Example: spielen (spiel).
| Singular | (stem) ending | Plural | (stem) ending |
| ich | (spiel)te | wir | (spiel)ten |
| du | (spiel)test | ihr | (spiel)tet |
| er/es/sie | (spiel)te | sie/Sie | (spiel)ten |
Simple Past Tense Exceptions:
If the verb stem ends with a -d or -t, add an e to the stem. This aids pronounciation.
Example: arbeiten (arbeit).
| Singular | (stem) ending | Plural | (stem) ending |
| ich | (arbeit)ete | wir | (arbeit)eten |
| du | (arbeit)etest | ihr | (arbeit)etet |
| er/es/sie | (arbeit)ete | sie/Sie | (arbeit)eten |
Past Participles
| Infinitive | stem | Past Participle |
| fragen | frag- | ge(frag)t |
| warten | wart- | ge(wart)et |
| reservieren | reservier- | (reservier)t |
Notes:
First Row: Standard case for most weak verbs.
Second Row: This verb's stem ends with a -d or -t, so an e is added to the stem.
Third Row: Every verb ending in -ieren are weak, but they don't have a ge- added to them.
| Deutsch | singular present stem | plural present stem | past stem | English |
| dürfen | will- | woll- | woll- | permit, may, to be permitted to |
| müssen | muß- | müss- | muß- | must, to have to |
| mögen | mag- | mög- | moch- | like, fond of |
| können | kann- | könn- | konn- | can, to be able to |
| wollen | will- | woll- | woll- | can, to be able to |
| sollen | soll- | soll- | soll- | obligated, supposed to |
Modal verbs displace the normal verbs to the end of the thought (usually a sentence).
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Infinitive | Present | Past | Past Participle | |
| English | ||||
| gehen | ging | gegangen | to go | |
| sein | ist | war | gewesen | to go |
| Infinitive | English | |||
| fahren | to drive | |||
| sehen (siehst) | to see | |||
| sitzen | to sit | |||
| sprechen (spricht) | to speak | |||
| stehen | to stand | |||
| warten | to wait | |||
| zeigen | to show | |||
| einladen | lädt...ein | lud..ein | eingeladen | to invite |
| fahren | fährt | fuhr | gefahren | to drive |
| schlagen | schlägt | schlug | geschlagen | to hit / strike |
| tragen | trägt | trug | getragen | to carry |
| waschen | wäscht | wusch | gewaschen | to wash |
| anfangen | fängt...an | fing...an | angefangen | to start, begin |
| anrufen | ruft...an | rief...an | angerufen | to call up (telephone) |
| gehen | geht | ging | (ist) gegangen | to go |
| gefallen | gefällt | gefiel | gefallen | to please |
| halten | hält | heilt | gehalten | to hold |
| heißen | heiß | geheißen | to be called (name) | |
| laufen | läuft | lief | (ist) gelaufen | to run |
| schlafen | schläft | schlief | geschlafen | to sleep |
The ist indicates a sein auxilliary, where the other verbs use hat. A good rule of thumb is that motion verbs and sein (gewesen) use ist, otherwise hat is used.
| English equivalent: | werden / auxilliary | past participle | (werden) | |
| Present | is being | wird | ...abgeholt | |
| Past | was being | wurde | ...abgeholt | |
| Future | will be | wird | ...abgeholt | werden |
| Present Perfect | has been | ist | ...abgeholt | worden |
| Past Perfect | had been | war | ...abgeholt | worden |
Notice that the perfect tenses uses sein as werden's auxilliary.
| Ä | Alt-0196 | ä | Alt-0228 |
| Ö | Alt-0214 | ö | Alt-0246 |
| Ü | Alt-0220 | ü | Alt-0252 |
| ß | Alt-0223 |
Changes:
1/24/1999 - I broke off this sheet into a separate verb page.
Work To Do:
I would appreciate contributions to this page.
If you know HTML and can format similarly to my code (or better), please learn how to use 'patch' and 'diff' so I don't have to pick out every little change and add them. 'patch' and 'diff' are standard UNIX development tools, available in free versions.