German Mixed Verbs / A1-2

 German Mixed Verbs

As we mentioned there are 3 kinds of verbs in German: (strong verbs, weak verbs, and mixed verbs (irregular/weak)) In this lesson we will study the mixed verbs in German language.

These are verb wıth weak verb endings [-te endings in Simple Past and Subjunctive II, and -t endings for their past participles], but which nevertheless are NOT regular, i.e. they do have vowel changes. Some common mixed verbs are:

    -  haben / du hast / hatte / gehabet (habe) 

    -  kennen / kannte / gekannt (and e.g. erkennen)

    -  wissen / wusste / gewusst

    -  denken / dachte / gedacht (and e.g. nachdenken)

    -  bringen / brachte / gebracht (and e.g. mitbringen / verbringen / umbringen etc.)

    -  rennen / rannte / (bin) gerannt [to run] (and e.g. wegrennen)

    -  nennen / nannte / genannt [to call (in the sense of naming )] (and e.g. ernennen)

    -  brennen / brannte / gebrannt [to burn] (and e.g. verbrennen)

Also common are wenden / wandte / gewandt [to turn / turn around / turn to (sich wenden an)] and senden / sandte / gesandt [to send / to transmit]. These verbs also have regular weak forms [wendete / gewemdet; sendete / gesendet] but their irregular forms are more common. Wenden is usually regular when it is used for reversing the direction of something (turnıng a pancake or making a U-turn) and its compounds "verwenden" [to use] and "entwenden [to steal] are usually regular; senden is usually regular when it means "to transmit".

How do I know which is which? 

1)  If you have spent time learning special forms of a verb, it's probably a strong verb, since weak verbs are regular. Therefore in particular, if you see a new verb and it looks totally unfamiliar to you, chances are it's a weak verb, and so if you have guessed correctly it will take -te endings in the simple past and a -t ending in its past participle, and it will not have any stem-vowel changes.

2)  Here is a great list for studying the strong verbs. Read through it once a day until you feel like you have developed a healthy instinct for the verb forms, as described above, i.e. until you feel fairly confident that when you see a verb, your instincts will tell you either "It's on that list. I think I remember the form: it's..." or "I don't think this verb (or its stem) is on that list. So it must be a regular (weak) verb, so the form I need is..."

3)  If the verb has an English cognate, then the German verb is usually strong (usually with similar vowel changes) if the English verb is strong, and weak if the English verb is weak.

       Examples:

laugh / laughed / laughed (weak)	lachen / lachte / gelacht (weak)
sing / sang / sung (strong)	singen / sang / gesungen (strong)
love / loved / loved (weak)	lieben / liebte / geliebt (weak)
stand / stood / stood (strong)	stehen / stand / gestanden (strong)
live / lived / lived (weak)	leben / lebte / gelebt (weak)
speak / spoke / spoken (strong)	sprechen / sprach / gesprochen (strong)
cook / cooked / cooked (weak)	kochen / kochte / gekocht (weak)
swim / swam / swum (strong)	schwimmen / schwamm / geschwommen (strong)
bring / brought / brought (mixed)	bringen / brachte / gebracht (mixed)

There are exceptions to this, however, so be careful:

run / ran / run (strong)	rennen / rannte / gerannt (mixed)
help / helped / helped (weak)	helfen / half / geholfen (strong)

4)  Any of the verbs you learned in your first year of German that have a stem-change in the present tense are strong verbs e.g.

sehen	er/sie/es sieht	sah	gesehen
essen	er/sie/es isst	aß	gegessen
fahren	er/sie/es fährt	fuhr	gefahren

5)  Any verbs in-ieren are weak. Note that these verbs do not take a"ge-" when they form their past participle, e.g.:

studieren	studierte	hat studiert
explodieren	explodierte	ist explodiert
sich konzentrieren	konzentrierte sich	hat sich konzentriert