Weak (regular) and strong (irregular) German verbs: a

summary

Did you know…

German has 170 irregular verbs.English has 283! Count yourself lucky being a native English speaker

Recap of regular German verb rules:

1. stem + regular verb ending

2. verbs ending in –den (finden) or –ten (antworten) just drop the ‘n’ in the du, er/sie/es & ihr forms so that they are easier to pronounce:

er findet, ihr antwortet, du findest

Irregular verbs:1. some add an umlaut in the du & er/sie/es forms, like:fahren, fallen, fangen, laufen, schlafen, tragen, waschen.Examples:

fahren du fährstlaufen sie läuftschlafen schläfst

2. Some verbs change their vowel in the du & er/sie/es forms, like:

helfen (to help) hilfst, hilft lesen (to read) liest, liestgeben (to give) gibst, gibtsprechen (to speak) sprichst, spricht

sehen (to see) siehst, siehtnehmen (to take) nimmst, nimmttreffen (to meet) triffst, trifft

3.Some verbs seem to have no rules about them!

haben (to have)sein (to be)wissen (to know) ich weiß, du weißt, er/sie/es weiß

Note! For all verbs:the verb forms of wir (we) sie (they) Sie (you formal)

are ALWAYS the same as the infinitive (the verb form you find in a dictionary) – except for sein.

The ihr (you plural) verb form is ALWAYS the infinitive minus the -en plus –t

denken (to think) = ihr denkttreffen (to meet) = ihr trefftlaufen (to run) = ihr lauftlesen (to read) = ihr lest

How can you tell if a verb is regular?

Check a dictionary or verb list – if it isn’t in there, it’s regular!All irregular verbs are listed in your dictionary.