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     Table of Contents Chapter 15 15.3.1.5 Summary - perfect participle
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Chapter 15: Past Tenses

  15.3.1.5 Summary - perfect participle

We have seen the four types of perfect participles

a) weak verbs with suffix -t
    (no change of vowel)
b) strong verbs with suffix -en
    (change of vowel)
c) strong verbs with suffix -t
    (change of vowel)
d) strong verbs with suffix -en
    (no change of vowel)

warten => gewartet (to wait => waited)

bringen => gebracht (to bring => brought)

sehen => gesehen (to see => seen)

gehen => gegangen (to go => gone)

 
 
 
 

In addition to these four different types there are those ones that are totally irregular. The irregular ones do not have a prefix ge- and the endings are more or less unpredictable. There are only a limited amount of verbs that are so irregular.

I) verbs that end on -ieren => ending -t, no prefix (e.g. studieren [to study] => studiert)
II) verbs that have already a prefix do not use ge-; that can be ver-, emp-, zer-, be-, er-, vor-
the next hints are more a hint than a rule. Basically you have to learn them by heart, but it might help to keep in mind that
IIa) verbs with prefix ver-, emp- mostly have a perfect participle suffix -en
IIb) verbs with prefix be-, er-, vor-, zer- mostly have a perfect participle suffix -t.

kapieren => kapiert
ramponieren => ramponiert
verstehen => verstanden
empfinden => empfunden
beenden => beendet
vorbereiten => vorbereitet
berichten => berichtet
versuchen => versucht
erobern => erobert
erreichen => erreicht
beschließen => beschlossen
zerstören => zerstört
vergessen => vergessen
beachten => beachtet
verursachen => verursacht
erweitern => erweitert
errichten => errichtet
to understand => understood
to break => broken
to understand => understood
to feel => felt
to finish => finished
to prepare => prepared
to tell => told
to try => tried
to conquer => conquered
to achieve => achieved
to decide => decided
to destroy => destroyed
to forget => forgotten
to consider => considered
to cause => caused
to extend => extended
to erect => erected
 
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