The Conversational Past Tense

Helping Verbs When talking about past events, you use the conversational past tense. It consists of the present tense forms of haben and sein and a form of the verb called the past participle.

Helping Verbs sein – to be Verbs that use sein as their helping verb fall into one of three categories: Movement – Any verb expressing movement from one place to another bleiben (to stay) – Past Participle  geblieben sein (to be) – Past Participle  gewesen

Helping Verbs haben – to have Verbs that use haben as their helping verb fall into one category: Everything Else The verb haben (to have) also falls into this category. haben (to have) – Past Participle  gehabt

Helping Verbs Examples! Ich habe meine Tante besucht. Ich bin um den See gegangen.

Past Participle Prefix Most Past Participles have the prefix ge-: gemacht gelesen gespielt gesehen gearbeitet gefahren

Weak Verbs The Past Participle of so-called regular or weak verbs end in t: Regular verbs are verbs that take the regular form of conjugation. ich: -e wir: -en du: -st ihr: -t er/sie/es: -t Sie/sie: -en MOST weak verbs (not all) will be regular verbs.

Weak Verbs Formula: Add the prefix ge to the beginning of the verb. Since these verbs are weak, we can easily break them. So, break of the ending of the verb (-en/-n) and put a –t back in place of the original ending. machen (to do) gemachen gemacht

Strong Verbs The Past Participle of so-called irregular or strong verbs end in –en (the infinitive): Irregular verbs are verbs that take a spelling change when they are conjugated. Example: lesen (to read)  The du and er/sie/es forms add an i to the conjugation. Most strong verbs (not all) will be irregular verbs.

Strong Verbs Formula: Add the prefix ge- to the beginning of the verb. Since these verbs are strong, they cannot be broken. Therefore, we do not change the ending. lesen (to read) gelesen

-ieren Verbs The Past Participles of verbs ending in –ieren do not have the prefix ge-: These verbs will lose their –en ending and will have a –t put back in place of the original ending. polieren (to polish)  poliert fotografieren (to photograph)  fotografiert spazieren (to walk/stroll)  spaziert

Inseparable Prefix Verbs The Past Participles of verbs that have an inseparable prefix do not add the prefix ge-: These verbs will lose their –en ending and will have a –t put back in place of the original ending. besuchen (to visit, as in a person)  besucht besichtigen (to visit, as in a place)  besichtigt

Separable Prefix Verbs The Past Participles of verbs that have a separable prefix keep the ge-. These verbs are separated and the ge- is inserted between the prefix and the verb. mitkommen (to come with) mit – kommen mit – ge – kommen mitgekommen

Most Verbs . . . Most verbs in German are regular or weak. Therefore, unless you have learned otherwise: Form the Past Participle with –t Form the Prefix with ge- The Helping Verb is haben

Examples of Weak Verbs gearbeitet gefaulenzt gefilmt gehabt gehört gekauft gemacht gemäht geschenkt gespielt gewohnt fotografiert besucht besichtigt

Examples of Strong Verbs gegeben gegessen gelesen gesehen geholfen getrunken

Examples of Verbs with Sein ist gekommen ist gefahren ist gewandert ist spaziert ist gelaufen ist gegangen ist geschwommen ist geblieben ist gewesen

Other Information Refer to pages R34-R36 in the back of your German textbook to see the verb chart. All verbs that take sein as their Helping Verb will have ist in front of the verb. If you cannot find the verb you are looking for in the back of your book, then assume that the verb is weak and that the Helping Verb is haben.

Works Cited!!!!! Komm mit! 2, Pages 66 and 67