7.3: Past Perfect Tense

A Foundation Course in Reading German · LibreTexts

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    From LibreTexts, under CC BY-NC-SA, as the source states it; its equations are written in TeX, which the PDF shows typeset. This page at LibreTexts.

    German past perfect (also called pluperfect) visually differs from the German present perfect only in the tense of the auxiliary verb. The meaning of German past-perfect tense is identical to English past-perfect tense. Compare these examples:

    PAST PERFECT PRESENT PERFECT
    Er hatte ein Buch gekauft.
    He had bought a book.    		 Er hat ein Buch gekauft.
    He bought a book.
    Er war in die Stadt gegangen.
    He had gone to town.    		 Er ist in die Stadt gegangen.
    He went to town.

    The past perfect has only this one use. Just as is in the present perfect, note that the past participle appears in final position.

    This page titled 7.3: Past Perfect Tense was last modified on Mon, 22 Feb 2021 23:02:07 GMT and is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Martin, Neary, Rinaldo, and Woodman.