Nuts & Bolts of German: Present tense: Me, me, me

A tense indicates the time an action is taking place. If you want to indicate that something is a habitual action, a general truth or is happening right now, you will need the present tense.

How do you form the present tense in German? Study the examples. Can you figure out the pattern? Fill in the missing verbs and complete the rule under the examples, then press [Check] to see if you got it right. Use the [Hint] button to get a free letter if you need help.

infinitive	verb in the present tense	translation into English
trinken = to drink	Ich trinke Kaffee.	I drink coffee./ I am drinking coffee.
lernen = to learn	Ich lerne Deutsch.	I learn German. / I am learning German.
lieben = to love	Ich liebe Schokolade.	I love chocolate.
wohnen = to live	Ich in Berlin.	I live in Berlin. / I am living in Berlin.
chatten = to chat	Ich mit Karl.	I chat with Karl. / I am chatting with Karl.
studieren = to study	Ich Medizin.	I study medicine. / I am studying medicine.
hören = to listen to, to hear	Ich Musik.	I listen to music. / I am listening to music.

Ich liebe Schokolade.

The infinitive is the basic form of a verb, the one you find in a dictionary.

In German, 99.99 per cent of infinitives end in -en (some just in -n).

The part before the -(e)n is called stem or root of the verb.

To form the present tense, you cut off the ending -(e)n of the infinitive and add an ending to the stem.

This ending has to correspond to the subject (= who or what is performing the action expressed by the verb) of the sentence.

If the subject is "ich", the ending is -. There are hardly any exceptions to this rule.

Umlaute & Eszett:

Wörterbuch (LEO)

Wörterbuch (BEOLINGUS)

Wörterbuch (Linguee)

Wörterbuch (dict.cc)

Wörterbuch (PONS)

Terminologie A - Z

Tip: If you don't belong to the lucky few who possess a photographic memory, write down what you learnt while doing this exercise.