The present tense is pretty simple in German: there’s only one. So where English has to choose between Sarah is walking to work and Sarah walks to work, German has only Sarah geht zu Fuss zur Arbeit. However, whereas English only has two different forms of each verb in the present tense (apart from for the verb to be), e.g. walk and walks, have and has, German verbs have lots of different forms in the present tense (typically four or five), depending on which personal pronoun you’re using. (Personal pronouns are words like I, you, we and they.) This podcast explains more about the present tense and the different forms the verbs you use in it take. To listen to the podcast on you computer, click here. Less
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German GrammarPod
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Tag Archive for 'Tense'
Hallo all, It’s been longer than I intended yet again, but I’ve finally managed to finish another episode of German GrammarPod. This episode is about the future tense and also about the verb werden in general. The future tense is pretty simple in German. Most of the time you can just use the present tense form. But where this would be ambiguous, you add the verb werden (conjugated into one of its present tense forms) in the same way English adds the verb will to make the future tense. Werden also has another couple of important uses. When used as a main verb instead of an auxiliary verb, then it means to become or a related verb. It also has another use as an auxiliary verb: instead of the future, it can be used to create the passive. Whether it’s being used to form the future or the passive can be seen from the form of the main verb that’s used with it. When it’s used to mean the future, then the main verb will be in the infinitive. If it’s a passive, then the main verb will be in the form of a past participle. To listen to the podcast directly on your computer, click here. Less
Learn German for free with podcasts.
German GrammarPod
Copyright: All rights reserved by creator
Hallo all, It’s been longer than I intended yet again, but I’ve finally managed to finish another episode of German GrammarPod. This episode is about the future tense and also about the verb werden in general. The future tense is pretty simple in German. Most of the time you can just use the present tense form. But where this would be ambiguous, you add the verb werden (conjugated into one of its present tense forms) in the same way English adds the verb will to make the future tense. Werden also has another couple of important uses. When used as a main verb instead of an auxiliary verb, then it means to become or a related verb. It also has another use as an auxiliary verb: instead of the future, it can be used to create the passive. Whether it’s being used to form the future or the passive can be seen from the form of the main verb that’s used with it. When it’s used to mean the future, then the main verb will be in the infinitive. If it’s a passive, then the main verb will be in the form of a past participle. To listen to the podcast directly on your computer, click here. Less
Learn German for free with podcasts.
German GrammarPod
Copyright: All rights reserved by creator
Hallo all, It’s been longer than I intended yet again, but I’ve finally managed to finish another episode of German GrammarPod. This episode is about the future tense and also about the verb werden in general. The future tense is pretty simple in German. Most of the time you can just use the present tense form. But where this would be ambiguous, you add the verb werden (conjugated into one of its present tense forms) in the same way English adds the verb will to make the future tense. Werden also has another couple of important uses. When used as a main verb instead of an auxiliary verb, then it means to become or a related verb. It also has another use as an auxiliary verb: instead of the future, it can be used to create the passive. Whether it’s being used to form the future or the passive can be seen from the form of the main verb that’s used with it. When it’s used to mean the future, then the main verb will be in the infinitive. If it’s a passive, then the main verb will be in the form of a past participle. To listen to the podcast directly on your computer, click here. Less
Learn German for free with podcasts.
German GrammarPod
Copyright: All rights reserved by creator
Hallo all, It’s been longer than I intended yet again, but I’ve finally managed to finish another episode of German GrammarPod. This episode is about the future tense and also about the verb werden in general. The future tense is pretty simple in German. Most of the time you can just use the present tense form. But where this would be ambiguous, you add the verb werden (conjugated into one of its present tense forms) in the same way English adds the verb will to make the future tense. Werden also has another couple of important uses. When used as a main verb instead of an auxiliary verb, then it means to become or a related verb. It also has another use as an auxiliary verb: instead of the future, it can be used to create the passive. Whether it’s being used to form the future or the passive can be seen from the form of the main verb that’s used with it. When it’s used to mean the future, then the main verb will be in the infinitive. If it’s a passive, then the main verb will be in the form of a past participle. To listen to the podcast directly on your computer, click here. Less
Learn German for free with podcasts.
German GrammarPod
Copyright: All rights reserved by creator
Hallo all, It’s been longer than I intended yet again, but I’ve finally managed to finish another episode of German GrammarPod. This episode is about the future tense and also about the verb werden in general. The future tense is pretty simple in German. Most of the time you can just use the present tense form. But where this would be ambiguous, you add the verb werden (conjugated into one of its present tense forms) in the same way English adds the verb will to make the future tense. Werden also has another couple of important uses. When used as a main verb instead of an auxiliary verb, then it means to become or a related verb. It also has another use as an auxiliary verb: instead of the future, it can be used to create the passive. Whether it’s being used to form the future or the passive can be seen from the form of the main verb that’s used with it. When it’s used to mean the future, then the main verb will be in the infinitive. If it’s a passive, then the main verb will be in the form of a past participle. To listen to the podcast directly on your computer, click here. Less
Learn German for free with podcasts.
