ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the contrasts between the English and German tense systems. It discusses the translation: errors often occur when students want to find a 1:1 translation of a particular construction, even though sometimes a German tense is best translated using a different tense in English, or the other way round. The chapter utilizes what learners have learned on verb forms. The use of German tenses is quite similar to the use of English tenses. The use of the pluperfect is almost identical to that in English. The pluperfect establishes that something happened before something else in the past. The form 'werden' and infinitive, which is often called the future tense in German, is usually used to express non-neutral statements about the future. There are two Konjunktiv forms in German, referred to as Konjunktiv 1 and Konjunktiv 2. Learners can look up their forms in most grammar books.
