German Present Tense
Use the present tense to describe what is happening right now, what you do regularly or what you do in an ongoing situation.
We use the present tense to talk about what is happening currently or in the present time.
The present tense is used:
to say what you are doing right now
ich arbeite – I am working
to say what you do regularly or always
ich schwimme jede Woche – I swim every week
to describe something ongoing
ich spiele Fußball – I play football (this implies it is one of your hobbies)
to express the near future
ich hole dir ein Eis – I'll get you an ice-cream
In German, there are two groups of verbs:
weak, or regular verbs
strong, or irregular verbs
This is the pattern that weak verbs follow:
Start with an infinitive, eg lernen
Next, you need to chop off the -en at the end of the infinitive form. What is left is called the stem, eg lern-
Decide which ending you need according to who's doing the action (the subject), eg ich, du, wir, Sie, etc
Finally, add the correct present tense ending to the stem, eg lern- > ich lerne Deutsch – I'm learning German.
lernen → lernen → so lern- is the stem
If you think about the endings like leaves, then the word ‘stem‘ is obvious - it’s what’s left once you have taken the endings (the leaves) off. In German, the ending of an infinitive verb (the verbal form you find in the dictionary) is always -en or -n.
Using the verb hören as an example, you can see how you add these endings to the stem of a weak verb:
Subject | Stem | Ending | Full Form | English |
|---|---|---|---|---|
ich | hör- | -e | ich höre | I hear |
du | hör- | -st | du horst | you hear |
er | hör- | -t | er hört | he hears |
sie | hör- | -t | sie hört | she hears |
es | hör- | -t | es hört | it hears |
wir | hör- | -en | wir hören | we hear |
ihr | hör- | -t | ihr hört | you hear |
Sie | hör- | -en | Sie hören | you hear |
sie | hör- | -en | sie hören | they hear |
Unlike English, German has three words for the word ‘you‘:
du is singular - use du for one friend or relative, or someone you know well
ihr is plural - use ihr for several friends or relatives, other people you know well
Sie is formal and can be singular or plural - use Sie for people you don’t know or when you have to be respectful to them
The formal Sie is always written with a capital S so that it is not mixed up with sie (she) or sie (they).
There is a group of slightly different weak verbs, eg
finden – to find
arbeiten – to work
warten – to wait
erwarten – to expect
erfinden – to invent
when you take off the -en, you'll see that the stems of these particular verbs end either in the letter -d or -t
you add the usual weak endings to most of the verb
however, when you add the usual endings to the du, er/sie/es and ihr forms, they are not very clear, and therefore incorrect, eg er findt or sie wartt
to make them clearer, and easier to pronounce, you have to add -e- between the stem and the ending for the du, er/sie/es and ihr forms only, eg er findet or sie wartet
Do it like this:
This rule applies to all verbs whose stem ends in -d or -t.
finden – to find
stem: find-
ich finde – I find
du findest – you find
er findet – he finds
sie findet – she finds
es findet – it finds
wir finden – we find
ihr findet – you find
Sie finden – you find
sie finden – they find
There are two groups of verbs in German:
weak, or regular verbs
strong, or irregular verbs
Strong verbs are called strong because they do not weakly follow the pattern of other verbs. They are more independent.
This is what they do:
some verbs have endings like weak verbs in the present tense, but are strong in some other tenses
some verbs also make changes to the du and er/sie/es forms
Some strong verbs take the same endings as weak verbs, but the spelling and the vowel sound change in the du and er/sie/es forms.
The rest of the verb does not change at all.
These changes are important, as they alter the way the word is pronounced.
Some verbs change the vowel sound by adding an i in the second and third person singular, eg lesen (to read) and sehen (to see).
lesen – to read
ich lese
but
du liest
er liest
sie liest
es liest
Some verbs change the vowel sound by adding an umlaut in the second and third person singular, eg fahren (to travel), tragen (to wear or carry) and waschen (to wash).
fahren – to travel
ich fahre
but
du fährst
er fährt
sie fährt
es fährt
Some verbs change the vowel sound by swapping e for i in the second and third person singular, eg essen (to eat) and vergessen (to forget).
vergessen – to forget
ich vergesse
but
du vergisst
er vergisst
sie vergisst
es vergisst
Use the present tense to describe what is happening right now, what you do regularly or what you do in an ongoing situation.
