German Verbs - Tenses

Tenses

Although there are six tenses in German, only two are simple; the others are compound and therefore build on the simple constructions. The tenses are quite similar to English constructions.

Conjugation includes three persons, two numbers, two moods and two tenses. The subjunctive mood is quite complicated to build; even many native speakers have problems with that matter. English native speakers should note that these tenses do not carry aspect information. There are no progressive tenses in standard German. Das Mädchen geht zur Schule may mean "The girl goes to school" as well as "The girl is going to school". A sentence like Das Mädchen ist zur Schule gehend is still – theoretically – correct, but nobody speaks this way (by the way, Das Mädchen ist gehend zur Schule is completely wrong). One must use an adverb to make a visible difference aside from the context. In colloquial German, there does exist a progressive form, but it is only used with intransitive verbs, for example, am Essen sein meaning "to be eating".

• Present (Präsens) – It is the present-conjugated form of the infinitive. It is the most important tense in German. The Present tense is mainly used for present progressive, as well as for historical past. It is also very common to use it with a future meaning.

  Example: Ich kaufe das Auto. ("I buy the car")

• Preterite (Präteritum) – It is the past-conjugated form of the infinitive. This past tense is mainly for written German and formal speech.

  Example: Ich kaufte das Auto. ("I bought the car")

• Perfect (Perfekt) – It is the present-conjugated form of the perfect infinitive. The most important tense in spoken German to explain what happened in the past. Note that to express things like I have been waiting for 3 hours now, present tense is used: Ich warte jetzt schon seit 3 Stunden hier (literally, I wait now already since 3 hours here).

  Example: Ich habe das Auto gekauft. ("I (have) bought the car")

• Pluperfect / past perfect (Plusquamperfekt) – It is the past-conjugated form of the perfect infinitive. It can be thought of the perfect form of the Preterite. Used to describe what had already happened in the past.

  Example: Ich hatte das Auto gekauft. ("I had bought the car")

• Future (Futur I) – It is the present-conjugated form of the future infinitive. Mainly for describing the future, but also for assumptions. This tense is used in spoken and written German, but Germans prefer the Präsens with future meaning instead.

  Example: Ich werde das Auto kaufen. ("I will buy the car")

• Future perfect (Futur II) – It is the present-conjugated form of the future infinitive of the perfect infinitive. Used to refer to things that will have happened, that is be past, in the future. This tense is not really common German. Usually, perfect is used instead.

  Example: Ich werde das Auto gekauft haben. ("I'll have bought the car")

In the third person singular and plural conjugations future perfect can also be used to express an assumption and refers to something that is assumed to have happened in the past.

Er wird das Auto gekauft haben ("He'll (surely) have bought the car")

Sie werden das Auto gekauft haben ("They'll (surely) have bought the car")