Perfect tense (past)
Edexcel GCSE German revision on Perfect tense (past). Aligned to the Pearson Edexcel GCSE German 1GN0 specification. This bank has 4 practice questions on this topic.
Sample questions (3 of 4)
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Question 1
'I have eaten' / 'I ate' in German is most commonly...
- A) Ich esse
- B) Ich aß
- C) Ich habe gegessen
- D) Ich werde essen
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Answer: Ich habe gegessen
Spoken German prefers PERFEKT over Präteritum. Structure: AUXILIARY (haben or sein) + PAST PARTICIPLE (at the END of the clause). Past participle: ge- + stem + -t (regular) or ge- + stem + -en (strong). Essen -> gegessen (strong). Spielen -> gespielt (regular).
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Question 2
Many German past participles use the prefix...
- A) ge-
- B) be-
- C) er-
- D) ver-
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Answer: ge-
REGULAR (weak) verbs: ge- + stem + -t. Spielen -> gespielt, machen -> gemacht. IRREGULAR (strong) verbs: ge- + stem (sometimes changed) + -en. Singen -> gesungen, schreiben -> geschrieben. EXCEPTIONS: verbs starting with be-, er-, ver-, etc. do NOT add ge-: bezahlen -> bezahlt.
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Question 3
'I have gone' uses haben or sein?
- A) haben
- B) sein
- C) Both work equally
- D) It depends on direction
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Answer: sein
Most verbs use HABEN. But verbs of MOTION (gehen, fahren, fliegen, schwimmen, kommen, laufen) + CHANGE OF STATE (werden = to become, sterben = to die, einschlafen = to fall asleep) use SEIN: 'Ich bin gefahren' (I drove/went). 'Sie ist gegangen' (she went). 'Wir sind gekommen' (we came).
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1 more question on Perfect tense (past) — plus mistakes tracking and spaced repetition across the whole German spec.