Chapter 8:- Grammar 2

GRAMMAR 8

THE SKELETON SENTENCE: Verbs 2 — Part 2

You learned that decoding a verb has two different aspects, meaning and form.

If you don't know a given verb and can't guess its meaning from the context, you need to construct the infinitive form so that you can look up the word in a dictionary.
If you know the meaning of the verb then you should understand the information that the conjugated form gives about the four features. For now, let's concentrate on person, number, and tense.

So, I have to learn the conjugational patterns of German verbs?

Notion of tense

Yes, but we'll first talk about the notion of "tense." If you know languages other than English, you're already aware that different languages have different "tense"-systems. That is, some tenses in one language don't exist in another. Moreover, even if certain tenses share the same names across languages, they may be used in different ways. A simple past in English, for example, is not always equivalent to an "Imperfekt" in German.

Präsens und Imperfekt
	Only two tenses appeared in the tense table of the last part, "Präsens" and "Imperfekt." Obviously, German has more than these two tenses. What makes these tenses special, however, is that they are the only two built out of one conjugated verb-form.

And the others?

Other tenses: analytical forms
	All of the other tenses, as in English, are so-called "analytical"-forms. They are built from an auxiliary verb and a participle: hat gesungen — has sung. You'll learn about the "Futur," the "Perfekt," and the "Plusquamperfekt" in Course 2, Chapters 4 and 5.

Okay. Tell me, please, about the differences between German and English tenses!

Differentiation between tenses

Differentiation between tenses in German is by no means as clear as in English. We'll give you some basic, primary information about the meanings of the four principal tenses, as well as a German example and an English equivalent for each.
In the next lessons, you'll get various examples of the different meanings in the texts, and you'll also learn to understand the clues that help you to identify the right meaning for each specific context:

Präsens (Present)

Covers the simple present and the present continuous in English.

It's also frequently used instead of the future (often with an additional time phrase like "morgen"- tomorrow) and can even describe (together with a time phrase) events that happened in the past ("historical present").

Er singt einen Song der Rolling Stones.

He sings a song of the Rolling Stones.

He is singing a song of the Rolling Stones.

He does sing a song of the Rolling Stones.

He will sing a song of the Rolling Stones.

Imperfekt (Simple Past)

Expresses a temporal distance to what is reported; covers the simple past or a past continuous in English.

It's the typical narrative form in German.

Er sang einen Song der Rolling Stones.

He sang a song of the Rolling Stones.

He was singing a song of the Rolling Stones.

He did sing a song of the Rolling Stones.

Perfekt (Present Perfect)

Expresses temporal proximity or an emotional involvement in what is reported; it can express both the English past perfect and the simple past.

Er hat einen Song der Rolling Stones gesungen.

He sang a song of the Rolling Stones.

He has sung a song of the Rolling Stones.

Plusquamperfekt (Past Perfect)

Expresses something viewed in retrospect from a point in the past. It is used to describe an event that preceded another event that happened in the past.

(The word "Plusquamperfect" comes from the Latin plus quam perfectum and means "more than completed.")

Er hatte einen Song der Rolling Stones gesungen.

He had sung a song of the Rolling Stones.