German Verbs
Most German verbs follow a very predictable pattern for the three main tenses (past, present, and future). As with any language, there are exceptions, of course, but, on average, German has fewer irregular verbs than most other European languages. The best way to learn your verbs is to start by memorizing the infinitive and present forms. Afterwards, you can work on memorizing the two main past forms and the future form.
All German verbs have an infinitive, or unconjugated, form. In English, we call this the “to” form (“to jump,” “to run,” etc.), and, in German, these verbs will almost always end in “-en” (such as “springen” for “to jump” or “laufen” for “to run”). When you look up a German verb in the dictionary, it will be listed in its infinitive form. From the infinitive, you can find the “stem” onto which you will add conjugation endings by removing the “-en.”
Conjugations depend on the person or thing that is doing the action. In English, we have very few conjugations, most of which involve simply adding an “-s” to an infinitive: I jump; she jumps. German has a different conjugation for I, you, he/she/it, we, you (plural), and they. (Note that German also differentiates between a formal you, “Sie,” and an informal you, “du,” each of which has different conjugations as well.) The basic endings for each conjugation are as follows:
-e 1st person singular (I)
-st 2nd person singular (you, informal)
-t 3rd person singular (he/she/it/)
-en 1st person plural (we)
-et 2nd person plural (you all)
-en 3rd person plural (they); also 2nd person formal (you, both singular and plural)
Different types of German verbs have different rules for conjugation. Basic verbs simply add these endings to the stem (springe, springst, springt, etc.). Some verbs, such as “arbeitet” (“to work”) require a connecting “e” between the endings (arbeite, arbeitest, arbeitet, etc.), and most stems that end in –d or –t belong to this group. Some verbs also have a stem change, such as “lesen” (“to read”) which changes its stem to “lies” in the 2nd and 3rd person singular (lese, liest, liest).
In German, past tense has two main forms: the perfect and imperfect. The main difference between them is that imperfect is most often used in writing while the perfect is more common in speech. The imperfect form of German verbs involves adding the conjugated endings to the perfect stem which often differs from the present stem and must simply be memorized. So, for example, you would conjugate the imperfect form of “jumped” as “springte, springtest, springtet, etc.” The perfect form involves using an auxiliary verb followed by the past participle: habe gesprung. The participle must be memorized along with the verb stems. German verbs in the future tense involve conjugating the verb “werden” (“to become”) and then adding the infinitive.
Some of the most common verbs in German are as follows:
Infinitive Pronunciation Translation springen “shpreeng-en” to jump laufen “laoo-fen” to run sprechen “shpre-kchen” to speak lesen “lay-zen” to read gehen “gay-hen” to go arbeiten “ar-bite-en” to work werden “vair-den” to become spielen “shpeel-en” to play machen “makch-hen” to make, do essen “ess-en” to eat