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GrammarMan's Guide to understanding German Verbs

Tense and time are not the same thing. Tenses are forms of verbs used to talk about events situated in various time frames. Tenses can be simple (one form--examples: Ich fahre [Present]; ich fuhr [Past]) or compound (more than one form--examples: Ich bin gefahren [Present Perfect]; ich war gefahren [Past Perfect]; ich werde fahren [Future]). Sometimes more than one tense can be used to refer to the same time: both Past and Present Perfect refer to past-time events, for instance.

Passive emphasizes the deed, not the doer. A passive sentence may or may not state who the agent is: In the sentence Das Auto ist (von mir) gewaschen worden, the important thing is the washing of the car, not the person who washed it. That's why the sentence is written in the passive rather than the active (Ich habe das Auto gewaschen ), which emphasizes the actor. Another way to emphasize the action over the actor is to use the active voice with the impersonal subject man: Man hat das Auto gewaschen.

Note: Passive and active are not tenses. Technically they're termed voices. Both passive and active sentences can occur in any tense.

Subjunctive is a mood. The subjunctive is neither a tense nor a voice. Subjunctive and indicative are called moods: Indicative expresses facts (Ich bin Lehrer ) or possibilities (Wenn ich das Buch brauche, dann kaufe ich es ); subjunctive expresses unreal situations (Wenn ich reich wäre, dann müßte ich nicht arbeiten ) and wishes (Wenn ich nur Lehrer wäre! ), and is used for quoting other people indirectly (Sie sagt, sie sei krank ). Both subjunctive and indicative sentences can be either active or passive, and they can occur in any tense.

Note: The imperative (command form) is also a mood, but it occurs only in the present tense.

Some useful patterns:

a form of haben/sein + Participle II = one of the Perfect tenses
a form of werden + Participle II = Passive
a form of werden + Infinitive = Future tense

Note: After a modal, the only possible verb form is an infinitive: Er kann es machen.

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