Forms Of Present Tense

Finite tenses are formed by changing the verb stem or by adding a suffix or prefix. There are two finite verb tenses:

1. present tense

2. simple past tense

Compound tenses

1. Future tense

2. Present perfect tense

3. Past Perfect tense

4. Future perfect tense

The Present Tense (Präsens)

In contrast with the several forms of the present tense in the English language, German present tense has only one form for all present tense usage:

Ich spreche I speak, I am speaking, I do speak du schreibst you write, you are writing, you do write wir lessen we read, we are reading, we do read er sieht he sees, he is seeing, he does see

In addition, the German present tense can be used to refer to an event that will happen in the future:

For example: boxen (to fight) du boxt reizen (to travel) du reizt heißen (to be called) du heißt bremsen (to apply the brake) du bremst

The Simple Past Tense (Präteritum/Imperfekt/Preterite)

There are two forms for the past tense in German: the Perfekt and the Präteritum. While both forms express past actions or events, the Perfekt form consists of two words and is more prevalent in informal speech. On the other hand, the Präteritum is the formal, written form of the past tense which is expressed through one-word verbs.

The simple past tense takes the second position in sentences except in yes-no questions where it is placed in the first position. Other verbal parts like complementary infinitives or separable verb prefixes take the last position in a sentence.

Er malte das Haus.

He painted the house.

Wurden sie informiert?

Were you informed?

Sie brachte ihr Kind mit.

She brought her child along.

Here is the conjugation table for the Preterite:

ich I -te du you -test er/sie/es he/she/it -te wir we -ten ihr you (plural)

Passive Voice

The active voice is the regular voice where the subject is the doer of the action. The object or receiver of the action is in the accusative case.

Example:

Sie reinigt das Haus jeden Tag. She cleans the house everyday.

In passive voice constructions, the object or receiver is the subject of the sentence. To form sentences in the passive voice, the conjugated form of the verb werden is used along with the past participle form of the main verb. The subject need not be stated in passive sentences but you may do so by using von+dative noun case. This is the counterpart of the English by (doer)