The perfect tense: regular verbs (gemacht, gespielt)

The Spoken Past Tense (Perfekt)

In conversational German, almost all past events are described using the Perfekt (present perfect) tense.

To form the Perfekt, you need two parts:

1. A conjugated helper verb—usually haben (to have)—in the normal verb position (Position 2).
2. A past participle at the very end of the sentence.

Forming Regular Past Participles

Regular verbs (also called "weak" verbs) form their past participle by adding ge- to the beginning of the verb stem, and -t to the end.

• machen (to do) -> ge
  • mach + t -> gemacht
• putzen (to clean) -> ge
  • putz + t -> geputzt

Notice how the helper verb takes Position 2, while the past participle sits at the very end of the sentence, creating a "bracket" around the other information.

Verbs Ending in -t or -d

If a verb stem ends in -t or -d (like arbeiten or reden), add -et to the end to make it easier to pronounce.

• arbeiten (to work) -> gearbeitet
• reden (to talk) -> geredet

Word Order

If you start a sentence with a time word like gestern (yesterday), the helper verb haben stays in Position 2, pushing the subject to Position 3. The past participle remains firmly at the end.