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→Auxiliary verbs
===Auxiliary verbs===
===Auxiliary verbs===
Just as in English, the German language uses helping verbs for most of its tenses. When this occurs, it is the helping verb which is conjugated. The perfect tense exists in German, which uses either the verb ''haben'' (to have) or ''sein'' (to be) together with a past participle. The future tense also uses a helping verb, ''werden'', which is also used for the passive voice (i.e. The lawn is watered daily.). German also uses modal verbs just as in English:
''können'' = to be able to<br />
''dürfen'' = to be allowed to<br />
''müssen'' = must<br />
''sollen'' = should
While German has two forms of the past tense which are constructed like the English past simple and perfect, they are used for different reasons. Generally speaking, the two types of past in German have the same meaning, but the simple past is used for writing and the perfect for speaking. The past participles for many irregular verbs follow similar vowel transformations as in English:
English: I sing. I sang. I have sung.<br />
German: Ich singe. Ich sang. Ich habe gesungen.
Many of the most important verb forms in German have irregular verb forms, so it is necessary to learn all three forms when one learns a verb.
==References==
==References==