Forming the Present & Imperfect Tense

Verbs (weak, strong, mixed) Forming the Present & Imperfect (simple past)Tenses

*The Präsens (the Present) and Präteritum (Imperfect / simple past) don't use an auxiliary verb.

*The Sie form, the formal second person, is conjugated exactly the same as the third person plural (“they”).

This is true for all tenses and moods, and for all types of verbs.

1. Weak Verbs

*For every weak verb in German, these twelve endings are used, without exception.

WEAK VERBS kaufen		Präsens			Präteritum
singular	1st	ich	kaufe	I buy	ich	kaufte	I bought
	2nd	du	kaufst	you buy	du	kauftest	you bought
	3rd	er/sie/es	kauft	he/she/it buys	er/sie/es	kaufte	he/she/it bought
plural	1st	wir	kaufen	we buy	wir	kauften	we bought
	2nd	ihr	kauft	you (pl.) buy	ihr	kauftet	you (pl.) bought
	3rd	sie/Sie	kaufen	they buy	sie/Sie	kauften	they bought

Notice the pattern:

• the "en" ending of the infinitive is removed (sometimes it’s just an "n") and replaced with the appropriate ending.
• The past tense endings are mostly just the present tense endings with an extra t
• Some of them are hard to pronounce if the verb has certain consonants at the end of the stem; in this case an e is added in between the stem and the ending.

For example, here is the weak verb reden (to talk). Notice how without the extra e it would be harder to distinguish among these forms:

WEAK VERBS reden		Präsens			Präteritum
singular	1st	ich	rede	I talk	ich	redete	I talked
	2nd	du	redest	you talk	du	redetest	you talked
	3rd	er/sie/es	redet	he/she/it talks	er/sie/es	redete	he/she/it talked
plural	1st	wir	reden	we talk	wir	redeten	we talked
	2nd	ihr	redet	you (pl) talk	ihr	redetet	you (pl) talked
	3rd	sie/Sie	reden	they talk	sie/Sie	redeten	they talked

2. strong verbs form their past tense with a vowel shift rather than an added t;

Here’s the strong verb fallen (to fall):

STRONG VERBS fallen		Präsens			Präteritum
singular	1st	ich	falle	I fall	ich	fiel	I fell
	2nd	du	fällst	you fall	du	fielst	you fell
	3rd	er/sie/es	fällt	he/she/it falls	er/sie/es	fiel	he/she/it fell
plural	1st	wir	fallen	we fall	wir	fielen	we fell
	2nd	ihr	fallt	you (pl) fall	ihr	fielt	you (pl) fell
	3rd	sie/Sie	fallen	they fall	sie/Sie	fielen	they fell

Note:

*the present tense endings are the same as for weak verbs.

*with both strong and weak verbs, the 1^st and 3^rd person singular are the same in the past tense

*the 1^st and 3^rd person plural (we and they) are the same in both tenses.

*some of them also have a (different) vowel shift in the present tense, but only in the 2^nd and 3^rd person singular.

Vowels in stems		Present tense
long e	→	ie (see sehen)
short e	→	i (see helfen)
a	→	ä (see fahren)
au	→	äu (see laufen)
o	→	ö (see stoßen)

3. a mixed verb

*they combine the strong past stem changes with the weak past endings.

*Mixed verbs do not have the strong vowel shift in the present tense, except for wissen (which becomes weiß).

MIXED VERBS		Präsens			Präteritum
singular	1st	ich	bringe	I bring	ich	brachte	I brought
	2nd	du	bringst	you bring	du	brachtest	you brought
	3rd	er/sie/es	bringt	he/she/it brings	er/sie/es	brachte	he/she/it brought
plural	1st	wir	bringen	we bring	wir	brachten	we brought
	2nd	ihr	bringt	you (pl) bring	ihr	brachtet	you (pl) brought
	3rd	sie/Sie	bringen	they bring	sie/Sie	brachten	they brought

4. RECAP:

Weak (thousands)	Strong (about 150)	Mixed (9)
Holen – to fetch kaufen - to buy machen - to make träumen - to dream nutzen - to use danken - to thank sagen - to say, tell malen - to paint bauen - to build	Helfen – to help tun - to do kommen - to come gehen - to go stehen - to stand schlafen - to sleep schreiben - to write sehen - to see essen - to eat	Denken – to think Brennen - to burn Bringen - to bring Kennen - to know (a person) Nennen - to name Rennen - to run Senden - to send Wenden - to turn Wissen - to know

Weak verbs form the past tense with a hard consonant added at the end, t in German and d (or sometimes t) in English. Learn is a weak verb in both English (I learn, I learned [US] or learnt [UK]) and German (ich lerne, ich lernte)

Strong verbs form the past (preterite) tense with a vowel shift, like "swim / swam" in English (schwimmen / schwammen in German). Strong verbs in German have an irregular participle form that ends in –n, which is also true of many strong verbs in English (I choose, I chose, I have chosen). 

For each strong verb, you have to learn by heart three irregular forms of tenses, namely the present tense vowel shift (if any), the past stem and the participle.

	Strong verbs	present-past-participle	meaning
Type A	halten	hält, hielt, gehalten	to stop
Type B	riechen	riecht, roch, gerochen	to smell
Type C	helfen	hilft, half, geholfen	to help

Mixed verbs form the past tense with both a vowel shift and a hard consonant sound at the end. Bring is a mixed verb in both English (I bring/I brought) and German (Ich bringe/ Ich brachte)