Unlike other languages like English, German does not progressive verbs like “to be verbing” in English. In German, you’ll use words like gerade meaning at the moment or jetzt meaning now to express that something is happening in the moment rather than just happening in general.
- Das Mädchen isst gerade ein Stück Kuchen.Translation: The girl is eating a piece of cake.Literally: The girl eats a piece of cake at the moment now.
- Ihr Bruder trinkt jetzt eine Tasse heißen Kakao.Translation: Her brother is drinking a cup of hot cocoa.Literally: Her brother drinks a cup of hot cocoa right now.
Additionally, some regional varieties of German have their own ways to express progressivity. We will be looking at all of this in detail in this article. Let‘s get started!
What is the progressive aspect and how do you use it in German?
The progressive aspect is used to express that an action is, was, or will be actively in progress at a particular moment.
- Not progressive:I eat.
- Progressive:I am eating.
In English, we tend to express the progressive aspect with a special verb form: to be + verb-ing, as in “I am eating.” In German, though, there aren’t any special verb forms for the progressive, so you’ll need to indicate the difference between “I eat” and “I am eating” using other strategies.
In order to make it clear that the action is taking place at this very moment, German has a variety of options in its pockets to emphasize that. Let’s have a look!
Using ‘gerade’ (at the moment) or ‘jetzt’ (now) to express progressivity
The most common way to express progressivity in German is to add the adverb gerade, which translates to “at the moment” or “right now.” In regular main clauses, it’s always positioned after the verb and object.
Jetzt meaning now can also be used to say that something is happening at the moment. However, jetzt is not used to express progressivity as often as gerade. The position is the same as above.
Using ‘am’, ‘beim’, and ‘dabei’ to express progressivity
In German, you can sometimes use a preposition like am, beim, or dabei before an infinitive verb to express progressivity. This option is considered to be more colloquial and more accepted in spoken than in written German. Though it originates in the Rhine dialect, it’s become more widespread over the years and can now be heard all over the German speaking world. Here is how to use these prepositions:
am and beim follow the pattern below:
seinTranslation: to beconjugated
am / beimTranslation: at / on theinfinitive verb
nominalizedPeter hat keine Zeit. Er ist am / beim Arbeiten.Translation: Peter doesn’t have time. He is (in the middle of) working.In this context, am and beim are completely interchangeable. The closest translation to English would be “to be in the middle of doing something.”
dabei follows a related, but slightly different pattern:
seinTranslation: to beconjugated
dabeizu-infinitive
Peter hat keine Zeit. Er ist dabei zu arbeiten.Translation: Peter doesn’t have time. He is (in the middle of) working.Timo ist dabei sein Zimmer zu putzen.Translation: Timo is (in the middle of) cleaning his room.
Notice that the meaning and structure are very similar, but because the infinitive is a zu-infinitive instead of a nominalized verb, it can have a true object in the accusative case: sein Zimmer (his room).
Expressing progressivity using ‘immer noch’ (still)
If you want to express that someone is still doing something, you can say this by adding the phrases noch, immer noch, or noch immer. All three translate to the English “still” and are completely interchangeable. They are placed in last position in a sentence.
- Paul hat noch keine Zeit. Er arbeitet noch/immer noch/noch immer.Translation: Paul doesn’t have time yet. He is still working.
- Timo putzt noch/immer noch/noch immer seinen Schreibtisch.Translation: Timo is still cleaning his desk.
Expressing progressivity using ‘tun’ (to do) as an auxiliary verb
In Southern Germany (especially Bavaria) and the Austrian region, you can also utilize the verb tun meaning to do + infinitive of the verb to express progressivity. This way tun basically functions as an auxiliary verb to create the progressive aspect.
Just like when you use other conjugated auxiliary verbs in German, tun comes in second position while the infinitive of the verb comes last. This is not a nominalized infinitive, so if the sentence has a direct object, the object is in the accusative case, as expected.
How to express the progressive aspect in different tenses?
You can use any of the structures above to discuss past, present, or future progressive actions just by changing the tense of the verb. For example:
| Tense | Progressive Aspect |
|---|---|
Tina trinkt gerade Kaffee. Translation: Tina is drinking coffee. | |
Tina trank gerade Kaffee. Translation: Tina was drinking coffee. | |
Tina hat gerade Kaffee getrunken. Translation: Tina has been drinking coffee. | |
Tina hatte gerade Kaffee getrunken. Translation: Tina had been drinking coffee. | |
Tina wird gerade Kaffee trinken. Translation: Tina will be drinking coffee. | |
Tina wird gerade Kaffee getrunken haben. Translation: Tina will have been drinking coffee. |
You can also use different tenses with the other structures as well. Here are some examples:
- sein (simple future)am/beimnominalized infinitivePaul wird heute Abend am Fußballspielen sein.Translation: Paul is going to be playing soccer tonight.
- sein (simple past)am/beimnominalized infinitivePaul war auch schon gestern Abend beim Fußballspielen.Translation: Paul was also playing soccer last night.
Summary
Here are the most important points to remember about the German progressive aspect:
In German, we do not use present participles to form the progressive aspect, so don’t translate “is/are verbing” directly into German!
You’ll use the same verb forms that you use for non-progressive actions, but you’ll add some elements to emphasize that something is in progress:
conjugated verb
gerade / jetzt- seinam / beim
nominalized infinitive
seindabeizu-infinitive
- tun
infinitive
All of these can be conjugated to form past, present, and future progressive sentences.
Are you ready to practice? Head on over to our German progressive aspect activities to test your knowledge about expressing the progressive aspect in German.
:quality(80))
:quality(75))
:quality(75))
:quality(75))
:quality(75))
:quality(75))
:quality(75))
:quality(75))
:quality(75))
:quality(75))
:quality(75))
:quality(75))