UNIT ELEVEN
Unit 11 The present perfect tense
Usage in English
In English, the present perfect tense is used for past events that are linked
to the present. This stands in contrast to the simple past tense, which
refers to actions that were completed in the past:present perfect They have not arrived yet.
simple past They arrived last week.The present perfect tense in German
In German, it is not relevant whether a past event refers to the present
in some way or if the action was completed in the past. Instead, the main
difference in usage is based on the following:- the present perfect is generally used when speakingabout the past, irre-
spective of how long ago an event occurred; and - the simple past is mainly used in the writtenlanguage.
Formation – the main principles
The present perfect is a compound tense, which is constructed with the
appropriate form of habenorsein+ thepast participleof the relevant
verb. There are three main patterns:- Regularverbs usually take habenand form the past participle by adding
ge-+tto the stem:
Wie hast du das gemacht?
How did you do that?