das Perfekt mit haben oder sein - You're Doing It WRONG!

How do you know if you should use haben or sein with the perfect (present perfect, spoken past, das Perfekt) in German? Is it about motion verbs and non-motion verbs? Are you supposed to guess? How can you choose between haben and sein in the Perfekt in German? Your German teacher probably taught you the wrong rule and I am here to set them straight. It is time you learned the real rule for choosing haben or sein in the Perfekt.

Wann benutzt man haben und wann benutzt man sein im Perfekt? Wie sollte man wissen, ob man haben oder sein im Perfekt benutzt? Euer Deutschlehrer hat euch das Perfekt wahrscheinlich falsch unterrichtet. Ich werde die Sache wieder ins rechte Lot bringen.

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[myaseena]

i like this approach of explaining grammar using grammatical concepts rather than inventing "movable/immovable".

[bamdadmasoudi]

Super. Endlich habe ich das verstanden. Vielen Dank.

[wasabistreetfighter]

Thank you so much! I was so confused, and this helped a ton! I seriously cannot thank you enough

[JaySmith-pvmw]

I learned that verbs expressing a change in location or a change in state take sein as a helping verb. That works well but THIS is the precise definition and now I understand better. Vielen Dank!

[leopaul]

Motion/movement chaos in German

In case of wechsal Präpositionen, Its not only about Motion and No Motion, but also Change of Location and No change of Location.

In case of sein/haben usage in Perfekt, Its not only about motion or no motion but Transitive or Intransitive...


Out of these many channels its you alone Herr Antrim. But even to be a student to ur lecture, demands a class and minimum std.

I am not sure my aforesaid perception based on ur classes are 100 percent correct or not but now finally when i stumbled upon ur channel after numerous others i know something far better than before.

Once again, thanks a lot Lehrer Antrim.

[bernhardstork]

Good rule, but you should know the exception from the rule: everything you do with your body like "husten", "niesen", "lachen", "grinsen", "stöhnen", "furzen", "kichern". No direct object but haben-Perfekt.

[mahdahoseini]

Really really useful and you made it reasonable .I can't thank you enough

[nematjonrajabov]

Thank you so much! This is just a perfect explanation🔥

[WorldisArt]

Ack thank God I am not crazy for finding the "motion" criterion super confusing. "It just is that way" is the worst! Vielen dank!

[legaleagle]

I love this! And it explains why the rule isn't quite the same as the rule in French and Italian (French doesn't use "être" as its own auxiliary verb in the passé composé, although Italian requires "essere" for the passato prossimo, and both French and Italian require "être" and "essere, " respectively, as the auxiliary verb for all reflexive verbs). German quite logically treats reflexive verbs as the transitive verbs that they really are.

[teacherconor]

Exceptions:
Ich habe gut geschlafen.
Ich habe schon gefrühstückt.

[BruceWayne_]

This is what makes german language so complicated. That‘s why after i passed all the exam i decided to rest and just listen or copy what other people used to say here. Reading children’s book might also help. Smh!

[TheAnanthdivakaruni]

The video is very helpful. However, I have a doubt regarding the verb "schlafen". As the perfekt form is usually "Ich habe geschlafen", Could you please explain how it is used as transitive verb and what would be the default direct object

[raschedmuhsen]

thanks for the great explanation! Could you please explain why "übernachten" is built with "haben im Perfekt" even though it is an intransitive verb?

[bernhardstork]

There are not many things a person or a thing can do without a direct object. You can move yourself or you can remain at the same place, you can grow or shrink, maybe burst or petrify...Germans use the sein-Perfect, when they are talking about movement or change/no change without a direct object. So there are intransitive verbs which use the haben-Perfekt, but they have nothing to do with movement or change/no change but with a special activity. It's weird, but that's why some Germans say: "Ich habe gejoggt" or "Ich habe geschwommen" (activity), but also "Ich bin von Köln nach Berlin gejoggt" or "Ich bin ans Ufer geschwommen". You must use the sein-Perfect in that case, even in North Germany.

[kendrauzumaki]

Thanks! but what about Seil springen? yeah, ich bin Seil gesprungen, aber warum? Seil ist ein Objekt, oder? warum mit sein?

[pedrocavalcante]

I have two sentences.

Ich bin nach Hause gefahren

und

Ich habe dich nach Hause gefahren.

Why in both cases does the verb remain at the end, even though the first one has the auxiliary verb in sein?

[NaaJeevitham]

Die Papiere sind an einem geheimen Ort versteckt. Verstecken is a transitive verb, then shouldn't the sentence use haben as helping verb?

[TheBostonRedsock]

What was wrong with that statement about Konjunktiv II?

[OdinMMA]

change of state - not 'motion' is a much better way of conceptualising this