german writing verbs

German Grammar with Rules and Interactive Exercises

Get to grips with german grammar.

German grammar can be a minefield: topics range from verb conjugation in all tenses , to the declension of nouns , articles , adjectives and pronouns in all four cases, through to prepositions , sentence structure and subordinate clauses .

But don’t worry, for each and every grammar topic Lingolia has a free article packed full of examples, along with one free interactive exercise where you can practise the basics.

If you want more practice, you can unlock over 1000 grammar exercises for levels A1–C1 with a Lingolia Plus German account.

Not sure what level you are? Or want some tips on where your weak areas lie? Take our free German level test to find out!

Like it or not, grammar is an essential (and unavoidable!) part of learning a language: it gives you the building blocks to express yourself confidently and accurately in your target language. So what are you waiting for? Start improving your German grammar with Lingolia!

German grammar topics on Lingolia

See below for a complete list of all German grammar topics on Lingolia.

Click on a link to get started!

In the German language there are six tenses: present (Präsens), present perfect (Perfekt), simple past or preterite (Präteritum), past perfect (Plusquamperfekt), future (Futur I), and future perfect (Futur II). In each tense, the verbs have to be conjugated ( ich, du, er, ... – I, you, he, ...).

Here you can find information about modal verbs, reflexive verbs, separable and inseparable verbs, the passive voice, the imperative, and the subjunctive. The different tenses are explained in the section called "Tenses".

Verb Conjugator

Conjugate any German verb in any tense with Lingolia’s verb conjugator. Simply enter the infinitive of the verb and let us do the hard work for you!

Nouns and Articles

In German, nouns can be masculine, feminine, or neuter (for example der Löffel, die Gabel, das Messer – the spoon, the fork, the knife). They are generally used with an article and have to be declined.

Pronouns take the place of nouns and have to be declined. We make a distinction between personal, possessive, reflexive, interrogative, demonstrative, and indefinite pronouns.

Adjectives are descriptive words. They indicate how someone or something is (for example gut, schnell – good, fast). Adjectives can be comparative, and sometimes we have to decline them too.

German has four cases (nominative, accusative, dative, genitive). They make us change the endings of certain words depending on their role in the sentence. This is called declension.

Adverbs are unchanging words (for example hier, gestern, darum, sehr – here, yesterday, therefore, very), which we use to provide information about place, time, reason, or manner. Some adverbs can be comparative.

Prepositions

Prepositions are short words (for example in, auf, ohne – in, on, without) that we use with nouns or pronouns. Each preposition requires a particular case (genitive, dative, accusative).

Sentence Structure

In this part of the site, we explain the order of words in main clauses, questions, and dependent clauses. We pay special attention to the areas of conditional clauses and indirect speech.

How good is your German?

Find out with Lingolia’s free grammar test

Take the test!

Maybe later

50 Common German Verbs with Sample Sentences

• History & Culture
• Pronunciation & Conversation

This chart is an alphabetical list of 50 commonly used German verbs. Example sentences in the present tense illustrate the use of each verb. Stem-changing verbs are shown with their  du  (2nd person sing.) and  er  (3rd person sing.) forms. Only some irregular verbs (but no separable-prefix or  modal verbs ) have been included in this chart. All of these verbs, including the stem-changing ones, are conjugated normally in the PRESENT TENSE .

Many commonly used German verbs are NOT regular verbs .

50 Common German Verbs With Example Sentences

• Learning German "Give and Take" - "Geben, Nehmen"
• German Verbs - wissen (to know) conjugated in all its tenses
• Present Tense Verb Conjugations of German Regular Verbs
• The Basics of German Present Tense Verbs
• Conjugating the German Verb Wissen, Meaning "to Know"
• Separable Prefixes in German
• Anfangen (To Begin) German Verb Conjugations
• German Regular Verbs: Past Tenses
• Learn the German Verbs 'Haben' (to Have) and 'Sein' (to Be)
• How to Conjugate the German Word Fahren
• How to Conjugate the German Verb "Laufen" (to Run, Walk)
• Conjugating the German Verb Sehen, Meaning 'to See'
• How to Conjugate the German Verb Nehmen (to Take)
• German Verbs: How to Recognize the German Subjunctive I, II
• German Verbs - Kennen - to Know
• Conjugations of the Most-Used German Verbs

• Skip to primary navigation
• Skip to main content
• Skip to primary sidebar
• Skip to footer

StoryLearning

Learn A Language Through Stories

Get A Grip On Basic German Grammar With These 7 Essential Rules

If only you could learn German by just memorising translations of words – why isn't language learning that simple?

Well, the reason is, every language uses different grammar rules to build sentences. Grammar is the framework that creates the structure of every sentence.

Essentially, grammar is a set of rules that helps you communicate accurately by composing sentences in specific ways. In this article, you'll find out the seven basic German grammar rules beginners need to know to start speaking the language right away.

German sentences appear to follow some sort of jumbled English grammar. So how do you know where to place those nouns, adverbs, adjectives, and verbs?

German grammar is actually simpler than you might imagine. (Despite what the Grammar Villain would have you believe). And by focusing your efforts on the most important rules, like the ones you'll discover in this post, you'll save time and energy. And start expressing yourself in German sooner.

By the way, if you want to learn German fast and have fun while doing it, my top recommendation is  German Uncovered  which teaches you through StoryLearning®.

With  German Uncovered  you’ll use my unique StoryLearning® method to learn tricky German grammar naturally through stories. It’s as fun as it is effective.

If you’re ready to get started,  click here for a 7-day FREE trial.

1. German Verbs Come Second, Most Of The Time

Don't worry! Verb position is one of the most straightforward grammar concepts in German. Typically, the verb (the word relating to an action) comes in the second position of a sentence. Take a look at the following examples.

• Ich liebe dich. (I love you.)
• Wir leben dort. (We live there.)
• Er studiert Medizin. (He studies medicine.)

As you may have noticed, these sentence structures are very similar in both English and German. However, when you want to ask a question, you have to move the verb to the first position.

• Liebst du mich? (Do you love me?)
• Lebt ihr dort? (Do you (plural) live there?)
• Studiert er Medizin? (Does he study medicine?)

Double verbs, separable prefixes, conjunctions, and modal verbs complicate these rules slightly. However, the rules for these cases are also relatively straightforward. Learn more about verb position in German .

2. Always Capitalise German Nouns

You may have noticed that the last sentence example capitalized the word Medizin (medicine). In German, nouns (words that name people, things and places) are always capitalised. Below are more examples.

• Ich liebe den S ommer. (I love summer.)
• Wir leben in dem H aus mit meiner M utter. (We live in the house with my mother.)
• Er studiert seit S eptember mit seinem B ruder M edizin an der Universität. (He has been studying medicine with his brother at the university since September.)

Although all nouns are capitalized, pronouns are never capitalized, unless they come at the beginning of the sentence.

3. There's A Time, Manner, And Place For German Adverbs

Adverbs, as you probably remember from school, are words that modify verbs, adjectives and even other adverbs. In English they often (but not always) end in “ly” – “quickly”, “angrily”, “actually”.

In a sentence, adverbs tell us about how, when, how often or where something happens.

The previous example – Er studiert seit September mit seinem Bruder Medizin an der Universität – shows how the word order differs slightly in German compared to English.

In German, you always need to follow the rule “time, manner, place” when determining adverb word order.

German Adverbs Of Time

• gestern — yesterday
• heute — today
• immer —always
• manchmal — sometimes
• morgen — tomorrow
• morgens — mornings
• nachmittags — in the afternoon
• nachts /abends — at night, evenings
• nie/nimmer — never
• oft — often

German Adverbs Of Manner

Adverbs of manner indicate how something happens and include words such as:

• allein(e) — alone
• eventuell — possibly
• freiwillig — voluntarily
• gern(e) — gladly
• hoffentlich — hopefully
• langsam — slowly
• leichtsinnig — recklessly
• lieber — rather
• natürlich — naturally
• sicherlich — certainly
• vielleicht — maybe
• widerwillig — stubbornly
• wütend — angrily
• zögerlich — reluctantly
• zufällig — per chance
• zusammen — together

German Adverbs Of Place

Finally, adverbs of place describe where an action takes place. Some examples include:

• da/dort — here/there
• drauβen — outside
• drinnen — inside
• hier — here
• irgendwo — somewhere
• links — left
• nirgends — nowhere
• oben — above
• rechts — right
• überall — everywhere
• unten — below
• voran — before/in front

Below are some examples of how to put the “time, manner, place” rule to practice.

• Ich bin oft (time) allein (manner) irgendwo hin (place) gegangen. (I often went somewhere alone.)
• Wir sind heute (time) zusammen (manner) hier (place). (Today we're here together.)
• Er ist gestern (time) freiwillig (manner) nach drauβen (place) gegangen. (He went outside voluntarily yesterday.)

This rule doesn't exist in English. But you'll be glad it exists in German. There's no need to think about how to structure your sentences. Simply follow the rule.

4. German Nouns Have Genders

One of the more complicated grammar concepts for native English speakers to grasp is that words have genders. In German, you have three different cases to choose from: masculine, feminine, and neuter.

The case system can take time to learn but follows clear grammatical rules. Make sure you learn the gender of a word, every time you add to your German vocabulary .

• Masculine – Der
• Feminine – Die
• Neuter – Das 

Sometimes, you'll have to memorize which gender a word has. Other times, you can figure out the gender from the word ending.

Job positions are also distinguished by gender. Take a look at the following examples:

• Der Lehrer (male teacher)
• Die Lehrerin (female teacher)
• Der Koch (male chef)
• Die Köchin (female chef)
• Der Student (male student)
• Die Studentin (female student)
• Der Künstler (male artist)
• Die Künstlerin (female artist)

Knowing the gender of nouns is essential to formulating the rest of your German sentences. You'll also need to understand the elements of your sentence.

5. German Has 4 Cases

The articles (a/an/the in English) change depending on whether a word is the subject, direct object, indirect object, or possessive object.

• The subject – You can find the subject of a sentence by asking yourself who or what is performing an action. In German, the subject takes the nominative case.
• The direct object – A direct object is a noun or pronoun on the receiving end of the subject's action. In German, the direct object takes the accusative case.
• The indirect object – This element of the sentence is passively affected by the action of the verb. In German, the indirect object takes the dative case.
• You should also note that some German prepositions take the accusative case, while others are always in the dative case. Additionally, some prepositions can take either case, depending on their use in a sentence.

If you're already familiar with sentence structure in English, you'll find it easier to identify the subject, direct object, and indirect object of a sentence.

Let's look at an example:

• Ich (subject) habe meiner Tante (indirect object) Blumen (direct object) geschenkt. I (subject) gifted my aunt (indirect object) flowers (direct object).

The graphic below gives an overview of the German cases.

As you can see, choosing the correct translation of “the” and “a” requires some thought at first. Don't worry, even if you choose wrong, native speakers will still understand you! The more you practice, with plenty of exposure to German through reading and listening, the less you'll have to think about which ending is right.

If you want to learn more, check out this 5 Part Guide to Finally Understanding the German Case System .

6. Noun Genders And Cases Determine Adjective Endings

As if having to choose from three different noun genders wasn't challenging enough, you also have to watch out for German adjective endings .

That's right, depending on the case, you'll have to decide which ending is appropriate for the preceding adjective. The good news is, there are straightforward rules to help you determine which adjective ending to use.

Let's take a look at the range of possibilities.

