Talking about the past
Perfekt: talking about completed events
A common conversational past uses present haben/sein + past participle. Only the auxiliary agrees with the subject; the participle stays unchanged. Ich habe gekocht. Du hast gekocht. Wir haben gekocht. The participle normally closes the main clause: Gestern habe ich für meine Freunde gekocht.
Questions keep the same bracket: Was hast du gestern gekocht?
Use Perfekt with meaningful past situations: what you did yesterday, where you went, what you bought. It does not map exactly to one English tense: Ich habe gegessen can mean I ate or I have eaten, depending on context. German also uses Präteritum, especially war/hatte and in written narration.
- Example
- Gestern habe ich eine E-Mail geschrieben.
- English
- Yesterday I wrote an email.
- Hinglish
- Kal maine ek email likhi.
Am Samstag haben wir Fußball gespielt. = We played football on Saturday.
Hinglish: Saturday ko humne football kheli.