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Basic tenses | Passive voice tenses | Subjunctive II tenses | Subjunctive II passive voice tenses Subjunctive I tenses | Subjunctive I passive voice tenses | Imperative mood | GRAMMAR INDEX
There are 6 basic verb tenses in German. There are two simple verb tenses, which are formed using only the verb or its root or a derivative: the present tense and the simple past tense. The other four verb tenses -- the future tense, the present perfect tense, the past perfect tense, and the future perfect tense, are compound tenses, meaning that they are formed using a helping verb + the verb's infinitive or past participle. In the tables below, forms of the main verb are coded in blue and helping verbs are in orange. When used in a sentence, either the verb itself or, in the case of compound tenses, the helping verb will be conjugated to agree with the subject of the sentence. This conjugated verb is called the finite verb. German also has 2 voices: the active voice and the passive voice. A change in voice allows the subject of a sentence to become the object and vice versa. Each voice has a parallel form for each of the 6 verb tenses. German verbs also have 3 moods: the indicative mood , the subjunctive mood, and the imperative mood. Moods express the speaker's attitude toward what s/he is saying. While the indicative mood uses all 6 verb tenses, the subjunctive uses only 4 verb tenses, and the imperative has only 1 form.
Examples Ich spiele ... Er geht ... Ich spielte ... Er ging ... Ich werde ... spielen. Er wird ... gehen. Ich habe ... gespielt. Er ist ... gegangen.
English equivalent I play, I do play, I am playing, I will play he goes, he does go, he is going, he will go I played, I did play, I was playing he went, he did go, he was going I will play he will go I played, I did play, I was playing, I have played he went, he did go, he was going, he has gone
Ich hatte ... gespielt. Er war ... gegangen. Ich werde ... gespielt haben. Er wird ... gegangen sein.
I had played he had gone I will have played he will have gone
PRESENT
FUTURE*
PAST
FUTURE PERFECT*
Ich spielte ... Er ginge ... Wir sngen ... Ich wrde ... spielen. Er wrde ... gehen. Wir wrden ... singen. Ich htte ... gespielt. Er wre ... gegangen. Wir htten ... gesungen. Ich wrde ... gespielt haben. Er wrde ... gegangen sein. Wir wrden ... gesungen haben.
I would play; (if) I played he would go; (if) he went we would sing; (if) we sang I would play he would go we would sing I would have played; (if) I had played he would have gone; (if) he had gone we would have sung; (if) he had sung I would have played he would have gone we would have sung
The future tense subjunctive is often used as an alternative to the present tense subjunctive, particularly in conversational German. The future perfect may also be used as an alternative to the past subjunctive. Note that the English equivalents are the same for these pairs of tenses.
As with the active voice of the subjunctive mood, in the passive voice the future tense subjunctive may substitute for the present tense subjunctive, and the future perfect tense may substitute for the past subjunctive. Note that the English equivalents are the same for these pairs of tenses.
Basic tenses | Passive voice tenses | Subjunctive II tenses | Subjunctive II passive voice tenses Subjunctive I tenses | Subjunctive I passive voice tenses | Imperative mood | GRAMMAR INDEX
substituted to avoid confusion. English has no similar special form for reporting indirect speech.
Tense PRESENT Examples Ich spiele ... Er gehe ... Wir singen ... Ich werde ... spielen. Er werde ... gehen. Wir werden ... singen. Ich habe ... gespielt. Er sei ... gegangen. Wir haben ... gesungen. Ich werde ... gespielt haben. Er werde ... gegangen sein. Wir werden ... gesungen haben. English equivalent (they said) I played (they said) he went (they said) we sang (they said) I would play (they said) he would go (they said) we would sing (they said) I had played (they said) he had gone (they said) he had sung (they said) I would have played (they said) he would have gone (they said) we would have sung
FUTURE*
PAST
FUTURE PERFECT*
Basic tenses | Passive voice tenses | Subjunctive II tenses | Subjunctive II passive voice tenses Subjunctive I tenses | Subjunctive I passive voice tenses | Imperative mood | GRAMMAR INDEX
Imperative mood
The imperative mood is used to express a command. There are only 4 forms of the imperative mood. To determine which one to use, the speaker need only consider whether to address those with whom s/he is speaking with Sie, ihr, or du, or whether to include him/herself by using the collective 1st person wir.
Imperative form SIE-form Examples Spielen Sie ... ! English equivalent Play!
Gehen Sie ... ! Spielen wir ... ! Gehen wir ... ! Spielt ... ! Geht ... ! Spiel ... ! Geh ... !