We will not provide countless tables in this article, no doubt, they are useful, but for most students they are tedious and give the impression that the grammar of the German language is too tough for “wise guys”.
Therefore, here we will explain, point by point and in simple language, everything you need to know about the conjugation of German verbs.
The conjugation of verbs in German is accompanied by a change in the form of the verb by:
- Persons (I, you, you, we, he, she, they).
- Numbers (singular, plural).
- Times (present, past, future).
Verbs in Russian change in exactly the same way, so such a variety should not surprise us. It is enough to get acquainted with exactly what forms the conjugation of German verbs gives.
In order to conjugate, you need to determine the initial form of the German verb:
If in Russian it ends in "-t" (deeds t, vari t, run t), then in German on "-en".
mach en – do, koch en - cook, heß en – call, lauf en - run.
To form a different form of the verb, you need to discard -en and add a new ending to the stem.
mach-
koch-
heiß-
lauf-
First person - me and us
It's very simple: if you are talking about yourself alone, add a concise ending "-e" to the base, if you are not alone, then the ending "-en".
I do - Ich mach e, We do – Wir mach en.
As you can see, in the plural of the first person, the form of the verb, in fact, does not change. It is the same as the original one.
Second person - you and you
It is the second person we use when we address someone. Here, the opposite is true, for some reason the plural was awarded a simpler ending. And if you are addressing one interlocutor, then decorate the base of the word with a flowery "-st". Compare:
You do – Du mach st,
You do – Ihr mach t.
Third person - he, she, they
For the third person, two endings "-t" (singular), "-en" (plural) are used.
He does – Er mach t, She does – Sie mach t, They do – Sie mach en.
As you can see, here the plural form of the verb also does not differ from the initial one.
Memorizing all these endings is also difficult because they repeat each other. In fact, only four endings are used to form 7 verb forms: “-e”, “-en”,"-st", "-t".
At this point, many people have a logical question: does the stem of the word (mach-, koch-, heiß-, lauf-) really not change when conjugating German verbs? Indeed, in Russian, the conjugation of verbs often involves a change in the stem (he be zhit, I be gy)?
German Verb Conjugation: Subtleties
Indeed, in German there are special cases of changing the stem of a word. Pay attention to verbs that end in a consonant that duplicates the ending. How, for example, to conjugate the word bieten (offer), because it is hardly possible to add the ending “-t” to the stem biet? How to spell "you offer"?
In these cases, the ending is diluted with the letter "-e".
Ihr biet t – no, they don’t write like that.
Ihr biet et is correct.
This rule also applies to other words that will sound dissonant with standard endings, for example, begegnen (meet). Its stem ends in -n. Agree, pronouncing -nt is not so easy. And in this example, there is another consonant before the complex -n, so it turns out "-gn". Thus, without dilution, the sentence "You meet" would look like this:
Ihr bege gnt
Three consonants in a row is too difficult to pronounce, and the word is common and clearly deserves a simple pronunciation. Therefore, it will be correct:
Ihr begegn et
Irregular verbs
Conjugationverbs in Russian often occurs with an alternation of vowels (and consonants) in the root. For example, lagat-at falseit. There are also irregular verbs in German, the conjugation of which involves changing the vowel in the root, in addition to adding an ending.
These verbs are really easier to read in tables - keep them handy. The fact is that irregular verbs are the most common. Therefore, although it is necessary to know them by heart, one should not devote too much time to cramming them. Read more, analyze, translate original texts, referring to tables of irregular verbs. They will be repeated often enough so that you can learn them easily while getting used to the structure, vocabulary and other aspects of the German language.
The most important irregular verbs are sein - to be, haben - to have, werden - become. Their conjugation must be learned by heart, which also does not cause any particular difficulties, because these verbs are used both as independent and as auxiliary ones (in various complex forms of verbs), and they are very common in any tasks in the German language.
Once you have thoroughly studied the conjugation of verbs in the present tense and learn how to use their various forms, the features of the conjugation of German verbs in the past and future tenses will not seem difficult.
