GERMAN

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Verbs

Verbs are important because they express what you are doing and when.

The what can be reading, looking, being, thinking, having, etc.

The when can be in the past, the present or the future. This is called the tense. Or the verb may not be linked to any particular time, or in which case it is called the infinite.

In German , verbs are quite straight forward because they tend to follow strict patterns. Once you have learnt the patterns, you will know to use most verbs.

Infinitive

If you look up a verb in thre dictionary, you will normally find it in the infinite form (to do, to live, to be, etc.). In German, this ends in -en(machen, wohnen, haben), and there are very few exceptions end in -n(sein - to be - is on of these).

Present Tense (regular verbs)

The present tense expresses what is happening now, what happens or what does not happen at a particular time, or what usually happens. Look at these examples in English:

All of the things indicate things which are happening in the present tense. German is much simpler in this respect because there is only one form of the present tense to cover all three forms of english! So ich gehe can translate into English as 'I go','I am going' or 'I do go'.

The verb ending change depending on who or what is going,doing, living, etc. The endings follow a set pattern. Firstly you need to find the stem of the verb - this is done by looking at the infinite and taking off the final -en (or -n). Then you need to add the following endings as appropiate.

Look at the verb 'to live'(wohnen).

There are very few exceptions to this pattern of endings, so you need to learn the endings thoroughly.

Present tense (irregular verbs)

Some verbs called 'irregular or strong verbs because they do not follow the same normal verb pattern. For these verbs, the stem changes slightly - but only in the du and the er/sie/es/man forms (see emboldent stem letters in chart below), and even then they remain consistant. For example some verbs add a Umlaut("),some change e to i. Look at these examples.

Present Tense (sein/haben)

These two very common verbs, which are used very frequently, are irregular, and need to be learnt separatly. The verb 'to be' is also completelt irregular in English. They are vitally important tolearn, because they are also used in the construction of other tenses.

Present tense (modal verbs)

The term 'modal verb' applies to six special verbs which express ideas such as 'can','must','want','ought',etc.

We use modal verbs in English all the time, and it is also true in German.

A Modal verb adds an extra meaning to the sentences, to express a certain attitude.

Look at the English sentence and the German Translation:

I eat a hamburger: Ich esse einen Hamburger

Now study the following Sentence in which the modal verb has been added each time.

The sixth modal verb, not present in the above list, is used more often in the conditional tense than the present tense. You will be familiar with it from sentences like:

I would like to eat a hamburger: Ich möchte einen Hamburger essen.

Notice that the modal verb nearly always lead to a second verb in the same sentence, which is placed at the end of the sentence, and is the infinitive form(underlined in the sentence above)

Here are the complete patterns for the six modal verbs

Present tense (Separable Verbs)

Some verbs include a short prefix, which seperates from the main part of the verb and goes to the end of the sentance (or clause), regardless of how much extra information comes in from the sentence beforehand.

Prefixes are usually prepositional words like auf, an, aus, mit, vor, zu, and words like ein and zusammen. some examples include aufstehen (to get up), ankommen (to arrive), abfahren (to depart), mitkommen ( to come with, accompany), abwaschen (to wash up),fernsehen (to watch tv). Look at these two examples using part of the verb of aufstehen (to get up).

You will notice from the above that the main part of the verb follows the normal verb pattern with normal verb endings, and the separable prefix is placed at the end of the sentance.

In the infinitive form the verb is joined back together, with the prefix first. Thus, if you look up a separable verb in a dictionary or wordlist, look for it under the inital letter of the prefix( so for aufstehen, look under a). There will be some indication that the word is separable, usually the word sep or something similar.

if a modal verb is with a separable verb, the separable verb is placed at the end of the sentence in the infinative:

Some other verbs behave in a similar way, for example Rad fahren, Ski laufen:

Present tense (Reflexive Verbs)

They are verbs which require an extra (reflexive) pronoun, and are called 'reflexive' because of its action 'reflects back'. In English, theequivalent are pronouns like 'myself', 'yourself, 'himself' in a sentance like 'Charlie can get himself dressed.'

Here are some examples of reflexive vers used in this course

Infinitive sich waschen (to wash oneself)

in the infinitive, the reflexive pronoun used is sich. In a dictionary, a reflexive verb is indicated by the use of vr (verb reflexive), or similar.

Giving commands

Commands can simply be requests for someone to do something, and dont necessarily sound authoritarian (unless your tone of voice says otherwise!).

To give a command, begin with the verb, followed by Sie:

Present Tense with future meaning

German does have a future tense.However, sometimes a future meaning can be successfully conveyed by the use of the present tense, either on its own, or wth the addition of a future time phrase> Look at the following examples, in which the time phrase has been emboldened:

Past tense (War and waren)

Verb Table (irregular verb with stem changes)

The following verb which have are in the present tense.Where the er is given, also applies to sie,es, and man.