German Tenses – Past, Present and Future

Grammar hack: say everything with just two tenses

The two most important tenses in German are Präsens (= ich lerne) and Perfekt (= ich habe gelernt).

In everyday language, you can say almost everything you need with just these two tenses.

Use Präsens for:

• the present and actions that are happening now
  

  Example:

  Heute findet ein Wettlauf statt.There is a race today.

• the future
  

  Example:

  Morgen brauchen alle Teilnehmer einen Ruhetag.Tomorrow, all the participants will need a day off.

• duration up to now
  

  Example:

  Die Teilnehmer trainieren schon seit Monaten.The participants have been training for months.

• assumptions and predictions (always with a signal word like bestimmt, sicher, vielleicht, wahrscheinlich …)

  Examples:

  Die Teilnehmer stehen sicher schon am Start.The participants must be at the starting line.

  Im nächsten Jahr findet der Lauf bestimmt wieder statt.The run will definitely happen again next year.

Use Perfekt for:

• the past

  Example:

  Im letzten Jahr hat der Lauf zum ersten Mal stattgefunden.The run took place for the first time last year.

• completed future actions (always with a signal word like bis nächste Woche, in zwei Jahren …)
  

  Example:

  In zehn Minuten hat das Rennen bereits angefangen.In ten minutes, the race will have already started.

• assumptions about something that has or will have already happened (always with a signal word like bestimmt, sicher, vielleicht, wahrscheinlich …)

  Examples:

  Die Teams an den Verpflegungsstellen haben sicher schon ihre Position eingenommen.The teams at the refreshment stations will have already got into position.

  In zwei Stunden sind bestimmt noch nicht alle über die Ziellinie gelaufen.In two hours, not everyone will have crossed the finish line yet.

Practise using these tenses in the exercises on our Präsens and Perfekt pages, or see how these tenses compare with others in our complete overview of German tenses.

While this two-tense method is handy, it’s not quite the full picture.

Keep reading to learn the full range of German tenses that you need for written German and more formal contexts.

Written German: summary of German tenses

Present and past

In written German, the two most important tenses are Präsens (= ich lerne) and Präteritum (= ich lernte).

These tenses are known as the narrative tenses (Erzählzeitformen); we use them to express a series of events in chronological order.

Use Präsens for events in the present.

Example:

Die Läufer stehen am Start. Der Startschuss ertönt und alle laufen los.The runners are standing at the starting line. The starting pistol goes off and everyone starts running.

Use Präteritum for actions that started and finished in the past.

Example:

Gestern fand ein Wettlauf statt. Die Läufer standen am Start. Der Startschuss ertönte und alle liefen los.Yesterday there was a race. The runners were standing at the starting line. The starting pistol went off and everyone started running.

have/had done

In addition to Präsens and Präterium (i.e. basic present and past), we also use Perfekt (= ich habe gelernt) and Plusquamperfekt (= ich hatte gelernt) in written German.

We can think of these as somewhat similar (but not identical!) to the English forms have done and had done.

Use Perfekt for past actions that have a connection to the present (signal words: heute, dieses Jahr, diese Woche …).

Example:

Heute findet ein Wettlauf statt. Alle haben sich gut vorbereitet und warten nun auf den Startschuss.There is a race today. Everyone has prepared well and now they’re waiting for the starting pistol.

past action (preparation) has a connection to the present (today’s race)

Use Plusquamperfekt for an action that happened prior to a second action in the past (usually expressed in Präteritum).

Example:

Im letzten Jahr fand der Lauf zum ersten Mal statt. Da hatten sich nur etwa 100 Leute angemeldet.The race took place for the first time last year. Only around 100 people had signed up.

action 1: the sign up; action 2: the race

Practise using these tenses in the exercises on the Präsens, Präteritum, Perfekt and Plusquamperfekt pages, or check out our table of German tenses for a side-by-side comparison.

Future

To talk about the future in German, we can use Präsens (= ich lerne) or Futur I (= Ich werde lernen).

Use Präsens for scheduled future events.

Examples:

Nächste Woche findet ein Wettlauf statt.There is a race next week.

scheduled event: fixed place and time etc.

Use Futur I for:

• future events that aren’t scheduled yet
  

  Example:

  Nächstes Jahr wird der Lauf wieder stattfinden.The race will happen again next year.

  the race will happen, but we don’t know when

• intentions and promises
  

  Example:

  Dann werde ich auch teilnehmen.Then I’ll participate too.

Assumptions

Use Futur I (= ich werde lernen) to make assumptions about the present and the future.

Examples:

Meine Freunde werden schon am Start stehen.My friends will already be at the starting line. (assumption about the present)

Nächstes Jahr werde ich vielleicht auch mitlaufen.Maybe I’ll run too next year. (assumption about the future)

Use Future II (= ich werde gelernt haben) to make assumptions about something that has happened in the past or will have already happened by a certain time in the future.

Examples:

Alle werden sich gut auf den Wettlauf vorbereitet haben.Everyone will have prepared for the race. (assumption about the past)

Bis nächstes Jahr werde ich auch genug trainiert haben.By next year, I’ll have trained enough. (assumption about a completed future action)

Common signal words: wahrscheinlich, sicher, bestimmt …

When we use these signal words, we can express the same assumptions using Präsens or Perfekt instead (see above).

Practise using the German future tenses in the exercises on our Futur I and Futur II pages, or go to our table of all German tenses for even more practice.

Overview of German tenses

The table below shows the conjugation of regular and irregular verbs in all German tenses.

Our model regular verb is lernen and our model irregular verb is sprechen.

Look up the conjugation of any verb in our German verb conjugator.