The past participle
Partizipien II (past participles) can be divided into 3 groups according to the way they are formed.
- For regular verbs, the past participle is formed with ge‑ and ‑t.
kaufen → gekauft
to buy → bought
machen → gemacht
to make → made
handeln → gehandelt
to act → acted
- For verbs that start with er‑, ver‑, be‑, hinter‑ and über-, and/or end in ‑ieren, we form the past participle without ge‑ and with a ‑t or ‑en ending:
telefonieren → telefoniert
to telephone → telephoned
erzählen → erzählt
to tell → told
betrachten → betrachtet
to consider → considered
verstehen → verstanden
to understand → understood
überlegen → überlegt
to contemplate → contemplated
unterschreiben → unterschrieben
to sign → signed
- For irregular verbs, we form the past participle with ge‑ and ‑en. The stem may change:
essen → gegessen
to eat → eaten
gehen → gegangen
to go → gone
bleiben → geblieben
to stay → stayed
sehen → gesehen
to see → seen
Notes:
- If the verb stem ends in ‑d or ‑t, the past participle ends in ‑et:
arbeiten → gearbeitet
to work → worked
- The past participle is used to form compound tenses (perfect, pluperfect, passive - made up of auxiliary verb + main verb) and as an adjective:
Anna hat/hatte das Hotel von ihrer Großmutter geerbt. (Perfekt/Plusquamperfekt)
Anna has/had inherited the hotel from her grandmother. (perfect/pluperfect)
Das Hotel wird von Anna geerbt. (Passiv)
The hotel is being inherited by Anna. (passive)
Das geerbte Hotel ist wunderschön. (Adjektiv)
The inherited hotel is beautiful. (adjective)
Still facing difficulties with 'The past participle'? Learn and enhance your German grammar through our online German course. Start with a free test and improve today!
What our users say:
Improve your German further and test Wunderbla, online German lessons.
