German made easy-The Present Perfect Tense
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Continued from German made easy
A sentence like this.... " I have bought a car" would be ich habe einen wagen "gekauft".
Notice the verb "kaufen" ="to buy" remove "en" add "t" at the end and add "ge" as prefix. Note that just like in English, the past participle of "kaufen" is "gekauft".The use of a past participle indicates that we are using the perfect present tense. Many German speakers would prefer a past tense over a perfect present tense. " I bought it " is a replacement for" I have bought it".That is-"Ich habe es gekauft" will be represented with a past form of the verb kaufen as "Ich Kaufte es"
So far so good. Lets anyway learn the present perfect tense. Below is a demonstration of how a past participle of kaufen-gekauft can be used with the pronouns
Ich habe das Buch gekauft. I have bought the book.
Du hast das Buch gekauft. You have bought the book.
Er/sie/es hat das Buch gekauft. He/she/it has bought the book.
Wir haben das Buch gekauft. We have bought the book.
Ihr habt das Buch gekauft. You (pl.) have bought the book.
Sie/Sie haben das Buch gekauft. They/You (form.) have bought the book.
Here, the removing of "en" and adding "t" at the end and the adding of "ge" as prefix is true only for the so called weak verbs.
What are weak verbs?
Every verb has a stem, the main part. When there is no considerable change in the stem of the verb while making it a past tense verb we can say that it is a weak verb. One can understand this better with an example.
Let Kaufen be the verb in consideration. The past tense form of kaufen is "kaufte" ich kaufte. Note that the main part of the verb remains the same only adding "te" after the removal of "en". This is a weak verb. Thus a past tense form of a verb helps us decide whether it is a weak or a strong verb.
A strong verb like "to go" "gehen" undergoes change in the main part -the stem.It becomes "ging". This illustrates what it takes to be a strong verb.
The examples of sentences using the weak verbs and their past participle in order to make a perfect present tense sentence.
Verb=Kaufen-to buy
ich habe das brot gekauft.
i have bought the bread
Verb=Spielen-to play
ich habe mit Annchen gespielt.
i have played with Annchen
Verb=offnen-to open
ich habe die Fenster geöffnet
i have opened the windows.
Verb=baden-to bath
ich habe den Hund gebadet.
i have given the dog a bath.
Verb=packen-to pack
ich habe den Koffer gepackt.
i have packed the suitcases
Verb=putzen
ich habe das zimmer geputzt
i have arranged the room.
Verb=arbieten-to work
ich habe im Garten gearbeitet.
i have worked in the Garden
Verb=besuchen-to visit
ich habe die Nacbarn besucht
i have visited the neighbours
Verb=lernen-to learn
ich habe Spanisch gelernt
i have learnt Spanish
Verb=antworten-to answer
ich habe den Vatter geantwortet
i have answered father
The use of past participle of verb while in a present perfect tense has a lot to do with the verb "haben" -to have. It therefore becomes necessary to see how haben goes grammatically while in use in a present perfect tense
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