GermanFluent

A1 · Perfect tense

studiert, besucht

No ge- in participles of -ieren and inseparable verbs

Formhaben/sein (Position 2) … Partizip ohne ge- (Ende)

Meaning and usage

Most verbs build the past participle with ge-, but some do not. Verbs ending in -ieren take no ge-: studieren becomes studiert, passieren becomes passiert. Verbs with an inseparable prefix also take no ge-: besuchen becomes besucht, bekommen becomes bekommen, erzählen becomes erzählt. The prefix be-, er-, ver- and others stay at the front, and the participle ends in -t or -en. In the perfect tense you still use haben or sein in second position and the participle at the end. The mistake to avoid is adding ge- before the prefix or before -ieren: say Ich habe den Ort besucht, not Ich habe den Ort gebesucht.

Examples 6

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  1. 1 Sprachbausteine

    Ich habe gestern lange .

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    Correct answer: studiert

    studiert is the past participle of studieren. Verbs ending in -ieren take no ge-, so gestudiert is not correct.

    • studieren is the infinitive, not the past participle after habe.
    • studierte is the simple past form, not the past participle used in the perfect tense.
    • gestudiert adds ge-, but verbs ending in -ieren do not take ge-.

In this topic: Perfect tense

  1. haben + … + Partizip most verbs form the perfect with haben
  2. gemacht: ge- … -t regular verbs: ge- + stem + -t
  3. gegessen: ge- … -en strong verbs: ge- + stem + -en
  4. angerufen, eingekauft Separable verbs: ge- goes inside the verb
  5. studiert, besucht No ge- in participles of -ieren and inseparable verbs
  6. sein + … + gefahren went, came, arrived: movement in the perfect
  7. war, hatte was, were, had (simple past of sein and haben)

Example sentences from Tatoeba, used under CC BY 2.0 FR. See sources.