German Definite Article Adjective Endings “The”

German Indefinite Article Adjective Endings “A”

Both the gender of the word and its role in the sentence determine which case and endings to use. It sounds scary but it will become second nature, especially if you look out for these changes as you read and listen to German.

7. German Plural Possibilities

Unlike English, you can't always just slap an -s onto a word to create the plural form in German. The German language forms plurals in multiple ways. Some common plural endings are -e, -er, -en, -n, and -s.

Below are a few examples.

Add an -e ending to nouns ending in -eur, -ich, -ier, -ig, -ling, and -ör. Many feminine words that are single-syllable also add an -e, as well as an umlaut.

• Das Tier (the animal) – die Tiere (the animals)
• Der Likör (the liqueur) – die Liköre (the liqueurs)
• Die Hand (the hand) – die Hände (the hands)

Add -er to most single-syllable neuter nouns. An umlaut may also be necessary.

• Das Wor t (the word) – die Wörter (the words)
• Der Mann (the man) – die Männer (the men)
• Das Haus (the house) – die Häuser (the houses)

Add an -n or -en ending to masculine words ending in -e, -ent, and, -ant, -ist, -or. Feminine words ending in -e, -in, -ion, -ik, -heit, -keit, -schaft, -tät, and -ung also often take this ending.

• Der Autor (the author) – die Autoren (the authors)
• Die Blume (the flower) – die Blumen (the flowers)

Add an -s ending to words finishing with -a, -i, -o, -u, and -y.

• Das Auto (the car) – die Autos (the cars)
• Das Kino (the cinema) – die Kinos (the cinemas)
• Die Mutti  (the mother) – die Muttis  (the mother)

As in English, some German nouns are the same in both their singular and plural forms. In this case, only the word's article reveals which form is intended.

For example, der Löffel (the spoon) becomes die Löffel (the spoons). There are also several exceptions to the above rules that you'll have to become familiar with through immersion in German.

Start Communicating With Basic German Grammar

Although German sentence structure may not seem to make sense, at first sight, there are specific rules behind the apparent chaos.

Fortunately for you, many aspects of German grammar follow straightforward rules and have few exceptions.

However, many of these rules take time to learn. The good news is that as you listen to German podcasts and read German books , these rules will become second nature to you. But you will need to immerse yourself in the language for this.

The seven essential grammar rules above will help you dive right into German as a beginner. And get you started so you can connect with native speakers.

Even if you haven't mastered German grammar, continue to practice the language. German speakers will still understand you if you make mistakes. And will applaud your effort to learn their language!

Learn German Through Story

Now that you know some basic German grammar, you might be even more excited to learn the language. But you're probably still wondering how you can make the essential grammar second nature, so you can use it effortlessly in conversation.

Well, in German Uncovered , my story-based beginner course, all the learning happens in the context of a page-turning tale. You learn the key vocabulary and grammar of German as you read the story, with guidance from an expert German teacher.

Thanks to the compelling content, you learn and retain the language better than in traditional methods where you learn grammar or vocabulary in isolation, without a rich context to make the meaning clear.

So if you're a German beginner who'd like to reach intermediate level without wrestling with tricky German grammar points, make sure you check out German Uncovered .

With this course, you learn to speak German through a fun and natural method that makes learning a pleasure, and grammar a breeze! And who doesn't want that!?

Are you feeling more confident about basic German grammar after reading this post? Which German grammar points do you find tricky? Let me know in a comment below. 

Language Courses

• Language Blog
• Testimonials
• Meet Our Team
• Media & Press

Download this article as a FREE PDF ?

What is your current level in Swedish?

Perfect! You’ve now got access to my most effective [level] Swedish tips…

Where shall I send the tips and your PDF?

We will protect your data in accordance with our data policy.

What is your current level in Danish?

Perfect! You’ve now got access to my most effective [level] Danish tips…

NOT INTERESTED?

What can we do better? If I could make something to help you right now, w hat would it be?

Which language are you learning?

What is your current level in [language] ?

Perfect! You’ve now got access to my most effective [level] [language] tips, PLUS your free StoryLearning Kit…

Where shall I send them?

Download this article as a FREE PDF?

Great! Where shall I send my best online teaching tips and your PDF?

Download this article as a FREE PDF ? 

What is your current level in Arabic?

Perfect! You’ve now got access to my most effective [level] Arabic tips…

FREE StoryLearning Kit!

Join my email newsletter and get FREE access to your StoryLearning Kit — discover how to learn languages through the power of story!

Download a FREE Story in Japanese!

Enter your email address below to get a  FREE short story in Japanese and start learning Japanese quickly and naturally with my StoryLearning® method!

What is your current level in Japanese?

Perfect! You’ve now got access to the Japanese StoryLearning® Pack …

Where shall I send your download link?

Download Your  FREE   Natural Japanese Grammar Pack

Enter your email address below to get free access to my Natural Japanese Grammar Pack and learn to internalise Japanese grammar quickly and naturally through stories.

Perfect! You’ve now got access to the Natural Japanese Grammar Pack …

What is your current level in Portuguese?

Perfect! You’ve now got access to the Natural Portuguese Grammar Pack …

What is your current level in German?

Perfect! You’ve now got access to the Natural German Grammar Pack …

Train as an Online Language Teacher and Earn from Home

The next cohort of my Certificate of Online Language Teaching will open soon. Join the waiting list, and we’ll notify you as soon as enrolment is open!

Perfect! You’ve now got access to my most effective [level] Portuguese tips…

What is your current level in Turkish?

Perfect! You’ve now got access to my most effective [level] Turkish tips…

What is your current level in French?

Perfect! You’ve now got access to the French Vocab Power Pack …

What is your current level in Italian?

Perfect! You’ve now got access to the Italian Vocab Power Pack …

Perfect! You’ve now got access to the German Vocab Power Pack …

Perfect! You’ve now got access to the Japanese Vocab Power Pack …

Download Your  FREE Japanese Vocab Power Pack

Enter your email address below to get free access to my Japanese Vocab Power Pack and learn essential Japanese words and phrases quickly and naturally. (ALL levels!)

Download Your  FREE German Vocab Power Pack

Enter your email address below to get free access to my German Vocab Power Pack and learn essential German words and phrases quickly and naturally. (ALL levels!)

Download Your  FREE Italian Vocab Power Pack

Enter your email address below to get free access to my Italian Vocab Power Pack and learn essential Italian words and phrases quickly and naturally. (ALL levels!)

Download Your  FREE French Vocab Power Pack

Enter your email address below to get free access to my French Vocab Power Pack and learn essential French words and phrases quickly and naturally. (ALL levels!)

Perfect! You’ve now got access to the Portuguese StoryLearning® Pack …

What is your current level in Russian?

Perfect! You’ve now got access to the Natural Russian Grammar Pack …

Perfect! You’ve now got access to the Russian StoryLearning® Pack …

Perfect! You’ve now got access to the Italian StoryLearning® Pack …

Perfect! You’ve now got access to the Natural Italian Grammar Pack …

Perfect! You’ve now got access to the French StoryLearning® Pack …

Perfect! You’ve now got access to the Natural French Grammar Pack …

What is your current level in Spanish?

Perfect! You’ve now got access to the Spanish Vocab Power Pack …

Perfect! You’ve now got access to the Natural Spanish Grammar Pack …

Perfect! You’ve now got access to the Spanish StoryLearning® Pack …

Where  shall I send them?

What is your current level in Korean?

Perfect! You’ve now got access to my most effective [level] Korean tips…

Perfect! You’ve now got access to my most effective [level] Russian tips…

Perfect! You’ve now got access to my most effective [level] Japanese tips…

What is your current level in Chinese?

Perfect! You’ve now got access to my most effective [level] Chinese tips…

Perfect! You’ve now got access to my most effective [level] Spanish tips…

Perfect! You’ve now got access to my most effective [level] Italian tips…

Perfect! You’ve now got access to my most effective [level] French tips…

Perfect! You’ve now got access to my most effective [level] German tips…

Download Your  FREE   Natural Portuguese Grammar Pack

Enter your email address below to get free access to my Natural Portuguese Grammar Pack and learn to internalise Portuguese grammar quickly and naturally through stories.

Download Your  FREE   Natural Russian Grammar Pack

Enter your email address below to get free access to my Natural Russian Grammar Pack and learn to internalise Russian grammar quickly and naturally through stories.

Download Your  FREE   Natural German Grammar Pack

Enter your email address below to get free access to my Natural German Grammar Pack and learn to internalise German grammar quickly and naturally through stories.

Download Your  FREE   Natural French Grammar Pack

Enter your email address below to get free access to my Natural French Grammar Pack and learn to internalise French grammar quickly and naturally through stories.

Download Your  FREE   Natural Italian Grammar Pack

Enter your email address below to get free access to my Natural Italian Grammar Pack and learn to internalise Italian grammar quickly and naturally through stories.

Download a FREE Story in Portuguese!

Enter your email address below to get a  FREE short story in Brazilian Portuguese and start learning Portuguese quickly and naturally with my StoryLearning® method!

Download a FREE Story in Russian!

Enter your email address below to get a  FREE short story in Russian and start learning Russian quickly and naturally with my StoryLearning® method!

Download a FREE Story in German!

Enter your email address below to get a  FREE short story in German and start learning German quickly and naturally with my StoryLearning® method!

Perfect! You’ve now got access to the German StoryLearning® Pack …

Download a FREE Story in Italian!

Enter your email address below to get a  FREE short story in Italian and start learning Italian quickly and naturally with my StoryLearning® method!

Download a FREE Story in French!

Enter your email address below to get a  FREE short story in French and start learning French quickly and naturally with my StoryLearning® method!

Download a FREE Story in Spanish!

Enter your email address below to get a  FREE short story in Spanish and start learning Spanish quickly and naturally with my StoryLearning® method!

FREE Download:

The rules of language learning.

Enter your email address below to get free access to my Rules of Language Learning and discover 25 “rules” to learn a new language quickly and naturally through stories.

What can we do  better ? If I could make something to help you right now, w hat would it be?

What is your current level in [language]?

Perfect! You’ve now got access to my most effective [level]  [language] tips…

Download Your  FREE Spanish Vocab Power Pack

Enter your email address below to get free access to my Spanish Vocab Power Pack and learn essential Spanish words and phrases quickly and naturally. (ALL levels!)

Download Your  FREE   Natural Spanish Grammar Pack

Enter your email address below to get free access to my Natural Spanish Grammar Pack and learn to internalise Spanish grammar quickly and naturally through stories.

Free Step-By-Step Guide:

How to generate a full-time income from home with your English… even with ZERO previous teaching experience.

What is your current level in Thai?

Perfect! You’ve now got access to my most effective [level] Thai tips…

What is your current level in Cantonese?

Perfect! You’ve now got access to my most effective [level] Cantonese tips…

Steal My Method?

I’ve written some simple emails explaining the techniques I’ve used to learn 8 languages…

I want to be skipped!

I’m the lead capture, man!

Join 84,574 other language learners getting StoryLearning tips by email…

“After I started to use your ideas, I learn better, for longer, with more passion. Thanks for the life-change!” – Dallas Nesbit

Perfect! You’ve now got access to my most effective [level] [language] tips…

Perfect! You’ve now got access to my most effective [level]   [language] tips…

Join 122,238 other language learners getting StoryLearning tips by email…

Find the perfect language course for you.

Looking for world-class training material to help you make a breakthrough in your language learning?

Click ‘start now’ and complete this short survey to find the perfect course for you!

Do you like the idea of learning through story?

Do you want…?

