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It is Perfekt Passiv of bauen ... Vorgangspassiv to be precise. Das Haus wird gebaut. (Präsens) Das Haus ist gebaut worden. (Perfekt) Das Haus wurde gebaut. (Präteritum) I will not give translations as the notion of the tenses in German and English are not the same. Both past forms are to an extend interchangeable. What threw you of was ...

You use Präteritum for events which are not yet completed or for which the time doesn’t matter. In novels for example Präteritum is used more often. There is a really good article in German on this topic: Präteritum oder Perfekt?

Ich kaufte einen Computer sounds wrong to me even in written form. Perhaps it would be okay if you're writing a novel and were describing the circumstances of buying a computer. But in a normal sentence I'd prefer Ich habe einen Computer gekauft. While: Das Wetter war schön am Dienstag. Ich lag den ganzen Tag in der Sonne. is perfectly ...

I'm not sure if this answers your question, because I'm not sure what you mean with "aspect" in this context. Just let me say it is handled a little bit different in German: A tense in German is called "Zeitform" or "Tempus" (plural: Tempora). We have the following Tempora in German: Präsens, Präsensperfekt, Präteritum, Präteritumperfekt, Futur, ...

According to "Handbuch zur Deutschen Grammatik", that is called a "perfect infinitive" (p. 104). If "sein" is the infinitive, then "gewesen sein" is its perfect infinitive. Note that this is also used in the future perfect tense. yes, I believe you are correct. The Handbuch says (p. 113) Modals with perfect infinitives express a present-tense ...

This is not passive... it is a regular active sentence with müssen and a "infinitive-ized" (please indulge my lack of terminology) present perfect of "to be good" :) I am not native English but I'd say it is exactly this. I think the difference between the English sentences is: "It had to be good." I think the dominant meaning of that is that the concert ...

Unfortunately I am not a linguist and thus am unable to scientifically answer your question but let me try to give you my humble understanding of the linguistic concept of aspect in German grammar. Like in English German has only a limited morphological spectrum for flexion of verbs, these include the tenses "Präsens", and "Präteritum". Im Deutschen ...

For the spoken language, a good guideline is indeed to use the Perfekt, except for auxiliary and modal verbs and a few other very common verbs (can't say which ones, unfortunately). To expand on the example in splattne's answer (I wouldn't say "Ich lag den ganzen Tag in der Sonne", and sorry, I'm a bad narrator): Das Wetter war schön am Dienstag. Ich ...

That's passive voice in perfect tense: Das Haus ist 1924 gebaut worden. The house has been built in 1924. Passive in past tense would be Das Haus wurde 1924 gebaut. The house was built in 1924. As to why this passive structure uses "worden" instead of "geworden", here's an explanation I found in a forum post: Die Wäsche ist ...

So here is my try - the following verbs might be used in either way in spoken, sometimes depending on what you want to say, sometimes it is just random or personal preference or flow of speech: gehen - ging Should be used when gehen is applied in sense of "to work" or "to be" Ich wäre gerne zu deiner Party gekommen, aber es ging nicht. If you go ...

I can't give a qualified answer, but as I have learned English as a foreign language, I can say that in almost all books for English learners "I am walking" is considered present progressive tense, so these books may not really be good sources. On the other hand, I don't think that your example of "Ich bin gegangen" can be understood in aspect. It doesn't ...

Well, this question is not that easy to answer. I don't know of any research which states a clear answer to this question. Anyway. I agree to what has been said in comments: modal verbs are usually used in simple past. But present perfect is not uncommon. You will not only find a lot of examples on the Internet but also hear that in colloquial ...

This question seems to be more about English than German grammar actually... Yes. "You came from Berlin" means the action was completed in the past. The present perfect indicates that the action is not complete or has still influence on the present. So "You have come from Berlin" is used, for example, right after the person arrived. Yes. Actually, This ...

Just as user what said in his answer, the use of Präteritum and Perfekt depends on the regional dialect. As a general rule, you will find the use of Perfect more frequently in the south of Germany, in Austria and Switzerland, while the use of Präteritum is more widespread in the north. I know some will beat me for that, but honestly, as a native speaker I ...

There are two types of passive: "true passive" and "statal passive" (or "Zustandspassiv"). Compare these "true passive" sentences (of which one is analagous to the OP's): Das Haus wird gebaut Das Haus ist gebaut worden to these "statal passive" sentences: Das Haus ist gebaut Das Haus war gebaut According to the Handbuch zur Deutschen ...

There are different problems with that sentence, i think. Besides the verb, there's a noun ellipsis, because the noun „im Jahr“ / „in the year“ is missing. Maybe it's easier to recognize with the noun at its place: Das Haus ist im Jahr 1924 gebaut ....

As a general note because people tend to confuse this: Obviously, many written texts use the Präteritum, even though one gets the impression that it is scarcely used in everyday life. Now, this does not imply that Präteritum is the past tense used in written form whereas Perfekt is the kind of informal spoken form of it. Nor does it mean that one needs to ...