Into the Past: From the Present to the Perfect Tense

Question 1 of 5

Constructing the Perfect Tense in German, Part 1

To construct the perfect tense in German, you need to use two verbs together in one sentence: an auxiliary verb and a past participle.

For example, in English, you could say: "I have cooked noodles."

The word "have" is the auxiliary verb in this sentence.

The word "cooked" is the past participle.

In German, this sentence would be:

Ich habe Nudeln gekocht.

Notice that in German the past participle, "gekocht", is placed at the end of the sentence.

Tick ALL the right answers below. You should find three.

The words "have"(English) and "habe"(German) are both past participles.

The placement of the past participle in English and German is different.

The perfect tense can be constructed with just one verb.

The words "cooked" and "gekocht" are both past participles.

The perfect tense allows German speakers to describe the past.