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German An Essential Grammar

German verbs, like English verbs, have tenses that indicate when an action occurs. While German and English tenses generally correspond, they differ in how certain tenses like the future and perfect are used. German verbs are either regular or irregular. Regular verbs form their past tense with "-te" and past participle with "-t", while irregular verbs change their vowel and do not use endings. All verbs are learned in their infinitive form, and finite verbs take different endings based on their subject. This chapter discusses the formation and conjugation of verb tenses in German.

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540 views4 pages

German An Essential Grammar

German verbs, like English verbs, have tenses that indicate when an action occurs. While German and English tenses generally correspond, they differ in how certain tenses like the future and perfect are used. German verbs are either regular or irregular. Regular verbs form their past tense with "-te" and past participle with "-t", while irregular verbs change their vowel and do not use endings. All verbs are learned in their infinitive form, and finite verbs take different endings based on their subject. This chapter discusses the formation and conjugation of verb tenses in German.

Uploaded by

Nechita Robert
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Verbs Chapter 10

German an Essentian Grammar p.105

German verbs,
just like English verbs,
all have tenses
which indicate
the time of action being performed,
whether it is being performed now,
was being performed
at some point in the past
or will be performed
at some point in the future.

Every tense in English


has a parallel tense in German
but it should be noted that
one of the most important respects
in which these tho languages differ
from each other
is the way in which they
use certain tenses,
e.g. see the use of future (10.1.2)
and perfect tenses (10.1.5.3).

German, like English,


has both regular and irregular verbs.
Many grammars of German refer
to regular verbs as 'weak' verbs,
but these terms are synonymous.

A regular verb in German is one


that uses variations
of the ending -te in the past
(compare an English verb that adds '-ed', e.g. worked)
and forms its past participle
by adding -t,
e.g. ich wohnte 'I lived',
ich habe gewohnt' 'I have lived'.

An irregular verb,
also commonly called a strong verb,
does not take an ending in the past tenses
but ususally changes the vowel of the steam
in both English and German in past tenses,
e.g. ich fand (I found),
ich habe gefunden (I have found).
Technically you can make
a distinction between
an irregular and a strong verb,
but in general usage
these two terms
are treated synomymous.

All verbs are learn


in their infinitive form,
i. e. the form that has not yet defined
who is performingg the action of the verb,
e.g. kaufen = 'to buy'.

Once you employ a verb


in a sentence,
naming the doer of the verb,
you turn that verb into a finite verb
and the ending it takes
depends on its subject,
I. e. ich kaufe = 'I buy',
du kaufst = 'you buy' etc.
In German there is a greater variety
of such endings than in English.
10.1. Formation of tenses
10.1.1. The present tense p.106
The steam of the verb
is what is left
when the -en
of the infinitive is removed,
i.e. trinken>trink-,
wohnen>wohn-,
finden>find-,
kaufen>kauf-.
The present tense
of most verbs
is formed by adding
endings to this stem.
What follows is the conjugation
of a typical regular verb,
wohnen (to live),
in the present tense.

Ich wohne
du wohnst
er wohnt
wir wohnen
ihr whont
sie whonen

In this chapter all verbs


will be given as above,
i.e. showing six persons
of the verb,
those being the first,
second and third person singular
and the first, second
and third person plural.
A form like er wohnt
also represents what is required
when the subject
is sie (she) and es (it).
The same applies to sie wohnen (they live),
which also represents Sie wohnen (you live).

A form like er wohnen


can be translated
in three different ways in English,
i.e. 'he lives', 'he is living'
or 'he does live',
depending of the context.
This is a complexity of Engish
which does not exist in German, e.g.
Wo wohn dein bruder heutzutage?
Where is you brother living these days.

Er wohn in Amerika.
He lives/is living in America. (see 10.7)
The same applies to a question.
Although we say in English
'He lives in Germany',
when you ask a question
you have to say
'Where lives he?',
i.e.

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