German Verbs in Present Tense (Präsens)

1. Introduction

Learning German is far from easy. Those unending words and that strange thing called declension are really scary. Still, German verbs are simple when compared with verbs in a Romance language. Most German verbs are regular even in irregularities. So let's start with the Present Tense (Präsens).

2. Personal Pronouns

Let me remind the personal pronouns. Note that the word "sie" has different meaning from "Sie". While the former means "she" or "they", the latter means "you" (plural and singular) in formal situations.

Table 1. Personal Pronouns

3. Regular Verbs

Most verbs are regular. Regularity means the conjugation is predictable if we know some basic rules. Table 2 shows the general case, represented by the verb "wohnen" (to reside) and three special cases: arbeiten, heißen and sammeln (to work, to be called and to collect, respectively)..

Table 2. Regular Verbs

We can see that all the regular verbs follow similar patterns. The conjugation is formed by the stem and an affix:

• The stem is obtained by cutting the "-en" or "-n" termination of the verb in infinitive. The latter case happens when the verb ends in "-n" and not "-en" (eg. "sammeln".

• The affixes are the ones described in the second column of Table 2.

• The conjugation for the third person singular is the same for all three genders.

• There are conjugations which are coincident with the infinitive of the verb. It is the case of the first and third persons plural plus the formal second person (wir, ihr, sie/Sie). This is true for all verbs expect the verb "sein"(to be).

The verb "wohnen" is the general example of a regular verb. Yet, there are some verbs for which the conjugation is a little different:

• "arbeiten" represents the verbs ending in "-den", "-ten", "-men" or "-nen". The latter two cases occur when the ending follows a consonant (e.g. "atmen", to breathe). All the conjugations have "e" in the affix..

• "heißen" represents the verbs ending in "-sen", "-zen" and "-ßen". The "s" on the second person affix is removed for avoiding the terminations like "ßst". This turns the conjugations of the second and third persons equal.

• "sammeln" represents the few verbs which infinitive does not end in "-en". As said before, for wir, ihr, sie/Sie the conjugation is equal to the infinitive, so the affix is "-n" instead of "-en". For verbs ending in "-eln" the penultimate "e" is omitted in the first person conjugation.

4. Irregular Verbs

4.1. General Cases

Most languages have irregular verbs, and German is not an exception. Yet, we can find some patterns to know the conjugation with low effort. Only the conjugation of the singular persons suffer changes:

• The affix follows the adequate pattern shown in table 2, depending on the infinitive ending.

• A vowel in the next to the last syllable of the stem will change. The most usual changes are:
• • a → ä

• • e → i

• • e → ie

Table 3 shows the conjugation of verbs referred above plus the verb "nehmen" (to take) which has the change eh → im. The conjugation of the plural persons is regular.

Table 3. Irregular Verbs A

There are some verbs in which the change of stem adds to change of the affixes. Table 4 shows three of these cases. Verb "halten" (to stop) is irregular in the third person singular. "Essen" (to eat) and "lesen" (to read) are examples of verbs ending in -sen with change in the stem.

Table 4. Irregular Verbs B

4.2. Auxiliary verbs

The verbs "sein"(to be), "haben" (to have) and "werden" (will) are the most irregular of all, having special features. The verbs "haben" and "werden" are irregular in the second and third persons singular. In opposition, "sein" is completely irregular, and the only way is knowing its conjugation by heart.

Table 5. Auxiliary Verbs

4.3. Modal Verbs

The conjugation of modal verbs follows a pattern of affixes different from the other verbs. The affix for the first and third person singular is absent. Additionally to the modal verbs, "wissen" (to know) also follows this specific pattern. The stem of these verbs also changes in the singular conjugations.

Table 6. Modal Verbs and "Wissen"

5. List of Common Verbs

The following table is a list of the most common verbs and their correspondent model described in the present hub.

Table 7. List of Verbs

6. Quizz

Let's make a short quiz to make sure you have learnt. In each question you should choose what you think is the right answer.

German Verbs in Present Tense

For each question, choose the best answer. The answer key is below.

1. Ich____ (sprechen)
   • sprech
   • spriche
   • spreche
   • sprechst
2. Du ___(sehen)
   • sehest
   • seht
   • siehst
   • sihst
3. Er___(können)
   • kann
   • kannt
   • könn
   • könnt
4. Sie___(lesen)
   • lest
   • lesst
   • list
   • liest
5. Es____(bleiben)
   • bleibt
   • bleibst
   • blibt
   • bleibet
6. Wir____(wissen)
   • weissen
   • wissen
   • wisst
   • wissn
7. Ihr___(sammeln)
   • sammelt
   • sammelet
   • sammlet
   • sammeln
8. Sie____(bilden)
   • bildt
   • bilden
   • bilde
   • bild
9. Ich____(arbeiten)
   • arbeite
   • arbeiten
   • arbite
   • arbiete
10. Du____(heißen)
    • heißest
    • heisst
    • hißt
    • heißt
11. Er___(fahren)
    • farht
    • fährt
    • fahren
    • fähret
12. Sie___(dürfen)
    • dürft
    • darft
    • darf
    • darfen
13. Ihr___(mögen)
    • mogt
    • magt
    • mögt
    • möget
14. Sie___(sollen)
    • sollen
    • söllt
    • sollt
    • söllen
15. Du___(helfen)
    • helfst
    • helfest
    • hilfst
    • hilft
16. Du____(sein)
    • bist
    • sist
    • ist
    • sein
17. Er____(wohnen)
    • wohnst
    • wöhnt
    • wohn
    • wohnt
18. Ihr___(haben)
    • haben
    • habt
    • habet
    • hat
19. Er___(essen)
    • isst
    • ist
    • esst
    • est
20. Sie____(nehmen)
    • nehmt
    • nihmt
    • nimmt
    • nehmet
21. Ihr____(sehen)
    • sehen
    • seht
    • sieht
    • siht
22. Du___(schlafen)
    • schlafst
    • schlafest
    • schläfst
    • schlafest
23. Er___(treffen)
    • trifft
    • triffst
    • trefft
    • trift
24. Es___(sein)
    • sein
    • sind
    • ist
    • seid
25. Ihr___laufen
    • lauft
    • läuft
    • läufet
    • laufen
26. Ihr____(sein)
    • seid
    • sind
    • sein
    • seit

Answer Key

1. spreche
2. siehst
3. kann
4. liest
5. bleibt
6. wissen
7. sammelt
8. bilden
9. arbeite
10. heißt
11. fährt
12. darf
13. mögt
14. sollen
15. hilfst
16. bist
17. wohnt
18. habt
19. isst
20. nimmt
21. seht
22. schläfst
23. trifft
24. ist
25. lauft
26. seid

Interpreting Your Score

If you got between 0 and 7 correct answers: Very low result.

If you got between 8 and 15 correct answers: I would study a little more, before I try the quizz another time.

If you got between 16 and 20 correct answers: Not bad. Please read the article one more time.

If you got between 21 and 23 correct answers: Almost there. Take a look on the tables and try to see what failed, and try again.

If you got between 24 and 26 correct answers: Very good.

7. Conclusion

Everything to know about the present tense (indicative mode) in German has been shown in this hub. I hope you like it. Please give suggestions. Soon, I will continue with other subject about the German language.