previous chapter 14next

15.1 Past Tenses - Introduction

Now that we have struggled with a lot of things that are more difficult in German than in most other languages, we come to something the Germans managed to make easier. The past tenses in Roman languages and even in English are more complex than the German past tenses. Therefore you can relax a bit in the following chapter.

The simple past tense
	simple past tense	past continuous
example English	He ate breakfast.	He was eating breakfast
example German	Er frühstückte.	-------

Compound past tenses
	present perfect	present perfect continuous
example English	He has eaten breakfast.	He has been eating breakfast
example German	Er hat gefrühstückt.	-------
	past perfect	past perfect continuous
example English	He had eaten breakfast.	He had been eating breakfast.
example German	Er hatte gefrühstückt.	-------

 

As you can see in the tables above, there are only half of the tenses in German than in English.

previous chapter 14next

contact privacy statement imprint