Conjugate all German verbs

Conjugate more than 23,000 regular and irregular German verbs. The conjugation of verbs shows you all finite and infinite forms in a verb table . To display all tenses, grammar and meanings , simply enter a verb or verb form in the input field of the conjugator.

Search in the Netzverb Dictionary

A1 · verb · sein · irregular · separable · passive · < also: intransitive · transitive >

f ä hr t ab · f u hr ab ( f ü hr e ab ) · ist ab ge fahr en

sich (fahrend, im Fahrzeug) von einem Ort wegbegeben; eine bestimmte Strecke entlangfahren; davonfahren; abfliegen; anfahren; entlangfahren

( acc. , von +D , nach +D , auf +A )

A1 · verb · haben · irregular · separable · < also: transitive · reflexive · passive >

f ä hr t ab · f u hr ab ( f ü hr e ab ) · hat ab ge fahr en

etwas von einem Ort (fahrend, mit einem Fahrzeug) an einen anderen Ort bringen; etwas (fahrend, bei der Fahrt, mit einem Fahrzeug) abtrennen; abtransportieren; abrasieren; entlangfahren; abblitzen

( sich +A , dat. , acc. , von +D , auf +A )

A1 · verb · haben · irregular · separable · < also: transitive · passive >

flieg t ab · fl o g ab ( fl ö g e ab ) · hat ab ge fl o g en

mit einem Luftfahrzeug von einem Ort (Unfallort) wegbringen; eine Strecke prüfend überfliegen, suchend entlangfliegen; ausfliegen

( acc. , von +D , nach +D )

A1 · verb · sein · irregular · separable · < also: intransitive · transitive >

flieg t ab · fl o g ab ( fl ö g e ab ) · ist ab ge fl o g en

einen Ort fliegend verlassen; fortfliegen; losfliegen; wegfliegen; davonfliegen; starten

A1 · verb · haben · irregular · separable · < also: transitive · intransitive · reflexive >

g i b t ab · g a b ab ( g ä b e ab ) · hat ab ge geb en

jemandem etwas geben, der es haben soll oder verlangt; bei Ballspielen den Ball einem Mitspieler zukommen lassen; einreichen; abschieben (auf); verteilen; passen

( sich +A , dat. , acc. , von +D , bei +D , an +A , in +A , mit +D )

A1 · verb · haben · regular · separable · transitive · passive

hol t ab · hol te ab · hat ab ge hol t

von einem Ort nehmen, um es (mit sich) an einen anderen zu bringen; jemand an einem vereinbarten Ort treffen und mit ihm an einen anderen Ort gehen; abführen; holen; verhaften; einsammeln

A1 · verb · haben · regular · separable · < also: transitive · intransitive · passive >

rechn et ab · rechn ete ab · hat ab ge rechn et

mittels einem Rechenverfahren von etwas abziehen; die letzte Rechnung erstellen und diese bezahlen; abziehen; subtrahieren; liquidieren; Abschluss machen

( acc. , von +D , mit +D )

sag t ab · sag te ab · hat ab ge sag t

etwas Angekündigtes widerrufen, eine Veranstaltung oder sonstiges nicht stattfinden lassen; vermindernd; abblasen; abtragen; canceln; abziehen

( dat. , acc. )

» Die angekündigte Party wurde ab ge sag t .

A1 · verb · haben · irregular · separable · passive · < also: transitive · reflexive >

biet et an · b o t an ( b ö t e an ) · hat an ge b o t en

etwas zum Essen, Trinken oder Genuss vorsetzen, bereitstellen; etwas zum Kauf, Tausch, Übernahme oder dergleichen ausstellen, bereitstellen; kredenzen; andienen; anregen; sich aufdrängen

acc. , ( sich +A , dat. , zu +D , für +A , als )

A1 · verb · haben · irregular · separable · < also: transitive · intransitive >

f ä ng t an · f i ng an ( f i ng e an ) · hat an ge fang en

etwas beginnen; zuwege bringen; beginnen; öffnen; lancieren; mit sich bringen

( acc. , von +D , bei +D , mit +D , als )

» Erst als die Influencer anf i ng en , die Produkte in die Kamera zu halten, ging das Geschäft richtig los.

A1 · verb · haben · regular · separable · transitive · < also: passive >

klick t an · klick te an · hat an ge klick t

durch einen Klick mit der Maus markieren oder auswählen

komm t / k ö mm t ⁷ an · k am an ( k äm e an ) · ist an ge komm en

ein Ziel erreichen; wichtig sein; (ein Ziel) erreichen; antanzen; herkommen; geboren werden

( dat. , acc. , auf +D , für +A , bei +D , gegen +A , in +D , mit +D , auf +A )

Content and structure of the verb tables

The individual verb forms are shown as a table. For a quick orientation, the table first shows an overview with all essential conjugation features of the verb: irregular or regular, possible auxiliary verbs and details of the separability. In addition, the basic forms are listed, in which you can recognizes all these features.

Example lauf en : l äu f t , l ie f , ist ge lauf en

💡 For learners of the German language, it is extremely important to remember the basic forms of the verb as key point!

Subsequently, all finite forms of the verb are broken down into the indicative, subjunctive and imperative modes. Finally, the table shows all infinitives (infinitive I and II with and without zu ) as well as the participle (participle I and participle II). The infinite verb forms are relevant for the creation of the composite tenses.

The conjugation is available in Russian and German Language also.

Conjugation rules

Detailed rules for conjugation

What is conjugation?

Conjugation is the creation of derived forms of a verb. Conjugated verbs are used to express the characteristics of person, number, tense, voice and mode in the German language. In order to form the forms, the division into regular and irregular Verbs is fundamental. Irregular verbs are, for the most part, strong verbs. The creation of verb forms deviates from regular conjugation. The regular verbs are all from the class of weak verbs. For the formation of the verb forms, the separability of prefixes and the auxiliary verb to be used is also relevant.

Further Information:

• Grammatical conjugation (Wikipedia)
• Conjugation of German verbs (Netzverb)
• Definition of German words (Netzverb Dictionary)

Most wanted German verbs

List of the most frequently searched German verbs

≡  sein Conjugation ≡  werden Conjugation ≡  haben Conjugation ≡  gehen Conjugation ≡  essen Conjugation ≡  können Conjugation ≡  machen Conjugation ≡  kommen Conjugation ≡  lesen Conjugation ≡  möchten Conjugation ≡  mögen Conjugation ≡  sehen Conjugation ≡  einen Conjugation ≡  bleiben Conjugation ≡  müssen Conjugation ≡  lassen Conjugation ≡  stehen Conjugation ≡  beginnen Conjugation ≡  nehmen Conjugation ≡  sprechen Conjugation ≡  geben Conjugation ≡  laufen Conjugation ≡  arbeiten Conjugation ≡  wissen Conjugation ≡  finden Conjugation ≡  sollen Conjugation ≡  dürfen Conjugation ≡  fallen Conjugation ≡  anrufen Conjugation ≡  reden Conjugation ≡  fahren Conjugation ≡  tragen Conjugation ≡  schreiben Conjugation ≡  vergessen Conjugation ≡  treffen Conjugation ≡  bereichern Conjugation ≡  anfangen Conjugation ≡  leben Conjugation ≡  hören Conjugation ≡  ankommen Conjugation ≡  schlafen Conjugation ≡  bekommen Conjugation ≡  trinken Conjugation ≡  kochen Conjugation ≡  fahren Conjugation ≡  wollen Conjugation ≡  erzählen Conjugation ≡  halten Conjugation ≡  bringen Conjugation ≡  kaufen Conjugation ≡  denken Conjugation ≡  waschen Conjugation ≡  sitzen Conjugation ≡  besuchen Conjugation ≡  helfen Conjugation ≡  singen Conjugation ≡  gefallen Conjugation ≡  bieten Conjugation ≡  heißen Conjugation ≡  aufstehen Conjugation

Our heroes who help us with the translations

Become a hero yourself by adding new translations and rating existing ones.

September 2021 Unsere SatzApp analysiert nun [ollständige Sätze und bestimmt automatisch die Satzglieder Subjekt, Prädikat und Objekt sowie Haupt- und Nebensätze.

April 2021 Neue Suche mit allen relevanten Informationen zur Grammatik, Bedeutung, Verwendung und Übersetzungen. Außerdem kann nun auch nach der Übersetzung gesucht werden. Am besten gleich mal ausprobieren: Suche .

• , June 21, 2022

#1 Ultimate Guide To German Verbs

Are you ready for a grammar session? To learn German verbs properly, it’s important that you understand German verb conjugation.

Like English and mainly Dutch, the German language conjugates its verbs. Also, similar to the French, Germans also have formal and informal designations for ‘you.’

In this article, you’ll learn about German conjugation, regular and irregular verbs using the most commonly used verbs.

You’ll also learn how to conjugate present, past simple, and future tense verbs. In addition, We’ll include a German verbs list throughout the article.

The conjugation rules aren’t that difficult; all it takes is dedication and memorization to learn. Let’s go!

Why Is It Important To Learn German Verb Conjugation?

Verbs are used in every sentence whether you have a conversation, writing, or reading, so you really must know how to conjugate verbs and recognize them.

Subjects And Pronouns In German

In German sentence structure, pronouns are used to replace nouns in a sentence. Pronouns will affect how a verb is conjugated in German.

There are formal and informal ways to address someone by the pronoun, ‘you,’ which is also often used in conjunction with ‘they.’

German Verb Tenses

In total, German has six verb tenses, and they are:

• Simple present
• Simple past
• Past perfect

Interestingly, there are no “ continuous ” or “ progressive ” tenses. This means that none of the German action verbs end with -ing.

German Verbs

In addition to six verb tenses, there are also three different classes of verbs. The three types of German verbs are:

• Weak verbs (Regular verbs)
• Strong verbs (irregular verbs)
• Mixed verbs

Within these classes, however, are regular and irregular verbs. This means that regular verbs all follow the same conjugation patterns, while irregular verbs have unique patterns.

German Weak Verbs (Regular Verbs) Simple Present Tense

To use a weak verb (regular verb) requires you to learn a simple trick! The first thing you must do is reduce the verb to its ‘stem.’

When looking at a list of verbs in German, you’ll notice that the verbs in the infinitive verb form all end with -en. Let’s take a look:

You need to remove the -en to return the word to its stem form. Therefore you would get:

finden = find, sehen = seh, wissen = wiss

Once you have reduced the verb to its stem form, all you have to do is follow this pattern of verb conjugation:

Verb To Let (lassen, verb stem lass)

Verb to lie ( liegen, verb stem lieg), german weak verbs (regular verbs) simple past tense.

The rules of regular German simple past verbs are precisely the same as the simple present regular verb rules.

Here are what simple past regular verb conjugation looks like in German:

Verb To Know (kennen, verb stem kenn)

Verb to stop (halten, stem halt), strong verbs (irregular verbs).

About 90% of the verbs in German are regular. However, more than 200 verbs are irregular. Learning the difference will take lots of time and practice, and we suggest  that Ling App  help you continuously study these verb conjugations, so you don’t forget all these rules!

 German auxiliary and modal verbs are mostly irregular so let’s take a look at those.

Common Auxiliary Verbs In German – Present Tense

Verb To Have (haben)

Verb To Be (sien)

Verb To Can/Be Able To (önnen)

Verb To Want (wollen)

Verb To Know (wissen)

Irregular Verbs In German – Past Tense

Thankfully there is a much clearer and easier to memorize pattern with German past tense auxiliary verbs.

