Verb Conjugations (Verben konjugieren)

Endings of regular verbs (Präsens/present tense)

Wortstamm + Endung (main part/stem of the verb + ending)

Example: machen (Infinitiv/infinitive) – mach + Endung

Singular                               Plural

ich mach-e                       wir mach-en

du mach-st                       ihr mach-t

er/sie/es mach-t             sie mach-en

Sie (formal) mach-en     Sie (formal)  mach-en*

*Sie (formal ‘you’) is conjugated the same for singular and plural.

 

Some verbs have stems (infinitive form minus ‘en’; e.g. ‘spiel’ is the stem of the verb ‘spielen’) with endings that require slightly different conjugations. Verbs whose stems end in ‘d’ or ‘t’ (e.g. finden, arbeiten) must add an ‘e’ before adding ‘t’ or ‘st’ endings:

arbeiten → du form = arbeit (stem) + e + st → du arbeitest          finden → er form = find + e + t → er findet

Similarly, verbs whose stems end in a consonant cluster ending with ‘m’ or ‘n’ must add an ‘e’ before conjugated forms that end with ‘t’ or ‘st’:

begegnen → es form = begegn + e + t → es begegnet                        atmen → ihr form = atm + e + t → ihr atmet

Some verbs’ stems end in an ‘s’, ‘ss’/’ß’, or ‘z’, which causes the ‘s’ from ‘st’ ending of the du form to be dropped:

tanzen → du form = tanz + t (‘s’ is deleted) → du tanzt                   essen → du form = iss + t → du isst

Remember: Other forms of the verbs above (wir, Sie, sie (plural), ich) just add their endings as per usual (e.g. ich begegne, wir atmen, sie tanzen).

 

Irregular verb “sein” (to be) and stem vowel change verbs

Note: The du and er/sie/es forms of lesen add a vowel and the du form only adds a ‘t’ instead of ‘st’ (verbs whose stems end in s/ss (ß)/z follow this rule).