Past Perfect Tense
Formation You use the past tense form of haben or sein Add the past participle of the verb at the end of the sentence. For separable prefix verbs add “Ge” in-between the prefix and verb For verbs with “Be” don’t add a “Ge”
Haben past tense Ich-hatte Du-hattest Er,es,sie-hatte Wir-hatten Ihr-hattet Sie,sie-hatten The past tense of haben is used for verbs not describing movement from point A to point B. It is used for transitive verbs. (verbs that can take a direct object) Ex. Ich hatte einen Film gesehen.
Sein Past Tense Ich-war Du-warst Er,es,sie-war Wir-waren Ihr-wart Sie, sie- waren The past tense of sein is used when the verb describes a movement from point A to point B. It is used with intransitive verbs. (Verbs that do not take a direct object.) Ex. Ich war zu dem Film gegangen.
Separable prefixes For verbs with prefixes like ab, auf, aus, an, vor, ein add “Ge” in between the prefix and the verb. Ex. Wir hatten viele Freunde eingeladen.
Inseparable Prefixes For inseparable prefixes verbs do not add “Ge”. Ex. Ich hatte einen Brief bekommen.