hello
deutschland
the german language has six tenses in
this lesson i will introduce them all to
you and show you a general overview of
how they're used why they exist and how
you can form them for each of these
tenses i've already made at least one
video or multiple videos that go into
much more detail you can find all of the
links for those things in the
description down below first let's
define what a tense is and what a tense
is not tenses describe two things they
tell us if the action is complete or
ongoing and when the action happened or
will happen relative to the speaker's
point of view contrary to common belief
the presence and the perfect tenses in
german do not tell us the time of
anything this is done by adverbs or
prepositions among other things that we
use in those tenses the other four
tenses do tell us time because they
reference those other two tenses let's
take a look at all of the tenses to see
what i mean there are two tenses that
serve as reference points for the other
tenses first up is the presence often
called the present tense by english
native speakers in german classes this
tense tells us that the action is
currently happening at the time that the
sentence is used this can mean that the
action is happening just that one time
or it could be something that happens
multiple times and is likely to occur
again the sentence essa can mean that
the speaker is currently eating at the
time that they say
essa in english we would use the
progressive tense to express this i am
eating you can also use the presents to
mean that you have eaten before and that
you are likely to do so again in the
future the action of eating is ongoing
in english we would use the simple
present tense for that
i eat the pathetic tense is often called
the present perfect tense by english
native speakers although they're not
exactly the same thing this tense tells
us that the action is complete at the
time that the sentence is used this is
why it's used to speak about past events
in german the sentence echaba gegessen
means that the speaker has already
finished eating at the time they said
ichaba gegessen the action has been
completed trying to translate the
perfect tense into english is a bit
problematic at times as the present
perfect tense in english does not fit
perfectly with the perfect tense in
german you can translate the phrase
ichaba gegessen with the english phrase
i have eaten the present perfect tense
or i ate the simple past tense the
differences between these tenses are
made up through context and extra
descriptors within the sentence the main
point is that it describes an action
that is complete the other four german
tenses simply give us a time relative to
the presence or perfect tense the futura
ains is usually simply called the future
tense in english it shows us that an
action is ongoing but it happens after
the current reference point i.e the
future for example ichivada essen i will
eat this tells us that the action of
eating has not yet begun i.e the future
but when it does start it will be an
ongoing action the future is usually
translated as the future perfect in
english this shows us that the action is
completed after the current reference
point i.e the future for example ich
vera gegessen haben i will have eaten
this tells us that the action of eating
is complete at the reference point that
is sometime after now the preteritum
tense is usually translated with the
preterit or the simple past tense in
english it shows an ongoing action that
occurred before the current reference
point i.e the past
for example ich aas i ate this tells us
that the action of eating already
occurred at the time that the statement
is made but that it was an ongoing thing
at that time it was an ongoing action
before now the plus vom perfect usually
translated as the plu perfect or the
past perfect shows a completed action
that occurred before the current
reference point i.e the past for example
ichat gegessen i had eaten this tells us
that not only did the action of eating
take place before now that action was
completed at the time that we are
referencing it is used to differentiate
between two points in the past it's not
very commonly used however because you
can already differentiate relatively
easily with the perfect tense adding an
extra layer to it is usually just
unnecessary you can also express these
things with an adverb or a prepositional
phrase to express the exact same kind of
thing without using the pluskvan perfect
so those are all six tenses in german
let's take a look at a few examples to
see them in more concrete uses and how
they can compare to each other
presence my buddha is
my brother eats two eggs every morning
due to the use of the adverb yadin
morgen you cannot use the english
present progressive tense my brother is
eating two eggs every morning this would
be one of those sentences in english
that identifies you as a non-native
english speaker as it just doesn't quite
sound right even though it makes logical
sense perfect
my buddha hasn't sinned
my brother ate two eggs every morning
this is an interesting sentence because
i use the simple past tense in english
to translate it due to the adverb every
morning it's possible to translate this
sentence with the english present
perfect tense however my brother has
eaten two eggs every morning this
translation would have to change if i
added zaitlets to voja since last week
then the sentence would look like this
my buddha
morgan zaitlets
my brother has eaten two eggs every
morning since last week
as you can see in english the adverbs of
time have a big influence on which tense
you can use but in german this issue is
not important in german the only
questions we have to ask ourselves is is
this action ongoing or completed and is
this action happening now
before now or after now preteritum my
buddha ass jaden morgan
my brother ate two eggs every morning
you remember when i translated the
perfect tense with the simple past tense
in english just a minute ago and then i
said that you could totally use the
