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Verb

Verb (das Verb / die Verben) is any word used to describe an action, state, or occurrence.

In German verbs change there form according to the tense, gender, and number of the Noun. These changes are called conjugation of Verbs.

These conjugation tables can be either memorized for all the forms of every single new verb you encounter. Or, we are going to group them together so we can apply verb conjugation rules to many different verbs.

Ther are two main types of verbs Regular verbs (Regelmäßige Verben) and Irregular Verbs (Unregelmäßige Verben).

Regular verbs are also called weak verbs -perhaps because they have no will of their own to stand out from the crowd, so they just follow the regular rules. Irregular verbs are also called strong verbs.

Many German verbs, end in -en in their infinitive forms. The infinitive, as you'll recall, is the basic form of the verb, as found in dictionary. The part of the verb before -en is called der Stamm (the root/stem).

In this chapter we will be covering verb conjugations in the present tense only. We will cover other conjugation forms in other tenses later on.

Regelmäßige Verben

For regular verbs (where the stem doesn't change in different verb forms) such as trinken (to drink), machen (to do/make) and suchen (to search), follow these simple instructions:

Take the infinitive and subtract the –en. You're left with the stem. Then add the appropriate ending to the stem:

Ich -e

Du -st

er, sie, es -t

Ihr -t

The conjugates for Sie (you formal), wir (we) and sie (they) remain the same as the infinitive, and this rule holds true for almost all verbs in German—regular and irregular.

Let's implement this rule on the conjugation of the verb machen (to do).

The infinitive is machen, and the stem is mach, so you get the following conjugations:

ich mache

du machst

er/sie/es macht

wir machen

ihr macht

Sie/sie machen

Similarly we have fragen (to ask)

ich frage

du fragst

er/sie/es fragt

wir fragen

ihr fragt

Sie/sie fragen

gehen (to go)

ich gehe

du gehst

er/sie/es geht

wir gehen

ihr geht

Sie/sie gehen

Unregelmäßige Verben

Irregular verbs or Strong verbs, however, don't follow regular conjugation rules and often have a change in the verb stem. For examples sein (to be)

sein

ich bin

du bist

er/sie/es ist

wir sind

ihr seid

Sie/sie sind

There's one more verb group called "mixed" verbs. Mixed verbs change their stem, but they put the standard verb endings on the new roots. These can be categorized as following Stem changes:

e to ie. Eg: lesen (to read): ich lese, du liest, er/sie/es liest, ihr lest, wir/Sie/sie lesen

a to ä. Eg: fahren (to drive): ich fahre, du fährst, er/sie/es fährt, ihr fahrt, wir/Sie/sie fahren

e to i. Eg: geben (to give): ich gebe, du gibst, er/sie/es gibt, ihr gebt, wir/Sie/sie geben

You might have noticed that these verb conjugation rules are pretty similar to regular verbs. The only change is that there's a stem change in the du, ihr and er/sie/es forms. One more example of mixed verb would be haben (to have): ich habe, du hast, er/sie/es hat, wir haben, ihr habt, Sie/sie haben.

We need to know here that most of verbs in German are regular verbs. So, you can rely on your systematic conjugations for most verb usage.

For now keep practicing. Stay safe. Bis später! Tschüss!