6 German vs. 12 English Tenses: When to Use Which?

Hallo, Deutschlerner. Do you know how to translate this sentence into English?

Bob isst.

It seems like this should be pretty easy to do, but what if I told you that you could translate this ONE German sentence with any of these THREE English sentences?

Bob eats. Bob is eating. AND Bob has been eating. are all correct translations for this one super simple German sentence. Why? What is going on here?

Surely that is just a weird example right? What about the past tense version? How would you translate this?

Bob hat gegessen.

Wrong again. It could actually be any of these FOUR options this time.

Bob has eaten. OR Bob ate. OR Bob was eating. OR Bob had been eating.

It seems simple that since there are 6 tenses in German and 12 in English that there is going to be more than one way to translate something from German into English, but it isn’t just the one direction that is a problem.

How would you translate “Bob ate.”?

Wrong again. You could say either “Bob aß.” or “Bob hat gegessen.”

For those of you who have been following this site for a while, you may remember I made a lesson about all 6 of the German tenses last year. Today’s lesson is different. This time we are focusing on the translation from German to English and English to German. The other lesson showcases when to use each of the German tenses and how to form them in the most basic way. I would actually recommend reading that lesson after this one, so I’ll leave it linked here.

English Tenses

We are going to start with the English tenses to make sure that you understand how they work first. If I didn’t teach this stuff on a regular basis, I wouldn’t know these details or at least be able to express them in a coherent manner. Even if you are an English native speaker, I recommend reading the first half of this lesson just to be sure.

If you are confident in your English skills and you know what all TWELVE tenses in English do, how to form them and when to use them, you can skip to the German tenses below.

Three Parts of English Tenses

There are three interactive parts of English tenses. Those parts are the basic tense, perfect, and continuous or progressive. There are only three basic tenses in English. Those are past, present and future. This is the easiest part to understand. The past is something before now. Present is now. And the future is after now. Each of these get their own dedicated tense, which are conveniently called the “simple” tenses.

Simple Present Tense

An example of the simple past tense in English would be:

Bob ate the cookie.

We know that the eating occurred before now, but not much else.

Simple Present Tense

An example of the simple present tense in English would be:

Bob eats the cookie.

We know that the eating is taking place at the time of the statement, but this tense indicates a habitual or ongoing action. The frequency of the action is generally included in sentences with this tense by adding extra information, but it is not technically necessary.

Present tense always means there are 2 examples, one for the singular, and one for the plural. The plural example would be:

They eat the cookie.

Simple Future Tense

An example of the simple future tense in English would be:

Bob will eat the cookie.

This tells us that the action has not yet happened, but is likely to occur after now.

Progressive Tenses

Once we get past the simple tenses, we can add either perfect or progressive or both to the title to make the other 9 tenses. Again, each basic tense can be combined with these elements in this way. Let’s start with the idea of progressive tenses, which are also called continuous tenses.

Calling these tenses “continuous” gives away their use. They show that the action started before the point of reference and is continuing. By the time of reference, I mean the basic tense, past, present or future. For example:

Past Progressive

Bob was eating the cookie.

The action started before this point in the past and is continuing, but all of it happened before now. Were eating would be the plural form.

Present Progressive

Bob is eating the cookie.

The action started before now and is continuing to happen now. Am eating/are eating are also forms for the present, depending on what the subject is.

Future Progressive

Bob will be eating the cookie.

The action is started before this point in the future and is continuing to happen.

What you will notice about these progressive tenses is that they all use -ing at the end of a verb along with a helping verb, which is always a form of to be. In these examples, the helping verb is “to be,” which is changed to fit each tense (i.e. past–was, present–is, future–will be).

Perfect Tenses

When we talk about perfect tenses, we mean that we are describing a completed action or a state of being that occurs after the action has been completed. For example:

Past Perfect

Bob had eaten the cookie.

The action is completed and that completed state of being can be seen before now. Quick sidenote, this tense is also called the Pluperfect, which is helpful when we get to the German part in a bit.

Present Perfect

Bob has eaten the cookie.

