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When you
look up an English verb in a dictionary to check what its German
equivalent is, you will find the so-called infinitive, i.e. the basic
form of the verb.
Nearly all
German infinitives end in -en, e.g.
to
live -> wohnen
to
drink -> trinken
to
learn -> lernen
to
come -> kommen
to sing -> singen
to work -> arbeiten
Once you
use the verb in a sentence, you have to make sure that the ending of the
verb corresponds to the subject (= who or what is performing the action
expressed by the verb) of the sentence.
In order
to do this, you take the -en off the infinitive and add the ending which
is required in each case, e.g.
wohnen -> wohnen:
If
the subject is "ich" (= "I"), the ending is -e: ich wohne
If
the subject is "er" (= "he") or "sie" (= "she")
or "es" (= "it") or "man" (= "one"), the ending is
-t: er wohnt, sie wohnt, es
wohnt, man wohnt
If the subject is "du" (=
"you" informal, singular), the ending is -st: du wohnst
If the subject is "sie" (=
"they"), the ending is -en: sie wohnen
If the subject is "wir" (=
"we"), the ending is -en: wir wohnen
If the subject is "Sie" (=
"you" formal, singular or plural), the ending is -en: Sie wohnen
If the subject is "ihr" (=
"you" informal, plural), the ending is -t: ihr wohnt
Overview:
Infinitive:
wohnen
ich wohne
du wohnst // Sie
wohnen
er/sie/es/man wohnt
wir
wohnen
ihr wohnt // Sie
wohnen
sie
wohnen
Note
the 4 verb-forms that are identical to the
infinitive.
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Note:
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Phrases like "mein Freund" (my [male] friend) or a name e.g.
"Patrick" can be replaced by "he", therefore the corresponding verb must
end in -t, e.g. Mein
Freund wohnt in Berlin. or
Patrick trinkt Kaffee.
-
Phrases like "meine Freundin" (my [female] friend) or a name
e.g. "Patricia" can be replaced by "she", therefore the corresponding
verb must end in -t, e.g.
Meine Freundin wohnt in Berlin. or
Patricia trinkt Kaffee.
-
Phrases like "meine Freunde" (my friends) or names
e.g. "Patricia and Patrick" can be replaced by "they", therefore the corresponding
verb must end in -en, e.g.
Meine Freunde wohnen in Berlin. or
Patricia und Patrick trinken Kaffee.
-
Phrases like "meine Freunde und ich" (my friends and
I) can be replaced by "we", therefore the corresponding
verb must end in -en, e.g.
-
Meine Freunde und ich wohnen in Berlin.
or Meine Freunde und ich trinken Kaffee.
You use the present tense to express:
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1. a general truth, e.g.
Berlin ist die Hauptstadt von Deutschland.
(Berlin is the capital of Germany.)
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2. a habitual action, e.g.
Sie spielt jedes Wochenende Golf.
(She plays golf every weekend.)
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3. what is happening right now, e.g.
Ich schreibe eine E-Mail. (I am writing an email.)
Was macht er? (What is he doing?)
Note that unlike English, German doesn't have a so-called
continuous present tense, it only has a simple present tense,
i.e. English can differentiate between "I am playing soccer."
and "I play soccer.". In German, there is only one form: "Ich spiele Fußball." If you want to make clear in German, that
something is happening right now, you will have to add a word
such as "jetzt" (= "now") or "im Moment" (= "at the moment").
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4. what will happen in the future, as long as it is clear from
the context that you are referring to the future, e.g.
Wir
fahren am Samstag
nach Donegal. (On Saturday we
will go to Donegal.)
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5.
for actions that started in the past and are still going on,
the key words are seit (since, for) or schon
(already), e.g.
Sie lernt seit sechs Jahren Deutsch. (She has been
learning German for six years.)
Wie lange bist du schon da? (How long have you been
here?)
Note that in English, you
use the perfect tense to express the idea of a past action
continuing into the present.
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Some things to
watch out for
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1. Verbs with a stem that ends in "-d" or "-t"
Once you take the -en off "arbeiten" or "finden", you end up with the stem "arbeit"
and "find".
That's not a problem if you are going to add an "-e" or an "-en", but
try to add "t" or "st" and you will realize that it is quite difficult
to pronounce the words. Therefore an "e" is inserted before the ending to
facilitate pronunciation:
ich arbeite
du arbeitest
// Sie arbeiten
er/sie/es/man
arbeitet
wir arbeiten
ihr arbeitet
// Sie arbeiten
sie arbeiten
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ich
finde
du
findest // Sie finden
er/sie/es/man
findet
wir
finden
ihr findet //
Sie finden
sie
finden
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Don't worry, there aren't that many verbs
that fall into this category. And you will notice the difficulty
right away once you try to pronounce the word.
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2. There is a very small group
of verbs where the infinitive has lost the "e" in its ending,
e.g. segeln (to sail).
But that's no problem. Instead of
taking off the "-en", you just take off the "-n" and add the
same set of endings as above:
ich segele
du segelst // Sie segeln
er/sie/es/man segelt
wir segeln
ihr segelt // Sie segeln
sie segeln
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3.
The stem of some verbs ends in
"-s", or "-ß" or "ss",
e.g. reisen (to travel), heißen (to be called) or küssen (to kiss)
To avoid too many "s", the ending for
the "du-form" is just "-t" instead of "-st", e.g.
Wie heißt
du? (What are you called?)
Wann reist
du nach Deutschland? (When will you travel to Germany?)
Warum küsst du das Baby nicht? (Why don't
you kiss the baby?)
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4. Verbs with a stem-change
With some German verbs, the stem changes in the "du" and
"er/sie/es/man"-
forms in the present tense.
The verb-endings, however, are the same. There aren’t that many verbs
with a
stem-change but some of them are very common, e.g.
infinitive:
fahren
ich fahre
du fährst
// Sie fahren
er/sie/es/man
fhrt
wir fahren
ihr fahrt //
Sie fahren
sie fahren
Other verbs with a stem-change:
essen, er isst
vergessen, er vergisst
helfen, er hilft
sprechen, er spricht
treffen, er trifft
geben, er gibt
lesen, er liest
sehen, er sieht
nehmen, er nimmt
haben, er hat
waschen, er wäscht
Click
here if you would
like find out about the other verbs with a stem-change.
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5. As in English, the verb "sein" (=
to be) is totally irregular:
ich bin
du bist // Sie sind
er/sie/es/man ist
wir sind
ihr seid // Sie sind
sie sind
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