13th December, 2010

The past participle of German verbs

posted 1 year ago

What?! Past what?? ;) … Relax. It’s not as bad as it sounds:

You have the same thing in English to form past tenses like the present/past perfect or the passive voice. For example (to) write - written. “written” is the past participle of (to) write.

The following rule applies to German regular verbs:

ge- + 3rd person singular form of the verb. Examples:

spielen (to play), spielt (he/she/it plays) -> gespielt (played). Ich habe gespielt

lachen (to laugh), lacht (he/she/it laughs) -> gelacht (lauged). Ich habe gelacht.

Of course there are exeptions to the rule (e.g. irregular verbs). One frequently used irregular verb is: sein (to be) - gewesen (been). But there are many more of course. Here’s a list.

Browse all posts dealing with: