For now, remember:
The past participle is NOT the same as the infinitive:
Translate the following sentences into German using the Perfekt with haben:
| 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.
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.