German Past Participle Exercises (A1) | Free Exercises

The past participle (Partizip II) is the building block for the present perfect tense and the passive voice. You'll hear it constantly in spoken German: _Ich habe gegessen, wir sind gefahren, das ist gemacht worden.

The pattern itself is friendly — most weak verbs follow ge- + stem + -t (machen → gemacht), while strong verbs change their stem and end in -en (lesen → gelesen). The exercises below walk you through both groups, so you can build the form automatically without thinking.

Regular Past Participles Exercises

For regular (weak) verbs in German, the past participle is formed using a simple rule:

1. Prefix "ge-": Add "ge-" at the beginning of the verb.
2. Stem of the Verb: Keep the stem of the verb unchanged.
3. Suffix "-t": Add "-t" at the end of the verb.

Examples:

• arbeiten (to work) → gearbeitet
  
• spielen (to play) → gespielt
  
• machen (to do/make) → gemacht
  

Irregular German Past Participles Exercises

Irregular (strong) verbs, however, differ in the following ways:

1. Vowel Change: The stem vowel often changes, which does not follow a single rule and varies between verbs.
2. Prefix "ge-": Many irregular verbs also start with "ge-", but there are exceptions, particularly with verbs that have separable prefixes or are intransitive.
3. Suffix "-en": Instead of "-t", irregular verbs end with "-en".

Examples:

• sprechen (to speak) → gesprochen (note the vowel change from 'e' to 'o')
• finden (to find) → gefunden (vowel change from 'i' to 'u')
• gehen (to go) → gegangen (vowel change from 'e' to 'a')

Some irregular verbs might not use the "ge-" prefix, especially if they end in -ieren (e.g., studieren → studiert) or have inseparable prefixes (e.g., verstehen → verstanden, not "geverstanden").

Past Participle Exercises

To get more practice with German past participles, let's do a few more exercises! The next exercises require either a regular or an irregular German past participle:

1

A mixed warm-up: regular verbs, strong verbs, and a couple of separable verbs (anfangen → angefangen). Trust the hint and decide whether the participle ends in -t or -en.

2

This batch leans more on prefixed verbs — aufgeräumt, eingeladen, aufgegessen, eröffnet. Inseparable prefixes (be-, ent-, er-, ver-) skip the ge-; separable ones tuck -ge- in between the prefix and the stem.

3

A more advanced round with vocabulary you'd see in articles or work emails — bewältigen, umsetzen, enthüllen, implementieren. Note that -ieren verbs never take ge- in their participle (kreiert, not gekreiert).