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.






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