previousnext

15.3.1.5 Summary - perfect participle

We have seen the four types of perfect participles.

a) weak verbs with suffix -t     (no change of vowel)	warten => gewartet (to wait => waited)
b) strong verbs with suffix -en     (change of vowel)	bringen => gebracht (to bring => brought)
c) strong verbs with suffix -t     (change of vowel)	sehen => gesehen (to see => seen)
d) strong verbs with suffix -en     (no change of vowel)	gehen => gegangen (to go => gone)

In addition to these four different types there are those ones that are totally irregular. The irregular ones do not have a prefix ge- and the endings are more or less unpredictable. There are only a limited amount of verbs that are so irregular.

I) verbs that end on -ieren => ending -t, no prefix (e.g. studieren [to study] => studiert)
II) verbs that have already a prefix do not use ge-; that can be ver-, emp-, zer-, be-, er-, vor-
the next hints are more a hint than a rule. Basically you have to learn them by heart, but it might help to keep in mind that
IIa) verbs with prefix ver-, emp- mostly have a perfect participle suffix -en
IIb) verbs with prefix be-, er-, vor-, zer- mostly have a perfect participle suffix -t.

kapieren => kapiert	to understand => understood
ramponieren => ramponiert	to break => broken
verstehen => verstanden	to understand => understood
empfinden => empfunden	to feel => felt
beenden => beendet	to finish => finished
vorbereiten => vorbereitet	to prepare => prepared
berichten => berichtet	to tell => told
versuchen => versucht	to try => tried
erobern => erobert	to conquer => conquered
erreichen => erreicht	to achieve => achieved
beschließen => beschlossen	to decide => decided
zerstören => zerstört	to destroy => destroyed
vergessen => vergessen	to forget => forgotten
beachten => beachtet	to consider => considered
verursachen => verursacht	to cause => caused
erweitern => erweitert	to extend => extended
errichten => errichtet	to erect => erected

previous next

contact privacy statement imprint