Auxiliary verbs, in German, part two

Too long have I tarried; I shall finish this series ere dawn.

So what are the various forms that a German verb can take? We’re talking here not of specific conjugations but of different combinations of tense, aspect, and mood (usually abbreviated tam). Like  English, these are usually listed in infinitive form, but the sequence of infinitives in German is the reverse of the English sequence. In addition to the Präsens and Präteritum, we will see forms generated from (a) the non-modal complex infinitive, (b) the future infinitive, and from it, (c) the future perfect infinitive.

Participial Past Tense

The non-modal complex infinitive takes one of two forms: 
past participle sein, or past participle haben.

Like French, but unlike modern English (if you exclude Tolkien-esque “Out of the Great Sea unto Middle-earth I am come” sentences), German uses both sein and haben as auxiliary verbs to give rise to the non-modal complex infinitive. Verbs strictly take one or the other (more or less—but this being German, less rather than more).

When haben is conjugated in the Präsens, the verbal form so generated is the Perfekt; when it is conjugated in the Präteritum, the verbal form so generated is the Plusquamperfekt. 


The Future
The future infinitive is formed with the future auxiliary verb werden. When werden is conjugated in the Präsens, the sentence is put into the Futur.

• future infinitive: infinitive werden
• future perfect infinitive: past participle sein werden or past participle haben werden

(As should be clear, verbs forming the Perfekt with haben form the future perfect infinitive with past participle haben werden, and so on.)

The Passive
Of course, in addition to these various tams, the German verb also has a distinctive passive voice (der Passiv),  whose infinitive has the construction: past participle werden

As indicated by the color, this werden is a “different” verb from the regular werden (“to become”) and the future auxiliary werden. One way in which it is actually (and not just conceptually) different is that its participial form is worden, while the participial form of the regular werden is geworden.

Needless to say, the passive infinitive also gives rise to the other infinitives as above. These will have the structures: 

• non-modal complex passive infinitive: past participle worden sein
• future passive infinitive: infinitive werden werden
• future passive perfect infinitive: past participle worden sein werden

(The last sounds stilted to my ears, even in English.)

Modal Auxiliaries

And of course, we have only now, only just come to the German modal auxiliaries. Unlike the English modal auxiliaries, the German verbs are fully conjugate in the Präsens and in the Präteritum. They are, nevertheless, not the same as the other verbs, because (a) their structures are ever so slightly different from the structures for the other verbs, and (b) they don’t have passive forms (but which is about the only thing they don’t have).

The modal auxiliaries, as listed in my previous post on the matter, are können, mögen, sollen, wollen, müssen, and dürfen. The standard modal infinitival structure is infinitive können, and so on.

As expected, this infinitive can be put into all sorts of other structures too. Most of these are quite regular. I shall use können for simplicity’s sake.

• complex modal infinitive: infinitive können haben
• There is an alternative form here, used when können is used without any infinitive: gekonnt haben
• future modal infinitive: infinitive können werden
• future modal perfect infinitive: können haben werden
• As above, there is an alternative form here, used when können is used without any infinitive: gekonnt haben werden

And now, some examples with the verb schreiben (“to write”).

• active voice:
• simple infinitive: schreiben (“to write”)
• complex non-modal infinitive: geschrieben haben (“to have written”)
• future infinitive: schreiben werden (“to write in the future”; lit. “to *will write”) 
• future perfect infinitive: geschrieben haben werden (“to have written in the future”; lit. “to *will have written”)
• passive voice:
• simple passive infinitive: geschrieben werden (“to be written”)
• complex passive non-modal infinitive: geschrieben worden sein (“to have been written”)
• future infinitive: geschrieben werden werden (“to be written in the future”; lit. “to *will be written”) 
• future perfect infinitive: geschrieben worden sein werden (“to have been written in the future”; lit. “to *will have been written”)
• modal (for simplicity, just with können):
• simple infinitive: schreiben können, (“to be able to write”; lit. “to *can write”)
• complex non-modal infinitive: schreiben können haben (“to have been able to write”, lit. “to have *can write”)
• future infinitive: schreiben können werden (“to be able to write in the future”; lit. “to *will can write”) 
• future perfect infinitive: schreiben können haben werden (“to have been able to write in the future”; lit. “to *will have can write”)
• bare modal (for simplicity, just können):
• simple infinitive: können, (“to be able”)
• complex non-modal infinitive: gekonnt haben (“to have been able”)
• future infinitive: können werden (“to be able in the future”) 
• future perfect infinitive: gekonnt haben werden (“to have been able in the future”)

As if this isn’t enough, all of these verbs have been conjugated only in the indicative mood (Indicativ), but there also exist a subjunctive present (Konjunctiv I) and a subjunctive past (Konjunctiv II). However, those are details that only apply to the conjugated forms of these verbs, which is not a level of detail I plan to enter into. At least, not for now. 

This is a good place to draw the line. We have traveled over 7,600 words from our initial point of departure, pondering over the English auxiliary verb.