German verbs

German verbs may be classified as either weak, with a dental consonant inflection, or strong, showing a vowel gradation (ablaut). Both of these are regular systems. Most verbs of both types are regular, though various subgroups and anomalies do arise; however, textbooks for learners often class all strong verbs as irregular. The only completely irregular verb in the language is sein (to be). There are more than 200 strong and irregular verbs, but just as in English, there is a gradual tendency for strong verbs to become weak.
As German is a Germanic language, the German verbs can be understood historically as a development of the Germanic verbs.
The bare infinitive consists of the root and the suffix -en. With verbs whose roots end in el or er, the e of the infinitive suffix is dropped.
This is a general view of the most important German prefixes. The example is "legen" (to lay)
There are some verbs which have a permanent prefix at their beginning. These prefixes are never stressed. The most common permanent prefixes found in German are ver-, ge-, be-, er-, ent- (or emp-), and zer-.
The meaning of the permanent prefixes does not have a real system; the alteration in meaning can be subtle or drastic. The prefixes ver-, be- and ge- have several different meanings, although ge- is uncommon and often the root verb is no longer in existence. be- often makes a transitive verb from an intransitive verb. Verbs with er- tend to relate to creative processes, verbs with ent- usually describe processes of removing (as well as emp-, an approximate equivalent to ent- except usually used for root verbs beginning with an f), and zer- is used for destructive actions. Ver- often describes some kind of extreme or excess of the root verb, although not in any systematic way: 'sprechen', for example means to 'speak', but 'versprechen', 'to promise' as in 'to give one's word' and 'fallen', meaning 'to fall' but 'verfallen', 'to decay' or 'to be ruined'.
Many verbs have a separable prefix that changes the meaning of the root verb, but that does not always remain attached to the root verb. When attached, these prefixes are always stressed. German sentence structure normally places verbs in second position or final position. For separable prefix verbs, the prefix always appears in final position. If a particular sentence's structure places the entire verb in final position then the prefix and root verb appear together. If a sentence places the verb in second position then only the root verb will appear in second position. The separated prefix remains at the end of the sentence.
Rarely a separable prefix may actually be two (or more) words:
A small number of verbs have a prefix that is separable in some uses and inseparable in others.
If one of the two meanings is figurative, the inseparable version stands for this figurative meaning:
Complex infinitives can be built, consisting of more than the original infinitive. They include objects, predicative nouns and adverbial information. These are packed before the original infinitive, if used isolated. (elliptical)
If one wants to express that they suddenly see a bird (not an airplane);
Both sentences are correct but they have different focus.
Pronoun objects are usually mentioned before nominal phrase objects; dative nominal objects before accusative nominal objects; and accusative pronoun objects before dative pronouns. Order may change upon emphasis on the object, the first being more important. This can be viewed as a table:
Native adverbs, like nicht, leider or gerne, are placed before the innermost verb (see Compound infinitives).
A predicative adjective can be the positive, comparative or superlative stem of an adjective, therefore it has the same form as the adverb. One might also use positional phrases or pronominal adverbs.
A predicative noun is a nominal phrase in the nominative case.
Note that, if the subject is singular, the predicative noun must not be plural.
3rd person pronouns are handled like any nominal phrase when used in a predicative way.
1st person or 2nd person pronouns are never used as predicative pronouns.
Normally, one makes an inversion when using a definite pronoun as predicativum.
One can use any kind of adverbial phrase or native adverb mentioned above. But beware of modal verbs, they change the meaning and phrase of the sentence.
Compound infinitives can be constructed by the usage of modal verbs or auxiliary verbs. One places a new infinitive behind the main infinitive. Then this outer infinitive will be conjugated instead of the old inner infinitive. Sometimes one must turn the old infinitive into a passive participle.
There are two types of passive forms: static passive and dynamic passive. They differ by their auxiliary words. The static passive uses sein, the dynamic passive is formed with werden (which has a slightly different conjugation from its siblings). In both cases, the old infinitive is turned into its passive participle form.
A complex infinitive cannot be turned into passive form, with an accusative object, for obvious reasons. This restriction does not hold for dative objects.
The only exceptions are verbs with two accusative objects. In older forms of German, one of these accusative objects was a dative object. This dative object is removed, whereas the real accusative object stays.
The perfect infinitive is constructed by turning the old infinitive into the passive participle form and attaching the auxiliary verbs haben or sein after the verb.
Note that the perfect infinitive of an intransitive verb is created the same way as the static passive infinitive of a transitive verb.
One can also build perfect infinitives of passive infinitives, both static and dynamic. Since the passive is intransitive, having no accusative object, one must use the auxiliary sein:
sein is used as an auxiliary verb, when the verb is:
haben is used, when
The use of haben and sein may depend on a sentence's meaning. I have driven the car (Ich habe das Auto gefahren.) is transitive and takes haben, but I have driven to Germany (Ich bin nach Deutschland gefahren.) is intransitive and takes sein because of the position change, even though the verb, fahren, is identical.
The future infinitive is more theoretical, because this infinite is only used in finite form. One keeps the old infinitive and appends the verb werden, which in the present tense means 'to become'.
