Language Phrase Books
German LanguageGerman II49. Helfen, lassen and the senses Helfen, lassen and verbs indicating the senses (such as sehen and hören) function like modal auxiliaries. Like the modals, these verbs require a double infinitive construction when forming the present perfect tense if there is a dependent infinitive involved. After verbs of this type, English often uses a present participle, but German uses a dependent infinitive. Ich habe ihn kommen hören. I heard him coming. Ich habe ihn geholft. I helped him. Ich sehe ihn kommen. I see him coming.Lassen can have different meanings depending on how it is used in the sentence. Usually, lassen means to let or allow, as in Laß den Jungen spielen! Let the boy play! (Notice that lassen takes an accusative object) But it can also mean to have something done or to have someone do something. Wir lassen uns ein Haus bauen. We're having a house built./We're building a house. Ich lasse meinen Sohn die Post abholen. I'm having my son pick up the mail.50. Places
51. Transportation
Note: To say by bus, train, etc., use mit dem and the noun. The one exception is streetcar, where you use mit der instead of dem (because it's feminine).52. Imperfect Tense In English, this tense corresponds I did, you saw, he cried, etc. and is used less often in spoken German than the present perfect tense, however it used more often in writing. Nevertheless, even in conversational German, haben, sein, werden, wissen and the modal verbs are preferred in the simple past tense than in the present perfect tense. All regular verbs add these endings to their original stems:
Note: Verb stems ending in -d or -t, add an -e before all endings for pronunciation.For the modal verbs, drop the umlaut found in the infinitive before adding the endings. Mögen changes the g to ch as well.
The following verbs are called mixed verbs because although they have an irregular stem, they still use the imperfect endings for regular verbs. These are the same stems that are used in the present perfect tense as well.
53. Irregular Stems in Imperfect Tense Irregular verbs have a different stem for the past tense and add different endings than those of the regular verbs. You will have to memorize these stems, as they are unpredictable.
Note: There are no endings for the 1st and 3rd person singular. If the verb stem ends in an s sound (such as aß-), the du form ending becomes -est (du aßest.) If the verb stem ends in -t or -d, the ihr form ending becomes -et while the du form ending sometimes becomes -est. Most verb stems do add -est in the du form, but some do not. For example, finden is conjugated without the -e- (du fandst) while sich befinden is conjugated with the -e- (du befandest dich.) Similarly, stehen is conjugated without the -e- (du standst) while verstehen is conjugated with the -e- (du verstandest.) The other main verbs that are conjugated without the -e- are braten (brietst; to roast), erfinden (erfandst, to invent), laden (ludst, to invite), leiden (littst, to suffer), and schneiden (schnittst, to cut).
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