German Verbs / A1-2

 German Verbs

Verbs are action words, and are a vital part of every complete sentence in that they indicate the time of an action or state of being.

Here are the principal parts of each German verb:

- Infinitive

- Present Tense     - Past Imperfect Tense      - Past Participle

Don't be put off by these fancy terms - for example for the verb -run, the infinitive is simply to run.

Just add the word 'to' to any verb and that is its 'pure' form - the fancy name for which is the infinitive.

Check out the other fancy names, and you will see they just mean basic, easy things.

Learn German verbs as they are a vital part of every complete sentence in that they indicate the time an action or state of being.

The principal part of each verb consists of the Infinitive, the Present Tense,

Past Imperfect Tense and the Past Participle.

For example:

Infinitive	Present Indicative - Ich	Imperfect Tense - Ich	Past Participle
to say	I say	I said	(have) said
sagen	sage	sagte	(habe) gesagt

The infinitive of most German verbs ends in -en, with the occasional verb ending in just -n. The German infinitive of the verb 'to say', is: sagen

The structure of simple sentences in German is similar to English in that the 

verb comes after the subject.

However, the word order does change for if the verb is the second grammatical element in the sentence: e.g. questions (How do I?), and also after adverb phrases (this morning ...), after conjunctions (because ...), and in compound sentences.

In both English and German there are weak (completely regular) verbs and strong (irregular) verbs. In German all verbs are either weak or strong, with the exception of a small group of nine mixed (irregular/weak) verbs, which we will learn about in another lesson.

Many German verbs are much like their English cognates in that they follow the same vowel shift patterns.

For example:

 - In English we say: drink, drank, drunk

 - In German we say: trinken, trank, getrunken

 - In English we use forms of the auxılıary verbs 'have' or 'to be' to form

   Perfect Tense verbs e.g. I have seen.

   In German the following are used to conjugate the Compound tenses:

Past / Conditional Compound Tenses:

 - Haben - to have

 - Sein - to be

     - for verbs expressing motion

     - for verbs expressing an action only, not change of place

     - for verbs expressing a change of state

Future / conditional Compound Tenses (for all verbs):

 - werden - to become

  For example:

     - Ich habe gesagt.  =  I have said.

     - Ich bin gefahren  =  I have traveled.

     - Ich werde sagen  =  I will say.

Here are the basic conjugations of these three auxiliary verbs that should be memoried before you learn German verbs.

   Sein - to be

German		English
Ich	bin	I am
Du	bist	you are (informal, singular)
Er / Sie / Es	ist	He / She / It is
Wir	sind	We are
Ihr	seid	you are (informal, plural)
sie / Sie	sind	they are / you (formal, singular, plural)

   Haben - to have

German		English
Ich	habe	I have
Du	hast	you have (informal, singular)
Er / Sie / Es	hat	He / She / It has
Wir	haben	We have
Ihr	habt	you have (informal, plural)
sie / Sie	haben	they have / you have (formal, singular, plural)

    Werden - to become, "shall be", "will be"

German		English
Ich	werde	I will / shall be
Du	wirst	you will / shall be (informal, singular)
Er / Sie / Es	wird	He / She / It will - shall be
Wir	werden	We will / shall be
Ihr	werdet	you will / shall be (informal, plural)
sie / Sie	werden	they will / shall be / you (formal, singular, plural)

Learning German verbs is a big job because there are so many of them. Just how do you learn German verbs?

One of the most effective ways is by learning using the cartoon Memory Triggers of the 50 words a day! system. Memory experts tell us that the most effective way to remember something is to visualise it.

Here are some examples of German verbs. 

Verben		Verbs
German	English	German	English
können	can, to be able to	tun	to do
müssen	must, to have to	dürfen	may, to be allowed
sagen	to say	glauben	to believe
machen	to do, make	halten	to stop, hold
geben	to give	nennen	to name, to call
kommen	to come	mögen	to like
sollen	should, ought to	zeigen	to show
wollen	to want	führen	to lead
gehen	to go	sprechen	to speak
wissen	to know	bringen	to bring, take
sehen	to see	leben	to live
lassen	to let, allow	fahren	to drive, ride
stehen	to stand	meinen	to think
finden	to find	fragen	to ask
bleiben	to stay, remain	kennen	to know
liegen	to lie, be lying	brauchen	to need
heißen	to be called	stellen	to place, set
denken	to think	spielen	to play
nehmen	to take	arbeiten	to work