The future infinitive can also be built by a perfect infinitive, which is used in the future perfect.
Modal verbs are verbs that modify other verbs, and as such, are never found alone. Examples may include the following: "may", "must", "should", "want", or "can". Such verbs are utilized by placing the modal infinitive behind the old (passive or perfect) infinitive, without changing any other word. Some modal verbs in German are: können, dürfen, müssen, brauchen, wollen, mögen, lassen.
A common misunderstanding among English-speakers learning German is caused by a divergence in meaning between English must and German müssen.
The meaning of must not is conveyed in German with the verb dürfen; "I must not" is therefore translated as ich darf nicht.
Like Latin, an accusativus cum infinitivo (ACI) construction is possible. The ACI is formed by placing a bare infinitive after the main verb, and then inserting an accusative object between them. This can be done in two ways:
The zu-infinitive has nothing to do with the gerundive, although it is created in a similar way. One simply puts the preposition zu before the bare infinitive, before the permanent prefix, but after the separable prefix.
The zu-infinitive extended with um expresses purpose (in order to, for the purpose of). The subject of the main clause and the infinitive must be identical.
There are three persons, two numbers and four moods (indicative, conditional, imperative and subjunctive) to consider in conjugation. There are six tenses in German: the present and past are conjugated, and there are four compound tenses. There are two categories of verbs in German: weak and strong. Some grammars use the term mixed verbs to refer to weak verbs with irregularities. For a historical perspective on German verbs, see Germanic weak verb and Germanic strong verb.
Below, the weak verb kaufen "to buy" and the strong verb singen "to sing" are conjugated.
Common conditional endings in present and past tense: -e, -est, -e, -en, -et, -en
sein "to be" is irregular in the conditional mood
The (e)s are inserted when the stem of the verb ends in:
The second person singular ending is -t for verbs whose stems end in:
beten "to pray": weak transitive verb
bitten "to ask for, to beg": strong transitive verb
Some strong verbs change their stem vowel in the second and third person singular of the indicative mood of the present tense.
lesen "to read": strong transitive verb
werden "to become" (strong, irregular)
haben "to have" (mostly weak, irregular)
Compare the archaic English conjugation:
sein "to be" (suppletive, irregular)
Modal verbs are inflected irregularly. In the present tense, they use the preterite endings of the strong verbs. In the past tense, they use the preterite endings of the weak verbs. In addition, most modal verbs have a change of vowel in the singular.
When a modal verb is in use, the main verb is moved to the end of the sentence.
For example:
Most verbs go with an object in accusative case, similar to a direct object in English. Many verbs can additionally have an object in dative case (similar to an indirect object in English), for example geben "to give". However, some verbs only take a dative object, and these are called "dative verbs". Most dative verbs do not change the object. E.g., when you hit (schlagen) or wound (verletzen) someone, they get a bruise or wound, but when you thank, answer, help, or follow someone, they remain unchanged. There are however exceptions (including even wehtun "hurt"), and there are verbs that are dative verbs in only some senses (e.g. the most common sense "happen" of the very common verb passieren). Dative verbs include the following most common ones:
Some verbs require the use of a reflexive pronoun. These verbs are known as reflexive verbs. In English, these are often slightly modified versions of ordinary verbs, such as "to sit down" spoken as "to sit oneself down".
There is an imperative for second person singular and second person plural, as well as for third person singular and third person plural, as well as for first person plural and second person formal.
The endings for second person singular informal are: -(e), -el or -le, and -er(e).
The endings for second person plural informal are: -(e)t, -elt, and -ert.
The imperative of first person plural and second person formal is identical to the infinitive.
This subtopic is strongly related to the construction of German sentences.
This section details the construction of verbal nouns and verbal adjectives from the main infinitive. The processes are the same both for simple and complex infinitives. For complex infinitives, adverbial phrases and object phrases are ignored, they do not affect this process; except something else is mentioned.
There are some irregularities when creating the past participle form.
Weak verbs form their past participles with ge- plus the third person singular form of the verb.
Verbs with non-initial stress (practically always the result of an unstressed inseparable prefix, or foreign words ending in stressed -ieren or -eien) do not have ge- added to the verb.
For irregular verbs, the infinitive ending -en remains.
The separable prefix remains in place.
The past participles of modal and auxiliary verbs have the same form as their infinitives. But if these verbs are used alone, without an infinitive, they have a regular participle.
To create the basic form of a present participle, you attach the suffix -d to the infinitive of the verb.
A gerundive-like construction is fairly complicated to use. The basic form is created by putting the word zu before the infinitive. This is also the adverb.
The adjective is more complicated. Instead of the infinitive, one uses the present participle, and then declines it corresponding to gender, number, case and article of the nominal phrase. (Compare the German declension of adjectives.)
Agent nouns (e.g. photographer from photograph in English) are constructed by taking the infinitive, removing the ending and replacing it by -er, -ler or -er(er). If the person is a woman, the endings have an extra -in on them. In the explicitly feminine form a second syllable er is omitted, if the infinitive ends on ern or eren.
