5. Present tense
The present tense of verbs is formed by removing the -en/-n infinitive ending and by adding the appropriate personal suffix.
The table below shows the present tense conjugation of three different verbs.
| REISEN to travel | WARTEN to wait | WISSEN to know |
|---|---|---|
| ich reise | ich warte | ich weiß |
| du reist | du wartest | du weißt |
| er/sie/es reist | er/sie/es wartet | er/sie/es weiß |
| wir reisen | wir warten | wir wissen |
| ihr reist | ihr wartet | ihr wisst |
| sie/Sie reisen | sie/Sie warten | sie/Sie wissen |
The personal suffixes have been bolded. Note that the verb warten has longer personal endings in the second and third person singular as well as in the second person plural forms. This happens if the verb stem ends in “t”, “d”, or consonant clusters containing “m” or “n” (e.g. atmen breathe). The “e” is added to make pronunciation easier:
atmen ⇒ ATM (verb stem) + E + T ⇒ Sie atmet schwer.
She breathes heavily.
Reisen and warten are examples of weak (regular) verbs. The last example, wissen, is partially irregular.
There are also so-called strong (irregular) verbs in German. These are verbs that undergo a vowel change in the verb’s stem in the second and third person singular forms.
The changes are as follows: a ⇒ ä, au ⇒ äu, e ⇒ i / ie, o ⇒ ö. The table below shows two examples.
| TRAGEN to carry | LAUFEN to run |
|---|---|
| ich trage | ich laufe |
| du trägst | du läufst |
| er/sie/es trägt | er/sie/es läuft |
| wir tragen | wir laufen |
| ihr tragt | ihr lauft |
| sie/Sie tragen | sie/Sie laufen |
Other examples of frequent strong verbs are: lesen, geben, stoßen and fahren.