The perfect tense

Both weak and strong verbs forms this tense with the present tense of either haben or sein, plus the past participle of the verb concerned.

The past participle of most weak verbs begins with ge- and end in -t, with the stem of the verb in between:

spielen - gespielt

The past participle of most strong verbs begins with ge- and ends in -en, with the stem of the verb in between, although again most must be learned:

trinken - getrunken

The past participle must be placed at the end of the clause in which it is used (see Word Order)

Gestern habe ich Fussball gespielt.

The choice of haben or sein can be problematic. However it is easier if you understand the difference between a transitive and an intransitive verb.

A verb can only be transitive if it can take a direct object, i.e. the accusative in German. All the transitive verbs (by far the biggest group) form their perfect tenses with haben.

The following verbs are intransitive and all form their perfect tenses with sein.

(a) sein, to be; bleiben, to remain

(b) verbs denoting a change of condition, e.g.: aufwachen, to wake up: einschlafen, to fall asleep: sterben, to die: werden, to become

(c) some verbs which take the dative, e.g.: begegnen, to meet: folgen, to follow: gelingen, to succeed

(d) verbs of movement, e.g.: gehen, to go: kommen, to come: erscheinen, to appear: schwimmen, to swim

E.g. Ich bin zu Fuss zum Park gegangen

Er ist Rockstar geworden

An important difference between French and German concerns reflexive verbs. In German they are transitive and use haben as the auxiliary verb.