Partizipbildung

Partizipbildung is the process of forming participles in German grammar. It encompasses two participle types: Partizip I (present participle) and Partizip II (past or perfect participle). Participles may function as adjectives, adverbials, or as parts of verb tenses, and in some cases as nouns (das Partizip).

Partizip I is formed from the infinitive by adding the suffix -end to the stem, for example arbeiten → arbeitend, gehen → gehend, sehen → sehend. The form is mainly used as a verbal adjective or in adverbial expressions to denote simultaneous or ongoing action, e.g., ein lachender Mann, er kam laufend. In modern usage Partizip I is less productive in everyday speech than in written or literary styles, and there are occasional spelling considerations with verbs ending in -ieren, where the base stem remains unchanged (studieren → studierend).

Partizip II is the past or perfect participle. It is typically built with the prefix ge- and the suffix -t for weak (regular) verbs (spielen → gespielt, arbeiten → gearbeitet), or with -en for strong and many irregular verbs (gehen → gegangen, sehen → gesehen, essen → gegessen). Verbs with separable prefixes form a composite participle in which ge- often appears between the prefix and the stem (aufstehen → aufgestanden), while inseparable prefixes usually do not take ge- (verstehen → verstanden). Some verbs exhibit stem changes in the participle (sehen → gesehen, nehmen → genommen). Partizip II is used for perfect tenses with haben or sein (Ich habe gelesen / Er ist gegangen) and can also function as an attributive or predicative adjective, with inflection endings aligned to the noun.

Partizipbildung thus covers the systematic formation rules for both present and past participles, as well as their diverse syntactic uses in German.