B1 · The verb: present tense and stem
The nine verbs that do both
bringen, denken, kennen, wissen, nennen
A small group that takes the weak -t ending and changes its vowel anyway.
German verbs are weak (machen, machte, gemacht) or strong (fahren, fuhr, gefahren). About nine sit in between: they take the weak -t in the past and the participle, and they change their stem vowel like a strong verb.
The list is worth learning outright, because every one of them is a word used daily: brennen, bringen, denken, kennen, nennen, rennen, senden, wenden, wissen. Bringen → brachte, gebracht. Denken → dachte, gedacht. Wissen → wusste, gewusst.
Five of them follow one pattern exactly — e becomes a and the double n stays: brennen → brannte, kennen → kannte, nennen → nannte, rennen → rannte, senden → sandte. Learning them as one group is five verbs for the price of one.
Die Form
| bringen | brachte, gebracht |
| denken | dachte, gedacht |
| wissen | wusste, gewusst |
| kennen, nennen, rennen | kannte, nannte, rannte |
| brennen, senden, wenden | brannte, sandte, wandte |
Die Regeln im Einzelnen
Mixed verbs take the weak -t and change the stem vowel.
Ich habe an dich gedacht.I thought of you.
e becomes a in five of them, and the double n stays.
Ich kannte ihn gut.I knew him well.
wissen also has an irregular present: ich weiß, du weißt.
Weißt du das?Do you know that?
They take haben in the perfect, apart from rennen.
Er ist nach Hause gerannt.He ran home.
Genauer hingesehen
kennen and wissen are not the same word
English "know" covers both and German does not. Kennen is to be acquainted with a person, a place or a thing: Ich kenne ihn, Kennst du Berlin? Wissen is to know a fact, and it is usually followed by a clause: Ich weiß, dass er kommt.
The test is what follows. A noun naming something you have encountered takes kennen; a clause, or a question word, takes wissen. Ich weiß die Antwort is the one common exception, and even there the answer is a piece of information rather than a thing.
Ausnahmen und Sonderfälle (2)
-
senden or wenden means broadcast or turn round
the weak forms are used instead.
Der Sender sendete live.The station broadcast live.
The two verbs split by meaning: sendete for broadcasting, sandte for sending a letter.
-
rennen is used in the perfect
it takes sein, not haben.
Sie ist zum Bus gerannt.She ran for the bus.
It is a verb of motion from one place to another.
Woran man es erkennt
- brachte
- dachte
- wusste
- kannte
- nannte
- rannte
Beispielsätze
Sie hat uns Blumen gebracht.She brought us flowers.
Ich wusste das nicht.I did not know that.
Wir kannten uns schon lange.We had known each other a long time.
Er dachte an früher.He was thinking of the old days.
Das Licht brannte die ganze Nacht.The light burned all night.
Noch 6 Beispielsätze
Wer hat das gebracht?Who brought that?
Ich dachte, du kommst später.I thought you were coming later.
Sie nannte kein Datum.She did not name a date.
Wusstest du das schon?Did you already know that?
Wir haben uns an ihn gewandt.We turned to him for help.
Er kannte den Weg nicht.He did not know the way.
Besonderheiten (2)
-
wissen behaves like a modal in the present
Its present tense has no ending in the first and third person and changes its vowel: <z>ich weiß, du weißt, er weiß, wir wissen</z>. That is exactly the modal pattern, and <z>wissen</z> is historically the same kind of verb — it once meant "have seen".
-
The past tense of these is still spoken
German conversation usually avoids the simple past and uses the perfect. These verbs are an exception along with <z>sein, haben</z> and the modals: <z>ich wusste, ich dachte, ich kannte</z> are heard far more often than their perfect forms.
Die typisch deutsche Falle
Aufgepasst
Both errors treat the verb as purely weak, which is half right: the ending is weak and the vowel is not. These nine are the verbs a learner is most likely to get wrong precisely because they look regular in the infinitive. There is no rule to derive them from — the list is short enough to learn, and every entry on it is a word needed in the first year.
Weak ending, strong vowel — nine verbs, all common.
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