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Questions & Answers about Ich rufe den Kellner.
Since this lesson is about the Perfekt tense, how would I say "I have called the waiter"?
To put this sentence into the Perfekt (past) tense, you need the helper verb haben (to have) and the irregular past participle of rufen. Following the ge-...-en pattern from this lesson, the participle is gerufen. The helper verb goes in the normal position, and the participle goes at the very end: Ich habe den Kellner gerufen.
Why is it den Kellner instead of der Kellner?
Kellner is a masculine noun (der Kellner). In this sentence, the waiter is the direct object—he is the one receiving the action of being called. This means he must take the accusative case, which changes the masculine "the" from der to den.
The English translation says "I am calling", but there is no word for "am" in the German sentence. Why?
German does not have a separate "continuous" tense like English does. You never translate the "am" or "is" when talking about actions happening right now. The single German verb rufe covers both "I call" and "I am calling".
Does rufen also mean calling someone on the phone?
No, rufen specifically means to call out to someone using your voice, like trying to get a waiter's attention across a room. If you want to say you are calling someone on the telephone, you must use the separable verb anrufen instead (Ich rufe den Kellner an).