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Verbs

We learned before, that verbs get conjugated acording to the subject. A verb consists of the stem and the ending. You see the endings here:

Ich lerne
Du lernst
Er/sie/es/man lernt
Wir lernen
Ihr lernt
Sie, sie lernen

Repeat personal pronouns here >>

Unfortunately we do have many exceptions.

Verbs with -t or -d

Verbs that end with d or t will get an “e” between the stem and the ending, but only for the personal pronouns “du”, “er/sie/es/man” and “ihr”. This is called “e-Erweiterung”. Exceptions occur with verbs that have an Umlaut, for example “raten”.

Example: Er wartet. He waits.

Verbs with -s, -ss, -ß, z

In Verbs with the endings above we have a simpler rule. We just do not add “s” when conjugating the 2nd personal pronoun singular.

Example: Tanzt du? Do you dance?

Check out all the rules for those verb endings, Umlaute, exercises and much more! >>

Separable and non-separable verbs

…are not as hard as it sounds.

Verbs that begin with be, emp, ent, er, ge, ver, zer are not separable.

Example: Er besteht die Prüfung. He passes the exam.

Verbs that begin with ab, an, auf, aus, ein, mit , her, vor , zu, zurück are separable.

But what does that even mean? You learn a verb, for example anrufen (to call) and you must consider, that the verb is separable and the prefix comes at the end of the sentence. The other part functions like a normal verb.

Example 1: Sie ruft Michael an. She calls Michael.
Example 2: Rufst du Michael an? Are you calling Michael?

You better always learn a verb in its infinitve form and also make a slash if it is separable (an/rufen, an/schauen). Why do you need both? Because the infinitive is also necessary for many things you will encounter in the future.

Practice with the video on the right side >>

Regular and irregular verbs

Regular verbs are called “schwache Verben” (weak verbs).

Irregular verbs are called “starke Verben” (strong verbs). They are a bit irregular, they change in their conjugation. But only with “du” and “er/sie/es/man”.
a >> ä
ich fahre >> du fährst
e >> i or ie
ich lese >> du liest
au >> äu
ich laufe >> er läuft
When they end with -t or -d, there are also some irregularities. You can watch them in the video on the left side and also enjoy some exercises!

After watching those videos you will have all the basic knowledge you need!

Try it!

Modal verbs

…are also called “helping verbs”, because they are 1) helping us to express ourselves better and 2) they are not the “actual” verb (correct term: finite verb).
So the order is the following:

S – MV – O – V

Example: Sie muss am Montag arbeiten. She has to work on Monday.

So the finite verb is in infinitve on the final position and the modal verb takes – like in a typical sentence – the position 2 in the sentence and gets conjugated. The position changes according to the normal regulations. You can see that very well in a question.

Example 2: Musst du morgen arbeiten? Do you have to work on Monday?

In 20 minutes you can learn the following:

– which verbs are modal verbs?
– what meanings can they have?
– how to use build them in sentences and questions

Just check the two videos on the left side out!

Impressum
Anna Ambatielou, Dresden

E-Mail: los_sprachschule@yahoo.com
Website: go-german.online