German verbs may be classified as either weak, with a dental consonant inflection, or strong, showing a vowel gradation (ablaut). Both of these are regular systems. Most verbs of both types are regular, though various subgroups and anomalies do arise; however, textbooks for learners often class all strong verbs as irregular. The only completely irregular verb in the language is sein (to be). There are more than 200 strong and irregular verbs, but just as in English, there is a gradual tendency for strong verbs to become weak.
As German is a Germanic language, the German verbs can be understood historically as a development of the Germanic verbs.
Bare infinitives The bare infinitive consists of the root and the suffix -en. With verbs whose roots end in el or er, the e of the infinitive suffix is dropped.
laufen 'to run' lächeln 'to smile' meistern 'to master' Prefixes General overview of the most common German prefixes with their literal English translation Aspect prefixes Prefixes that indicate aspect, result, or combinatorial/additional meaning Prefix Verb Literal meaning English meaning auf- legen to lay on/up to hang up the phone; to publish; to apply (makeup); to select and play records; to lay up a ship aus- legen to lay out to lay out; to display; to interpret bei- legen to lay beside to add; to enclose dar- legen to lay there to explain; to set forth ein- legen to lay in to insert; to inlay nach- legen to lay after to add more nieder- legen to lay down to lay down; to resign über- legen to lay over to consider; to reflect vor- legen to lay for to present; to submit weg- legen to lay away to put away; to remove zusammen- legen to lay together to pool something; to fold washed clothes
Directional / Motion Prefixes Prefixes that indicate spatial movement or direction.
Prefix Verb Literal gloss English meaning hin legen to lay downward there to lie down her legen to lay downward here to put something here hinein legen to lay inside there to put into a container hinaus legen to lay outwards to lie out in the sun Transformative prefixes Prefixes that indicate change, intensity, creative/destructive process, or strong meaning shift Prefix Verb Literal meaning English meaning ent- legen to lay off remote; outlying (adjective) er- legen to lay through to achieve; to bring about; to kill ge- legt having been laid laid (past participle) ge- legen to be laid situated; well-timed (adjective) ver- legen to lay off course to misplace; to publish zer- legen to lay apart to dismantle be- legen to prove; to cover something; to enroll (for an education course); to reserve (a seat) um- legen to lay around to reallocate; to shift wider- legen to lay against to oppose; to disprove zu- legen to lay to to put on; to acquire
Inseparable prefixes There are some verbs which have a permanent prefix at their beginning. These prefixes are never stressed. The most common permanent prefixes found in German are ver-, ge-, be-, er-, ent- (or emp-), and zer-.
brauchen, "to need" – ver-brauchen, "to consume" or "to use up" raten, "to advise", "to guess" – ver-raten, "to betray" fallen, "to fall" – ge-fallen "to be pleasing" hören, "to hear" – ge-hören (zu) "to belong (to)" brennen, "to burn" (intransitive), to be burning (stative verb) – ver-brennen (etwas), "to burn (something)" (transitive) (action verb), to burn completely be-ginnen, "to begin" (no form without the prefix) – *ginnen (doesn't exist) The meaning of the permanent prefixes does not have a real system; the alteration in meaning can be subtle or drastic. The prefixes ver-, be- and ge- have several different meanings, although ge- is uncommon and often the root verb is no longer in existence. be- often makes a transitive verb from an intransitive verb. Verbs with er- tend to relate to creative processes, verbs with ent- usually describe processes of removing (as well as emp-, an approximate equivalent to ent- except usually used for root verbs beginning with an f), and zer- is used for destructive actions. Ver- often describes some kind of extreme or excess of the root verb, although not in any systematic way: 'sprechen', for example means to 'speak', but 'versprechen', 'to promise' as in 'to give one's word' and 'fallen', meaning 'to fall' but 'verfallen', 'to decay' or 'to be ruined'.
Separable prefixes Many verbs have a separable prefix that changes the meaning of the root verb, but that does not always remain attached to the root verb. When attached, these prefixes are always stressed. German sentence structure normally places verbs in second position or final position. For separable prefix verbs, the prefix always appears in final position. If a particular sentence's structure places the entire verb in final position then the prefix and root verb appear together. If a sentence places the verb in second position then only the root verb will appear in second position; the separated prefix remains at the end of the sentence.
an-fangen ("to start") Root verb in second position: Ich fange mit der Arbeit an. ("I start work.") Root verb in final position: Morgens trinke ich Schokolade, weil ich dann mit der Arbeit an-fange. ("In the mornings I drink hot chocolate, because afterwards I begin work.")
Rarely a separable prefix may actually be two (or more) words:
wieder-gut-machen ("to rectify, make up", literally "to make good again") Root verb in second position: Sie machte das Unrecht wieder gut. ("She rectified the injustice.") Root verb in final position: Ich hoffe, dass du es bei ihm wieder-gut-machst. ("I hope that you're making it up to him.")
A small number of verbs have a prefix that is separable in some uses and inseparable in others.
um-fahren ("to drive into [something]") – (stress on um-) Ich fahre das Verkehrszeichen um. "I drive into the traffic sign, knocking it over (um) in the process."
("to drive around") – (stress on fahr) Ich um-fahre das Verkehrszeichen. "I drive around the traffic sign."
If one of the two meanings is figurative, the inseparable version stands for this figurative meaning:
über-setzen Literal ("to ferry") – (stress on über-) Ich setze morgen auf die Insel über. "I'll ferry over to the island tomorrow."