There are easier rules to follow, and the spelling of the stem word doesn’t change, except for the verb to be.

• ich hatte (I had)
• du hattest (You had)
• er hatte (He had)
• sie hatte (She had)
• es hatte (It had)
• wir hatten (We had)
• ihr hattet You had)
• sie hatten (They had)
• ich war (I was)
• du warst (You were)
• er war (He was)
• sie war (She was)
• es war (It was)
• wir waren (We were)
• ihr waret (You were)
• sie s waren (They were)
• ich könnte (I could)
• du könntest (You could)
• er könnte (He could)
• sie könnte (She could)
• es könnte (It could)
• wir könnten (We could)
• ihr könntet (You could)
• sie könnten (They could)
• ich wollte (I wanted)
• du wolltest (You wanted)
• er wollte (He wanted)
• sie wollte (She wanted)
• es wollte (It wanted)
• wir wollten (We wanted)
• ihr wolltet (You wanted)
• sie wollten (They wanted)
• ich wusste (I knew)
• du wusstest (You knew)
• er wusste (He knew)
• sie wusste (She knew)
• es wusste (It knew)
• wir wussten (We knew)
• ihr wusstet (You knew)
• sie wussten (They knew)

Future Tense 1 In German

To talk about something in the future, just like in English, Germans use the verb ‘will.’ The sentence structure for future1 tense in German is:

Subject + verb to will + infinitive verb

The verb to will (werden, stem verb werd)

These are two examples:

• wir werden sehen (We will watch)
• Ich werde schreiben (I will write)

Future Tense 2 In German

This is essentially future perfect when an event is expected to have been completed by the time it happens in the future.

The sentence structure looks like this:

verb to will + past tense verb + unconjugated verb to have or verb to be

Here are some examples:

• In zwei Wochen werden wir die Prüfungen geschrieben haben (In two weeks we will have written the tests)
• Heute in einem Jahr werden wir schon unseren Urlaub in Australien verbracht haben. (A year from today we will already have had our vacation in Australia)

Here’s A List Of Some Other Most Common German Verbs

You made it to the end.

This article certainly had a lot to learn about important German and common German verbs and all their different verb tenses.

The German language is incredibly similar to Dutch, and actually, it’s not very different from English due to the grammar rules.

Still, we know this was a lot to take in, and learning a new language is better done in pieces with dedicated practice.

That’s why we recommend Ling App to help you become a master of German verbs! Our mascot Ling will be with you daily to remind you to practice your German and encourage you along the way.

Ling is free to try and offers over 60 other languages to learn right at your fingertips if you find that German just isn’t the right fit for you. 

Go ahead! Try it now.

Download Ling today and start speaking confidently in German!

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

People also read

20+ Most Common Irish Verbs You Should Master

5 Best Things To Know About Irish Culture

20+ Easy Sports Vocabulary In Irish

80+ Best Irish Vocabulary For Restaurants You Must Know Now

Top 3 Types Of Hobbies In Irish: Best Vocabulary

25+ Best Food Ingredients In Irish Cuisine

What makes learning with ling special, interactive exercises.

Improve your pronunciation by starting a conversation with our app’s interactive chatbot

Engaging activities

Practice your skills with mini-games and track your progress with fun quizzes

Mix of languages

Choose from over 60 languages, both big and small, and listen to audio from native speakers

Proven results

Backed by linguistic research, our learning methods can help you achieve fluency in record time

Southeast Asia

East europe.

© 2024 Simya Solutions Ltd.

Shopping Cart

No products in the cart.

German institute

In your B1 German course at German Institute you will learn how to deal with most situations (e.g. when traveling). You will also learn to express yourself orally and in writing about your areas of interest. Therefore, you will also learn grammatical structures that are important for written expression, such as relative clauses, genitives, double connectors, subjunctive II and passive voice.

Here you can find some free grammar exercises:

B1 Grammar (B1.1 basics)

B1 grammar (b1.2 basics).

• Adjectives as nouns
• N-declension
• Simple past – type 1
• Simple past – type 2
• Simple past – type 3
• Relative clause (dative)
• Relative clause (accusative)
• Relative clause (with preposition)
• Relative clauses
• Conjunction/conjunctional adverb: “Obwohl” (“although”) and “trotzdem” (“still”)
• Future I – formation
• Future I – use
• Conjunctions: “wenn,” “falls,” and “ob” (different ways to say “if”)
• Infinitives with and without “zu”
• Conjunctions: “da,” “weil,” “während,” “bevor” (“since,” “because,” “while,” and “before”)
• Comparative and superlative I
• Comparative and superlative II
• Subjunctive II (past)
• Subjunctive II: Hypothetical wishes
• Past perfect
• Conjunction: “nachdem” (“after”)
• Genitive II
• Preposition: “trotz” (despite”)
• Adjektiv declension (genitive)
• Causal conjunctions
• Preposition: “wegen” (“due to”) + genitive
• Participles as adjectives
• Conjunction: “sowohl…als auch” (“as well as”)
• Conjunction: “nicht nur…sondern auch” (“not only…but also”)
• Conjunction: “weder…noch” (“neither…nor”) and “entweder…oder” (“either…or”)
• Verb: nicht/nur “brauchen” (“to not need”/”only need”)
• Verb: “brauchen” (“to need”) + noun
• Expressions with “es” (“it”)
• “Es” or no “es”
• Conjunction: “zwar…aber” (“though…”)
• Wort formation: nouns
• Conjunction: “je…desto” (“the…the”)
• Modal particle
• Conjunctions: “indem” (“by”) and “sodass” (“so that”)
• Causal, modal, and consecutive clauses
• Local and temporal prepositions
• Simple present passive using modal verbs
• Present perfect passive and simple past passive
• Conjunctions “anstatt” / “ohne”…”zu” / “dass” (“instead of” and “without”)
• Conjunction: “damit / um…zu” (“so that”)
• “Als ob” (“as if”) + subjunctive II

B1+ Grammar (B1 plus – part 1)

• Tense forms: speaking about past events
• Simple past and present perfect of irregular verbs I
• Simple past and present perfect of irregular verbs II
• Simple past and present perfect of irregular verbs III
• Verbs and complements
• Use of simple past, present perfect, and past perfect
• Separable and inseparable verbs (trennbare und untrennbare Verben)
• Plural formation
• Adjective declension
• Comparative and superlative
• Causal, concessive, and consecutive clauses

B1+ Grammar (B1 plus – part 2)

• Verbs with prepositions
• Futur I: speaking about future events
• Futur I: conjectures
• Reflexive verbs
• Was/wo/wohin/woher (which/where/whither/whence) as relative pronouns
• “damit” (“so that”), um… zu (“to”), “zum” (“to”) + nominalised infinitive
• Subjunctive II
• Conjunctions: Temporal clauses
• Temporal prepositions
• Passive voice
• Local prepositions (with two-way prepositions)
• Common mistakes

Looking for B1 grammar exercises? We recommend the following books.

Grammar active A1-B1

German as a Foreign Language – 2nd updated edition – A1-B1: Understanding, Practicing, Speaking – Practice Grammar – Incl. PagePlayer App Paperback – January 30 2023

Price: 19,99 Euro

Exercise grammar German as a foreign language, language level B1/B2 Paperback – 1. September 2011

Price: 19,90 Euro

Grammar country 2

German as a Foreign Language / Exercise Grammar for Children and Adolescents Paperback – 16. September 2022

Price: 25 euros

B1 Vocabulary

You want to practise your vocabulary? German Institute offers you various free exercises.

B1 German language course

In our B1 German language course at German Institute, you will study German grammar using structured techniques. You can do your course at our school facility or online. Our courses are communicative and primarily directed towards academics.

• Deutsch ( German )
• Ελληνικα ( Greek )
• Türkçe ( Turkish )

‘Schreiben’ Conjugations

‘Schreiben’ conjugations translate to ‘I write / wrote / will write, etc.’ The infinitive verb ‘schreiben’ (‘to write’ in English) is one of the very first German verbs you should learn.

‘Schreiben’ is a common German verb that you’ll need to use in various tenses and moods in order to communicate in everyday spoken & written German.

Get Unstuck With German

Finally understand hard-to-grasp German grammar concepts.

Learning ‘schreiben’ is tricky because German verbs have more conjugation options compared to English verbs –so there’s more that our brains have to remember!

Key Takeaways

• ‘Schreiben’ (‘to write’) is a commonly used infinitive verb in German.
• there are more ‘schreiben’ conjugation options than what we have in English.
• you need to learn ‘schreiben’ conjugations for multiple tenses and moods .

How is ‘Schreiben’ Used in German?

Knowing how to correctly use ‘schreiben’ in its many diverse forms allows you to speak masterfully in German in a wide variety of contexts.

‘Schreiben’ allows you to talk about yourself and others ‘writing’ (I write a paper/I wrote a letter/I will write a poem/ etc.) in all manner of situations past, present, future, and hypothetical. 

You’ll use ‘schreiben’ in order to …

• ✅ Talk about what / how / when / etc. someone is writing.
• ✅ Utilize certain idioms and other common figures of speech.
• ✅ Say that someone writes, wrote, will have written, will write, etc .

What Are The 6 Conjugations of ‘Schreiben’? 

The 6 conjugations of ‘schreiben’ in the present tense line up with our 6 subject pronouns to give us ‘ich schreibe’, ‘du schreibst’, ‘er / sie / es schreibt’, ‘wir schreiben’, ‘ihr schreibt’, and ‘sie schreiben.’

There are, of course, even more forms of ‘schreiben’ in other tenses (and moods). 

But it’s best to first focus strictly on the present tense conjugations of ‘schreiben’, so let’s look at it side-by-side with the English ‘to write’:

‘Schreiben’ (in English)

‘Schreiben’ in German is ‘to write’ in English. And in the present tense, we have two possible conjugations: ‘write’, and ‘writes’.

In the case of ‘write’, it is recycled –that is, it’s used with multiple different pronouns (i.e. I, you, we, they). It’s only he/she/it that uses its own unique conjugation ‘writes’.

Those same conjugations in German look like this:

‘Schreiben’ (Present Tense) English vs German

Comparing German & English

It’s important to notice the patterns of similarities and differences at this point. 

Ask yourself these questions:

• Where does German ‘recycle’ the same conjugations?
• Are the German & English changes to ‘schreiben’ (to write) occurring with equivalent pronouns?
• Which language includes more changes compared to the other? 

‘Schreiben’ in the Present Tense

The present tense conjugations of ‘schreiben’ are ich schreibe, du schreibst, er / sie / es schreibt, wir schreiben, ihr schreibt, and sie schreiben.

Put into a typical conjugation table, these options are presented like this:

Present Tense Conjugation Chart:

You truly haven’t even begun to learn ‘schreiben’ until you know ALL the nominative case pronouns and which form of ‘schreiben’ each of them takes.

To talk about the conjugations of ‘schreiben’ used by the various pronouns, we have to work backward by starting with the pronouns . 

And in order to understand nominative case (i.e. subject) pronouns, we need to talk about the grammar concept of ‘persons’.

What are ‘persons’?

The ‘persons’ (I, you, they, etc.) are split into two categories that interact with each other: 

There are 3 subcategories of ‘persons’ (1st Person, 2nd Person, and 3rd Person) and each of these has a ‘singular’ and a ‘plural’ variant. 

When we intersect this information on Y and X axes, we get these ultra-familiar English subject pronouns:

English Subject Pronouns Chart

Now, here is the German version of the same table of subject pronouns: 

German Subject Pronouns Chart

German & english pronouns side-by-side.

