Die Verben – Verbs
Verbs describe the action of a sentence. To find out who the subject of a sentence is, you ask “WHO is doing what?” To find out what the verb of the sentence is, you ask “WHAT is this person DOING?”
| Der Mann kommt aus Bremen. Jetzt lebt er in Berlin. Er hat eine Wohnung. | The man comes from Bremen. Now he lives tin Berlin. He has an apartment. |
Infinitives vs. conjugated verbs
Verbs can appear either in the infinitive form or in their finite, conjugated forms. English infinitives are preceded by the word “to”: to work, to be.
Conjugated verbs indicate when an action takes place and, often, by whom (although this is less obvious in English than in German):
| die Frau | Ich mache Kaffee, möchtest du eine Tasse? | I am making coffee, would you like a cup? |
| der Mann | Ja, gerne, ich trinke gerne Kaffee. | Yes, I’d love some, I like to drink coffee. |
Regular verbs
Regular verbs follow a regular pattern (amazingly).
| machen • make, do | |
| ich mache | wir machen |
| du machst | ihr macht |
| er/sie/es macht | sie machen |
-ieren verbs
Verbs like dekorieren, reparieren, informieren are regular in the present tense, but will be a separate category in the past tense.
| reparieren • repair, fix | |
| ich repariere | wir reparieren |
| du reparierst | ihr repariert |
| er/sie/es repariert | sie reparieren |
| Die Menschen reparieren ihre Wohnung. Sie ist eine Märchenwohnung, und hat keine Küche und kein Bad. | The people repair their apartment. It’s a fairy tale apartment and has no kitchen or bath. |
Irregular verbs
Just like in English (am/are/is or have/has), there are many German words that are irregularly conjugated. In both languages, the most irregular are the most frequently used words, and there is nothing else to do but memorize the different forms (they are not known for logical conjugation!).
| sein • to be | |
| ich bin | wir sind |
| du bist | ihr seid |
| er/sie/es ist | sie sind |
| haben • to have | |
| ich habe | wir haben |
| du hast | ihr habt |
| er/sie/es hat | sie haben |
