Conjugating Verbs in German

German verb conjugation is more than just changing verbs according to tense. You also need to consider the subject pronouns used with those verbs and the types of verbs they are—weak, strong or mixed.

If that sounds a bit too much to wrap your head around, don’t worry. This guide will simplify the process of conjugating verbs in German in three steps.

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1. Check the Subject Pronoun

When conjugating verbs in German, make sure they match the pronoun doing the action of the verb.

Let’s have a quick refresher on German subject pronouns (a.k.a. nominative pronouns):

Subject	Pronoun
I	ich
You (informal)	du
He	er
She	sie
It	es
One/You (indefinite)	man
We	wir
You (plural, informal)	ihr
They / You (formal; plural or singular)	Sie

Now, let’s take a common verb like  machen (to do, to make), and see how it looks when conjugated in the present tense alongside each pronoun:

Pronoun	Conjugation of Machen (To Do/To Make)
ich	mache
du	machst
er/sie/es/man	macht
wir	machen
ihr	macht
Sie	machen

Keep in mind that all of the above words have the same meaning and tense. The only difference is that the endings after the stem mach- change according to the pronoun used with them.

For simplicity’s sake, we used just one verb type and one tense in the above example. As you’ll soon see, things get just a little fiddlier when we go into other verb types and tenses.

2. Determine the Type of Verb

German verbs can be classified into three groups based on how they’re conjugated: weak (regular) verbs, strong (irregular) verbs and mixed verbs.

Weak or Regular Verbs 

Fortunately for learners, over 90 percent of German verbs are regular or “weak,” like machen from our earlier example. I say “fortunately,” because conjugating weak verbs involves the same basic steps:

• Get the infinitive form of the verb. Recall that the infinitive form is the basic form of the verb, equivalent to the “to do” verbs in English. In German, infinitive verbs often end in -en, though you’ll also encounter ones that end in -eln or -ern.
• Identify the Stamm (the root/stem) of the verb. Normally, the root or stem is the part that comes before the endings -en, -eln or -ern. With regular verbs, the stems remain the same throughout conjugations.
  
• Change the ending. Conjugate regular verbs by removing the ending and replacing it with the suffix that indicates tense.

For example, let’s conjugate the weak verb sagen (to say) in the present tense. Keep the stem -sag untouched, chop off the ending and replace it with the appropriate one:

Pronoun	Conjugation of Sagen (To Say)
ich	sage
du	sagst
er/sie/es/man	sagt
wir	sagen
ihr	sagt
Sie	sagen

Strong or Irregular Verbs

As their name suggests, strong or irregular verbs are the opposite of weak or regular verbs. With strong verbs, the stems change their vowels in the present, simple past and past participle, and change their endings in the simple past and past participle.

Luckily, there’s a method to this apparent madness. For example, in the present tense, the stem vowel changes only occur in the du and er/sie/es/man forms (second and third person singular). Let’s look at the strong verb lesen (to read), which has a vowel change from e to ie:

Pronoun	Conjugation of Lesen (To Read)
ich	lese
du	liest
er/sie/es/man	liest
wir	lesen
ihr	lest
Sie	lesen

So, how do you know if you’re looking at a strong verb? The bad news is, you have to learn the strong verbs by heart. The good news is, there aren’t too many of them.

Mixed Verbs 

Mixed verbs fall somewhere in the middle of “strong” and “weak” verbs. They still see stem changes in the past tense, but stick with the standard verb endings on their new roots. 

For example:

Pronoun	Bringen (To Bring)	Denken (To Think)
ich	brachte	dachte
du	brachtest	dachtest
er/sie/es/man	brachte	dachte
wir	brachten	dachten
ihr	brachtet	dachtet
Sie	brachten	dachten

3. Conjugate According to Tense

Now that you know all about the different verb types, let’s study exactly how to conjugate them.

Present Tense Conjugation

Like its English counterpart, the present tense in German describes habits that you regularly do. It also functions like the English present progressive—i.e., describing things that are happening at the moment.

Weak Verbs and Mixed Verbs (Present Tense)

When conjugating weak verbs and mixed verbs in the present tense, just replace the ending.