This form is hard to build for complex infinitives, therefore it is unusual:
or even
On the other hand, this form is often used in fun or mocking expressions, because the imputed behaviour that is content of the mocking can be merged into a single word. Examples are: Toiletten-Tief-Taucher ("toilet deep diver", which is an alliteration in German), or Mutterficker ("motherfucker"). A whole range of these expressions aim at supposedly weak or conformist behaviour, such as Ampel-bei-Rot-Stehenbleiber ("traffic-lights-on-red-stopper"), Warmduscher ("warm-showerer"), Unterhosen-Wechsler ("underpants changer"), or Schattenparker ("in the shadow parker"). Especially among children there are several fixed terms of this type, like Spielverderber ("game spoiler").
Note: The suffix -er is also used to form instrument nouns, e.g. Salzstreuer and Bohrer also denote instruments.
The two most common forms of verbal nouns are infinitives and gerunds. The bare infinitive, when used as a noun, has no plural (or if it does it is invariable, i.e. identical to the singular), and its gender is neuter.
Gerunds in -ung are feminine and have regular plurals in -en. They are formed as in English, only the ending is -ung; e.g., ableiten ‘to derive’ – Ableitung ‘derivative (ling.)’; fordern ‘to demand; claim’ – Forderung ‘credit; claim’. While German gerunds formerly served the same function as they do in English, they now have concrete, usually technical meanings. Sometimes the German infinitive and gerund convey the same meaning, but this is rare (e.g. das Laugen – die Laugung, both ‘leaching, lixiviation’; das Kleben – die Klebung, both ‘chemically bonding, adhering’); usually only the infinitive carries the same meaning as an English gerund. Compare:
One type of deverbative noun is formed by adding -erei (-lerei or -(er)ei) and (sometimes) has a slightly derogatory meaning. The grammatically dependent implication (i.e. independent of context, speech, and syntax) of disapproval for this type of deverbative is rather weak, though present. It must be supported either by context or speech. On the other hand, any positive implication from the context or speech will free the deverbative from any disapproval. Its plural ends in -en, and its gender is feminine.
The above form means a loose, vague abstractum of the verb's meaning. It is also often used to designate a whole trade, discipline or industry, or a single business/enterprise:
In this form the plural is used just as with any other noun. Cf. also Metzgerei, Fleischerei ‘butcher’s shop’, Malerei (a business of professional painters (of rooms and buildings)) are not derived from verbs.
Similar to the form presented above, one may place the prefix ge- (after the separable prefix), if the verb doesn't have a permanent prefix, and then attach the ending -e ( -el, -er ). Most times, this noun indicates slightly more disapproval than the other one (depending in the same way on context, speech etc.). Its gender is neuter.
A plural form does not exist. To indicate the reference to all instances the pronoun/numeral all can be added, as in the following example:
However, a more formal reference to all instances would be Hör mit jeder Form von Geschaukel auf! (“Stop any form of rocking!”) instead. So this use of all is merely encountered in colloquial conversations.
If this type of deverbative is used to express disapproval, it is typically augmented by the prefix herum- or (short form) rum- to make it sound/look even more disapproving. For example: Das stundenlange Herumgefahre im Bus geht mir total auf die Nerven. ("The silly driving around for hours in the bus is totally getting on my nerves.")
These forms are hard to build for complex infinitives; therefore they are unusual. When they occur, all object phrases and adverbial phrases are put before the verbal noun:
Although there are six tenses in German, only two are simple; the others are compound and therefore build on the simple constructions. The tenses are quite similar to English constructions.
Conjugation includes three persons, two numbers (singular and plural), three moods (indicative, imperative and subjunctive), and two simple tenses (present and Preterite). The subjunctive of the present is almost never used in colloquial German (and relatively infrequent in written German as well); the subjunctive of the past is more common, at least for some frequent verbs (ich wäre, ich hätte, ich käme etc.). The latter is used like a conditional mood in German (English: I would).
English speakers should note that German tenses do not carry aspect information. There are no progressive tenses in standard German. Das Mädchen geht zur Schule may mean "The girl goes to school" as well as "The girl is going to school". One must use an adverb to make a visible difference aside from the context. If one wish to emphasize that the action is occurring at this very moment, the adverb “gerade” can be used. The previous sentence can be written - Das Mädchen geht gerade zur Schule.
In colloquial spoken German, in particular in the Rhineland and Ruhr areas, a present progressive tense does exist and is known as the rheinische Verlaufsform. It is formed with the verb sein ("to be") + am ("at the") + verbal noun. For example: Ich bin am Essen. – I am eating; Ich bin das Auto am Reparieren. – I'm fixing the car. However, this form is rarely used in writing and is not used in formal spoken German.
A formal alternative for a progressive tense is the construction sein ("to be") + dabei zu + infinitive. For example: - Ich bin dabei ihm zu helfen. - I am helping him.
As is shown in the following, German is not very rigid in its usage of tenses. More precise tenses are available to express certain temporal nuances, but both of the most common tenses (present tense and perfect tense) can often be used instead if the context is unambiguous.
This is frequent in the 2nd person singular, where the verb ending -st and the pronoun du ("you") are contracted into -ste [-stə].