See also 89.1 (p. 322).
The compound tenses are formed as follows:Perfect: a finite form of either haben or sein*, in the present tense, + the past participle
of the main verb.
Pluperfect: a finite form of either haben or sein*, in the simple past tense, + the past
participle of the main verb.
Future: a finite form of werden, in the present tense, + the infinitive of the main verb.
Future perfect: a finite form of werden, in the present tense, + the past participle of the
main verb, + either haben or sein*.
*See 33.8; see also 34 for the use of tenses; see 35.2 for tenses of modal verbs.33.4 Weak verbs
Weak verbs are completely regular and always retain the verb stem. The majority of
verbs follow this pattern and any new verbs which enter the language are ‘weak’, e.g.
privatisieren ‘privatize’, harmonisieren ‘harmonize’, testen ‘test’, interviewen
‘interview’.(a) In the present tense, the regular endings are added to the stem of the verb. Where
the stem of the verb ends in -d or -t, an extra -e is introduced in some positions to ease
pronunciation. The present tense forms of machen ‘to do/make’ are:(b) In the simple past, weak verbs add a -t and a slightly different set of regular endings
to the verb stem. Note that the ich form and the er/sie/es/man forms are identical in
the simple past. Where the stem of the verb ends in -d or -t, an extra -e is introduced in
all positions to ease pronunciation:(c) The perfect and pluperfect tenses of weak verbs are formed with the past participle,
and this is formed by adding ge- to the beginning of the verb stem, and -(e)t to the end.ich mache arbeite
du machst arbeitest
Sie (sing. and pl.) machen arbeiten
er/sie/es/man macht arbeitet
wir machen arbeiten
ihr macht arbeitet
sie machen arbeitenich machte arbeitete
du machtest arbeitetest
Sie (sing. and pl.) machten arbeiteten
er/sie/es/man machte arbeitete
wir machten arbeiteten
ihr machtet arbeitetet
sie machten arbeiteten33
Verb forms