Tenses Flashcards
Present tense
Ich kaufe corresponds to both ‘I buy’ and ‘I’m buying’
Present tense indicates actions which began in the last and are still going on at moment of speaking i.e. ‘Up to now’
Eg er wohnt in Hamburg, solange ich ihn kenne
A few up to now contexts use perfect tense
If negative statement:
Eg ich habe ihn seit Jahren nicht gesehen
However present is used even in negative statements if there has been continuous action lasting up to present time
Eg seit Weihnachten arbeitet er nicht mehr
If series of repeated actions/states
Er ist seit Weihnachten mehrmals krank gewesen
Present can refer to future time, corresponding to ‘will/shall/’ll’ or ‘be going to’
Eg in zwei Stunden bin ich wieder da
Present is used more than future tense as long as it’s clear that future is meant.
Past and perfect tense
Perfect tense and past tense are used interchangeably to refer to last actions and events
Perfect is also used more to refer to a past action which has relevance to present.
Perfect more common in speaking and past in writing
Future and future perfect
Future tense: ich werde sie am Montag sehen. Indicates action that will happen after time of speaking
Future perfect (‘will have’) indicates the action will take place before another action/event takes place: sie wird den Brief bis morgen geschrieben haben (shell have written the letter by tomorrow)
Pluperfect
Places action further back in time than the time of the context
Eg nachdem sie gegangen war (after she had gone)
Progressive tense
There is no tense to indicate continuous/on going action like the English ‘I am reading’
To remedy this:
Use appropriate adverb such as eben/gerade or schon/gleich with motion
Eg er rasiert sich gerade (he’s shaving)
Using gerade/eben dabei with infinitive with zu
Eg ich bin gerade dabei, das Zimmer ein bisschen aufzuräumen
Using beim+infinitive noun:
Also seine Frau zurückkam, war er beim beim Kochen
Using a noun with a prepositional phrase:
Wir sind an der Arbeit
