Past tense in German.?

E

Eric

New member
I am a two year student of German, however I have only begun to dive into past tense. I'm flying to Germany soon, and I find myself appalled at my lack of understanding of past tense German. From what I understand so far, it is a simple matter of adding "ge" in front of the verb, followed by "t", as in "gewusst" or "getanzt." But I am also aware that there are exceptions. It is these exceptions that throw me off. I think "fliegen" is one of them. For example "Ich hat nach New York gefliegt." doesn't look correct to me. What is the proper past tense form of some of these exceptions? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
 
A tense like "ich habe getanzt" is only one form of past tense, the present perfect tense, but you also have "ich tanzte" (simple past tense).

Have a look at :

http://german.about.com/library/verbs/blverb_past.htm

http://german.about.com/library/blregverbsP.htm
 
Well, that's geflogen, and I *think* it takes "sein"---ich bin nach NY geflogen.

Gewusst is also an exception, since the infinitive is wissen.

Some more examples

lesen gelesen
studieren studiert
essen gegessen
stehen gestanden
sehen gesehen
gehen gegangen (also with sein)
 
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