The action is completed and this result can be seen now. Have eaten would be used for a plural subject.

Future Perfect

Bob will have eaten the cookie.

The action is completed, but this completed result cannot be seen until after now (i.e. the future).

This tense also uses a helping verb, namely “to have” and the perfect version of the other verb. I used an irregular verb in this example. With regular verbs in English, the perfect tenses are formed by using the past tense of the verb (i.e. to walk - walked). So: Bob had walked. Bob has walked. (They have walked. would be the plural example.) and Bob will have walked.

Perfect + Progressive Tenses

Now that we know what progressive and perfect do to English tenses, we can see what happens when we combine them.

Past Perfect Progressive

Bob had been eating the cookie.

The action started before our reference point in the past and continued on after that. It has since become completed, which we can see from our point of reference in the past.

Notice that we have both the helping verb “to have” (had) and the helping verb “to be” (been) plus the -ing version of the main verb. This shows us all three parts together: the main tense, perfect and progressive.

Present Perfect Progressive

Bob has been eating the cookie.

The action started before now and continued on for a period of time that, from the frame of reference in the sentence, is now. They have been eating the cookies. would be the plural form.

Future Perfect Progressive

Bob will have been eating the cookie.

The action hasn’t yet been completed, but at the point in the future we are referencing, the action started before that point and is continuing.

Now that we have all twelve tenses in English, we can see them on a sort of timeline that shows when they are happening.

The three verb forms mentioned in the flowchart are: infinitive, simple past, and perfect form. I have several lessons about his pattern in German, but the same is done in English as well. The verb I used in all of my examples is irregular. It changes from the infinitive “to eat”, to the simple past “ate” and finally the perfect “eaten”. An example of a regular verb would be “to walk”, “walked”, “walked”.

If you want to see how the 3 principal parts of German verbs work, click here.

German Tenses

Sooo… this is still a German learning channel, right? So let’s figure out where the German tenses fit in with all of this. Traditionally speaking, there are 6 tenses in German. Their names in German are: Plusquamperfekt, Perfekt, Präteritum, Präsens, Futur 1 and Futur 2. These are the ones you will learn if you are in a traditional German course in school or at the university.

Trying to translate the names of these tenses into English just ends up muddying the waters due to overlapping terms in both languages that don’t have the same use or meaning. For the sake of your own sanity, just use the German names for German tenses and English names for English tenses.

For the purposes of this lesson, I am going to ignore the emerging dialect and conversational changes that have been happening for a while in German with regards to a progressive tense. Things like: Ich war am Arbeiten. Ich bin am Arbeiten. Ich werde am Arbeiten sein. These are all ways to directly translate the progressive tenses from English to German. This is not considered by many German teachers to be correct or proper German.

I personally have used it in the past and I haven’t met a German native speaker yet who doesn’t use it on a regular basis. I’ll explain it briefly at the end of the lesson, but don’t get too hung up on it, if you don’t know what I’m talking about or don’t understand it when I do explain it.

What do German tenses do?

German tenses do two things. They show whether or not the action is complete or ongoing and they show when the action happened or will happen relative to the speaker’s point of view.

Contrary to popular belief, the Präsens and Perfekt tenses do not tell us the time of anything. This is done by adverbs and prepositions among other things when we use those tenses. The other four tenses do tell us the time when something happened or will happen relative to the speaker.

I say all of that just to mention that the tenses in English and German don’t overlap perfectly. That should be obvious since there are 6 tenses in German and 12 in English, but the differences are more complex than just the lack of progressive tenses in German. For every tense in German, there are actually several tenses that could be used to translate the sentence depending on the context in English. For this reason, I’m just going to go through all 6 tenses in German and show you how one could translate that sentence into English and explain what is going on.

Präsens

Let’s start with the Präsens. In German, we simply say “Bob isst.” in order to say one of three translations in English. To understand what exactly is meant, we use either context or adverbs, prepositions and other additional information within the sentence to clarify. Let’s break each sentence down so I can show you what I mean.

Bob isst. -
Bob eats.

