Anyone speak german?

Question

what is the perfect tense in german?

Answer 1

there are 3 perfect tenses in German

http://www.lingualearn.co.uk/learners/ge...

(present) perfect, past perfect, future perfect

Answer 2

I think all the perfect tense forms exist in German and in English as well:

Present perfect:

He has walked home - Er ist nach Hause gegangen.

Past perfect:

He had walked home - Er war nach Hause gegangen.

Future perfect:

He will have walked home - Er wird nach Hause gegangen sein.

The future perfect is rarely used, in both languages, I believe.

Answer 3

In German , as well as in English, you have two ways to talk about the past: the simple past and the perfect tense.

Usage is much different, though. While the perfect is only used in special circumstances in English, it is the ONLY past tense in colloquial German, apart from auxiliaries *haben, sein, werden" and the modal verbs. The simple past is usually only used in written texts and is perceived as a higher register (=sounds too posh for everyday use)

Forms of the perfect tense are made by using the present tense of "haben" (or "sein", but only with some intransitive words of movement) plus the past participle of the verb, generally speaking exactly like in English.

to see - sehen

present tense: I see - ich sehe

perfect tense: I have seen - ich habe gesehen