present perfect tense if you wanted well
it's also true for this tense this is
where we get into a bit of a hot button
topic while it's true that the pathetic
tense describes a completed action and
the preteritum describes an ongoing
action in the past it's very ambiguous
and kind of a fluid distinction this has
caused an evolution in the german
language over the last century or two in
modern german the perfect tense is used
when speaking about past events whereas
the preteritum tense is used when
writing about past events this ambiguity
becomes even more apparent when you look
at how the past tense of zein is treated
in german it is almost always used with
the preteritum tense both when speaking
and writing this is because the perfect
tense is redundant with sein you have to
have a conjugated form of zhein plus a
parity tsva form of sein and the same
sentence to avoid this redundancy
germans simply use the preteritum tense
my brother va im cafe my brother was in
the cafe
my buddha is tim cafe vasen my brother
was being in the cafe
no one would say that by the way in
english we would simply use the simple
past in both of these examples there is
still a use for the perfect version of
zein however this is to distinguish that
being is completed in the sentence my
buddha va in cafe means that the brother
was in the cafe at the time that we are
referencing my buddha istim cafe gewesen
means that the brother is no longer in
the cafe at the time that the sentence
was spoken
is this an important distinction
most of the time no does it occasionally
come in handy yes the bottom line is
that you can generally use the
preteritum tense to express past events
when writing and the perfect tense to
speak about past events occasionally you
will need to make a slight distinction
and you can choose your tense
accordingly plusqvar perfect
my brother had eaten two eggs every
morning this example shows us that not
only is the eating no longer going on
but that this happened before some other
point of reference in the past this is
one of the few times when german and
english line up almost perfectly the
english past perfect and the plus vom
perfect can almost always be used to
translate each other under rare
circumstances the past perfect
progressive also known as the past
perfect continuous in the english is
needed but that is less common in the
previous example that would be my
brother had been eating two eggs every
morning futua eins my buddha vietnam
my brother will eat two eggs every
morning
this is another instance when english is
weird it's entirely possible to
translate this sentence as my brother
will be eating two eggs every morning
this changes the meaning slightly in
english but in german the same sentence
is used to express both of these english
sentences there is no change needed in
german to make this distinction there
are no progressive or continuous tenses
in german futually
my brother will have eaten two eggs
every morning this is another tense when
the english and german line up almost
perfectly the future perfect tense shows
a completed action in the future and the
future does exactly that too again the
exception in the translation rule here
is the use of the english future perfect
progressive or future perfect continuous
this would make the translation of the
last example my brother will have been
eating two eggs every morning let's try
some more examples without the
long-winded explanations to go with them
presence
the boy goes into the store the boy is
going into the store perfect
de younga is
the boy went into the store the boy has
gone into the store preteritom de younga
ging inshaft the boy went into the store
the boy has gone into the store plus van
perfect
the boy had gone into the store
the boy had been going into the store
futura eins
der younger vert ins chef gene the boy
will go into the store the boy will be
going into the store futuretsvay dear
younger vietnam
the boy will have gone into the store
the boy will have been going into the
store presents kauft
neues auto
is your brother buying a new car
does your brother buy a new car perfect
hat time buddha a neues auto gekko
did your brother buy a new car
has your brother bought a new car
preteritom
bruda annoys auto
did your brother buy a new car
has your brother bought a new car plus
vom perfect
hatta dain brudda annoys auto gekko had
your brother bought a new car
had your brother been buying a new car
futura eins
vietna a neues autocalven will your
brother buy a new car
will your brother be buying a new car
futuratzvay
vietnam
will your brother have bought a new car
will your brother have been buying a new
car presence the authorin schreiber
the author is writing a book
the author writes a book perfect
the authoren hatainbuch schreiben
the author wrote a book
the author has written a book criteritom
the authorin shriep
the author wrote a book
the author has written a book plus kevan
perfect the authoren hatta ein bochke
schreiben the author had written a book
the author had been writing a book
futura eins the auteurin wierd ein
the author will write a book the author
will be writing a book
futuretsvay the author in vietnam
the author will have written a book the
author will have been writing a book
presence thus kint mus nakhause
the child has to go home the child is
having to go home perfect does kint
hadn't
missin the child had to go home the
child has had to go home preteritom das
kint musta nachos again the child had to
go home
the child has had to go home pluskvarm
perfect das kint hatta nakhausegen
the child had had to go home the child
had been having to go home futura eins
das kint viet nachao seguian misun the
child will have to go home
the child will be having to go home
the child will have had to go home
the child will have been having to go
home as i mentioned at the beginning of
this video i have videos explaining all
of these tenses in detail you can click
the links in the description to find the
ones that you're most interested in or
you can click this link over here and
find them all in one playlist this is