While the English is very explicit in its meaning, i.e. Bob has been known on occasion to eat and will likely do so again in the future, the German is ambiguous. To avoid this, you could add in the word “manchmal”, which means “sometimes”.

Bob isst manchmal. -
Bob eats sometimes.

This time both languages are very explicit in their meanings. Neither of them say that Bob is currently engaged in the action of eating. It simply states that he has in the past and will likely do so again. By adding the frequency indicator, we can remove all of the other possible English translations.

Bob isst. -
Bob is eating.

Again, the German sentence is kind of ambiguous, but the English explicitly says that Bob is currently in the process of eating. To remove all other translation options, we can again add an adverb to the German sentence. This time, let’s use “gerade”, which means “right now”.

Bob isst gerade. -
Bob is eating right now.

Now neither language can be misinterpreted.

Bob isst. -
Bob has been eating.

This one is usually the one that trips up English native speakers. In English, we understand that this action started in the past and is continuing into the present, but in German, from the sentence as it is currently written, we only know that the action is ongoing. Once more we need to add something extra to make it explicit in the translation.

Bob isst seit zwei Uhr. -
Bob has been eating since 2 o’clock.

Now both are explicit in their meanings. The time at which Bob started eating is 2 and he is still currently continuing that same action.

To recap the Präsens translations, let’s look at the overview.

Bob isst. -
Bob eats.
OR
Bob is eating.
OR
Bob has been eating.

Bob isst manchmal. -
Bob eats sometimes.

Bob isst gerade. -
Bob is eating right now.

Bob isst seit zwei Uhr. -
Bob has been eating since 2 o’clock.

Präsens Pop Quiz.

How would you translate the following sentences?

Ich fahre jeden Morgen mit dem Bus zur Schule.

Answer: I ride the bus to school every morning.

Was liest du zur Zeit?

Answer: What are you reading at the moment?

Wir sind schon seit zwei Stunden unterwegs.

Answer: We have been underway for two hours already.

So when someone asks me “how would you say xyz” in German, I almost always answer with “It depends. What’s the context?” I’m sure my students hate it, but that’s the thing about languages, you can’t simply remove your native language and insert the other language.

That’s one of the reasons I don’t like those books that start inserting German words into an English text and gradually change into a completely German text. But that is a topic for another lesson. 

Perfekt & Präteritum

Before I get too deep into the Perfekt tense, however, we need to talk about Perfekt vs Präteritum. Both express events of the past, but are slightly different.

The Perfekt tense technically expresses an action that is already complete from the reference point of now.

The Präteritum tense technically expresses an action that is ongoing in the past.

In reality, the difference is negligible. Nowadays, the Perfekt tense is generally used when speaking about past events in German and the Präteritum tense is used when writing or telling stories about past events.

I bring this up, because the translations that I chose for both the Perfekt and Präteritum are exactly the same. The difference, again, is context and if we add extra stuff to it.

Once I go through the general translations, I’ll give an example of how German native speakers still use the Perfekt and Präteritum tense to express their true meanings.

Bob hat gegessen. OR Bob aß. -
Bob has eaten.
OR
Bob ate.
OR
Bob was eating.

The first two translations seem to be the best options for translating the Perfekt tense and Präteritum tense, because they mirror the formation. “Bob hat gegessen.” looks like “Bob has eaten.” and “Bob aß.” looks like “Bob ate.”.

The problem with this logic is that both sentences can be used to translate both of the other sentences. “Bob hat gegessen.” is just as much “Bob ate.” as it is “Bob has eaten.” and “Bob aß.” is just as much “Bob has eaten.” as it is “ Bob ate.”

Let’s add some extra words for context to these sentences to make them more clear.

Bob hat jeden Tag einen Keks gegessen. OR Bob aß jeden Tag einen Keks. -
Bob ate a cookie every day.
OR
Bob was eating a cookie every day.

Bob hat jeden Tag seit seinem Geburtstag einen Keks gegessen. OR Bob aß jeden Tag seit seinem Geburtstag einen Keks. -
Bob has eaten a cookie every day since his birthday.

