Perfect tense - word order
The last thing to remember when using the perfect tense is the correct word order.
The A 'helping' verb that is used to form the perfect tense. It goes with the past participle and is the verb which stays in the second position in the sentence. The auxiliary verbs in German are haben and sein. has to go second (the second idea - not necessarily the second word) and then the past participle goes at the end.
Look at these example sentences:
Question
Put these sentences into the correct order and translate them into English:
- gelesen - ein - haben - Buch - wir
- habe - gefunden - ich - Portemonnaie - ein
- Buch - sie - gelesen - hat - das
- radgefahren - sind - wir
- mit - gesprochen - dem - habe - Lehrer - ich
- Wir haben ein Buch gelesen. – We read a book.
- Ich habe ein Portemonnaie gefunden. – I found a purse.
- Sie hat das Buch gelesen. – She read a book.
- Wir sind radgefahren. – We cycled.
- Ich habe mit dem Lehrer gesprochen. – I spoke to the teacher.
Negatives
You use nicht when To make something negative. a verb:
- Der Bürgermeister hat die Currywurst nicht gegessen. – The mayor didn’t eat the curried sausage.
You add kein when negating a noun:
- Ich habe keine Geschwister. – I have no siblings.
Did you know?
Currywurst is a typical German dish. You can buy it in most German fast-food kiosks, which are called Schnellimbisse or Imbissstuben.
Currywurst consists of Bratwurst served with a tomato and curry-flavoured sauce which is sprinkled with curry powder. It is often served with fries – Currywurst mit Pommes.
It has become such an iconic dish since its invention in 1949 that candidates for the post of mayor of Berlin – Berliner Bürgermeister – are photographed eating Currywurst.
There is even a museum in Berlin – Deutsches Currywurst Museum – which is entirely dedicated to the humble dish.
