Present tense verbs

The present tense is what we use to talk about things which are happening right now and things which always happen, for example: ‘I’m eating a sandwich’ and ‘I eat a sandwich for lunch’. The vast majority of verbs are ‘weak’ or ‘regular’, which means they all follow the same pattern.

Weak or regular verbs

For weak/regular verbs take off the ‘en’ to find the stem and add the following:

Spielen* (To play)

Sie spielt jeden Tag Federball -> She plays badminton every day.

Verb examples

Below is a list of verbs with their English translation.

Verb examples with English translation

Examples in sentences

• Ich glaube, dass du die Wahrheit sprichst -> I believe that you are telling the truth.
• Mein Vater schickt mir oft Briefe -> My father often sends me letters.
• Meine Eltern warten auf uns -> my parents are waiting for us.
• Wann reist er nach Indien? -> When is he travelling to India?
• Ihr sagt zu viel und hört nicht zu! -> You say too much and don’t listen!

Exceptions

If the stem ends in ‘d’ or ‘t’ add an extra ‘e’ before the ending in the third person singular. For example:

• Finden -> er findet – he finds.
• Warten -> sie wartet – she waits.

If the stem ends in ‘s’ you only add ‘t’ in the second person singular. For example:

• Heißen -> du heißt -> you are called.

Strong or irregular verbs

Most strong/irregular verbs have exactly the same endings as regular verbs, and the only changes are in the ‘du’ and ‘er/sie/es/man’ forms.  

Example using the verb ‘fahren’ (to go)

Next to each verb you can see the du and er/sie/es/man forms. Everything else will follow the same pattern.  

Useful vocabulary: common strong verbs

Modal verbs

See the section on modal verbs which are ‘special’ in several ways.

• Er isst gern Kuchen -> He likes eating cake.
• Es hilft mir, wenn du abspülst -> It helps me when you wash up.
• Liest du mir eine Geschichte vor? -> Will you read me a story?
• Er sieht abends gern fern -> He likes watching TV in the evening.