Where do English and German line up and where are there differences?

English and German have 1-to-1 equivalents for all pronouns … except that German has extra pronouns for ‘you’ (highlighted).

FULL German Subject Pronouns Chart

Understanding the ‘ihr’ plural of ‘du’ is straightforward enough: Americans might relate it to the concept of y’all. We’re simply talking to multiple ‘you’s at the same time.

But what is the deal with the singular and plural ‘Sie’?

Formal vs. Informal ‘You’

If you took high school Spanish, you’ve already been exposed to the idea of ‘you’ having an informal version and a formal version (e.g. ‘tu’ [informal] and ‘Usted’ [formal]).

It’s the exact same idea in German.

We need to use the formal ‘you’ when we address …

• someone we don’t intimately know 
• someone to whom we want to show additional respect
• someone in a relative position of authority 

Of course, these separate categories have some obvious potential overlaps in that many times we perceive others as authority figures whom we also genuinely respect and with whom we wouldn’t go out to a pub for a beer because we don’t know them intimately enough.

When to Use the Formal ‘ Sie’

As you can see in the table, if you’re using the formal address ‘Sie’, it doesn’t matter if you’re talking to one person or multiple –the pronoun AND its conjugation of ‘schreiben’ stays the same:

German Subject Pronoun & ‘Schreiben’ Conjugations Chart:

In German, you generally need to use this formal version of ‘you’ if you’re talking with…

• professionals (e.g. clerks, police officers, doctors, plumbers, etc.) 
• leaders (e.g. priests, politicians, choir directors, bosses, etc.)
• elders (e.g. anyone clearly at least a generation older than you are)

Examples of ‘Schreiben’

Knowing how to use ‘schreiben’ in the present tense for all the 1st, 2nd (formal and informal) and 3rd persons, singular and plural, is exactly what you should know for now. 

1st Person, Singular & Plural

Ich schreibe die Doktorarbeit. (I am writing the doctoral thesis) Ich schreibe das letzte Buch. (I am writing the last book.)

Wir schreiben die Doktorarbeit. (We are writing the doctoral thesis.) Wir schreiben das letzte Buch. (We are writing the last book.)

2nd Person (Informal), Singular & Plural

Du schreibst die Doktorarbeit. (You are writing the doctoral thesis.) Du schreibst das letzte Buch. (You are writing the last book.)

Ihr schreibt die Doktorarbeit. (You are writing the doctoral thesis.) Ihr schreibt das letzte Buch. (You are writing the last book.)

2nd Person (Formal), Singular & Plural

Sie schreiben die Doktorarbeit. (You are writing the doctoral thesis.) Sie schreiben das letzte Buch. (You are writing the last book.)

3rd Person, Singular & Plural

Die Frau schreibt die Doktorarbeit. (The woman is writing the doctoral thesis.) Die Frau schreibt das letzte Buch. (The woman is writing the last book.)

Die Frauen schreiben die Doktorarbeit. (The women are writing the doctoral thesis.) Die Frauen schreiben das letzte Buch. (The women are writing the last book.)

Learning all of this is a big task for almost every German learner.

I’ll teach you step-by-step.

There are several interesting points to make on the above examples so that you can further your general knowledge of German beyond specifics of ‘schreiben’.

• There are multiple ways to say ‘the’ in German –such as DIE Doktorarbeit and DAS Buch. Learn more about German noun gender here .
• The base adjective ‘letzt’ means ‘last’, but it exists either as letzter, letzte, letztes, letzten, or letztem in any German sentence. Learn more about German declensions here.
• Almost every English noun pluralizes simply with ‘s’ (e.g. doctor -> doctors), but German has SEVEN different options that we have to know how to choose between! You may have noticed specifically the -en plural at play in both ‘Frau’ (woman) -> ‘Frauen’ (women). Learn more about German noun plurals here.

Skills You’ll Need to Use ‘Schreiben’ Conjugations:

‘Schreiben’ makes it possible to relay information about writing (and also spelling, typing, recording, authoring, corresponding, etc.) in all manner of situations past, present, future, and hypothetical. 

‘Schreiben’ is such a common, everyday verb that you can’t masterfully speak German if you don’t understand how to use its various conjugations.

• ✅ Talk about the various nuanced applications of writing.
• ✅ Use figure of speech (e.g. ‘to chalk up profits’ uses ‘schreiben’ in German)
• ✅ Use a lot of common idioms (e.g. ‘etwas in den Wind schreiben’ / to kiss sth. goodbye’)
• ✅ Talk about ‘writing’ in the past, present, and future (I will write…, etc.)
• ✅ Speak hypothetically (e.g. I would have written, if only …)
• ✅ Give a command or make a suggestion (e.g. ‘write neatly!’)

Building Blocks You Need For ‘Schreiben’

‘Schreiben’ conjugations empower you to express yourself in a LOT of different ways. You need to correctly wield ‘schreiben’ in a variety of contexts in order to speak German capably, comfortably, and confidently.

To correctly use ‘schreiben’ in various tenses and moods, to give commands or offer suggestions, or to speak hypothetically, you need to build these foundational skills:

• Know the subject [i.e. nominative] pronouns for all singular & plural persons.
• Learn the present and simple past tense conjugations of ‘schreiben’ for all persons.
• Learn the ‘schreiben’ conjugations for the conditional, subjunctive, and imperative moods.
• Know when to use the infinitive form vs. past participle of ‘schreiben’.

Terminology Explained

subject pronouns are the words ‘I’, ‘you’, ‘he’, ‘she’, ‘it’, ‘we’ and ‘they’ in English. German has these same options BUT also three more! These pronouns are categorized as ‘persons’ that are either singular (e.g. ‘I’) or plural (e.g. ‘we’). 

conjugations are slight changes to a verb that line up with different ‘persons’ –for example, ‘I write’ (base verb) vs. ‘he writes’ (with the added ‘s’). English generally has only these two conjugations, but German typically uses four conjugations.

tense & mood are simply variants of a verb such as present tense (‘I write’), past tense (‘I wrote’), future tense (‘I will write’), and subjunctive mood (‘I would write, [if]…’). German and English have all the same verb tenses and moods and they function similarly.

infinitive verbs are the base form of German verbs and typically end with an -en that is removed (producing the ‘root’ /’stem’) before then adding on conjugations. Also, some particular sentence formulations utilize a verb (or even two) in its infinitive form.

past participles are a form of a verb that is used to formulate the 3 ‘perfect’ tenses and also in the utilization of the passive voice. Every verb has just one past participle that is used by all persons in conjunction with a ‘helping verb’ (either ‘haben’ or ‘sein’).

“HELP! This Feels Overwhelming!”

This can understandably feel like a LOT, but the good news is that you DON’T have to fully master all the applications of ‘schreiben’ right now as a beginner learner –which also means you don’t have to have all the relevant lingo totally down yet, either.

The ideal place to start is by learning just the German subject pronouns and the present tense conjugations of ‘schreiben’. We covered this in depth above, but here is the table with both pieces of information, again, here:

Repetitious, simple sentences (like the examples I gave you above in an earlier section) will help you drill these present tense ‘schreiben’ conjugations into your memory. 

And since all the subject pronouns are exactly the same no matter what German verb conjugations we’re learning, we’ll get lots of mileage out of learning our ‘ich’ and ‘du’, etc.

If you’re beyond a beginner level already, you’ll see those ‘ich’s and ‘du’s repeated again and again in the following tables of ALL the ‘schreiben’ conjugations. 

‘Schreiben’ Conjugations in ALL Tenses & Moods

‘Schreiben’ is used in 6 tenses (of the indicative mood), and in two additional moods (the subjunctive and imperative). We use ‘schreiben’ to talk about ‘writing’ in the past, present, and future (e.g. I wrote, I write, I will write). ‘Schreiben’ is also used to say ‘I would write’ (subjunctive) or to give a command such as ‘write neatly!’

For those of you who are ready for it, here are the full conjugation tables for ‘schreiben’:

Indicative (Indikativ)

The indicative mood is how we talk most of the time: about real facts (He wrote a flowery poem for his wife. She writes a letter to her mother every month. The student will write a paper for her doctorate.)

The indicative mood subcategories into SIX tenses in both English and German. Most of these tenses are used very similarly. 

It’s essential to learn the Present Tense first, and then the Present Perfect. After that, you’ll get the most utility out of the Simple Future, then Simple Past, then Past Perfect, and then Future Perfect.

Present (Präsens)

Simple past (präteritum), present perfect (perfekt), past perfect (plusquamperfekt), simple future (futur i), future perfect (futur ii), important notes on german tenses.

Although German and English HAVE all the same tenses, they aren’t necessarily all used the same way.

In German …

• The Present Tense covers three different English options: for example, I eat, I do eat, I am eating would ALL simply be ‘Ich esse’ in German. 
• The Present Perfect Tense (which would technically translate to, e.g. I have eaten ) actually correlates with English’s simple past (i.e.  I ate ) in terms of usage.
• The Simple Future tense is frequently avoided in favor of the Present tense and a time adverbial. 

Imperative (Imperativ)

The imperative mood is used in both English and German for giving commands. Note that a ‘du’ or ‘ihr’ subject is generally omitted, but that a ‘wir’ and ‘Sie’ must be present.

Subjunctive (Konjunktiv)

The subjunctive mood is used in both English and German (but much more frequently in German!) to communicate hypothetical (i.e. not factual [indicative]) situations. 

The subjunctive can be used to communicate a present or future likelihood (but not certainty) OR a complete impossibility in the past, present, or future. 

The subjunctive is also used for expressing polite requests vs. the commands of the imperative mood.

Present Subjunctive (Konjunktiv I) 

Past subjunctive (konjunktiv ii) , perfect subjunctive (konjunktiv perfekt) , past perfect subjunctive (konjunktiv plusquamperfekt) , future subjunctive (konjunktiv futur i) , future perfect subjunctive (konjunktiv futur ii), common confusion.

Is ‘schreiben’ a dative verb?

Schreiben is an accusative verb, which means it will require a direct object ( accusative case ) in order to create a complete sentence. Other elements may be optionally included. 

Rapid Q&A

How do you conjugate the verb ‘schreiben’?

Schreiben needs to be conjugated for each person. You’ll see ‘ich schreibe, du schreibst, Sie schreiben, etc.’ You can read the full conjugation list here. 

What are the verb endings for ‘schreiben’?

The possible endings for ‘schreiben’ are -e, -st, -t. ‘Schreiben’ will also be used in its infinitive form for three persons (wir, sie, and Sie). You can see the full conjugation list here. 

What is the present perfect tense of ‘schreiben’?

What is the past tense of ‘schreiben’?

What are the 3 forms of ‘schreiben’?

Common Confusion 

Different versions of ‘ihr’ and ‘schreiben’.

In fact, there are a total of SIX different ways to slightly modify ‘Schreiben’ and ‘ihr’:

sein, seiner, seine, seinen, seinem, seines ihr, ihrer, ihre, ihren, ihrem, ihres

As English-speakers, our minds jam up at this point … how do you have six different ways to say ‘his’ and ‘her’???

And then, next, we wonder ‘do these different options really matter?!’ (Answer: YES.)

The German Case System

Learning the rules for when and how to use these different variants of ‘schreiben’ and ‘ihr’ (and the many other determiners and adjectives that also need these same modifications called ‘declensions’) is one of the most challenging aspects of learning how to speak German. 

