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Verb Tenses

Past, present and future

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German gets by with far fewer tenses than you might expect. PAST: spoken German uses the Perfekt almost exclusively — haben or sein plus a participle at the end. Written German and a handful of very common verbs (war, hatte, konnte) prefer the Präteritum. PRESENT: covers now AND the future. With a time word, the present tense is the normal way to talk about tomorrow. FUTURE: Futur I (werden plus infinitive) exists, but is used mainly for firm intentions, promises and predictions — not for ordinary plans.

⚠️ Watch out

Persian has a clean present/past/future system and uses the future tense freely. In German, using werden for every future statement sounds heavy and unnatural — «Morgen gehe ich» is what a native says, not «Morgen werde ich gehen». Also: Persian marks completed past with one form, while German splits it between haben and sein depending on the verb. Movement and change of state take sein.