Mit Perfekt und Präteritum sprechen wir über Handlungen in der Vergangenheit. Wörter wie "gestern", "letzte Woche", "letzten Monat", "zuvor" geben den Zeitpunkt an.
(With the perfect and simple past we talk about actions in the past. Words like "gestern", "letzte Woche", "letzten Monat", "zuvor" indicate the point in time.)
There are no 100% fixed rules for choosing the tense with specific time expressions, but this guideline helps in most cases.
Zeitangabe (Time indication)
Zeit (Tense)
Beispiel (Example)
Gestern(Yesterday)
Perfekt (Perfect)
Gestern habe ich die Prüfung bestanden. (Yesterday I passed the exam.)
Letzte Woche(Last week)
Perfekt (Perfect)
Letzte Woche habe ich mein Studium beendet. (Last week I finished my studies.)
Letzten Monat(Last month)
Perfekt (Perfect)
Letzten Monat habe ich die Einschreibung gemacht. (Last month I completed the registration.)
Vor kurzem(Recently)
Perfekt (Perfect)
Vor kurzem habe ich in der Bibliothek gelernt. (I studied in the library recently.)
Zuvor(Previously)
Präteritum (Simple past)
Zuvor lebte er in Deutschland. (Previously he lived in Germany.)
Plötzlich(Suddenly)
Präteritum (Simple past)
Plötzlich begann der Kurs. (Suddenly the course began.)
Exercise 1: Zeitangaben mit Vergangenheitszeiten: „gestern" vs. „plötzlich"
gemacht, habe, erledigt, bestanden, gelernt, begann, beendet, lebte, hat
1. Machen:
Letzten Monat ... ich die Einschreibung ....
(Last month I completed the enrolment.)
2. Beenden:
Letzte Woche ... sie ihr Praktikum ....
(She finished her internship last week.)
3. Anfangen:
Plötzlich ... der Kurs,
(Suddenly the course began)
4. Beenden:
Letzte Woche ... ich mein Studium ....
(Last week I finished my studies.)
5. Lernen:
Oft ... ich in der Bibliothek ....
(I often studied in the library.)
6. Bestehen:
Gestern ... ich die Prüfung ....
(Yesterday I passed the exam.)
7. Erledigen:
Während des Praktikums ... ich viele Aufgaben ....
(During the internship, I completed many tasks.)
8. Leben:
Zuvor ... er in Deutschland.
(He previously lived in Germany.)
Exercise 2: Multiple Choice
Instruction:
Choose the sentence that is grammatically correct and uses an appropriate time expression with a past tense (perfect or simple past).
1.
The verb at the end of the sentence is incorrectly conjugated; the correct form would be the past participle "submitted."
The simple past is possible here, but with time expressions like "last week," the perfect tense is usually used in spoken German.
2.
Here the word order is incorrect, and the tense is wrong (present instead of perfect with a time expression).
Although the verb looks correct, this option is marked as false here for variation; the correct form is the same as above.
3.
The sentence contains two verbs without a correct connection; this is grammatically incorrect.
"Previously" is mostly used with the simple past in German because the perfect sounds unnatural in this context.
4.
The simple past sounds unnatural with "recently"; in spoken language, the perfect tense is used here.
Here the verb is in the present tense, although the time expression describes an action in the past.
Exercise 3: Rewrite the phrases
Instruction:
Rewrite the sentences with the appropriate time indication and the correct tense (perfect or simple past), as in the example: I have passed the exam. → Yesterday I passed the exam.
