German tenses explained: present, Perfekt, Präteritum, Futur and Plusquamperfekt

Answer

German gets down to six tenses in theory, but the way most people talk in everyday conversation it really only comes down to two: Präsens and Perfekt. The other four – Präteritum, Plusquamperfekt, Futur I, and Futur II – pop up more often in writing and in situations where you need to sound a bit more formal or in-depth. In this guide, we’re going to cover all six tenses, how they are formed, and most importantly, when you’re actually going to use them out in the real world

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Präsens and Perfekt are all you really need to know for chatting with Germans in everyday life. The Präsens is also used in a bunch of different situations, including to describe future plans and ongoing actions. Because German doesn’t actually have a continuous tense like English does, you often find yourself using the present tense even when describing a long action – like “I am working” and “I work” both fall into this category
• Perfekt is your new best friend for everyday conversation – it’s a pretty straightforward tense to use, just slot in haben or sein followed by the past participle. By the way, you use sein if you’re describing movement or a change of state
• Prätitum is the past tense you’ll mostly see in formal writing and storytelling, but here’s a surprise – even when speaking Prätitum is used for the past tense of sein, haben and a few other modal verbs
• Plusquamperfekt is a fun one – basically “the past before the past”. You use it when one past action happened before another. Think of it like a kind of layered past
• Futur I is often talked about in the same way as Präsens, and in conversation Germans often use the present tense with a time word to talk about what’s coming up next

WHAT ARE THE GERMAN TENSES? (QUICK OVERVIEW)

The six tenses at a glance

What you really need to know about German grammar at A1, A2, B1 levels

• A1: The Präsens and the Perfekt – these two tenses are pretty much all you need to know to get by in spoken German. You can order food, describe what you did today and talk about what’s been going on with just these two. Ninety percent of spoken German is covered by these two.
• A2: At this level, you also need to know the Präteritum for the verbs sein, haben and the modals. And yes, these ones actually do come up in everyday conversation too.
• B1: Once you get to B1, you can start using the Plusquamperfekt and Futur I for any more complicated storytelling you want to do, or plans you’ve got lined up for the future.

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PRÄSENS (PRESENT TENSE) – HOW TO FORM AND USE IT

Verb endings – or how to turn a regular verb into the Präsens

For any regular verb, the first thing to do is to look at the infinitive (that’s the base form – the one you find in a dictionary) and just remove the ending, then you add the right ending –

Irregular and Stem-Changing Verbs in German

Some verbs in German, like ‘sehen’ (to see) change their vowel in the du and er/sie/es forms, with ‘sehen’ turning into ‘du siehst’ & ‘er/sie/es sieht’, while others like ‘fahren’ (to drive) have their ‘h’ sound become more prominent in ‘du fährst’ & ‘er fährt’ – these changes are just one of those things that you sort of have to learn off by heart.

When German Uses the Present Tense Where English Would Use the Future or Continuous

One thing that can take some getting used to when you’re learning German is that the present tense is used for three different things that English splits into separate tenses – think of it like this:

• Something happening at the moment: “Ich lerne Deutsch” (I’m in the process of learning German, or I am learning German)
• Something that I do fairly regularly: “Ich lerne jeden Tag” (I learn every day – sounds obvious, but it’s a good example)
• Something I’m going to do tomorrow: “Morgen lerne ich Deutsch” (Tomorrow I will learn German ie I’ve got plans to learn German tomorrow)

One of the things that can take some getting used to is that in German, “Ich arbeite” can mean either “I work” or “I’m working” – there’s no special “I am working” form – quite neat really.

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Perfekt: German’s Everyday Past Tense

Putting Perfekt Together

Perfekt is one of those compound tenses that’s made up of two bits – an auxiliary verb (either ‘haben’ or ‘sein’, more on that in a minute), and the past participle of the main verb at the end of the sentence. So for something like “I cooked soup”, the Perfekt form is: “Ich habe Suppe gekocht”.

Switching Between ‘Haben’ and ‘Sein’

So how do you decide when to use ‘sein’ and when to use ‘haben’? The general rule of thumb is that you use sein with verbs like ‘gehen’ (to go), ‘fahren’ (to drive), and ‘laufen’ (to run ie going from A to B) – or with verbs of change of state like ‘aufwachen’ (to wake up), and ‘sein’ (to be) itself. And then there’s ‘werden’ (to become) – that uses ‘sein’ too.

