The past: recounting yesterday
The Perfekt. Two ingredients — a helper verb and a past participle — and the participle waits at the end of the sentence.
How it is built, and where it sits
Two ingredients: haben or sein in the present, plus the past participle. Most verbs use haben. A small group of motion verbs use sein. Most participles are built with ge- at the front: machen becomes gemacht, kaufen becomes gekauft. And the participle goes to the very end of the sentence: Ich habe gestern im Café gegessen. The helper verb holds second place; the participle waits at the back.
Seven participles that use haben
Learn each one already attached to ich habe. Say the whole frame — including the gap where the object will go.
- Ich habe gesprochenI spoke
sprechen → gesprochen
- Ich habe gemachtI did / I made
machen → gemacht
- Ich habe gesehenI saw
sehen → gesehen
- Ich habe genommenI took
nehmen → genommen
- Ich habe gegessenI ate
essen → gegessen
- Ich habe getrunkenI drank
trinken → getrunken
- Ich habe gekauftI bought
kaufen → gekauft
What the colours above mean
10 of 10 colours so farA thing, a person or a place.
An action or a state — what is happening.
Describes a noun.
Modifies a verb or an adjective.
the / a / some — and possessives like mon, ma.
Stands in for a noun — I, you, he, it.
Links words together — to, in, of, for.
Joins two parts of a sentence.
Opens a question — where, when, how, why.
Learn it whole. Do not take it apart.
Past participles are verb forms, so they stay green — and unlike French and Italian, they never change to agree with anyone.
The sein verbs — motion and change
Verbs of going and becoming take sein rather than haben. Unlike French, the participle does not change for the speaker's gender.
| Verb | Participle | In a sentence | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| gehen | gegangen | Ich bin ins Kino gegangen. | I went to the cinema. |
| fahren | gefahren | Ich bin nach Berlin gefahren. | I travelled to Berlin. |
| kommen | gekommen | Ich bin nach Hause gekommen. | I came home. |
| bleiben | geblieben | Ich bin zu Hause geblieben. | I stayed at home. |
A gift from German
The participle never changes for gender. Ich bin gegangen whether you are a man or a woman. French makes you track je suis allé against je suis allée, and Italian sono andato against sono andata; German simply does not. One less thing, permanently — and a fair trade for the word order.
When it happened
- [gestern]yesterday
- [heute Morgen]this morning
- [gestern Abend]last night
Literally yesterday evening.
- [letzte Woche]last week
Sentence frames
- 1
[Gestern] habe ich im Café gegessen.
Yesterday I ate at the café.
Start with gestern and the verb still takes second place, so ich moves behind it.
- 2
Ich bin nach place gefahren.
I travelled to ___.
- 3
Was haben Sie [gestern] gemacht?
What did you do yesterday?
Worth learning whole. It is the question you will be asked most often — and notice gemacht waiting at the end.
Daily mini-tasks
Listening this week
Slow German mit Annik Rubens
Podcast apps
Exactly what the name says: clear, unhurried, and about real German life. Listen for the ich habe… gemacht shape with the participle at the end.
What stuck?
Check it before you close the page.
Up to 10 of this week's words and frames. Say each one out loud before you look, and say whether you think you have it. Guessing first and then checking is what makes it stick — reading the answer feels better and does less.