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There are two and
a half types of verbs in German. Each category of verbs takes characteristic
endings for its past participles and its simple past forms. Strong verbs
are "irregular" (though not necessarily in all their forms), weak verbs are
"regular," and "mixed verbs" (which account for the "half" in "two and a half
types of verbs") are a small class of verbs that take weak verb endings but
are nevertheless irregular.
1.
Weak [regular] verbs
These are the verbs
with no stem-vowel changes in any tense. They take -te endings in Simple Past
and Subjunctive II, and -t endings for their past participles:
sagen,
sagte, (habe) gesagt; einkaufen, kaufte ein, (habe) eingekauft;
wandern, wanderte, (bin) gewandert
2.
Strong [irregular] verbs
These
are the verbs that have stem-vowel changes in one or more of the tenses [possibly
including the present tense]. In the Simple Past, they take the same endings
as modal verbs (i.e. in particular no endings for 1st and 3rd person singular);
their past participles end in -en:
gehen,
ging, (bin) gegangen; sehen, du siehst [stem-change in present tense],
sah, (habe) gesehen
2a.
Mixed verbs [a.k.a. irregular weak verbs]
These are verbs
with weak verb endings [-te endings in Simple Past and Subjunctive II, and -t
endings for their past participles], but which nevertheless are NOT regular,
i.e. they do have vowel changes. The following 8 mixed verbs (and their compounds)
are very common:
- haben,
du hast, hatte, (habe) gehabt
- kennen,
kannte, gekannt
- wissen,
wusste, gewusst
- denken,
dachte, gedacht
- bringen,
brachte, gebracht
- rennen,
rannte, (bin) gerannt [to run]
- nennen,
nannte, genannt [to call (in the sense of naming)]
- brennen,
brannte, gebrannt [to burn]
How
do I know which is which?
1.
If you have spent time learning special forms of a verb, it's probably a strong
verb, since weak verbs are regular. Therefore in particular, if you see
a new verb and it looks totally unfamiliar to you, chances are it's a weak verb,
and so if you've guessed correctly it will take -te endings in the simple past
and a -t ending in its past participle , and it will not have any stem-vowel changes.
2.
If the verb has an English cognate, then the German verb is usually strong (usually
with similar vowel changes) if the English verb is strong, and weak if the English
verb is weak. Examples:
| laugh,
laughed, laughed (weak) |
lachen,
lachte, gelacht (weak) |
| sing,
sang, sung (strong) |
singen,
sang, gesungen (strong) |
| love,
loved, loved (weak) |
lieben,
liebte, geliebt (weak) |
| stand,
stood, stood (strong) |
stehen,
stand, gestanden (strong) |
| live,
lived, lived (weak) |
leben,
lebte, gelebt (weak) |
| speak,
spoke, spoken (strong) |
sprechen,
sprach, gesprochen (strong) |
| cook,
cooked, cooked (weak) |
kochen,
kochte, gekocht (weak) |
| swim,
swam, swum (strong) |
schwimmen,
schwamm, geschwommen (strong) |
| bring,
brought, brought (mixed) |
bringen,
brachte, gebracht (mixed) |
There
are exceptions to this, however, so be careful:
| run,
ran, run (strong) |
rennen,
rannte, gerannt (mixed) |
| help,
helped, helped (weak) |
helfen,
half, geholfen (strong) |
3. Any of the verbs
you learned in your first year of German that have a stem-change in the present
tense are strong verbs, e.g.
| sehen |
er/sie/es
sieht |
sah |
gesehen |
| essen |
er/sie/es
isst |
aß |
gegessen |
| fahren |
er/sie/es
fährt |
fuhr |
gefahren |
4. Any verbs in -ieren
are weak. Note that these verbs do not take a "ge-" when they form their
past participle, e.g.:
| studieren |
studierte |
hat
studiert |
| explodieren |
explodierte |
ist
explodiert |
| sich
konzentrieren |
konzentrierte
sich |
hat
sich konzentriert |
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