In English, as in German, we have weak and strong verbs, which form the past participle differently; the strong or irregular verbs have a change in the stem vowel as well as an ending, but the weak ones just add an ending. Since you have learned by now that German and English do things quite similarly you are not surprised that this is also the case in German, though German usually adds a prefix as well as an ending:
| play, played |
weak verb |
spielen, gespielt
|
| drink, drunk |
strong verb |
trinken, getrunken
|
1. In German the weak verbs add the prefix ge- to the verb stem, plus the ending -t. Examples:
| schmecken |
geschmeckt |
| lernen |
gelernt |
| dauern |
gedauert |
| stellen |
gestellt |
| sagen |
gesagt |
| schauen |
geschaut |
| machen |
gemacht |
2. The strong verbs form the past participle by adding the prefix ge- to the verb stem plus the ending -en. In addition, as in English, they often - but not always! - change the stem vowel or even the whole stem of the verb.
| sitzen |
gesessen |
| trinken |
getrunken |
| heißen |
geheißen |
| gehen |
gegangen |
| sehen |
gesehen |
| fahren |
gefahren |
| nehmen |
genommen |
| essen |
gegessen |
| geben |
gegeben |
| helfen |
geholfen |
| fliegen |
geflogen |
From now on, we will give the past participle of every new verb in the Wortschatz for the chapter, so that you can memorize that form along with the infinitive. The infinitive and the past participle are among the principal parts of the verb, which one must know to be able to use it.