What’s the difference? Well, in the one that includes “seit seinem Geburtstag”, we can see that the action is likely to occur again in the future, but we are still specifically talking about the past. Habitual actions in the past are expressed with the simple past tense in English and actions that started in the past and continue on are expressed with the progressive versions of the sentences.

Speaking with the Präteritum Tense

There are a few instances in which you would use the Präteritum tense when speaking.

Most people will use “sein” and “haben” in the Präteritum tense when speaking just to avoid the redundancy of “bin gewesen” and “habe gehabt”.

Instead of saying “Bob ist zu Hause gewesen.” or “Bob hat einen Keks gehabt.” you can say “Bob war zu Hause.” and “Bob hatte einen Keks.”

Often the modal verbs are also used in the Präteritum tense, as using “haben” or “sein” as a helping verb plus the modal, plus the main verb is overly complicated. Instead of “Bob hat einen Keks essen wollen.” you can simply say “Bob wollte einen Keks essen.”

There is another time when you would prefer the Präteritum over the Perfekt or even the Perfekt over the Präteritum for that matter.

The Präteritum indicates an ongoing action at the time of the story, which takes place in the past.

The Perfekt indicates that the action is completed from the frame of reference.

If the action’s completeness or lack thereof is important, use the Perfekt tense. If it either does not matter that the action is complete or you want to show that the action is ongoing at that point in the story, you would use the Präteritum tense. For example:

Gestern waren wir bei Bob. Er aß die ganze Zeit Kekse. Er bot mir einen davon an und ich habe ihn sofort gegessen. -
Yesterday we were at Bob’s house. He was eating cookies the entire time. He offered me one of them and I ate it immediately.

In this example, we set the time frame with the first sentence. It tells us that this story all takes place while we were at Bob’s house. During this time, he continually ate cookies. At some point, he offered me a cookie and I ate it immediately. The eating of the cookie was completed during the timeframe of being at Bob’s house.

If I said the entire story in the Präteritum tense, it would look like this:
Gestern waren wir bei Bob. Er aß die ganze Zeit Kekse. Er bot mir einen davon an und ich aß ihn sofort. -
Yesterday we were at Bob’s house. He ate cookies the entire time. He offered me one of them and I ate it immediately.

While the English translation didn’t change, the connotation of the German story did. This version is a recollection of what happened. I’m just relaying a story about things we did at Bob’s house. The fact that these events are completed is not important to the story and therefore, I did not use the Perfekt tense.

Perfekt & Präteritum Examples

Der Junge hat heute Morgen mit seinem Bruder gesprochen. OR Der Junge sprach heute Morgen mit seinem Bruder. -
The boy spoke with his brother this morning. OR The boy was speaking with his brother this morning. OR The boy has spoken with his brother this morning.

Das Mädchen hat einen Kuchen zur Party mitgebracht. OR Das Mädchen brachte einen Kuchen zur Party mit. - 
The girl brought a cake to the party. OR The girl was bringing a cake to the party. OR The girl has brought a cake to the party.

Futur 1

Those are the confusing tenses. The rest are pretty easy. There are still two translations for every one German tense, but that is simply due to the lack of progressive tenses in German. Let’s start with the Futur 1.

Bob wird essen. -
Bob will eat. OR Bob will be eating.

While the other tenses can eliminate the dueling English translations by adding extra information to the sentence, the future tense can’t really do this. You can add the same things I did in the present tense, but the other translation isn’t really eliminated by doing so.

Bob wird irgendwann essen. -
Bob will eat sometime. OR Bob will be eating sometime.

Bob wird um zwei essen. -
Bob will eat at two. OR Bob will be eating at two.

While I would likely choose the first translation in each of these examples, the second translation is no less valid.

Futur 1 Examples

Mein Bruder wird mir eine E-Mail schreiben. -
My brother will write me an email. OR My brother will be writing me an email.

Meine Schwester wird eine Stunde studieren. -
My sister will study for an hour. OR My sister will be studying for an hour.

