IB German B needs the full spread of tenses: Präsens, Perfekt, Präteritum, Plusquamperfekt and Futur. The keys are the past-participle rules, the haben vs sein choice in the perfect, and knowing which past to use when.
Work through each screen and answer the questions — some ask you to spot the form, some to build it. Collect ⭐ and press Start.
This grammar backbone powers every IB German B theme: Identities, Experiences, Human ingenuity, Social organization and Sharing the planet — so you can build accurate texts across paper 1, paper 2 and the individual oral.
Regular present endings are -e / -st / -t / -en / -t / -en. A group of strong verbs changes its stem vowel in the du and er/sie/es forms:
| person | spielen (regular) | fahren (a → ä) |
|---|---|---|
| ich | spiele | fahre |
| du | spielst | fährst |
| er/sie/es | spielt | fährt |
| wir/sie | spielen | fahren |
Common changers: geben → gibt, lesen → liest, nehmen → nimmt, laufen → läuft. The present also covers the near future: Morgen fahre ich nach Köln.
The perfect is the everyday past tense in speech. It is built from an auxiliary — haben or sein — in position 2, plus the past participle at the end:
sein-verbs: movement (gehen, fahren, kommen, laufen), change of state (werden, sterben, aufwachen) and the special cases sein, bleiben. Everything else — especially verbs with a direct object — takes haben.
Two main patterns, plus a few exceptions:
Learn strong participles as a list — they are high-frequency and examiners test them.
Tap an infinitive on the left, then its Partizip II on the right.
The Präteritum is the past tense of writing and narration. Weak verbs insert -te (machen → machte); strong verbs change the stem vowel and take no ending in ich/er:
| infinitive | ich / er (Präteritum) |
|---|---|
| sein | war |
| haben | hatte |
| gehen | ging |
| fahren | fuhr |
| können | konnte |
| müssen | musste |
Even in speech, sein (war), haben (hatte) and the modals (konnte, wollte, musste) are normally used in the Präteritum, not the perfect.
For an action completed before another past action, use hatte or war + past participle. It pairs naturally with nachdem:
Same haben/sein rule as the perfect — just with the Präteritum auxiliary (hatte / war).
Sort each verb by the auxiliary it takes in the perfect.
The future is werden (conjugated) in slot 2, plus the infinitive at the end:
Present-as-future: with a time marker, German often just uses the present (Morgen rufe ich dich an). The Futur adds emphasis or expresses a prediction/intention.
Präsens: regular endings; strong verbs change vowel in du/er (fährt, gibt, liest). Also covers the near future.
Perfekt: haben/sein + Partizip II. Motion/change verbs (gehen, fahren, kommen) take sein; the rest take haben.
Präteritum: written narrative; but sein (war), haben (hatte) and modals (konnte) stay simple-past even in speech.
Plusquamperfekt: hatte/war + participle (past before the past). Futur: werden + infinitive at the end.
Cluster 5 zooms in on the verbs that reshape the clause: modals and infinitive constructions. Press Finish.
You've built the German tense system for IB Diploma German B SL. 🎉
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Next in the backbone: modal verbs and infinitive constructions.