KAPITEL 5 | TEIL 2 - PRESENT PERFECT TENSE: THE HELPING VERB |
		A. The helping verbs (auxiliary verbs) "haben" or "sein" (Die Hilfsverben "haben" und "sein") The present perfect tense (das Perfekt) is composed of a conjugated form of the helping verb (haben or sein) and the past participle. Most verbs take haben as the helping verb, only a few take sein. Verbs which take sein as the helping verb are intransitive (do not take a direct object) and describe a change of condition or a change in location (sterben "to die" and abfahren "to drive away"). The verbs bleiben, sein, werden always use sein as the helping verb. Some verbs are used with the helping verb sein when they are intransitive and with the helping verb haben when they take a direct object. The following verb categories always use "haben" as the helping verb: Reflexive verbs Modal verbs Impersonal verbs referring to weather (with "es") such as blitzen (lightning), donnern (to thunder), hageln (hail), nieseln (to drizzle), regnen (to rain), schneien (to snow), stürmen (to storm) Martin ist gestern spät nach Hause gekommen. (Martin came home late yesterday.) Intermatik Audio: kap5/k5-2a-s1 Martin ist mit seiner Freundin auf eine Party gegangen. (Martin went to a party with his girlfriend.) Intermatik Audio: kap5/k5-2a-s2 Martin hat seine Freundin nach Hause gefahren. (Martin drove his girlfriend home.) Intermatik Audio: kap5/k5-2a-s3 Martin ist zu schnell gefahren und seine Freundin ist böse geworden. (Martin drove too fast and his girlfriend got angry.) Intermatik Audio: kap5/k5-2a-s4 Sie ist noch nie so wütend gewesen. (She has never been this angry before.) Intermatik Audio: kap5/k5-2a-s5