The present tense of regular verbs
Learn the six present tense endings that work for most German verbs, so that you can talk about what you do, what you are doing and what you will do soon.
The present tense · Beginner · 15 min · 40 exercises · Goethe A1, High school, College
English verbs hardly change in the present: I learn, you learn, we learn, and only he or she learns. German verbs take a different ending for almost every person, so the ending tells you who is doing the action. Once you know the six endings, you can conjugate thousands of regular verbs: lernen (to learn), wohnen (to live), machen (to do, to make), spielen (to play), kommen (to come), kaufen (to buy) and many more.
Stem + ending
The infinitive (the dictionary form) ends in -en: lernen. Take off -en to find the stem: lern-. Then add the ending that matches the subject: ich -e, du -st, er/sie/es -t, wir -en, ihr -t, sie/Sie -en. The forms for wir and sie/Sie look exactly like the infinitive, and er/sie/es and ihr share the ending -t.
Lernen (to learn) in the present
| Person | Stem + ending | English |
|---|---|---|
| ich | lerne | I learn |
| du | lernst | you learn |
| er / sie / es | lernt | he / she / it learns |
| wir | lernen | we learn |
| ihr | lernt | you (all) learn |
| sie / Sie | lernen | they learn / you learn (formal) |
Regular verbs at work
- Ich wohne in Leipzig.I live in Leipzig.wohn- + e
- Du lernst Deutsch.You are learning German.lern- + st
- Mia spielt Gitarre.Mia plays the guitar.one person, like sie: spiel- + t
- Wir machen Musik.We make music.same form as the infinitive
- Ihr kommt aus Kanada.You (all) come from Canada.komm- + t
- Herr und Frau Demir kaufen eine Lampe.Mr. and Mrs. Demir are buying a lamp.two people, like sie (they): kauf- + en
Stems in -t or -d: add an extra e
Try to say arbeit + st: it is almost impossible. When the stem ends in -t or -d (arbeiten, to work; finden, to find; kosten, to cost; reden, to talk), German adds an e before the endings -st and -t: du arbeitest, er arbeitet, ihr arbeitet; du findest, sie findet, ihr findet. The other forms are normal.
Stems in -s, -ß or -z: du takes only -t
When the stem already ends in an s sound (-s, -ß, -z), the du form adds only -t, not -st: heißen (to be called) gives du heißt, tanzen (to dance) gives du tanzt, reisen (to travel) gives du reist. As a result, the du form and the er/sie/es form are identical: du tanzt, er tanzt.
The two special groups
| Person | arbeiten | finden | heißen | tanzen |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ich | arbeite | finde | heiße | tanze |
| du | arbeitest | findest | heißt | tanzt |
| er / sie / es | arbeitet | findet | heißt | tanzt |
| wir | arbeiten | finden | heißen | tanzen |
| ihr | arbeitet | findet | heißt | tanzt |
| sie / Sie | arbeiten | finden | heißen | tanzen |
One German present for three English forms
English has three presents: I work, I am working, I do work. German has only one: ich arbeite. There is no form with sein + verb and no helping verb like „do“. The same present tense is also the normal way to talk about the future when a time word makes it clear: Wir spielen morgen Fußball (We are playing soccer tomorrow, or We will play soccer tomorrow).
One form, many meanings
- Ich lerne Deutsch.I learn German. / I am learning German. / I do learn German.one German form for all three
- Sara arbeitet heute.Sara is working today.no sein, only the conjugated verb
- Wir spielen morgen Fußball.We are playing soccer tomorrow.present + morgen = future
- Nina kommt nächste Woche.Nina is coming next week. / Nina will come next week.present + time expression = future
- Ich koche heute Abend.I am cooking tonight.
Remember the endings as a little chain: e, st, t, en, t, en. Two shortcuts help: wir and sie/Sie always look like the infinitive (wir lernen, sie lernen), and er/sie/es and ihr share the ending -t (er lernt, ihr lernt). So there are really only four different endings to learn.
Do not build the present the English way. „I am learning“ is Ich lerne, never Ich bin lernen, and „I do play“ is simply Ich spiele. Also remember that the ending must match the subject every time: English speakers often forget the -st with du (du lernst, not du lernen) and the -t with a name or er, sie, es (Mia spielt, not Mia spielen).
The exercises of this lesson
40 corrected exercises in three sessions (discovery, practice, challenge): multiple choice (4), fill in the gap (10), conjugation (2), find the mistake (5), word order (1), rewrite (5), translation (6), gap text (3), matching (2), sorting (2). Every answer is corrected immediately, with the rule that applies.