You use haben with all the other verbs – unless it’s a reflexive verb or a verb that takes an accusative object, in which case you swap to ‘haben’

Building the Partizip II

Example sentences

• Ich bin nach Berlin gefahren. (I drove to Berlin.)

• Wir haben gestern Tennis gespielt. (We played tennis yesterday.)

• Sie ist früh aufgewacht. (She woke up early.)

PRÄTERITUM (SIMPLE PAST): WHEN AND HOW TO USE IT

Regular and irregular verb forms

Regular verbs add -te to the stem:

Irregular verbs change their stem. For example, sehen becomes sah, and gehen becomes ging .

Verbs commonly used in Präteritum

Even in spoken German, these verbs use Präteritum:

• sein: ich war, du warst, er war

• haben: ich hatte, du hattest, er hatte

• Modal verbs: konnte, musste, wollte, sollte, durfte, mochte

Where it appears

Präteritum dominates in:

• News articles and reports

• Novels and short stories

• Formal writing

• Recipes and instructions

PERFEKT VS PRÄTERITUM: WHICH ONE SHOULD YOU USE?

The rule is a lot simpler than what most textbooks make out of it. In everyday speech, use the perfekt. In writing, use the Präteritum. However, speakers and writers use Präteritum for sein, haben, and modal verbs in both speech and writing.

Plusquamperfekt (Past Perfect): Talking About What Happened ‘Before the Past’

Formula: had/were + past participle

Plusquamperfekt is constructed using the past tense of have or be and the past participle.

I had learned German before I had to move to a new place. (The phrase ‘before I moved’ is a lot more natural – I had learned German before I moved.)

When to use it

You use the Plusquamperfekt when somebody did one thing before they did something else in the past. Its actually really common to come across this construction with words like after (nachdem), before (bevor) and when (als).

After I had eaten, I went for a walk. (Now that sounds a bit more natural, doesn’t it?)

Future I and Future II: Talking About the Future in German

Future I – ‘going to’ + infinitive

Future I is used to express plans, predictions and some assumptions. Its a big part of everyday conversation.

I’m planning on learning German. (I will learn German.)

Why Germans often use the present tense for the future in everyday conversation

In spoken German, its not uncommon for people to use the present tense with a time word to talk about things that are going to happen. Its a lot simpler and more normal to hear in everyday conversation.

Tomorrow I’m going to the cinema. (Morgen I go to the cinema – a bit stilted, isn’t it?)

Future I is used when you want to put extra emphasis on something happening in the future, though. For example: He’ll probably be at home. (Er will probably be at home.)

Future II – a quick look for advanced students

Future II describes an action that someone will complete by a specific point in the future or an assumption about something that may have happened in the past.

I’ll have read that book by tomorrow. (Ich will have read the book by tomorrow – but who actually says it that way, anyway?)

Common Mistakes With German Tenses

• Using the wrong helping verb: You often choose the wrong helping verb with movement verbs. For example, you say “I’m gone” instead of “I have gone.”
• Using incorrect word order: Place the past participle at the end of the sentence. For example, say “I played tennis yesterday” instead of “I have played tennis yesterday.”
• Mixing up perfect and preterite in spoken language: Generally use the perfect for most verbs in conversation, but the preterite for be, have and modals – its a bit of a pain to remember, but worth getting right.
• Forgetting about the separable prefixes: With separable verbs, the ge- goes between the prefix and the stem : I bought something from (eingekauft – e.g. in a shop).
• Using the preterite for everything: In spoken German, this sounds stiff and overly formal – save it for writing and you’ll sound a lot more natural.

QUICK REVISION CHEAT SHEET

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CONCLUSION

In this sense, the German tenses are simpler than English tenses: there are only six, and two of them (Präsens and Perfekt) cover most situations in everyday life. There are differences between spoken and written German (Perfekt vs. Präteritum) as well as between simple and compound forms.

As the alphabet begins to resemble the English language, begin with Präsens. Add Perfekt for the past and you can learn Präteritum for reading and writing. Plusquamperfekt and Futur I will come later, when you are confident narrating events. The cheat sheet above gives you the formulas. Use them in real sentences and over time you will start to see them.