Speak German Fluently in 5 Lessons | Lesson 3

40. Present Perfect or Past Indefinite Tense
This tense is used more often than the simple past, especially in conversation, and is equivalent to I have asked or I asked.  Regular verbs use a form of haben or sein and a past participle.  Past participles are made by adding ge- to the beginning of the verb stem and -t (or -et, if stem ends in -t or -d) to the end.  
Sagen is to ask, and -sag- is the stem; therefore gesagt is the past participle.
Arbeiten is to work, and -arbeit- is the stem; therefore gearbeitet is the past participle.
Machen is to do/make, and -mach- is the stem; therefore gemacht is the past participle.
Verbs ending in -ieren only add the -t ending.  Studieren is to study and studier- is the stem, so studiert is the past participle.  
The form of haben or sein is placed where the verb should be, and the past participle goes to the end of the sentence.  Ex:  Ich habe meinen Bruder gefragt - I asked my brother.
Haben or Sein
Most verbs use haben, but a few use sein, if and only if, both of these conditions are met:
1. The verb expresses motion or change of condition.
2. The verb is intransitive (i.e. cannot take a direct object.)
Double Infinitive: When modals are used in the present perfect tense with a dependent infinitive, the past participle is not used.  The infinitive of the modal acts as the past participle.  Logically, I had to go home would be translated as ich habe nach Hause gehen gemußt.  However, it is actually Ich habe nach Hause gehen müssen.  When there is no other infinitive in the sentence, then the past participles of the modals are used.  I had to would be translated as Ich habe gemußt.
All modals, as well as reflexive verbs, use haben in the present perfect tense.  The reflexive pronouns follow the auxiliary verb as in Ich habe mir den Arm gebrochen.  I broke my arm.
With separable prefixes, the prefix comes before the ge- in a past participle, such as angekommen and aufgestanden.  From the participle of the base verb, and then add the prefix to the beginning.  But note that the prefix does change the entire meaning of the verb, and it may take a different auxiliary verb than its base verb.  For example, stehen takes haben, but aufstehen takes sein.
With inseparable prefixes, whether the verb is regular or irregular, there is no ge- prefix when forming the past participle, such as besucht and verloren.
To express something that has been going on or happening for a period of time, German using the present tense (rather than the past) and the word schon.  "I have been studying German for two years" translates to Ich studiere Deutsch schon zwei Jahre.
41. Irregular Past Participles with Haben
42. Sein Verbs and Past Participles
43. Food and Meals
44. Fruits, Vegetables and Meats
45. Genitive Partitive
The genitive partitive is mostly used when talking about quantities of food.  Both words are in the nominative case in German, and of is not needed.
46. Commands
47. Subordinating Conjunctions
Subordinating conjunctions are used to connect an independent and dependent clause together, and they do affect word order.  An independent (or main) clause contains a subject and verb and can stand alone as its own sentence.  A dependent (or subordinate) clause also contains a subject and verb, but is introduced with a subordinating conjunction and cannot stand alone as its own sentence.  
There are also other conjunctions (called coordinating) that do not affect word order.  The easiest way to tell the two types of conjunctions apart is to memorize the coordinating ones.  Und, aber, denn - for/because, sondern - but (on the contrary) and oder are the coordinating conjunctions.  The rest of the conjunctions act as subordinating, and interrogative words can also act as subordinating conjunctions.  Some examples are als-when, bevor-before, bis-until, damit-so that, dass-that, wenn-if/when, ob-whether, obwohl-although, nachdem-after, da-since, während-while, weil-because, and wie-how.
1.  In clauses introduced by subordinating conjunctions, the conjugated verb is forced to the end of the clause (not sentence) and a comma is placed before the conjunction.
Ich bleibe zu Hause.  Ich bin krank.  I'm staying home.  I am sick.
Ich bleibe zu Hause, weil ich krank bin.  I'm staying home because I am sick.
(weil is the subordinating conjunction, and bin must go to the end.)
Sie kommt nach zu dir.  Sie hat gegessen.  She's coming to your place.  She has eaten.
Sie kommt nach zu dir, nachdem sie gegessen hat.  She's coming to your place after she has eaten.
(nachdem is the sub. conjunction, and hat must go to the end.)
However, when a double infinitive construction is involved, the conjugated verb form precedes the two infinitives.  (The double infinitive always goes to the end of the clause or sentence.)
Ich weiß nicht, ob er hat mitkommen wollen.  I don't know if he wanted to come along.
2.  When a sentence begins with a subordinating conjunction, the main clause begins with the conjugated verb in keeping with the normal word order of German that states verbs are always in the second position.  The subordinate clause becomes the first position, so the verb of the main clause must occupy the second position.
Hans telefoniert mit Ihnen, während Sie in Berlin sind.  Hans will call you while you're in Berlin.
Während Sie in Berlin sind, telefoniert Hans mit Ihnen.  While you are in Berlin, Hans will call you.
(während is a subordinating conjunction, and the subordinating clause occupies the first position of the sentence, so the second position must be occupied by the verb of the main clause, telefoniert.)
3.  If there is a separable prefix verb in a dependent clause, the prefix remains attached to the verb, and the entire verb goes to the end of the clause, whereas normally the prefix would go to the end.
Er ist immer müde, wenn er früh aufsteht.  He is always tired when he gets up early.
4.  When there are two verbs in a dependent clause (such as a modal and an infinitive), the modal goes last, following the infinitive.
Er ist müde, wenn er früh aufstehen muss.  He is tired when he must get up early.
48. Holiday Phrases
49. Helfen, lassen and the senses
Helfen, lassen and verbs indicating the senses (such as sehen and hören) function like modal auxiliaries.  Like the modals, these verbs require a double infinitive construction when forming the present perfect tense if there is a dependent infinitive involved.  After verbs of this type, English often uses a present participle, but German uses a dependent infinitive.
Lassen can have different meanings depending on how it is used in the sentence.  Usually, lassen means to let or allow, as in Laß den Jungen spielen!  Let the boy play!  (Notice that lassen takes an accusative object)  But it can also mean to have something done or to have someone do something.  
Wir lassen uns ein Haus bauen.  We're having a house built./We're building a house.  
Ich lasse meinen Sohn die Post abholen.  I'm having my son pick up the mail.
50. Places
51. Transportation
52. Simple Past / Imperfect Tense