Crucial to really truly mastering declensions as part of the infamous ‘German Case System’ is actually understanding WHY these modifications need to happen in the first place.

I teach you how to work with declensions step-by-step in my course ‘German Foundations’ so that you can approach this bear of a topic with comfortable confidence.

Changing ‘cases’

Check out these example sentences that always use ‘his black dog’:

His black dog is big and mean. I don’t like his black dog. I won’t offer his black dog a treat. His black dog’s teeth look menacing!

But now here’s the deal: each of these particular uses of ‘his black dog’ would be slightly different in German (‘sein schwarzer Hund,’ ‘seinen schwarzen Hund,’ ‘seinem schwarzen Hund,’ and ‘seines schwarzen Hundes,’ respectively).

German has SIX declension options: -m, -r, -e, -s, -n, – (no declension). 

Knowing which one to use when is ESSENTIAL to speaking German.

How to use declensions

Knowing which declension to use and when is a matter of three components:

• what gender is the noun that follows (masculine, neuter, feminine, or plural)?
• what role does that noun play in the sentence (nominative, accusative, dative, genitive)?
• what declension pattern does the noun phrase use?

These three components all intersect to create a total of 18 declension combinations that we have to know how to choose between.

Put like that, German sounds pretty daunting.

But there’s actually a super-usable system for understanding the ins-and-outs of declensions that ANYONE can successfully use. It will have you comfortably wielding German declensions in no time! 

On This Page

• Verb Conjugations
• ‘Dürfen’ Conjugations
• ‘Essen’ Conjugations
• ‘Fahren’ Conjugations
• ‘Geben’ Conjugations
• ‘Gehen’ Conjugations
• ‘Haben’ Conjugations
• ‘Kommen’ Conjugations
• ‘Können’ Conjugations
• ‘Lesen’ Conjugations
• ‘Möchten’ Conjugations
• ‘Mögen’ Conjugations
• ‘Müssen’ Conjugations
• ‘Sein’ Conjugations
• ‘Sollen’ Conjugations
• ‘Werden’ Conjugations
• ‘Wollen’ Conjugations

Ready to Get Unstuck Learning German?

If you've been trying to learn German but still don’t quite ‘get it’, get ready for a major breakthrough.

© 2024 German with Laura LLC 301 N Duluth Ave Sioux Falls, SD 57104

All Rights Reserved

Prepositions

Local Guides

Der Die Das

Noun Gender

Noun Plurals

Adjective Endings

Privacy Policy

Terms of Service

Returns and Refunds

You are using an outdated browser. Please upgrade your browser or activate Google Chrome Frame to improve your experience.

How to Learn German Grammar: 10 Simple and Effective Study Techniques and Tips

When we’re learning German grammar , we want to zip through it so we can get where we’re going: German fluency and the ability to actually communicate with native speakers.

Fortunately for German learners, there are a number of handy tips, tricks and hacks that can help you learn German grammar in a way that’s simpler, faster, more accessible and easier to remember.

Try out these tips and 10 main techniques and you’ll give your German grammar learning progress an instant speed boost .

1. Verb Conjugations: Put Them into Groups

Regular verbs, stem-changing verbs.

• Haben and Sein

2. Irregular Verbs: Put Them in a Verb Book

3. german verb placement: remember these shortcuts, 4. separable verbs: build on those same shortcuts, 5. time words: be flexible with placement, 6. modal verbs: don’t just learn meanings, learn context, 7. grammatical gender: group and label nouns, group similar objects by type, then learn by exception, surround yourself with grammatical gender labels, 8. cases: focus on the accusative for efficiency, 9. the conditional tense: just add umlaut, 10. it’s okay to cheat… sometimes, more tips to learn german grammar, and one more thing....

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)

Here’s how to learn German grammar the  hard way: memorize an entire conjugation table for all the forms of every single new verb you encounter.

Sound awful? Yeah.

Here’s how to learn German grammar the fast and easy way: put verb conjugation rules into groups that you can apply to many different verbs.

We’ll get you started with some common verb groupings that German learners can use .

For regular verbs (where the stem doesn’t change in different verb forms) such as trinken (to drink), machen (to do/make) and  suchen (to search), follow these simple instructions:

Take the infinitive and subtract the – en . You’re left with the stem. Then add the appropriate ending to the stem:

• Ich (I):  -e
• Du (informal you): -st
• Ihr (you all) and er, sie, es (he, she, it): -t

The conjugations for Sie (you formal), wir (we) and sie (they) remain the same as the infinitive, and this rule holds true for all verbs in German—regular and irregular.

Let’s implement this rule on the conjugation of the verb machen (to do), as an example.

The infinitive is machen, and the stem is  mach,  so you get the following conjugations:

ich mach e du mach st er/sie/es mach t ihr mach t wir/Sie/sie machen

Next, we have verbs whose stems change in different forms . It gets easier to remember such verbs by categorizing them even further into three main groups :

• Stem change e to ie.  Eg: lesen (to read): ich lese, du l ie st, er/sie/es l ie st, ihr lest, wir/Sie/sie lesen
• Stem change a to ä.  Eg: fahren (to drive): ich fahre, du f ä hrst, er/sie/es f ä hrt, ihr fahrt, wir/Sie/sie fahren
• Stem change e to i.  Eg: geben (to give): ich gebe, du g i bst, er/sie/es g i bt, ihr gebt, wir/Sie/sie geben

You might have noticed that the verb conjugation rules are pretty similar to regular verbs. The only change is that there’s a stem change in the du and er/sie/es forms.

Haben and  Sein

Two of the most important verbs in German are haben (to have) and sein (to be). The conjugations for these verbs have to be learned by heart.

One easy way to do so is to take a die made of either cardboard or wood and label all the pronouns :  ich, du, er, sie, es. .. (I, you, he, she, it). Then, roll the die and state the correct conjugation for whichever pronoun appears. This trick works for verbs where the conjugations simply have to be memorized (more on those just below).

Check out this post to learn the basics in German verb conjugation:

Learn German verb conjugation with this complete guide to conjugating verbs in the past, present and future. Take a closer look at verb types like regular (weak),…

As you’re probably aware, there are tons of irregular verbs in German. Annoyingly, this means that there’s a long list of verbs that you need to individually learn by heart as they don’t fit the usual patterns of conjugation.

One of the easiest ways to work your way through the verbs is to add them to a verb book. You can quickly make one out of a journal or notepad.

Make four columns on each page:  One for the English translation, one for the present tense, one for the past tense and one for the future tense. There are of course other tenses that you could add, such as the conditional, but if you’re a beginner these four columns should be enough for now. Research the conjugations with your grammar book or on your favorite conjugation app .

It’s important that you return to this verb book often to review each word and to try and drum the conjugation into your head. Constantly reviewing them can really help them stick, especially if you speak them out loud! Not only that, but you’ll also see that there are in fact some patterns to irregular verbs —see if you can spot them when you list your verbs.

For more on irregular verbs in German, see this post:

German irregular verbs can make you want to pull your hair out when you first encounter them. As soon as you get them down pat, though, you’ll sound and write like a…

The verb positions in German are quite rigidly placed depending on the type of sentence you have. These shortcuts will help you get the word order right whenever you construct a sentence in German:

• In W Fragen (W Questions) , the verb comes second, after the question word.

Woher kommen Sie?  (Where do you come from?)

• In statements , the verb again comes in the second position (after the subject).

Ich komme aus Deutschland . (I come from Germany.)

• In yes/no questions ( Ja/Nein Fragen ) the verb comes first.

Kommen Sie aus Deutschland ? (Do you come from Germany?)

• A comma splitting up two clauses usually makes the following verb go to the end. In German, you need to split up clauses with a comma, but that isn’t always necessary in English. You always need to notice these commas as they’re like signposts—they tell you that the following verb needs to go to the end of the sentence.

Ich habe eine Pizza gegessen, weil ich Hunger hatte. (I ate a pizza because I was hungry.)

One useful tip that I’ve personally used to memorize word order is to box, circle, underline or write the verbs in different colors in the sentence. This helps create a mental image that makes you feel as though something is wrong whenever you misplace the verb and prompts you to place it correctly.

For more on German verb and word placement and overall sentence structure, check out this post:

Tackle German sentence structure with this complete guide to proper German word order. Go beyond simple SVO sentences to discover the rules of TeKaMoLo and learn when to…

Separable verbs are very much a unique feature of the German language and there are more than 12,000 of these. It’s important to understand the syntax of separable verbs and how they’re used as well as where to place them in a sentence.

Every separable verb is comprised of a verb and a prefix. The verb part is like the main tool, and the prefix is like an accessory. I can change these prefixes/accessories to form new meanings. Thus, it makes sense to list these verbs according to the verb stems, in order to remember their meanings well.

If you consider the verb stem fahren, there’s a series of separable verbs building off of it:

abfahren: to depart—which breaks into fahren and ab (prefix)

losfahren: to drive away—which breaks into fahren and los (prefix)

zurückfahren: to drive back—which breaks into fahren and zurück (prefix)

In this manner, one can create word lists or trees with different verb stems of separable verbs and improve German vocabulary !

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s start building on the word order shortcuts we discussed above.

When a separable verb is used alone in a sentence or a question (as in, the separable verb is the only verb in the statement or question) the prefix is positioned at the end. Let’s take a look at an example.

Anrufen (to call someone on the telephone) splits into rufen (the verb part) and an (the prefix).

Statement: Ich rufe meine Mutter an . (I call my mother.)

Yes/No Question: Rufst du meine Mutter an ? (Are you calling my mother?)

W Question: Wann rufst du meine Mutter an ? (When are you calling my mother?)

As you can see, the verb part is either placed in the first or second position, as usual, depending on whether it’s a yes/no question, a W question or a statement and conjugated according to the subject pronoun.

To go into more depth with German separable verbs, see this post:

German separable verbs can trip you up, but there are some tricks to learning them. Read this post to learn what they are, how to know if a prefix or verb is separable,…

Exceptionally, time in German sentences can begin a statement (not questions though) or be placed anywhere.

Look at the following examples:

Heute gehe ich in die Bäckerei . (Today, I’m going to the bakery.)

Ich gehe am Wochenende ins Kino . (I go to the cinema on the weekend.)

To learn more about time words in German, see this post:

Learn how to tell the time in German with some basic German time words, phrases and expressions! Read this guide to see common words to know, and how to use them. Plus,…

The big five modal verbs in German are können (can), müssen (must) , dürfen (may) , sollen (should) and wollen (want). These are whole modal verbs , as a second main verb is required along with these verbs.

The partial modal verbs are möchten and mögen . They’re partial modal verbs as they don’t require a second verb.

You know the words. Now, how do you use them?

First and foremost, it’s important to associate the context  with modal verbs. You can use each modal verb only in a certain context:

• können is used to express ability/talent
• müssen is used to express forced conditions
• dürfen is used to express permission in legal and personal situations
• sollen is used to express advice
• wollen is used to express a strong desire
• möchten is the equivalent of “would like” and is used to politely ask for something like a coffee or an order
• mögen is used to express general likes and dislikes

Next, the conjugations for each of these verbs need to be learned. One can use the technique with the dice again.

Modal verbs are neither regular nor irregular, they’re just a separate set of verbs that work differently. They’re mainly used as helping/auxiliary verbs.

In modal verbs, the ich and the er/sie/es conjugations are the same, which makes them a tad easier to remember.

After memorizing the conjugations, one final thing you’ll need to learn is the positioning of the words in a sentence.

