272. Saying Things in the Past Tense
We often have to express an idea or a opinion or simply tell of an event in the past. In conversation, German mostly uses the Perfect Tense to do this ...
e.g. Where we would say in English ... I saw a good film last night .... the structure in German becomes something like ..... I have last night a good film seen ... Please note the word order here!
Clearly we have to be on top of the verb haben and for verbs involving movement or change of state, you will need to brush up on the verb sein as well. Both these verbs are used with past participles that find themselves at the end of a clause or sentence. Again understanding how past participles are formed and which ones are irregular become an issue. Have a quick look at Blog posts 190 - 196 to refresh your understanding of these important concepts.
Ok, so ... some examples ...
Ich habe gestern Abend einen guten Film gesehen
Wir haben letzte Woche einen Wagen gekauft.
Dieter hat seine Armbanduhr gefunden.
Hast du das Buch ,Mord in München' gelesen?
Anja und Monika haben sich neulich in einem Cafe in der Stadtmitte getroffen.
Ist Sonia schon nach Frankfurt gefahren ?
Wir sind oft als Kinder zur Schule gelaufen.
Ich bin letztes Jahr rund um Europa gereist.
Grid Practice
ich haben uns seine Mutter besucht
du habe mir das Auto getroffen
Erika hast jeden Tag den Stadtplan getrunken
Franz hat oft die Schweiz gegessen
wir habt nie nach Europa gezeigt
meine Familie sind letzte Woche einen Film gekauft
Thomas u. Alexi bin gestern eine CD gesehen
Sie ist manchmal Bier gegangen
ihr bist neulich im Cafe gereist
Der Polizist seid am Montag zur Uni gemietet
Fragen
1 Did you (pl. fam.) travel to Europe on Monday?
2 I sometimes drank beer in the cafe.
3 Erika often visited her mother every day.
4 The policeman showed us the city map.
5 We often walked to uni.
6 Thomas and Alexi saw a film yesterday.
7 Franz bought us the car last week.
8 Did you (sg. pol.) sometimes visit Switzerland?
9 Have you (sg. fam.) bought a CD recently?
10 My family travelled to Europe last year.