Take the weak verb fragen (to ask) and the mixed verb bringen (to bring), for example:

Pronoun	Present Tense Ending	Weak Verb (fragen)	Mixed Verb (bringen)
ich	-e	frage	bringe
du	-st	fragst	bringst
er/sie/es/man	-t	fragt	bringt
wir	-en	fragen	bringen
ihr	-t	fragt	bringt
Sie	-en	fragen	bringen

Strong Verbs (Present Tense)

Strong verbs actually use the same present tense endings as the weak and mixed verbs. However, they also see vowel changes in their stem in the du and er/sie/es/man forms.

Take a look at essen (to eat), with its e to i vowel change, and fahren (to travel) going from a to ä. 

Pronoun	Essen (To Eat)	Fahren (To Travel)
ich	esse	fahre
du	isst	fährst
er/sie/es/man	isst	fährt
wir	essen	fahren
ihr	esst	fahrt
Sie	essen	fahren

For more on conjugating German verbs in the present tense, read this post:

Past Tense Conjugation

German has two different past tenses that correspond to the ones we know and love in English: the simple past and the perfect tense.

Simple Past Tense

The German simple past most commonly appears in writing and is mostly only used in speech with certain common verbs like  haben (to have) or  geben (to give).

Weak Verbs (Simple Past Tense)

For weak verbs like sagen (to say), just change the endings to the ones used for the simple past:

Pronoun	Past Tense Ending	Sagen (To Say)
ich	-te	sagte
du	-test	sagtest
er/sie/es/man	-te	sagte
wir	-ten	sagten
ihr	-tet	sagtet
Sie	-ten	sagten

Mixed Verbs (Simple Past Tense)

Mixed verbs use similar verb endings as weak verbs in the past tense.

The difference is that their stems’ vowels also change, as you can see with the verb brennen (to burn):

Pronoun	Past Tense Ending	Brennen (To Burn)
ich	-te	brannte
du	-test	branntest
er/sie/es/man	-te	brannte
wir	-ten	brannten
ihr	-tet	branntet
Sie	-ten	brannten

Strong Verbs (Simple Past Tense)

Strong verbs usually undergo vowel stem changes in the past tense and past participle, similar to the English “swim, swam, swum.”

They also use different endings than their weak counterparts in the simple past. The first and third persons singular (ich and er/sie/es/man) are always the same in that they don’t have any ending at all, so they’re just the stem with its vowel change.

The rest have the same endings as the present tense. 

Take a look at bleiben (to stay), for example:

Pronoun	Simple Past of Bleiben (To Stay)
ich	blieb
du	bliebst
er/sie/es/man	blieb
wir	blieben
ihr	bliebt
Sie	blieben

Notice how the ich and er/sie/es/man conjugations are just blieb. Easy!

Here’s some more information on conjugating verbs in the German past tense:

https://www.fluentu.com/blog/german/german-past-tense/

Perfect Tense

In German, the perfect tense ( Perfekt ) is also known as the present perfect.

It’s the German equivalent of the “have + (past action)” in English, and it follows this formula:

present tense of  haben or  sein + past participle of the verb

Haben and sein are conjugated as follows in the present tense:

Pronoun	Haben (To Have)	Sein (To Be)
ich	habe	bin
du	hast	bist
er/sie/es/man	hat	ist
wir	haben	sind
ihr	habt	seid
Sie	haben	sind

Not sure which to use? You use haben for verbs describing most actions (to read, to watch, to eat, to dance) and sein for verbs that describe movement between two places or a change of state (to go, to travel, to move, to die).

There are some odd exceptions like  verändern (to change) using haben, or  bleiben (to stay) which uses sein, but it’s a good rule of thumb for most cases.

 Weak and Mixed Verbs (Perfect Tense)

Weak and mixed verbs conveniently stick to regular rules for their past participles. No matter the subject pronoun used, the formula is:

ge- + [verb stem] + -t

For example:

Infinitive	Past Participle	Example Sentence
sagen (to say)	gesagt	Ich habe das schon gesagt. (I already said that.)
fragen (to ask)	gefragt	Sie hat nach seinem Namen gefragt. (She asked for his name.)