German GrammarPod
Copyright: All rights reserved by creator
Hallo all, It’s been longer than I intended yet again, but I’ve finally managed to finish another episode of German GrammarPod. This episode is about the future tense and also about the verb werden in general. The future tense is pretty simple in German. Most of the time you can just use the present tense form. But where this would be ambiguous, you add the verb werden (conjugated into one of its present tense forms) in the same way English adds the verb will to make the future tense. Werden also has another couple of important uses. When used as a main verb instead of an auxiliary verb, then it means to become or a related verb. It also has another use as an auxiliary verb: instead of the future, it can be used to create the passive. Whether it’s being used to form the future or the passive can be seen from the form of the main verb that’s used with it. When it’s used to mean the future, then the main verb will be in the infinitive. If it’s a passive, then the main verb will be in the form of a past participle. To listen to the podcast directly on your computer, click here. Less
Learn German for free with podcasts.
German GrammarPod
Copyright: All rights reserved by creator
The present tense is pretty simple in German: there’s only one. So where English has to choose between Sarah is walking to work and Sarah walks to work, German has only Sarah geht zu Fuss zur Arbeit. However, whereas English only has two different forms of each verb in the present tense (apart from for the verb to be), e.g. walk and walks, have and has, German verbs have lots of different forms in the present tense (typically four or five), depending on which personal pronoun you’re using. (Personal pronouns are words like I, you, we and they.) This podcast explains more about the present tense and the different forms the verbs you use in it take. To listen to the podcast on you computer, click here. Less
Learn German for free with podcasts.
German GrammarPod
This podcast is about when to use the perfect tense. The perfect tense is the ich habe es getan tense and corresponds in form to the I have done it tense in English. But the rules on when you use the tense are rather different in German. The German one is often interchangeable with the simple past tense (the ich tat es tense), whereas in English, past tenses are usually not interchangeable with each other. As a rule of thumb, Germans use the perfect tense to express the past tense in spoken German, except with certain verbs and except in certain situations. The verbs with which the perfect tense is usually not used (apart from for situations for which the perfect tense is the preferred tense) are the auxiliary verbs, modal verbs and, in Central and Northern Germany, also certain other common verbs. These are used in the simple past instead. If you’d like to listen to this podcast on your computer, you can do so by clicking here. I’ve put a list of which verbs aren’t generally used in the perfect tense on my geocities site, where I put grammar tables and transcripts of the episodes: http://uk.geocities.com/germangrammarpod/past.html. The website also includes a table showing the information I’ve given in my podcasts so far about when to use which tense. It’s always tricky to describe when a tense should be used in a foreign language, and there’s a lot of seemingly contradictory information out there. To compile this episode, I mainly used German-language Wikipedia: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfekt and http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pr%C3%A4teritum which, slightly disturbingly, both seem to have been rewritten since I used them for information (although a native speaker did recommend the sites at the time I used them, so at least one native speaker did think they were supplying correct information as they were). I also used the book Hammer’s German Grammar and Usage (in my case the second edition). Here’s a link to the fourth edition on Amazon: Hammer Grammar, although I recommend any edition of it that you can get your hands on. I also liked the information in about.com on this topic: http://german.about.com/library/verbs/blverb_past.htm Less
Learn German for free with podcasts.
German GrammarPod
This podcast is about when to use the perfect tense. The perfect tense is the ich habe es getan tense and corresponds in form to the I have done it tense in English. But the rules on when you use the tense are rather different in German. The German one is often interchangeable with the simple past tense (the ich tat es tense), whereas in English, past tenses are usually not interchangeable with each other. As a rule of thumb, Germans use the perfect tense to express the past tense in spoken German, except with certain verbs and except in certain situations. The verbs with which the perfect tense is usually not used (apart from for situations for which the perfect tense is the preferred tense) are the auxiliary verbs, modal verbs and, in Central and Northern Germany, also certain other common verbs. These are used in the simple past instead. If you’d like to listen to this podcast on your computer, you can do so by clicking here. I’ve put a list of which verbs aren’t generally used in the perfect tense on my geocities site, where I put grammar tables and transcripts of the episodes: http://uk.geocities.com/germangrammarpod/past.html. The website also includes a table showing the information I’ve given in my podcasts so far about when to use which tense. It’s always tricky to describe when a tense should be used in a foreign language, and there’s a lot of seemingly contradictory information out there. To compile this episode, I mainly used German-language Wikipedia: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfekt and http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pr%C3%A4teritum which, slightly disturbingly, both seem to have been rewritten since I used them for information (although a native speaker did recommend the sites at the time I used them, so at least one native speaker did think they were supplying correct information as they were). I also used the book Hammer’s German Grammar and Usage (in my case the second edition). Here’s a link to the fourth edition on Amazon: Hammer Grammar, although I recommend any edition of it that you can get your hands on. I also liked the information in about.com on this topic: http://german.about.com/library/verbs/blverb_past.htm Less
Learn German for free with podcasts.
German GrammarPod
