German Language Centre

There are more verb endings in German than in English, and these verb endings are often repeated. Like most European languages, German has a distinct ending for each subject or "individual". So, in German, "I play" becomes "ich spiele", "You Play" is "du spielst", and "he/she/it plays" becomes "er/sie/es spielt". Within the plural, most verbs, except in the 2nd individual ends with "en", as in "wir spielen (we play)" and "ihr spielt (You play)". Learning this sample for a verb makes it simpler to learn the sample for all common German verbs.

To elucidate it extra clearly, as a way to type the present tense and conjugate verbs in German, we first should identify the stem by removing the suffix "en", which occurs on virtually all infinitives. For instance, to conjugate the verb "spielen", we take out the stem by removing the suffix = "spiel". So, in line with particular person and number, we add the ending, as in "ich spiele", "wir spielen", and so on. Each time a stem ends with a sibilant - s, z, tz, Я, ss - "t" is added to the singular second person. When it ends with d, t, or consonant + n (except in r + n), "est" is added in the second particular person singular, whereas "et" is added for the singular third particular person and plural second person.

The above examples of conjugation of the present tense in German apply solely to regular/weak verbs. In strong/irregular verbs, the stem endings comply with a different pattern. For instance, the verb "essen (to eat)", when conjugated becomes "ich esse (I eat), "er/sie/es isst (he/she/it eats)", "wir essen (we eat), "ihr esst (you eat - plural)", and "Sie essen (you eat - formal kind).

Just like the French verbs "кtre (to be)" and "avoir (to have)", referred to as auxilliaries (corresponding to to have, will, would, shall, ought to, can, could, in English), play a particular position in French, the German "sein (to be)" and "haben (to have)" additionally observe an unpredictable pattern. For example,

• Conjugation of "haben" becomes "ich habe (I have)", "du hast (you have - casual)", "er/sie/es hat (he/she/it has)", "wir haben (now we have), "ihr habt (you've got - plural)", "Sie haben (they've), and "Sie haben (you haben - formal type).

• And for "sein", "ich bin (I'm)", "du bist (you're - casual)", "er/sie/es ist (he/she/it's)", "wir sind (we are), "ihr seid (you are - plural)", "Sie sind (they are), and "Sie haben (you sind - formal form).

You can see that the suffixes for "we", "they" and the formal "you" are the same, and that the different types of the verb "sein (to be)" are utilized in accordance with whom and what you're talking about.