Questions & Answers about Er ist wieder gekommen.
Why do we use ist here instead of hat for the past tense?
Most German verbs use haben (to have) for the Perfekt tense. However, verbs that describe a change of location or state use sein (to be) as their helper verb. Since kommen (to come) involves moving from one place to another, we must use ist.
The literal translation is 'He is again come.' Why don't we translate it that way?
English always uses 'to have' for this kind of past tense (He has come). German uses sein for movement verbs, but it means the exact same thing. You should translate it into normal English ('He came' or 'He has come') rather than 'He is come' so it sounds natural.
Why is gekommen at the very end of the sentence?
This is a strict rule in German for the Perfekt tense. The helper verb (ist) takes the second position in the sentence, and the past participle (gekommen) is always pushed to the very end. Any other words, like the adverb wieder (again), are sandwiched in between them.
Why does the past participle gekommen end in '-en' instead of '-t'?
Kommen is a strong (irregular) verb. While regular verbs get a -t ending in the past tense (like gemacht), strong verbs usually end in -en and sometimes change their inner vowel. For kommen, you just add the ge- prefix to get gekommen.
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