The Regular Perfekt
The Regular Perfekt
The Past Participle
To build the regular forms of the Perfekt you will again need the stem of a verb. To build the Perfekt form of this verb you simply add ge– to the beginning of the stem and –t to the end of it. One example:
lern.en + ge– = ge.lern. + t = ge.lern.t
The Perfekt form of lernen is gelernt. This kind of word is called: Partizip II. There are two peculiarities that you need to consider when creating the Partizip II:
- Verbs that end in –ieren (e.g. telefonieren, kopieren) and
- Verbs that are inseparable (=mainly recognizable by the following prefixes: be-, ent-, er-, ver-, zer-, ge-, miss– and quite a few others less frequent ones).
Those two groups loose the ge– Two examples:
Ich habe gerade eine Stunde mit meiner Mutter telefoniert. It’s not: ge.telefoniert
=I have just talked on the phone with my mother for an hour.
Wir haben unsere Eltern früher nur einmal im Jahr besucht. It’s not ge.besucht.
=Back then we’ve visited our parents only once a year.
Those verbs ending in –ieren are almost completely regular (one exception: verlieren). Inseparable verbs can be found on the regular and the irregular side.
The other half of the story
Unfortunately that’s only half of the story, as the Perfekt is a so called compound tense. That means it consists of two parts. Its form (!) is comparable with the English Present Perfect. In English you have the form:
I have learn.ed
Ich habe ge.lern.t
As you can see, both, the English and the German language use a form of ‘haben’ and the Partizip II.
When do I use the Perfekt?
Regarding the question when to use the Perfekt, I recommend watching the section about the Differences between the Präteritum and the Perfekt.