Figurative ("to translate") – (stress on setzen) Ich über-setze die Geschichte morgen. "I'll translate the story tomorrow."
Complex infinitives
Components and word order Complex infinitives can be built, consisting of more than the original infinitive. They include objects, predicative nouns and adverbial information. These are packed before the original infinitive, if used isolated. (elliptical)
If one wants to express that they suddenly see a bird (not an airplane); NOT einen Vogel am Himmel plötzlich sehen ("suddenly see a bird in the sky," as opposed to seeing it slowly – "plötzlich" is stressed) BUT plötzlich einen Vogel am Himmel sehen ("suddenly see a bird in the sky," as opposed to seeing a plane – "Vogel" is stressed) Both sentences are correct but they have different focus.
Pronoun objects are usually mentioned before nominal phrase objects; dative nominal objects before accusative nominal objects; and accusative pronoun objects before dative pronouns. Order may change upon emphasis on the object, the first being more important. This can be viewed as a table:
+ Usual object orderTypeOrderCase Pronoun 1 Accusative Pronoun 2 Dative Nominal 3 Dative Nominal 4 Accusative
normal Ich gebe meinem Vater das Geld ("I give my father the money") Ich gebe es ihm ("I give it to him") Ich gebe ihm das Geld ("I give him the money") Ich gebe es meinem Vater ("I give it to my father") unusual Ich gebe das Geld meinem Vater ("I give the money to my father") Ich gebe das Geld ihm ("I give the money to him") very strange (but still correct) Ich gebe ihm es ("I give him it") Ich gebe meinem Vater es ("I give my father it")
Native adverbs, like nicht, leider or gerne, are placed before the innermost verb (see Compound infinitives).
Predicative nouns and predicative adjectives A predicative adjective can be the positive, comparative or superlative stem of an adjective, therefore it has the same form as the adverb. One might also use positional phrases or pronominal adverbs.
rot sein ("be red") bekannt werden ("become well-known") im Rathaus sein ("be in the town hall")
A predicative noun is a nominal phrase in the nominative case.
Ein Arzt sein ("be a doctor")
Note that, if the subject is singular, the predicative noun must not be plural.
Der Schwarm ist eine Plage (singular/singular) ("the swarm is a pest") Die Bienen sind Insekten (plural/plural) ("the bees are insects") Die Bienen sind der Schwarm (plural/singular) ("the bees are the swarm") *Der Schwarm ist die Bienen (singular/plural) but instead Der Schwarm ist ein Haufen Bienen ("the swarm is a load of bees") or Die Bienen sind der Schwarm ("the bees are the swarm") (inversion)
3rd person pronouns are handled like any nominal phrase when used in a predicative way.
1st person or 2nd person pronouns are never used as predicative pronouns.
Normally, one makes an inversion when using a definite pronoun as predicativum.
Der bin ich. (*Ich bin der.) ("I'm the one") Der bist du. (*Du bist der.) ("You're the one") Der ist es. (*Es ist der.) ("He's the one")
Adverbs One can use any kind of adverbial phrase or native adverb mentioned above. But beware of modal verbs, they change the meaning and phrase of the sentence.
Compound infinitives Compound infinitives can be constructed by the usage of modal verbs or auxiliary verbs. One places a new infinitive behind the main infinitive. Then this outer infinitive will be conjugated instead of the old inner infinitive. Sometimes one must turn the old infinitive into a passive participle.
Passive infinitive There are two types of passive forms: static passive and dynamic passive. They differ by their auxiliary words. The static passive uses sein, the dynamic passive is formed with werden (which has a slightly different conjugation from its siblings). In both cases, the old infinitive is turned into its passive participle form.
sehen – gesehen sein – gesehen werden ("see – be seen") plötzlich am Himmel gesehen sein/werden ("suddenly be seen in the sky")
A complex infinitive cannot be turned into passive form, with an accusative object, for obvious reasons. This restriction does not hold for dative objects.
mir den Schlüssel geben ("to give me the key") NOT mir den Schlüssel gegeben werden mir gegeben werden ("have been given to me")
The only exceptions are verbs with two accusative objects. In older forms of German, one of these accusative objects was a dative object. This dative object is removed, whereas the real accusative object stays.
Die Schüler die Vokabeln abfragen ("test the students on their vocab") NOT Die Schüler abgefragt werden Die Vokabeln abgefragt werden ("the vocab be tested")
Perfect infinitives The perfect infinitive is constructed by turning the old infinitive into the passive participle form and attaching the auxiliary verbs haben or sein after the verb. sehen – gesehen haben (transitive) ("see" – "saw/have seen") einen Vogel sehen – einen Vogel gesehen haben (transitive) ("see a bird –" "saw/have seen a bird") laufen – gelaufen sein (intransitive) ("walk – walked/have walked") einen schnellen Schritt laufen – einen schnellen Schritt gelaufen sein/haben ("walk at a fast pace" – "walked/have walked at a fast pace")
Note that the perfect infinitive of an intransitive verb is created the same way as the static passive infinitive of a transitive verb.
One can also build perfect infinitives of passive infinitives, both static and dynamic. Since the passive is intransitive, having no accusative object, one must use the auxiliary sein: sehen ("to see") gesehen worden sein ("to have been seen") gesehen geworden sein ("to have been being seen")
sein is used as an auxiliary verb, when the verb is: intransitive,