Futur 2

For the Futur 2, we are indicating a completed action from the reference point in the future. In English, we distinguish this even further by saying if that action continued for a bit before being completed.

Bob wird gegessen haben. -
Bob will have eaten. OR Bob will have been eating.

Again, we can remove the ambiguity by adding extra words.

Bob wird seit zwei Stunden gegessen haben. -
Bob will have been eating for two hours.

This means that the action started at some undefined point in time and at the point of reference in the future will have been taking place for two hours already. The addition of “two hours” makes this translation the only one possible in English.

Bob wird früher gegessen haben. -
Bob will have eaten earlier.

This means that the action of eating has not yet taken place, but at the reference point in the future, it has already been completed. The only way to translate this sentence is with the future perfect “will have eaten”.

Futur 2 Examples

Das Kind wird sich an seine Hausaufgaben erinnert haben. -
The child will have remembered his homework. OR (less likely) The child will have been remembering his homework.

Der Hund wird den ganzen Tag auf dem Sofa gelegen haben. -
The dog will have laid on the sofa the entire day. OR The dog will have been laying on the sofa the entire day.

Plusquamperfekt

The only tense left brings us back to the past. The Plusquamperfekt is used to show that the action is completed at the point of reference in the past. I usually explain it as a tense that shows something happened before something else happened. Both events were in the past tense, but the Plusquamperfekt one happened first. Here’s an example.

Bob hatte gegessen. -
Bob had eaten. OR Bob had been eating.

When we add additional information we can reduce the number of English translation options.

Bob hatte seit zwei Stunden gegessen. -
Bob had been eating for two hours.

Bob hatte zwei Stunden gegessen. -
Bob had eaten for two hours.

Each of these again adds context to the sentence that in English we simply use the tense to express.

Plusquamperfekt Examples

Der Lehrer hatte den Schülern die richtigen Antworten gezeigt. -
The teacher had shown the students the correct answers. OR The teacher had been showing the students the correct answers.

Meine Oma hatte mir eine Geschichte erzählt. -
My grandma had told me a story. OR My grandma had been telling me a story.

Which tense(s) to use when translating between German and English

Now that we have talked about all 12 tenses in English and all 6 tenses in German, let’s take a look at how we can pair them up when translating.

Präsens (Bob isst.) =
Simple Present (Bob eats.), Present Progressive (Bob is eating.) Present Perfect Progressive (Bob has been eating.)

Perfekt (Bob hat gegessen.) =
Simple Past (Bob ate.), Present Perfect (Bob has eaten.), Past Progressive (Bob was eating.)

Präteritum (Bob aß.) =
Simple Past (Bob ate.), Present Perfect (Bob has eaten.), Past Progressive (Bob was eating.)

Plusquamperfekt (Bob hatte gegessen.) =
Past Perfect (Bob had eaten.), Past Perfect Progressive (Bob had been eating.)

Futur 1 (Bob wird essen.) =
Simple Future (Bob will eat.), Future Progressive (Bob will be eating.)

Futur 2 (Bob wird gegessen haben.) =
Future Perfect (Bob will have eaten.), Future Perfect Progressive (Bob will have been eating.)

When I showed you the tenses in English, I had a visual representation of when the tenses take place on the screen. This representation shows when an event is occurring based on the criteria described by the various tenses. The tense itself describes when it happens. This is represented by the 3 main colors. Perfect makes it completed, which is shown by having a decided end mark from the action and an arrow pointing to that ending. Progressive makes it ongoing. This is shown with the gradient box in each of the tenses.

In German the representation was slightly different, as the tenses really just show if the action is completed or not and when that action occurs, will occur or has occurred relative to the speaker’s point of view.

To accommodate this issue, my last visualization attempts to combine the two previous images into one that shows not only when to use each tense, but also how the tenses in each language interact.

The white lines represent points at which the action is taking place and the yellow ones show the transition from English to German.

I hope this all helps more than it has confused you. If you want to take a deeper dive into any of the tenses mentioned in this lesson, check out the articles linked below. 

Präsens

Perfekt

Präteritum 

Plusquamperfekt

Futur 1

Futur 2