A verb is a word for an action or state: to play, to be. Its dictionary form is the infinitive, which in German almost always ends in -en: spielen, to play. To make the present tense, remove -en to find the stem (spiel-) and add one ending for each person. The same form covers “I play”, “I am playing” and “I do play”.
Regular verbs never change their stem. Learn these six endings once and they work for thousands of verbs.
The six endings
Choose a verb. The stem stays black and the ending turns red. Words like ich (I) and du (you) are subject pronouns: words that name who does the action. Unlike Spanish, German always needs them.
veer SHPEE-len ahm ZAHMS-tahk FOOS-bahl“We play football on Saturdays.”Why:Wir + -en, the same form as the infinitive. Am Samstag: on Saturday.
Sein and haben: the two verbs to learn first
Sein (to be) and haben (to have) are the most frequent German verbs and both are irregular: they do not follow the pattern. They also build the past tense later on, so they are worth learning by heart now.
Person
sein · to be
haben · to have
ichI
binbin
habeHAH-buh
duyou
bistbist
hasthahst
er, sie, eshe, she, it
istist
hathaht
wirwe
sindzint
habenHAH-ben
ihryou all
seidzite
habthahpt
sie, Siethey, you (polite)
sindzint
habenHAH-ben
German uses haben in places where English uses “be”: Ich habe Hunger (I have hunger) means “I’m hungry”; Ich habe Durst means “I’m thirsty”.
Verbs that change their vowel
A group of common verbs, called strong verbs, change the vowel of their stem in two forms only: du and er/sie/es. The endings stay regular. Every other form keeps the original vowel.
a → ä
e → i
e → ie
Dictionaries mark these verbs, usually by giving the er-form after the infinitive: fahren (fährt). Umlauts are explained on the German alphabet page.
Du, ihr or Sie: three words for “you”
German separates friendly and polite “you”. Du is for one friend, family member or child; ihr for a group of them. Sie, always with a capital S, is the polite form for one person or many, used with strangers and at work. Sie takes the same verb form as sie (they).
duone friend, family, a child
HasthaveduyouZeit?time
“Have you got time?”Du + -st ending: hast.
ihra group of friends
Habthaveihryou-allZeit?time
“Have you (all) got time?”Ihr + -t ending: habt.
Sieanyone, politely
HabenhaveSieyouZeit?time
“Do you have time?”Sie takes the -en form, like “they”. The capital S marks politeness.
When unsure, start with Sie. Moving from Sie to du is a small social step, often offered by the older or more senior person: Wollen wir uns duzen? (Shall we say du?).
Three jobs the present tense does
German has no “-ing” form. One present form covers what English splits into several tenses, and with a time word it can refer to the future too. Notice that the verb stays in second place in each sentence, even when the time word comes first.