A2 · The verb: present tense and stem
Strong verbs
the three forms worth learning together
About two hundred verbs change their stem vowel — and they change it in patterns English speakers already own.
A strong verb marks its past by changing the vowel of its stem rather than by adding an ending: singen – sang – gesungen. There are roughly two hundred of them in German, and they are the most common verbs in the language, so they cannot be avoided.
They are learned as three forms together — infinitive, simple past, participle — because none of the three predicts the others. Gehen – ging – gegangen and stehen – stand – gestanden look alike as infinitives and behave differently everywhere else.
Many of them also change vowel in the present, but only in the du and er forms: fahren gives du fährst, er fährt, geben gives du gibst, er gibt. Which vowel it changes to follows the pattern of the verb — a becomes ä, e becomes i or ie — so it is worth grouping them rather than listing them.
Die Form
| i – a – u | singen – sang – gesungen |
| ei – ie – ie | schreiben – schrieb – geschrieben |
| ie – o – o | ziehen – zog – gezogen |
| e – a – o | nehmen – nahm – genommen |
| present change | fahren -> du fährst; geben -> du gibst |
Die Regeln im Einzelnen
A strong verb is learned as three forms: infinitive, simple past, participle.
trinken – trank – getrunkendrink – drank – drunk
The participle ends in -en, not -t.
Ich habe das Buch gelesen.I have read the book.
The present vowel change affects only the du and er forms.
Ich fahre, du fährst, er fährt, wir fahren.I drive, you drive, he drives, we drive.
In the simple past the ich and er forms take no ending.
Ich ging, er ging.I went, he went.
Genauer hingesehen
The same seven patterns as English
German strong verbs fall into about seven vowel classes inherited from an old system in which the stem vowel carried the tense. Singen – sang – gesungen, trinken – trank – getrunken, finden – fand – gefunden are one class with three visible members.
English has the same seven classes from the same source, which is why sing – sang – sung and drink – drank – drunk line up so exactly. An English speaker learning German strong verbs is recovering a system they already use without noticing, and the overlap is large enough to be worth looking for verb by verb rather than memorising cold.
Ausnahmen und Sonderfälle (2)
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the verb is bringen, denken, kennen, nennen, rennen or wissen
it is mixed: the vowel changes like a strong verb and the ending is weak.
bringen – brachte – gebrachtbring – brought – brought
A small group ended up in both camps, and the result is the least predictable corner of the system.
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the verb has an inseparable prefix
it keeps the strong forms of its stem but takes no ge-: verstehen – verstand – verstanden.
Ich habe das nicht verstanden.I did not understand that.
The prefix changes the meaning, not the class.
Woran man es erkennt
- -en am Partizip
- Vokalwechsel
- ä
- i
- ie
- sang
- ging
- nahm
Beispielsätze
Sie hat den ganzen Abend gelesen.She read all evening.
Wir sind mit dem Rad gefahren.We went by bike.
Er nimmt immer denselben Zug.He always takes the same train.
Das Kind hat den Ball geworfen.The child threw the ball.
Ich half ihm beim Umzug.I helped him with the move.
Noch 8 Beispielsätze
Der Zug ist gerade abgefahren.The train has just left.
Sie sprach sehr leise.She spoke very quietly.
Wir haben lange geschlafen.We slept a long time.
Er trug den Koffer die Treppe hinauf.He carried the suitcase up the stairs.
Das Glas ist zu Boden gefallen.The glass fell to the floor.
Ich habe ihr davon geschrieben.I wrote to her about it.
Sie gibt mir das Buch zurück.She is giving me the book back.
Wir haben viel darüber gesprochen.We talked about it a lot.
Besonderheiten (2)
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The vowel change is predictable within a group
Present-tense <z>a</z> becomes <z>ä</z> (<z>fahren, schlafen, tragen, halten</z>); <z>e</z> becomes <z>i</z> or <z>ie</z> (<z>geben, sehen, lesen, nehmen</z>). Once the group is known, the individual verb costs nothing extra — which is why a list of verbs sorted by vowel is more useful than one sorted alphabetically.
fahren – du fährst; sehen – du siehstto drive – you drive; to see – you see
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The most useful two hundred words in the language
Strong verbs are irregular because they are frequent: a rare verb gets tidied into the regular pattern, a daily one is repeated too often to change. So the list of strong verbs is close to a list of the verbs worth knowing first, which makes the work of learning them better spent than it looks.
gehen, kommen, sehen, geben, nehmen, sprechengo, come, see, give, take, speak
Die typisch deutsche Falle
Aufgepasst
The weak participle in -t is so regular that it gets applied to strong verbs too. A strong participle ends in -en and often changes its vowel as well — and the two markings never combine. If a verb is strong, it is strong in all three forms, so learning them together is not tidiness but the only way the list works.
Three forms, learned together. The participle ends in -en.
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