Mixed Verbs (Perfect Tense)

Mixed verbs follow the same formula as above, but this time the verb stem includes a vowel change:

ge- + [verb stem with vowel change] + -t

For example:

Infinitive	Perfect Tense
denken (to think)	gedacht
bringen (to bring)	gebracht

Strong Verbs (Perfect Tense)

Irregular past participles are a bit trickier to pin down. Sometimes, they have a stem vowel change in their past participle; other times, they don’t.

Because of this, you’ll usually just see them listed in textbooks alongside the root form so learners won’t have such a hard time with them.

That said, they’re generally conjugated like this:

ge- + [verb stem/verb stem with vowel change] + -en

Irregular Verb	Meaning	Past Participle
essen	to play	gegessen
fahren	to cook	gefahren
schließen	to hear/listen	geschlossen
nehmen	to take	genommen
sprechen	to speak	gesprochen

Read more about German past participles here:

Future Tense Conjugation

Compared to the other two tenses, this one is a total cakewalk. It’s just like English, where you need the future auxiliary (“will”) plus the verb in the infinitive. In German, you use werden in place of “will,” conjugate werden in the present tense and send the infinitive to the end of the clause. 

Here’s how you’d conjugate werden in the present tense:

Pronoun	Present Tense of Werden
ich	werde
du	wirst
er/sie/es	wird
wir	werden
ihr	werdet
Sie	werden

And here’s how it would look like in practice for the verb gehen (to go):

Ich werde den Film sehen.
(I will see the movie.) 

Note that, similar to English, it’s actually far more common to talk about the future by combining the present tense with a time marker:

Morgen gehen wir ins Kino.
Tomorrow, we’re going to the cinema.

Need more help on the German future tense? Check out this post:

https://www.fluentu.com/blog/german/german-future-tense/

How to Practice Verb Conjugation in German

Arguably, the hardest part about learning German conjugations is memorizing the irregular verbs.

The best (though not necessarily most accurate) workaround is to check the verb against its English counterpart, since English and German are both West Germanic languages. If it’s a regular English verb, there’s a decent chance it’s also regular in German. Similarly, if it’s one of those “swim, swam, swum” verbs with a changing vowel, it’s almost definitely going to be irregular in German.

As for getting confident with conjugation in general, it’s all about input and repetition. If German isn’t your native language, you could also practice with resources like:

• Rocket Languages. Rocket Languages combines training for all of the major language skills—reading, writing, listening and speaking. Some of its standout features include authentic audio and a gamified interface. (Click here for a complete Rocket Languages review.)
• Conjuguemos. Conjuguemos has a chart for each of the verb categories in German. It makes the learning experience even more fun with games and quizzes where you choose pronouns, verbs and conjugations.
• German.net. German.net is packed with activities and tips for improving your German. The verb-related exercises, in particular, range from very easy to difficult, and you can do both fill-in-the-blank exercises and multiple choice tests.
• ThoughtCo. ThoughtCo has plenty of useful and concise resources on conjugating specific verbs in various tenses.
• Vocabulix. Vocabulix combines plenty of drills and tests for you to roll right through as you’re learning about conjugation. It’s a beautiful resource for only working on the verbs you struggle with.
• Dartmouth’s German Word Order page. This resource is basically a large document with outlines on what rules to follow when ordering words (including verbs) in a sentence.
• Quizlet. With Quizlet, you can go through the more unique verbs that you may not have learned on the first day of German class. Use the audio clips to gain a better understanding of the pronunciations, and star certain verbs so that groups of them can be studied together.
• Deutsch-lernen.com. Deutsch-lernen.com caters to learners of all levels. They have quick exercises and quizzes you can use to practice, as well as grammar pages and word lists you can browse through.

Alternatively, you could use a German conjugation app to make life a whole lot easier. Just keep in mind that these apps should be treated as study aids rather than linguistic crutches—i.e., you don’t want to have to look up a common verb conjugation in the middle of a conversation with a friend!

 

With these rules and resources for German verb conjugation, all you have to do is practice and practice until the process becomes second nature to you.

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)