Perfect in German
As perfect ( Latin [ tempus ] [ praeteritum ] perfectum , perfect tense '), perfect present (Praesens perfectum) or also fore-present , a tense of a verb is referred to in German grammar that expresses completed actions and processes. As a tempo of prematurity , it expresses what happened before in relation to the present tense. In the German dialects south of the Main and increasingly in everyday language , including in film and television , it serves as a substitute for the past tense to express generally completed actions. It is therefore also called the second past (“second past” for short).
In contrast to the German language , the perfect in Latin expresses actions from the past as a temporal perfect and serves as a narrative tense . In other Indo-European languages , however, verb forms designated as perfect correspond to the verbal aspect similar to the German perfect to the perfect aspect (resultative) .
Formation of the perfect in German
The German perfect is formed analytically , it is a compound verb form from the personal form of the auxiliary verbs “haben” or “sein” and the expressive verb. The auxiliary verb is conjugated in the present tense . The expressive verb is usually in the past participle and is therefore the same in every person. In modal verbs , however, it is used in the infinitive.
Perfect with "have" or "to be"
In German, the perfect tense of the majority of verbs is formed with the auxiliary verb “haben”, among other things in all transitive verbs in the active as well as in reflexive or reflexively used verbs.
The auxiliary verb "sein" is used to form the perfect perfect of a group of intransitive or intransitively used verbs that express a change of location ("from A to B": come, go, drive, jump ...). These verbs are called movement verbs . Example: "I 'm driven by car" - but "I have . Drove you" Even a group of verbs that a change of state express (transition from one state to another) (wake up, dying, wilting), form the Perfect with "to be". In addition, the verbs form sein, will and remain the perfect with “sein”. With the transitive verbs in the passive voice , the perfect tense is also formed with “sein” in connection with the participle form “haben”.
There are regional differences in the formation of the perfect tense of verbs of the position (stand, sit, lie etc.) - in the northern part of Germany with “have”, in Austria, Switzerland and large parts of southern Germany with “sein” (I am confessed, he sat). Both are considered correct. For transferred word meanings ("he has sat" = "he was in prison") the forms with "haben" are sometimes also used in the southern German-speaking area.
Examples of conjugation
"Work" (active)
- I've been working = I was working five minutes ago
- you worked = you worked five minutes ago
- he / she / it worked = five minutes ago he / she / it worked
- we worked = we worked five minutes ago
- you worked = you worked five minutes ago
- they worked = they worked five minutes ago
- Infinitive perfect active: have worked
"To be searched for" (passive)
- I've been wanted
- you were wanted
- he / she / it has been searched
- we have been wanted
- you have been wanted
- they have been sought
- Infinitive Perfect Passive: to have been sought
"Go" (active)
- I left = I left five minutes ago
- you left = you left five minutes ago
- he / she / it left = five minutes ago he / she / it left
- we left = we left five minutes ago
- you left = you left five minutes ago
- they left = five minutes ago they left
- Infinitive perfect: have gone
Function and use of the perfect in German
The perfect form is used in German with different meanings:
- as prematurity tense in relation to the present tense (present perfect);
- as a narrative or reporting mode of a closed event (instead of the past tense );
The perfect as the tense of the present-related past (present perfect)
The perfect tense is used for facts that were concluded in the past (relative to the viewing time), but whose result or consequence is still relevant. The reference to the present in the following examples distinguishes the perfect from the past tense .
- Examples:
- The plaintiff made the request. (And this is now to be decided in the judgment.)
- The colleague broke a leg while skiing. (And still wears a plaster cast.)
- It rained. (And the meadow is still wet.)
The Duden grammar speaks of present perfect.