In statements and W questions, the modal verb comes in the second position (after the question word or the subject), whereas in yes/no questions, it comes in the first position, conjugated according to the subject pronoun. The second verb comes at the end in the infinitive form.

This makes more sense when you see it in use:

Wann kannst du morgen kommen? (When can you come tomorrow?)

Ich soll viel Wasser trinken . (I should drink a lot of water.)

Darf ich hier parken? (May I park here?)

Again, the boxing or circling technique would help with remembering the verb positions.

Learn more about German modal verbs here:

German modal verbs let you describe what you like, express a desire or even ask to go to the bathroom. Check out our post on the six modal verbs in German: dürfen (may),…

The biggest monster in the German language is getting the articles and genders right. Often there’s no logic as to why a particular noun is masculine, feminine or neuter. For example, why is a chair masculine, but a bag is feminine and a mobile phone is neuter? No answer!

Here are some useful tips to create some method in the madness.

For example, if we were to group all electronic gadgets in German, most of the objects are masculine. The exceptions are the mobile phone and the radio, which are neutral and the telephone, which is feminine.

If you group all beverages instead, you discover that hot beverages such as tea and coffee are masculine, strong beverages such as wine, vodka and champagne are masculine, juices are masculine and mild drinks such as water and beer are neutral.

Labeling is another useful technique. Take out a bunch of sticky notes, write the German word for an object with the correct article and stick it on that object in your house. Looking at this object every day with a sticky note on it embeds the article and gender in your brain.

For example, write down  Der Tisch and stick it on the table, Der Stuhl on the chair, Die Tasche on the bag and so on.

German possessive articles are equally important, so you can put those on your labels, too. (Plus, if you share a bit of your German knowledge, these notes can warn your siblings or roommates to stay away from  your stuff!)

Use possessive articles correctly with the help of the following questions:

• Who possesses the object? If it’s me, use mein -. If it’s you, use dein – or  Ihr – and so on.
• What’s the gender of the possessed object? If it’s feminine or plural, add an e  at the end of the possessive article, i.e. mein would become meine , dein would become deine and so on.

To dive in deeper to German gender, check out this handy post:

“Der,” “die” and “das” can confuse any language learner, but with some helpful tricks you can master these German articles for “the.” Click here to learn how to nail them…

Each case in German refers to a different use of nouns, and depending on the case of nouns in sentences, it can change the definite and indefinite articles. A change in case can also have an effect on adjective endings .

The easiest one to learn is the nominative as it’s the only one we use in English, and it doesn’t affect any articles or adjective endings. The next easiest one to learn is the accusative.

It’s important that you get as familiar as possible with the accusative as, after the nominative, it’s the most-used case in German. Learning this case well will make your German studies a lot more efficient , especially in the very early stages.

Plus, once you’re skilled at using the accusative in German, you’ll find that it helps to reinforce the dative and genitive as you move on to learn them . That’s because you’ll already be used to changing articles and adjective endings according to certain situations.

In other words, changing articles and adjective endings according to the dative and genitive cases —which is often viewed as being much harder than the accusative case—won’t come as such a shock to you.

Taking one of these accusative quizzes will help you bring your knowledge up to speed in no time at all!

For more on the German case system, read this explanation post:

Confused about German cases? Think you’ve got them down but want to make sure? You’re in the right place! In this post we’ve got all four German cases explained, some tips…

If you’re ever unsure how to form the conditional tense of a verb, remember you just need to add an umlaut to the preterite form of the verb.

You can see that in action in this list:

war — wäre was — would be

musste — müsste had to  —  would have to

hatte — hätte had  —  would have

This is a very solid rule of thumb, so if you ever need to guess the conditional form of a verb, it’s a safe guess to simply stick an umlaut on the first vowel.

Go here for more information on the German conditional tense:

The German conditional tense allows talk about your colorful fantasies in German—or any other hypothetical situation, really. Find out what makes up this wonderful…

Even native German speakers don’t get their own grammar right 100% of the time, and it’s not like anyone bats an eyelash at them. That’s because there are rarely situations or scenarios that call for absolutely perfect grammar. Most people are very relaxed with their use of language, which is shown by everyone’s use of slang.

This is something you should use to your advantage as you’re learning German grammar. You don’t have to be too hard on yourself if you forget a grammar rule or word while you’re speaking, and you shouldn’t let this harm your confidence.

You’ll also find that you naturally pick up clues from what the other person is saying, and the language they use might even help you remember some key grammar points. So, don’t let your inexperience get in the way of your confidence—just keep talking and see what comes to you!

If you’re a native English speaker, cheating is even easier and more effective.  Many aspects of English and German grammar are very similar to one another , so this is definitely something that you should use to your advantage.

For example, when you start to learn German, you’ll see that quite a bit of basic word order follows the same patterns as in English . To see this work, take a look at these sentences:

Ich trinke Tee. (I drink tea.)

Ich habe Tee getrunken. (I have drunk tea.)

The only big difference is in that second German sentence where the past participle is at the end of the clause.

Another way in which German and English are very similar is in their verbs. Quite a few German verbs look just like their English translations, such as the following:

singen (to sing)

tanzen (to dance)

stinken (to stink)

The whole point of this is to show you that you can steal ideas from English if you’re ever stuck with an aspect of German grammar. If you’re midway through a conversation or writing something and you aren’t sure of the German translation for a verb, you could just try and Germanize the English word.

You can do that by adding “-en” as in the above examples. And if it’s sentence order that you’re confused about, you could stick to the English rules and you have a good chance of being right.

To dive deeper into the world of German slang and other useful vocabulary, check out these posts:

Looking for the latest German slang? Look no further. In this post, we share 149 German slang words and expressions that you might not find in your textbook. Words like…

Learning the 100 most common German words is a great way to quickly and effectively boost your comprehension and communication skills. Check out these 100 frequently used…

German grammar isn’t the easiest as any beginner German language learner will tell you. The German language has a somewhat complex case system and words are divided up into three genders.

Because of this, you should follow these tips to make the grammar journey as painless as possible:

• Consistent Practice Consistency in learning German grammar is crucial for several reasons. Firstly, it helps establish a strong foundation, allowing learners to build upon their knowledge progressively. Secondly, it reinforces correct usage patterns, making it easier to internalize grammatical rules and apply them accurately in both writing and speech. Additionally, consistent practice fosters fluency, reducing the likelihood of making common errors.

Hopefully, all of these tips, tricks and methods for how to learn German grammar will make it all much easier!

Want to know the key to learning German effectively?

It's using the right content and tools, like FluentU has to offer ! Browse hundreds of videos, take endless quizzes and master the German language faster than you've ever imagine!

Watching a fun video, but having trouble understanding it? FluentU brings native videos within reach with interactive subtitles.

You can tap on any word to look it up instantly. Every definition has examples that have been written to help you understand how the word is used. If you see an interesting word you don't know, you can add it to a vocabulary list.

And FluentU isn't just for watching videos. It's a complete platform for learning. It's designed to effectively teach you all the vocabulary from any video. Swipe left or right to see more examples of the word you're on.

The best part is that FluentU keeps track of the vocabulary that you're learning, and gives you extra practice with difficult words. It'll even remind you when it’s time to review what you’ve learned.

Start using the FluentU website on your computer or tablet or, better yet, download the FluentU app from the iTunes or Google Play store. Click here to take advantage of our current sale! (Expires at the end of this month.)

If you liked this post, something tells me that you'll love FluentU, the best way to learn German with real-world videos.

Experience German immersion online!

Enter your e-mail address to get your free PDF!

We hate SPAM and promise to keep your email address safe

• Learn English - Index
• English Course
• Teaching Resources
• Useful Videos
• English Idioms
• Corrected Writing Examples
• Learn English from Spanish
• Learn Arabic
• Learn Spanish
• Learn French
• Learn Italian
• Learn German
• Learn Japanese
• Learn Chinese
• Learn Russian
• View Complete List of 45+
• Morse Code - Index
• How to Learn Morse Code
• Morse Code Translator
• I Love You in Morse Code
• Sign Language - Index
• American Sign Language
• British Sign Language
• Find a Tutor

German Alphabet

This page contains a table including the following: German Verbs and tenses. Try to memorize the way they're used because they're very important in communication, and might be very helpful to convey your most important expressions. Make sure to check our Learn German page, which contains several lessons that might help you in your learning process.

A verb in German as well as in English is a word that represents an action or a state of being. (go, strike, travel, and exist are examples of verbs). A verb is the essential part of the predicate of a sentence. The grammatical forms of verbs include number, person, and tense. Some examples are:

As you can see, the table above shows the German verbs in the present tense, the past tense, and the future tense, and also as a question (interrogative form).

Present Tense in German

The present tense in German is the form of the verb that may be used to express: action at the present, a state of being; an occurrence in the (very) near future; or an action that occurred in the past and continues up to the present. Most German infinitives end in -en, some in -n only: gehen, wandern, lächeln.

The stem is the infinitive minus this ending -en or -n, therefore:

• gehen ==> geh__ [infinitive ==> stem]
• wandern ==> wander_ [infinitive ==> stem]

Here is format sample:

• er/sie/es (man) ...-t
• wir ...-(e)n
• sie/Sie ...-(e)n

Past Tense in German

The past tense in German is a verb tense expressing action, activity, state or being in the past of the current moment (in an absolute tense system), or prior to some other event, whether that is past, present, or future (in a relative tense system). Simple past tense is used all the time in newspapers, books, and so on, but it is less common in speech. One exception is the simple past tense of sein (zyn) (to be). This is often used in preference to perfect tense in both speech and writing. Here is an example:

Perfect Tense in German

Perfect tense is the main past tense used in spoken German. It is very versatile: You can use it to talk about most actions and situations in the past. Most verbs form the perfect tense with the verb haben (have).

Certain verbs require sein (to be) instead of haben (to have) to form the perfect tense. These verbs often describe some form of movement or a state.

Future Tense in German

In German, the future tense is a verb form that marks the event described by the verb as not having happened yet, but expected to happen in the future (in an absolute tense term), or to happen subsequent to some other event, whether that is past, present, or future (in a relative tense term). The future tense is simple to form in German. Just use the present tense forms of werden and put the other infinitive to the end of the sentence. Here is an example:

Below is some vocabulary training for verbs in German (Deutsch), try to memorize the verbs below, because they’re very important and used daily.

German Verbs - Regular and Irregular Verbs and Tenses

Verbs in German are more diverse than in English; in this page we will learn their categories, and the most used tenses in German, note that this page is including only the important information you should know about in German verbs, and it doesn’t include details about each category or each tense.

Some verbs in the 3 categories above may contain separable (trennbar) or inseparable (untrennbar) prefixes . The point of using these prefixes is to create new meanings from the original verb. This concept is not strange to English, let’s look at the verb “to stand” if we add the prefix “under” it will give us a whole new verb “to under stand”, the same thing in German, “stehen” means “to stand”, “ ver stehen” means “to understand”. Easy, right! Well not exactly, because German uses these prefixes more often. And some prefixes can be detached from the original verb and take a specific spot in the sentences, sometimes even far from the verb.

German Tenses

Below you will find the most used tenses in German, with the verb endings in each tense, as well as some examples, try to master them if you can, that would help you a lot and makes you feel comfortable expressing yourself in German, we will start with the present tense, which is a very important and a must to learn tense:

Now we will have a look at the past tense, also called the imperfect, another very important fact in knowing how to conjugate verbs in German:

Now we will learn the future tense, which is considered the easiest, because you only need to learn the conjugated form of “werden” plus the infinitive of the verbs you want to conjugate:

I hope the content of this page was useful to you, and that you learned some German Verbs such as present tense, past tense, perfect tense and future tense..., try to memorize them to be able to use them in your daily conversation. Make sure to check our Learn German page, which contains several lessons that might help you in your learning process.

