Nachdem wir den Tisch abgeräumt haben, spülen wir ab/werden wir
abspülen. (See 81.7.)
After we have cleared the table we will wash up.Bis morgen habe ich es geschafft. (See 81.7, 103 .)
I will have done it by tomorrow.34.7 Simple past or perfect?
See also 34.5–6 (pp. 72–3).
(a) Often there is no distinction in meaning between these two tenses. Thus,
sie spielten Tennis and sie haben Tennis gespielt can convey exactly the same
sense.(b) There is a tendency in northern Germany for the simple past to be the preferred
past tense, whereas in southern Germany the perfect is preferred in spoken
German.(c) Where the focus is on the present result of an action, the perfect is used (as it is in
English):Die Gäste kamen an.
The guests arrived/were arriving.
Die Gäste sind angekommen.
The guests have arrived. (I.e. they are here now!)Compare:Sie schrieb gerade den Brief, als ich anrief.
She was (just) writing the letter when I phoned.and:Sie hat den Brief gerade geschrieben, als ich anrief.
She had just written the letter when I phoned.(d) There may also be a tendency for the opening (and closing) statement in a narrative
to be in the perfect, with the rest in the simple past:Wir sind also einkaufen gegangen. Aber im ersten Geschäft hatten sie
nur billige Sachen, und im nächsten war alles viel zu teuer. Da
gingen wir zu Meyers in der Gartenstraße ... Wir sind ja halb tot in
den Zug gefallen. (See 121.2, 117.1.)
So we went shopping. But in the first shop they only had cheap stuff, and
in the next everything was much too dear. So we went to Meyers in the
Gartenstraße... We fell into the train half dead.34.8 Pluperfect
Expresses an action or event that took place before another began:
Nachdem sie ein Glas Wein bekommen hatten, gingen sie in den
Garten.
After they had received a glass of wine they went into the garden.34
Use of tenses