perfekten

Perfekten, or the Perfekt, is the present perfect tense in German grammar. It denotes actions that have been completed in the past and is widely used in everyday speech to describe past events. It is contrasted with the Präteritum (simple past), which is more common in formal writing and in some regional varieties.

Formation and structure: The Perfekt is a compound tense formed with an auxiliary verb, either haben or sein, and the past participle of the main verb. The auxiliary is conjugated according to the subject, and the past participle appears at the end of the clause. The choice of auxiliary follows general rules: most verbs use haben; verbs indicating movement or change of state (such as gehen, kommen, aufstehen) and a few others use sein. Regular verbs form the participle with ge- and -t (z. B. arbeiten → gearbeitet); many strong verbs have irregular participles (z. B. schreiben → geschrieben). For separable-prefix verbs, the prefix remains attached to the participle (z. B. zurückrufen → hat zurückgerufen).

Example: Ich habe heute gearbeitet. Er ist nach Hause gegangen. In subordinate clauses, the finite verb still occupies the second position, and the participle moves to the end (weil ich heute viel gearbeitet habe).

Usage and variation: In spoken German, the Perfekt is the default tense for past events in most regions. In written narration, the Präteritum is often preferred, especially in newspapers and literature. Some verbs have irregular participles, and the use of sein vs. haben can vary with regional practice and verb semantics. The Perfekt thus functions as a key tool for conveying past action in German, with clear rules for formation and common usage patterns.