German Present Perfect – Separable Prefix Verbs

All of the separable-prefix verbs form their past participle with ge-. Examples: Sie hat gestern angerufen.

Separable prefix verbs can be regular, irregular or mixed. Separable prefixes include:  ab, an, auf, aus, bei, da, durch, ein, fern, fest, fort, her, hin, los, mit, nach, um, vor, weg, weiter, wieder, zu, and zusammen.

As can be seen, when forming the present perfect of separable prefix (trennbare) verbs, the prefix comes before the “ge,” which is followed by the stem and then ending. Keep in mind that there are regular, irregular and mixed verbs with separable prefixes.

Examples:

durchführen (to execute, operate, conduct [regular]) = hat durchgeführt

mitbringen (to bring along with [mixed]) = hat mitgebracht

ankommen (to arrive [irregular]) = ist angekommen

German separable prefix verbs can be compared to English verbs like “call up,” “clear out” or “fill in.”  In German the separable prefix is almost always at the end of a sentence.