Perfect tense of regular verbs
The most frequently used tense when talking about things that happened in the past is the perfect tense.
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The perfect tense is made up of two parts: haben or sein and the past participle (Partizip II) of the main verb.
The past participle of regular verbs is formed by adding ge- to the front of the verb and replacing the ending –en with –t.
spielen → gespielt
machen → gemacht
wohnen → gewohnt
| haben/sein | past participle | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Ich | habe | gestern Tennis | gespielt. |
| Du | hast | gestern Tennis | gespielt. |
| Er, sie, es | hat | gestern Tennis | gespielt. |
| Wir | haben | gestern Tennis | gespielt. |
| Ihr | habt | gestern Tennis | gespielt. |
| Sie, sie | haben | gestern Tennis | gespielt. |
Exceptions
1. Verbs that end in –ieren do not have ge- in their participles: telefonieren → telefoniert
2. If the verb stem ends in -t or -d an additional e is inserted: arbeiten → gearbeitet
3. Similarly, if the verb stem ends in a consonant (except “l” or “n”) plus n or m, an additional e is inserted: öffnen → geöffnet
Exercise 1
Exercise 2
Exercise 3
External Link: Partizip II: regelmäßig.