Hello all! With this lesson we will be able to form whichever sentence you want with verbs. Here is what I will be covering:
- Regular verb conjugations in present
- Irregular verb conjugations (fahren, essen, etc.)
- Separable verbs
Regular verbs
You have seen regular verb conjugations already from Lesson 1 when you read about heißen. Let's generalize the verb conjugations to (ROOT)-en.
Ich (ROOT)-e
Du (ROOT)-st
Er/Sie/Es (ROOT)-t
Wir (ROOT)-en
Ihr (ROOT)-t
Sie/Sie (ROOT)-en.
There are IRREGULARITIES all through these verbs though! Some rules you can follow:
If the root ends in a hard (d) or (t); anything that makes it hard to pronounce in conjugated form; add an extra E between the root and the ending.
Arbeiten (du) = Arbeitest (you work)
Finden (er) = Findet (he finds)
If the root ends in a (z) which makes it hard to add a -st in the du form, ditch the s.
Tanzen (du) = Tanzt (you dance)
There are some verbs where you have to add an umlaut to vowels. Check the following examples out:
Schlafen (du) = Du schläfst (you sleep)
Fahren (du) = Du fährst (you drive)
Laufen (du) = Du läufst (you walk - pronounced loifst)
And finally, there are some where the root completely changes in the du and er/sie/es forms, such as:
Essen (er) = Er isst (he eats)
Nehmen (er) = Er nimmt (he orders)
Sprechen (er) = Er spricht (he speaks)
These are still conjugated normally in the other forms though! Ich spreche, ich esse. In addition, these root changes never apply to ihr: for example:
ihr esst, ihr nehmt, ihr sprecht! They are untouchable by these irregularities.
Separable verbs are something unique to German. Sometimes, the verbs have prefixes attached to the starts of verbs which must be moved to the end of the clause when conjugated. Prefixes can be attached to a variety of verbs and change their meanings, and some are pretty common as well. Here is an example:
abholen (to pick up)
Ich hole dich ab. - I pick you up.
ausgehen (to go out)
Ich gehe aus. - I'm going out.
vorbereiten (to prepare)
Ich bereite mich für die Prüfung vor. I prepare myself for the exam.
I hope this was helpful! In the next lesson we will talk more about cases of nouns.
Lernst du Deutsch gern? Continue onto Lesson 3!