A1 · The verb: present tense and stem
sein and haben
the two verbs to learn first
Irregular, unavoidable, and needed twice over — as verbs and as the machinery of the past tense.
Sein ("to be") and haben ("to have") are the two most common verbs in German and neither follows the pattern. They have to be learned as lists, and they have to be learned first, because almost nothing can be said without them.
They are also needed a second time. The German spoken past — the Perfekt — is built with haben or sein plus a participle, in the way English builds "I have seen". So the six forms you learn here are the six forms that later carry every past-tense sentence you say.
Haben is nearly regular: only the du and er forms drop the b. Sein is regular in nothing at all, and is worth simply reciting until it is automatic.
Die Form
| sein | ich bin, du bist, er ist, wir sind, ihr seid, sie sind |
| haben | ich habe, du hast, er hat, wir haben, ihr habt, sie haben |
| past of sein | ich war, du warst, er war, wir waren |
| past of haben | ich hatte, du hattest, er hatte, wir hatten |
| as an auxiliary | ich habe gesehen / ich bin gefahren |
Die Regeln im Einzelnen
sein and haben are irregular in the present and are learned as lists.
Ich bin da und du hast Zeit.I am here and you have time.
Both have a simple past that is used in speech, unlike most verbs: war and hatte, not "bin gewesen" in ordinary conversation.
Gestern war ich krank.I was ill yesterday.
They build the Perfekt of every other verb: haben for most, sein for movement and change of state.
Ich habe gearbeitet. Ich bin gefahren.I have worked. I have driven.
After sein a noun stands in the nominative, not the accusative.
Das ist mein Bruder.That is my brother.
Genauer hingesehen
Why the forms of sein look nothing like each other
Bin, ist and war do not resemble one another because they are not forms of one verb. They are the remains of three separate ancient verbs — one meaning roughly "become", one "exist", one "dwell" — that fell together over thousands of years into a single paradigm.
English did precisely the same thing with the same material, which is why am, is, are and was are equally unrelated. Recognising that bin and am are cousins, and ist and is the same word, makes the list slightly easier to hold — and explains why the most common verb in a language is reliably its most irregular one.
Ausnahmen und Sonderfälle (2)
-
you are saying how long something has been going on
German uses the present with seit, where English uses a perfect.
Ich bin seit drei Jahren hier.I have been here for three years.
The situation is still true, and German marks present truth with the present tense.
-
you want the past of sein or haben in speech
use war and hatte, not the Perfekt.
Ich hatte keine Zeit.I had no time.
These two verbs, along with the modals, kept their simple past in everyday spoken German while other verbs lost it.
Woran man es erkennt
- bin
- bist
- ist
- sind
- seid
- habe
- hast
- hat
- war
- hatte
Beispielsätze
Ich bin seit einem Jahr hier.I have been here for a year.
Hast du einen Moment Zeit?Have you got a moment?
Er ist Lehrer von Beruf.He is a teacher by profession.
Wir hatten keine Wahl.We had no choice.
Seid ihr schon da?Are you there yet?
Noch 8 Beispielsätze
Wo bist du?Where are you?
Sie hat drei Geschwister.She has three siblings.
Das war nicht meine Idee.That was not my idea.
Habt ihr noch Fragen?Have you got any more questions?
Ich bin nicht sicher.I am not sure.
Er hatte recht.He was right.
Wir sind zu Fuß gekommen.We came on foot.
Sind Sie Herr Weber?Are you Mr Weber?
Besonderheiten (2)
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haben where English uses to be
A short list of states takes <z>haben</z> plus a bare noun in German and <z>to be</z> plus an adjective in English: <z>Hunger, Durst, Angst, Recht, Glück, Zeit</z>. They are worth learning as fixed phrases rather than as translations, because the noun stands without an article and looks wrong to an English eye.
Ich habe Hunger und Durst.I am hungry and thirsty.
-
es gibt, not es ist
For "there is" and "there are" German uses <z>es gibt</z> with an accusative, never <z>es ist</z>. It does not change in the plural — <z>es gibt einen Bahnhof</z> and <z>es gibt zwei Bahnhöfe</z> — which makes it easier than the English it replaces.
Es gibt hier keinen Supermarkt.There is no supermarket here.
Die typisch deutsche Falle
Aufgepasst
Age takes sein in German and English and haben in French, Spanish and Italian, so this one usually arrives from a third language rather than from English. The English-speaking version of the same confusion is the other way round: Ich bin Hunger for Ich habe Hunger — German says you have hunger, where English says you are hungry.
Learn all twelve forms before anything else. Everything past is built on them.
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