Present Tense Conjugation
If you are just starting out with the German language, this blog post is for you. The video below serves as a general introduction to the conjugation of the most important verbs in the German language. By the end of this blog, you will be able to conjugate practically every verb in the German language in the present tense. This includes regular verbs (weak verbs), irregular verbs (stem-changing verbs or strong verbs), and "haben" (to have) and "sein" (to be).
Since this video is simply the conjugation of several verbs in short conversations, the script is not available below, but you can find all of that information via the images I have provided below the video. If you want to download the script as a side-by-side file with German and English next to each other or get an MP3 download of this, you can get that by supporting my work on Patreon. By supporting my work, you also get access to the worksheets I create for each video.
Pronouns
There are nine pronouns in German. Three of the pronouns translate as "you": "du", "ihr", and "Sie". Both "du" and "ihr" are what are referred to as "informal". "Sie" is considered "formal". While this may seem stiff, it isn't really. "Sie" is used not only when you are talking to a person of authority, but also when you are talking to strangers. You would also use this form when talking to coworkers. The "du" and "ihr" forms are used when you are talking to family members and people you are familiar with. For this reason, some people call the "du" and "ihr" forms the familiar forms and the "Sie" form the unfamiliar form. "Sie can be either singular or plural, but "du" is always singular and "ihr" is always plural.
The other pronouns are pretty straight forward. Their translations are listed below.
ich - I
du - you (singular, familiar/informal)
er - he
sie - she
es - it
wir - we
ihr - you (plural, familiar/informal)
sie - they
Sie - you (singular or plural, unfamiliar/formal)
You may have noticed that there are three words with the same spelling listed above, "sie". This is confusing to some German learners, but it is easy to tell the difference based on the context of a conversation of the conjugation of the verb, which is the purpose of this post.
Regular Conjugation
Regular verbs in the German language usually end with -en. In order to conjugate the verbs (make them agree with the subject of the sentence), you need to remove the -en and add different letters. The endings are as follows:
ich -e
du -st
er, sie, es -t
wir -en
ihr -t
sie, Sie -en
Nothing other than the ending changes on a regular verb. Here are a few examples from the video.
ich sage - I say du sagst - you say er, sie, es sagt - he, she, it says wir sagen - we say ihr sagt - you say sie, Sie sagen - they, you say ich kenne - I know du kennst - you know er, sie, es kennt - he, she, it knows wir kennen - we know ihr kennt - you know sie, Sie kennen - they, you know ich denke - I think du denkst - you think er, sie, es denkt - he, she, it thinks wir denken - we think ihr denkt - you think sie, Sie denken - they, you think
For more information about the conjugation of regular verbs in German, check out my 3 Minuten Deutsch series, in which I talk in more depth about each of the pronouns and their uses.
Stem-Changing Verbs
There are three kinds of verbs in German that are categorized as "stem-changing" verbs. They are called this, because the stem changes. The stem of the verb is the part before the -en at the end. If there is an "a" in the stem, it changes to an "ä" in the "du" and "er, sie, es" forms of the verb. If the stem has an "e", it sometimes changes to an "i" and other times it changes to "ie". The examples used in the video are listed below.
ich fahre - I am driving du fährst - you are driving er, sie, es fährt - he, she, it is driving wir fahren - we are driving ihr fahrt - you are driving sie, Sie fahren - they, you are driving ich gebe - I give du gibst - you give er, sie, es gibt - he, she, it gives wir geben - we give ihr gebt - you give sie, Sie geben - they, you give ich nehme - I am taking du nimmst - you are taking er, sie, es nimmt - he, she, it is taking wir nehmen - we are taking ihr nehmt - you are taking sie, Sie nehmen - they, you are taking ich sehe - I see du siehst - you see er, sie, es sieht - he, she, it sees wir sehen - we see ihr seht - you see sie, Sie sehen - they, you see
For more information about the stem-changing verbs, check out episode #11 of the 3 Minuten Deutsch series, my worksheet video from a few years ago, and my incredibly off key parody of "Changes" by David Bowie that teaches about the stem-changing verbs.
haben & sein
Two of the most used verbs in German are also two of the most irregular ones. There isn't a good way to explain the pattern of these two verbs, because they are simply irregular. The conjugation of these two verbs can be found below.
ich habe - I have du hast - you have er, sie, es hat - he, she, it has wir haben - we have ihr habt - you have sie, Sie haben - they, you have ich bin - I am du bist - you are er, sie, es ist - he, she, it is wir sind - we are ihr seid - you are sie, Sie sind - they, you are
For more information about the conjugation of "haben" and "sein", I have the conjugation song for these two verbs, the 3 Minuten Deutsch episode for "haben", the worksheet video for both verbs, and the 3 Minuten Deutsch episode for "sein".
I have also included one more video on this blog post to help you learn to conjugate a lot of German verbs. While some of the verbs in this video are not covered by the rules explained above, this video will get you started on learning some of the most important verbs in the German language.
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