The following verbs are called mixed verbs because although they have an irregular stem, they still use the imperfect endings for regular verbs.  These are the same stems that are used in the present perfect tense as well.
53. Irregular Stems in Simple Past / Imperfect Tense
Irregular verbs have a different stem for the past tense and add different endings than those of the regular verbs.  You will have to memorize these stems, as they can be unpredictable (and unlike the past participles). Remember the simple past forms given below are just the stems; you must add different endings depending on the subject.
There are no endings for the 1st and 3rd person singular.  If the verb stem ends in an s sound (such as aß-), the du form ending becomes -est (du aßest.)  If the verb stem ends in -t or -d, the ihr form ending becomes -et while the du form ending sometimes becomes -est. Most verb stems do add -est in the du form, but some do not. For example, finden is conjugated without the -e- (du fandst) while sich befinden is conjugated with the -e- (du befandest dich.) Similarly, stehen is conjugated without the -e- (du standst) while verstehen is conjugated with the -e- (du verstandest.)  The other main verbs that are conjugated without the -e- are braten (brietst; to roast), erfinden (erfandst, to invent), laden (ludst, to invite), leiden (littst, to suffer), and schneiden (schnittst, to cut).
Remember that in Europe, buildings always start with the ground floor, and then the next floor up is the first floor. Many Americans would refer to these floors as the first floor and second floor, respectively, and not even use ground floor.
55. Location vs. Direction
Location: the prepositions in, an, auf and bei (followed by the dative case) are used with fixed locations, while aus and von (also followed by the dative case) are used to signify origin.
Direction: the prepositions in and auf (followed by the accusative case) or zu and nach (followed by the dative case) are used.
Only a few countries include the articles, such as der Iran (m.), die Niederlande (pl.), die Schweiz (f.), die Türkei (f.), and die USA (pl.), because they are not neuter.
Remember the two idioms with Haus:  zu Hause is a location and means at home, while nach Hause is a direction and means (to) home.
56. Clothing
57. Future Tense
The future tense is simple to form in German.  Just use the present tense forms of werden and put the infinitive to the end of the sentence. However, German usually relies on the present tense to indicate the future (implied future) and uses time expressions, such as tonight, tomorrow, etc. so the actual future tense is not quite as common in German as it is in English.  Wir gehen morgen nach Deutschland is translated as We are going to Germany tomorrow, and implies a future action, yet it uses the present tense, in both German and English.  To express present or future probability, use wohl (probably) with the future tense.
 
I will fly to Germany.  Ich werde nach Deutschland fliegen.
You will help me!  Du wirst mir helfen!
We will learn Latin.  Wir werden Latein lernen.
My friend should be home now.  Mein Freund wird jetzt wohl zu Hause sein.  (Expresses probability)
58. Asking Questions
1. Simply add a question mark
2. Invert the verb and subject
3. Use a question word + verb + subject
4. Add nicht wahr? to the end of the statement
59. Declensions of Adjectives
The only difference between the adjectives used after der words and the adjectives used after ein words are the masculine and neuter nominative, and neuter accusative.  The rest of the endings are the same.  These types of attributive adjectives are the weak endings.  The strong endings (below) are used on adjectives that have no preceding article.  They are the same as the endings for the der words (with the exception of the masculine and neuter genitive.)
Viele (many), wenige (few), andere (other), einige (some), and mehrere (several) are all plural expressions that do not act as limiting words.  Adjectives that follow them take strong endings.  In the singular, mancher (many a) and solcher (such) also use strong endings (when used with another adjective in the singular, they turn into manch ein and so ein), but in the plural they function as normal limiting words.
60. Adjectives