Intermediate German: A Grammar and Workbook

• Irregularverbs also usually use haben. The past participles tend to end
  in-enrather than -tand often undergo a vowel change:

Er hat Kaffee getrunken.

He drank coffee.

• Verbs referring to movementor a change of statetakesein:

Sie ist mit KLM geflogen.

She flew with KLM.

Here are the forms in more detail.

Regular verbs

Formation

The present perfect tense of most regular verbs is constructed by using

the present tense of haben+ thepast participleof the relevant verb.

The past participle is formed with the stemof the verb, which is the

infinitive without -(e)n. The prefix ge-is then added at the beginning and

the letter -tat the end:

Infinitive Stem Past participle

hören→ hör ge+hör+t listened, heard

sagen sag ge+sag+t said

lächeln lächel ge+lächel+t smiled

Irregular verbs

Addingge- + -en to the stem

The past participle of most irregular verbs are formed by putting ge-in

front of the stem and -enat the end:

Infinitive Stem Past participle

lesen→ les ge +les+en read

sehen seh ge +seh+en seen

waschen wasch ge +wasch+en washed

82 Unit 11: The present perfect tense

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