Ambo Dalle, Johar Amir, Amirullah Abduh
Since very studies focusing on German and English tenses comparison, this research aims to fill the research gaps where not much publication is found on a contrastive analysis on English and German tenses. This research aims to describe the similarities and differences between English and German language tenses in terms of structural elements: past, present, and future tenses. The approach to compare these languages was a contrastive analysis. The result of the analysis shows that there are several differences between English and German. The future tense sentence is that German has a different verb position from English. German verb was placed at the end of the sentence, while English is positioned in the middle of the sentence following auxiliary. The present tense sentence is that German has different collocation from English. All German verbs must be collocated with the subject, while, in English, the only third singular subject has to be collocated with the subject. Concerning the past tense sentence, both English and German have to employ past tense verbs. This research has the implication of the teaching and learning German as both foreign language within Indonesian contexts. This study contributes to the understanding of tenses in both languages. Research on views of the teachers and lecturers as practitioners of both languages is recommended to further explore to build a comprehensive understanding of English and German differences in the context of teaching and learning. © 2020 Asian E F L Journal Press. All rights reserved.
Universitas Negeri Makassar, Indonesia
