The perfect with haben
In everyday German you talk about the past with the Perfekt: in a statement, haben stands in position 2 and the participle closes the sentence. Many basic regular verbs build it with ge…t: machen → gemacht, kaufen → gekauft. Ich habe gestern viel gemacht.
| Infinitiv | Partizip II |
|---|---|
| machen | gemacht |
| kaufen | gekauft |
| spielen | gespielt |
| lernen | gelernt |
| arbeiten | gearbeitet |
Tip
In a neutral declarative main clause, the finite auxiliary is in position 2 and the participle comes at the end: Ich habe gestern viel gearbeitet. The first element precedes the auxiliary; the middle elements stand between auxiliary and participle.