What is the absentive aspect in German?

In German, the absentive aspect is used to say that someone “out doing” or “off doing” something: they are absent from one place and something else. It is formed by combining a form of sein (meaning to be) the infinitive form of the word for the activity being performed.

Does that sound a little unfamiliar and strange to you? Don’t fret. We’ll break the absentive aspect down for you in a way that is easy to digest in this article.

Forming the absentive aspect in German is quite easy: just combine the verb sein (meaning to be) in either the present tense or simple past tense with the infinitive of whatever action someone is away performing.

As you can see, you are allowed to add more information about where the person is instead, but it’s not necessary. All that is important is that while performing the infinitive verb, the person is absent. If you do want to add this information, though, the most natural place is between sein and the infinitive.

In German, we mostly use the absentive aspect in spoken or casual language when three conditions are met:

1. Someone is absent from the location under discussion.

2. Someone is performing some task while they are absent.

3. They will return to the location under discussion when that task is over.

Generally, these are cases where you might say, in English, that someone is “out doing something” or “off doing something.” Look at the examples below:

The absentive aspect is by no means the only way to say that someone is absent or out doing something in German. For example, the following sentences all discuss absence without the absentive aspect.

However, the absentive aspect does helpfully package up (1) absence (2) action (3) expected return in a neat and handy grammatical structure, and so using it can be helpful in everyday speech. Here’s an example dialogue:

Here are the most important things to remember about the German absentive aspect:

• You can use the absentive aspect in a situation where:

  • Someone is/was absent.

  • They are doing some intentional action while they’re gone.

  • They are expected to return at some point.

• Form the absentive aspect using sein (meaning to be) + infinitive.

• Remember that you can’t translate these sentences as “is/was verbing”, you’ll need to add an extra word like “out,” “off,” or “away,” as in “is/was away verbing.”

Are you ready to practice? Check out these German absentive aspect exercises!