Present Tense Verb Conjugations of German Regular Verbs

The regular German verbs follow a  predictable pattern  in the present tense. Once you learn the pattern for one regular German verb, you know how all German verbs are conjugated. Yes, there are  irregular verbs  that dont always follow the rules, but even they will usually have the same endings as the regular verbs. The majority of German verbs are regular, even though it may not seem that way since many commonly used verbs are strong (irregular) verbs. The chart below lists two sample regular German verbs. All regular German verbs will follow the same pattern. We have also included a helpful list of the more common stem-changing verbs. These are verbs that follow the normal pattern of endings, but have a vowel change in their stem or base form (hence the name stem-changing). The verb endings for each pronoun are indicated in  bold  type. The Basics Each verb has a basic infinitive (â€Å"to†) form. This is the form of the verb you find in a German dictionary. The verb â€Å"to play† in English is the infinitive form (â€Å"he playsâ€Å" is a conjugated form). The German  equivalent of â€Å"to play† is  spielen. Each verb also has a stem form, the basic part of the verb left after you remove the -en  ending. For  spielen  the stem is  spiel. To conjugate the verb—that is, use it in a sentence—you must add the correct ending to the stem. If you want to say â€Å"I play† you add an -e  ending: â€Å"ich spiele† (which can also be translated into English as â€Å"I am playing†). Each â€Å"person† (he, you, they, etc.) requires its own ending on the verb. This is called â€Å"conjugating the verb.† If you dont know how to conjugate verbs correctly it means your German will sound strange to people who understand the language. German verbs require more endings for the various â€Å"persons† than English verbs. In English we use only an  s  ending or no ending for most verbs: â€Å"I/they/we/you  play† or â€Å"he/she  plays.† German has a different ending for almost all of those verb situations:  ich spiele,  sie spielen,  du spielst,  er spielt, etc. Observe that the verb  spielen  has a different ending in most of the examples in the chart below. If you want to sound intelligent in German, you need to learn when to use which ending. Check out the chart below. Spielen / To PlayPresent Tense -  Prà ¤sens Deutsch English Sample Sentence SINGULAR ich spiele I play Ich spiele gern Basketball. du spielst you (fam.)play Spielst du Schach? (chess) er spielt he plays Er spielt mit mir. (with me) sie spielt she plays Sie spielt Karten. (cards) es spielt it plays Es spielt keine Rolle. (It doesnt matter.) PLURAL wir spielen we play Wir spielen Basketball. ihr spielt you (guys) play Spielt ihr Monoploy? sie spielen they play Sie spielen Golf. Sie spielen you play Spielen Sie heute? (Sie, formal you, is both singular and plural.) Verb Stem Ends in -d or -t Connecting -e  examplesApplies only to  du,  ihr, and  er/sie/es arbeitento work er arbeitet Arbeitest du heute? findento find du findest Findet ihr das? Also see related verb links/pages below. Now lets look at another kind of German verb, a stem-changing verb. Technically,  sprechen  (to speak) is a  strong verb, not a regular verb. But in the present tense the verb  sprechen  is regular except for a stem change from  e  to  i. That is, the verb changes its stem vowel, but the endings are the same as for any other regular verb in the present tense. Note that all stem changes only occur with the singular pronouns/person  du  and the third person singular (er,  sie,  es). The first person singular (ich) and all the plural forms do NOT change. Other stem-changing verb patterns include   a  to  Ãƒ ¤Ã‚  and  e  to  ie. See the examples below.  Note that the verb endings remain normal. Sprechen/To SpeakPresent Tense -  Prà ¤sens Deutsch English Sample Sentence SINGULAR ich spreche I speak Ich spreche am Telefon. du sprichst you (fam.) speak Sprichst du am Telefon? er spricht he speaks Er spricht mit mir. (with me) sie spricht she speaks Sie spricht Italienisch. es spricht it speaks Es spricht laut. (loudly) PLURAL wir sprechen we speak Wir sprechen Deutsch. ihr sprecht you (guys) speak Sprecht ihr Englisch? sie sprechen they speak Sie sprechen Italienisch. Sie sprechen you speak Sprechen Sie Spanisch? (Sie, formal you, is both singular and plural.) Other Stem-Changing Verbs English In Use fahren drive, travel er fhrt, du fhrst geben to give es gibt, du gibst lesen to read er liest, du liest Note:  These stem-changing verbs are strong (irregular) verbs, but they have regular verb endings in the present tense.