There are several grammatical moods in German: the indicative, the subjunctive, the imperative and the participle. For each of these grammatical moods there are several tenses. In this short article you can review the list of all verb tenses in the German language.
There are 6 different tenses in German. Each of these tenses is more or less used and corresponds to different situations. They are used to express the present, the past or the future.
This is the most frequently used tense of the German language. It is used to talk about actions that are taking place. It can also be used to express things about to happen or that only rarely occur.
In German, this tense is used to describe the result of an action or a process. It is the most frequently used past tense in German. It is used to talk about actions that are related to the present.
This tense is rarely used when speaking in German. It allows us to talk about facts or actions in the past tense, especially in writing and in a rather formal language.
It is a tense that allows us to talk about something that had happened or had been true at a point in the past.
This tense is little used in German. It is used to talk about upcoming events or things that are assumed. Nevertheless, native speakers of German prefer to use the present tense to talk about future events.
It is used to assume that a fact will have occurred at some point in the future. Its use is complex and not very frequent.
There are 4 tenses in the subjunctive I in German: the present, the perfect, the future I and the future II. Its main use is to report someone’s words. You can find our course on the subjunctive mood in German.
There are 4 tenses in the subjunctive II in German: the preterite, the pluperfect, the future I and the future II. Its use is not very frequent. It is used to talk about the unreal or imagined character, fact or situation in German. You can find our course on the subjunctive in German.
In German, the imperative mood is used to give an order, advice or ask someone something. The German imperative is used with the following personal pronouns: du, wir ihr and Sie.
There are two participles in German: the present participle (Partizip I) and the past participle (Partizip II). They can be used instead of conjugated verbs or adjectives. The past participle is used to speak in the passive voice or to form certain compound verb tenses.
The most frequently used verbs in German: sein haben geben finden gehen wissen kommen können liegen sehen