We use the present tense to talk about what is happening currently or in the present time.
The present tense is used:
to say what you are doing right now
ich arbeite – I am working
to say what you do regularly or always
ich schwimme jede Woche – I swim every week
to describe something ongoing
ich spiele Fußball – I play football (this implies it is one of your hobbies)
to express the near future
ich hole dir ein Eis – I'll get you an ice-cream
In German, there are two groups of verbs:
weak, or regular verbs
strong, or irregular verbs
This is the pattern that weak verbs follow:
Start with an infinitive, eg lernen
Next, you need to chop off the -en at the end of the infinitive form. What is left is called the stem, eg lern-
Decide which ending you need according to who's doing the action (the subject), eg ich, du, wir, Sie, etc
Finally, add the correct present tense ending to the stem, eg lern- > ich lerne Deutsch – I'm learning German.
lernen → lernen → so lern- is the stem
If you think about the endings like leaves, then the word ‘stem‘ is obvious - it’s what’s left once you have taken the endings (the leaves) off. In German, the ending of an infinitive verb (the verbal form you find in the dictionary) is always -en or -n.
Using the verb hören as an example, you can see how you add these endings to the stem of a weak verb:
Subject | Stem | Ending | Full Form | English |
|---|---|---|---|---|
ich | hör- | -e | ich höre | I hear |
du | hör- | -st | du horst | you hear |
er | hör- | -t | er hört | he hears |
sie | hör- | -t | sie hört | she hears |
es | hör- | -t | es hört | it hears |
wir | hör- | -en | wir hören | we hear |
ihr | hör- | -t | ihr hört | you hear |
Sie | hör- | -en | Sie hören | you hear |
sie | hör- | -en | sie hören | they hear |
Unlike English, German has three words for the word ‘you‘:
du is singular - use du for one friend or relative, or someone you know well
ihr is plural - use ihr for several friends or relatives, other people you know well
Sie is formal and can be singular or plural - use Sie for people you don’t know or when you have to be respectful to them
The formal Sie is always written with a capital S so that it is not mixed up with sie (she) or sie (they).
There is a group of slightly different weak verbs, eg
finden – to find
arbeiten – to work
warten – to wait
erwarten – to expect
erfinden – to invent
when you take off the -en, you'll see that the stems of these particular verbs end either in the letter -d or -t
you add the usual weak endings to most of the verb
however, when you add the usual endings to the du, er/sie/es and ihr forms, they are not very clear, and therefore incorrect, eg er findt or sie wartt
to make them clearer, and easier to pronounce, you have to add -e- between the stem and the ending for the du, er/sie/es and ihr forms only, eg er findet or sie wartet
Do it like this:
This rule applies to all verbs whose stem ends in -d or -t.
finden – to find
stem: find-
ich finde – I find
du findest – you find
er findet – he finds
sie findet – she finds
es findet – it finds
wir finden – we find
ihr findet – you find
Sie finden – you find
sie finden – they find
There are two groups of verbs in German:
weak, or regular verbs
strong, or irregular verbs
Strong verbs are called strong because they do not weakly follow the pattern of other verbs. They are more independent.
This is what they do:
some verbs have endings like weak verbs in the present tense, but are strong in some other tenses
some verbs also make changes to the du and er/sie/es forms
Some strong verbs take the same endings as weak verbs, but the spelling and the vowel sound change in the du and er/sie/es forms.
The rest of the verb does not change at all.
These changes are important, as they alter the way the word is pronounced.
Some verbs change the vowel sound by adding an i in the second and third person singular, eg lesen (to read) and sehen (to see).
lesen – to read
ich lese
but
du liest
er liest
sie liest
es liest
Some verbs change the vowel sound by adding an umlaut in the second and third person singular, eg fahren (to travel), tragen (to wear or carry) and waschen (to wash).
fahren – to travel
ich fahre
but
du fährst
er fährt
sie fährt
es fährt
Some verbs change the vowel sound by swapping e for i in the second and third person singular, eg essen (to eat) and vergessen (to forget).
vergessen – to forget
ich vergesse
but
du vergisst
er vergisst
sie vergisst
es vergisst
