verbs/Overview
Verbs are used to describe an action.
The sentence you use determines the verb tense. For example, if you're talking about:
Deciding which tense to use
| Decides tense | Tense to use |
|---|---|
| Something that is happening right now or happens all the time | Present |
| Something that happened in the past | Perfect (sometimes imperfect) |
| Something that is going to happen in the future | Future |
| Something that might happen (but isn't definite) | Conditional |
| Something that happened before something else in the past | Pluperfect |
| Something you want someone to do (a command) | Imperative |
| Something that I would like to/can/should do | Modal verbs |
Here are some key features of each tense to help you recognise them. Look at the similarities as well as the differences.
Verbs with example usage
| Auxiliary verb | Other features | Examples | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Present | N/A | N/A | Ich spiele Fußball Ich fahre nach London |
| Imperfect | N/A | N/A | Ich spielte Fußball Ich fuhr nach London |
| Imperative | N/A | N/A | Spiel Fußball! Fahr nach London! |
| Perfect | haben/sein (present) | Past Participle at the end | Ich habe Fußball gespielt Ich bin nach London gefahren |
| Pluperfect | haben/sein (imperfect) | Past Participle at the end | Ich hatte Fußball gespielt Ich war nach London gefahren |
| Future | werden | Infinitive at the end | Ich werde Fußball spielen Ich werde nach London fahren |
| Conditional | würden | Infinitive at the end | Ich würde Fußball spielen Ich würde nach London fahren |
| Modal verbs | müssen/können/mögen /dürfen/wollen/sollen | Infinitive at the end | Ich will Fußball spielen Ich kann nach London fahren |
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