Since the present tense in German can also be used to express future facts, it follows that the reference to a present perfect can also be postponed into the future. The construction is then equivalent to a future tense II , i.e. H. denotes a situation that is presented as closed at some point in the future:
- Examples:
- In two months she will take her last exam = "In two months she will take her last exam"
- and accordingly:
- In two months she will have passed her last exam = "In two months she will have passed her last exam"
In the same way, the past perfect is explained as a shift of the observed time into the past, expressed by the past tense of the auxiliary verb haben or sein . From this point in time, a situation is shown as completed even earlier:
- Examples
- Two months ago she took her final exam (looking back from the present)
- She had taken her last exam two months earlier (looking back from a previous point in time).
The use of the perfect tense as a so-called “present perfect” is therefore not a deictic tense that is linked to the time of the speaker's utterance, but a relative time specification that is more likely to be classified as an aspect, as this in turn is related to speaking time in various ways becomes.
The perfect past tense (in oral / dialectal)
In spoken German, the perfect is the dominant verb form for describing the past, e.g. B. in the sentence "I ate". In Swiss German and other Upper German as well as some West Central German dialects there are almost or no forms for the past tense due to the Upper German past tense fading . The perfect tense is always used as a substitute for the past tense. The limit of this language phenomenon can sometimes be determined very precisely; it partly follows the Main line and runs from Hof in the east to Aachen in the west. This development was in the south of the German-speaking area as early as the 16th and 17th centuries. Century and is attributed, among other things, to the failure of the / e / ( apocope ) at the end of the simple past form of regular verbs: Clearer than he says and he said appeared the form he said .
history
From a historical point of view, the spread and development of the German perfect in the 14th and 15th centuries is related to the decline of the finite form with prefigured ge and aspect opposition (cf. lexicalized still today freezing versus freezing ). "Sein" was initially used in intransitive verbs with a perfect type of action and originally served as a presentable designation of the result of a past event, for example he fell = 'he is on the ground', or he drove = 'he is there'. In contrast to this, the perfect tense with “have” originally had a passive meaning in transitive verbs, for example I have found the book = 'I have found the book'. In the course of time, these constructions were increasingly interpreted in terms of time and the use of the two auxiliary words was lexicalized, whereby a certain shift from “have” to “be” took place.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Johann Christian August Heyse: Theoretical-practical German grammar . 4th edition Hahn, Hanover 1827. p. 414.
- ^ Anne-Françoise Ehrhard: The grammar of Johann Christian Heyse: Continuity and change in the relationship between general grammar and school grammar (1814-1914) . Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 1998. p. 126.
- ↑ Perfect , duden.de
- ^ Voresentwart , duden.de
- ^ Elisabeth Leiss: Die Verbalkategorien des Deutschen: A contribution to the theory of linguistic categorization . Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 1992. pp. 276ff.
- ↑ Duden, The Grammar. 7th edition. 2005, ISBN 3-411-04047-5 , Rn. 706
- ↑ Cf. Hadumod Bußmann (Hrsg.): Lexikon der Sprachwissenschaft. 3rd updated and expanded edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-520-45203-0 . Perfect: "Characterization of a situation that is closed in the time stage of the past but has an impact on the present"; unclear / different Reimann Kessel: Basic knowledge of contemporary German. Fink, Tübingen 2005, ISBN 3-8252-2704-9 , p. 81, which allow mere prematurity to be sufficient and cite the current reference to the present as a further case.
- ↑ Duden, The Grammar. 7th edition. 2005, ISBN 3-411-04047-5 , Rn. 726
- ↑ This position takes z. B. Wolfgang Klein: Time in Language. Routledge, London 1994.
- ^ Hermann Paul : Short German grammar based on the five-volume German grammar. Furnished by Heinz Stolte. 3rd, improved edition. Niemeyer, Tübingen 1962 (collection of short grammars of Germanic dialects A. 10), p. 334 ff.
- ^ Robert Peter Ebert, Oskar Reichmann, Hans-Joachim Solms and Klaus-Peter Wegera: Early New High German Grammar. Edited by Oskar Reichmann and Klaus-Peter Wegera. Niemeyer, Tübingen 1993 (collection of short grammars of Germanic dialects A. 12), p. 386 ff.