The past participle in German
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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 geâ and ât.
kaufen â gekauft
to buy â bought
machen â gemacht
to make â made
handeln â gehandelt
to act â acted
- For verbs that start with erâ, verâ, beâ, hinterâ and ĂŒber-, and/or end in âieren, we form the past participle without geâ and with a ât or âen ending:
telefonieren â telefoniert
to telephone â telephoned
erzĂ€hlen â erzĂ€hlt
to tell â told
betrachten â betrachtet
to consider â considered
verstehen â verstanden
to understand â understood
ĂŒberlegen â ĂŒberlegt
to contemplate â contemplated
unterschreiben â unterschrieben
to sign â signed
- For irregular verbs, we form the past participle with geâ and âen. The stem may change:
essen â gegessen
to eat â eaten
gehen â gegangen
to go â gone
bleiben â geblieben
to stay â stayed
sehen â gesehen
to see â seen
Notes:
- If the verb stem ends in âd or ât, the past participle ends in âet:
arbeiten â gearbeitet
to work â 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 GroĂmutter 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)
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