Perfect tenseIrregular past participles

It’s a good idea to learn as many irregular past participles as possible. This list will get you started:

Hilfsvokabeln– Helpful vocabulary

• bleiben – to stay > ich bin geblieben – I stayed
• essen – to eat > ich habe gegessen – I ate
• fahren – to travel/go > ich bin gefahren – I travelled/went
• gehen – to go > ich bin gegangen – I went
• lesen – to read > ich habe gelesen – I read
• schreiben – to write > ich habe geschrieben – I wrote
• sehen – to see/watch > ich habe gesehen – I saw/watched
• trinken – to drink > ich habe getrunken – I drank

You will see that as with regular past participles ge- is added to the beginning, but while the -en or -n endings remain, the vowel sounds within the main verb often change, eg

• schreiben - to write > geschrieben - wrote

Here the ei > ie

• trinken - to drink > getrunken - drunk

Here the i > u

Did you know?

Spätzle are a typical type of noodle made with flour and cooked by pouring the mixture through something that looks very much like grater – Spätzlehobel. The word Spätzle comes from the word for 'sparrow' – Spatz + the diminutive form -le. When the noodles were formed by hand in the olden days, their shape often resembled tiny sparrows.

The noodles are usually short and fat and served with a variety of meat dishes instead of chips or potatoes. Sometimes they're served on their own with fried onions and cheese melted over them. This dish is known as Käsespätzle. Delicious – lecker.