- 75% of verbs fall under the “ge...(e)t” form

Ex. machen – gemacht, spielen – gespielt, kochen – gekocht

- 25% fall under the “ge...en” form

Ex. fahren – gefahren, lessen – gelessen, sehen – gesehen

*One good tip is if the first vowel of the verb changes in the 2nd person, then it will most probably fall under the “ge...en” form. This is true 90% of the time.

However, there are still other verbs that do not have the “-ge” at the start to form the perfect tense. A good tip for this would be when you encounter verbs starting with be-, er-, zer-, ent-, emp- ge-, ver- or end with –ieren (in which case, its perfect tense is formed by changing this to –iert)

Ex. erzählen – erzählt, bezahlen – bezahlt, beginnen – begonnen, telefonieren – telefoniert

Verbs with prefixes / suffixes

Verbs that have prefixes change the meaning of the verb and in several cases, is not even close in meaning with the verb without the prefix. For example, kommen is “to come” and mitkommen is “to come with us”...but fangen is “to catch” and anfangen is “to begin”. Here are several examples:

Kreuzen – to cross

Ankreuzen – to mark with a cross

Räumen – to remove

Aufräumen – to tidy

Schlafen – to sleep

Ausschlafen – to sleep off

Einschlafen – to fall asleep

Fahren – to go

Abfahren – to depart (by car)

Zurückfahren – to go back

Fliegen – to fly

Abfliegen – to depart (by plane)

Zurückfliegen – to go back

Packen – to pack

Auspacken – to anpack

Einpacken – to wrap

I found that adding...

Mit – usually means to do something with someone

Ab – usually signifies “from”

Aus – usually gives the direction of “out”

Ein – usually gives the direction of “in”

Some of these verbs with prefixes form their perfect form by adding the „-ge“ in the middle, between the prefeix and infinitive verb.

Ex. anfangen – angefangen

aufhängen – aufgehängt

Some verbs with prefixes form their perfect form without adding the „-ge“. As with the verbs without prefixes/suffixes, a good hint is that they are usually the ones starting with be-, er-, zer-, ent-, emp- ge-, ver- or end with –ieren. They use a “t”, “en” or “-iert” in the end.

Ex. verpassen – verpasst

bekommen – bekommen

erleben – erlebt

passieren - passiert

Haben vs. Sein

You also have to know whether to use “haben“ or “sein” with the perfect form of the verb. General rule is if verb indicates movement from one place to another, “sein” is used. Otherwise, use the “habe” conjugation.

Ex.

Sein

fahren – Er ist gefahren.

He has driven.

Schwimmen – Sie ist geschwommen.

She has swam.

Tanzen – Ich bin getanzt.

I have danced.

Haben

Nehmen – Sie hat es genommen.

She has taken it.

Arbeiten – Er had gearbeitet.

He has worked.

Essen – Ich habe essen gegessen.

I have eaten food.

On Der, Die, Das

On Prepositions