Audio Course

How-to's, history & culture, write a letter, prepositions, survival terms, german test (pdf).

German Sentence Structure Explained [Everything You Need To Know]

In this post we will cover everything you need to know about German sentence structure. You will learn the rules for German sentence structure, how to form a sentence using the past tense, how to structure questions and what happens to the sentence structure when we introduce certain conjunctions such as weil (because) or dass (that).

This can be a complicated subject for beginners, but believe me that once you learn the rules, you’ll be able to form sentences like a pro. In this post we will start from the very beginning, then gradually add elements which change the basic structure.

There’s a lot to get through, so let’s get started, auf geht’s!

Basic German Sentence Structure

In German, the basic sentence structure is the same as in English. Both languages use the ‘subject verb object’ (SVO) structure. Let’s take a look at an example sentence:

In fact, this basic structure is used whenever only one verb is present. The structure follows:

Subject + Verb + The Rest

Rule 1 : The conjugated verb nearly always goes in position 2.

Now let’s add some more information to this basic sentence. Before we do this though, we need to learn another rule:

Rule 2 : Time Manner Place – To keep things simple, whenever you need to give more information in a sentence follow the ‘time manner place’ rule. This means information about time goes first, then information about manner goes next (this is info such as who, or what). After that comes place (where). All 3 elements may not be present in the sentence, for example in some sentences only time and place may be needed. Sometimes only place is used.

Let’s look at some example sentences using both rule 1 and rule 2 :

Hopefully you can see from these examples that not all 3 elements of Time Manner and Place need to be present for the sentence to make sense. But the correct word order is followed:

Subject (position 1) + Verb (position 2) + Time + Manner + Place

German sentence structure is very flexible, so sometimes you will see the time element moved to the beginning of the sentence. We actually do this in English as well. We can say ‘I go to the gym on Wednesdays’ or ‘On Wednesdays I go to the gym’.

In German however we must always refer back to rule 1 : The conjugated verb always goes in position 2. This means we end up with a slightly different word order to what we have in English.

So now we have the following structure, with the verb still correctly in position 2:

Time (position 1) + Verb (position 2) + Subject + Manner + Place

If we want to introduce 2 more objects (1 direct object and 1 indirect object) to the sentence, we stick with the usual subject in position 1, verb in position 2 rule.

Subject (position 1) + Verb (position 2) + Indirect Object + Direct Object

If we are using a separable verb such as ankommen (to arrive) the prefix, an- , is always separated and goes to the very end of the sentence.

Subject (position 1) + Verb (position 2) + Other Info + Prefix

The take away for this part is that the conjugated verb stays in position 2, no matter what. If a separable verb is used, the prefix is separated and goes to the end of the sentence.

German Sentences with 2 Verbs

So now we have the basic German sentence structure sorted, let’s see what happens when we introduce a second verb. It’s very common to find two verbs in a sentence. Sometimes these are two ordinary verbs, but we’ll also encounter this when we use a modal verb, which always requires a second verb.

For this we need to learn a third rule:

Rule 3 : The conjugated verb is in position 2 (this is the modal verb if we are using one). The second verb is unconjugated (i.e in infinitive form) and goes to the end of the sentence .

Let’s take a look at an example sentence to make this clear:

You can see that we’re getting a bit further away from English sentence structure. But the important thing is we are following rules 1 and 3. The Time Manner Place rule 2, is still followed, it is grouped with ‘Other Info’ and goes after ‘Position 2’ and before ‘The End’.

Subject (pos. 1) + Conj. Verb (pos. 2) + Other Info + Unconj. Verb (The End)

We also encounter this when using the future tense, since we’ll use the verb werden plus the main verb.

In the case of separable verbs, these are not separated when used with a modal verb. Instead we conjugate the modal verb and put it in position 2, and the unconjugated, unseparated separable verb goes to the end:

The Past Tense

In order to form the past tense (known as the perfect tense) we need to use an auxiliary verb, either haben or sein , plus the past tense of the main verb. The rules for forming the perfect tense are quite simple:

Rule 4 : The auxiliary verb ( haben or sein ) is always conjugated and goes in position 2. The main verb is in the past tense and goes to the end of the sentence.

Let’s take a look at some example sentences:

So we have the following sentence structure:

Subject (pos. 1) + Conj. Auxiliary Verb (pos. 2) + Other Info + Past Tense Main Verb

Question Structure in German

So far we have seen the conjugated verb stuck firmly in position 2. But from now on we are going to make a few exceptions for this rule.

Rule 5 : In order to ask a yes / no question in German, the subject and the verb must swap places. The verb now takes position 1, and the subject takes position 2.

Here are a few example questions:

Conjugated Verb (pos. 1) + Subject (pos. 2) + Other Info

If we are using two verbs in the question, we use the same structure as previously learned for 2 verbs, except the verb and subject follow the new question sentence structure rule 5.

Conjugated Verb (pos. 1) + Subject (pos. 2) + Other Info + Unconj. Verb

If we want to form a question with a question word (such as why, who, what) the conjugated verb goes back to it’s favourite spot in position 2. The question word takes position 1 and the subject takes position 3.

Question Word (pos. 1) + Conj. Verb (pos. 2) + Subject (pos. 3) + The Rest + Unconj. Verb

How a Conjunction Affects Sentence Structure

So far we have learned some simple rules for forming German sentence structure. The conjugated verb always goes in position 2 and the subject goes in position 1, unless we are asking a yes / no question. If there is further information that goes next. Lastly, if there is a second verb, that remains unconjugated (in the infinitive form) and goes right to the end.

We are now going to introduce some conjunctions such as aber (but), und (and), oder (or). These 3 common conjunctions don’t affect the sentence structure.

However, because this is German, there are some more exceptions. Certain conjunctions cause the conjugated verb to move from it’s usual position 2, to the very end of the sentence. Here are some basic conjunctions to watch out for:

• weil = because
• dass = that
• ob = if / whether

There are many more, but to keep things simple let’s focus on these 3 for now. These type of conjunctions are known as subordinating conjunctions. The sentence starts with the ‘main clause’ then when a subordinate conjunction is used, it introduces the ‘subordinate clause’ . Effectively, the sentence is broken into two parts. Here is an example:

You can see in this example, because the subordinate conjunction weil , has been used, we now have two parts to the sentence, the main clause and the subordinate clause . The two clauses are treated like separate sentences and separated with a comma (,).

The main clause keeps the normal sentence structure rules:

Subject (pos. 1) + Verb (pos. 2) + Other Info

The subordinate clause has a different structure:

Conjunction (pos. 1) + Subject (pos. 2) + Other Info + Conjugated Verb (The End)

Rule 6 : Certain conjunctions known as subordinating conjunctions such as weil, dass and ob create a second part to the sentence. After the conjunction, the conjugated verb is sent to the very end of the sentence.

This is a complicated concept to get your head around, trust me, it took me ages to be able to form subordinating clauses correctly. Let’s take a look at another example. Remember main clause and subordinate clause .

Subject + Verb + Conjunction + Subject + Other Info + Conjugated Verb

So now we know that if we use dass, ob or weil in a sentence we treat everything after that conjunction as a new part of the sentence, the subordinate clause , and the conjugated verb goes to the end. But what happens if we have 2 verbs after the conjunction, in the subordinate clause?

You can see in this example, the main clause is structured as normal. Then we use the conjunction ob (if / whether). This begins the subordinate clause which means the conjugated (main) verb needs to go to the end of the sentence.

Without the conjunction, the sentence would be ich soll Deutsch oder Franösisch lernen . The main verb soll is in position 2. But because the conjunction ob appears before it, the main verb moves from position 2, to the very end.

Other than that, normal structure rules apply. The second verb, the unconjugated one (lernen) , goes to the end of the sentence as normal. But because we have used ob , the conjugated verb (soll) goes right to the very end of the sentence.

Main Clause + Conjunction + Subject + Other Info + Unconj. Verb + Conj. Verb

You can read my in depth post about German subordinate clauses here .

The Rules for German Sentence Structure in a Nutshell

That was a lot to get through, and if you made it this far gut gemacht (well done!). Let’s have a quick review of what we have learnt in this post.

• Rule 1 : The conjugated verb nearly always goes in position 2
• Rule 2 : Time Manner Place – keeps extra information in a logical order
• Rule 3 : 2 Verbs – the conjugated verb goes in position 2, the second verb is unconjugated (infinitive form) and goes to the end of the sentence
• Rule 4 : Past Tense – the auxiliary verb ( haben or sein ) is conjugated and goes in position 2, the other main verb is unconjugated and in past tense form and goes to the end
• Rule 5 : Yes / No Question – the verb moves to position 1, the subject takes position 2
• Rule 6 : Conjunctions – certain conjunctions such as ob, dass and weil cause the conjugated verb to be sent to the very end of the sentence

Final Thoughts

When you’re first starting out, German sentence structure can seem intimidating. It can differ quite a bit from what we are used to in English. My best advice is to become familiar with the 6 rules in this post. Start by forming basic sentences which have the same structure as English. Add a little more detail and remember the Time Manner Place order.

Try introducing a second verb, and get used to that verb going right to the end of the sentence. You will become better and better at using 2 verbs if you use the past tense.

In order to get used to the structure, I would suggest starting a journal in German. Practice writing sentences about what you plan to do that day, or what you have done in the past. Writing everything down gives you time to process what you have learned, check that you have followed the correct sentence structure and will build confidence. Then you can move on to speaking with a language partner.

I’ve been in the same position you are in now. I still struggle to remember which verb I need to put at the end of a sentence. It can be daunting, but with writing practice, learning the rules and being patient, you will get there. Good luck!

Grammar Hub: Sentence Structure

→ German Sentence Structure Explained Question Words in German German Conjunctions German Subordinate Clauses German Infinitive Clauses

Back to the Grammar Hub

13 Comments

Thank you. This is the best explanation of German sentence structure I have seen.

Hallo Dennis, thank you four kind words, I really appreciate it and am pleased you found the post helpful 🙂

Really helpful!

Glad you found it useful 🙂 Emma

“In German, the basic sentence structure is the same as in English. Both languages use the ‘subject verb object’ (SVO) structure.”

This is simply not true. We are getting a LOT of people coming to the German subreddit who have this belief and then quickly get confused.

German’s basic sentence structure is V2.

Hi Anonymous, just wondering whether you just read that first part of the post or the whole thing. I talk in detail about V2 and how the conjugated verb goes in the second position. The basic SVO is a good place to get started as shown in the examples. Once this is established I talk about the verb position rules. Hope that clears things up a bit.

I’ll admit that I mostly skimmed. The SVO is misleading, as like I said it is simply not true and has definitely caused confusion for people. Seriously, go check out the German subreddit and search for it. I’m very much a beginner but from my experience in my first three courses, native English speakers do best to dismiss SVO. As you know, nominative, Akkusativ, Dativ, or even time or place could occupy that first position. This flexibility is a key concept for native English speakers.

The best explanation ever

Thank you, I’m glad you’ve found this article helpful 🙂

Thank you, I’m glad it helped 🙂

Thank you. It is really helpful.

Thank you so much Emma, such a great job. Already started understanding how to build simple sentences in German, I’m glad I can finally. Vielen Dank liebe Emma 🙏.

thanks for your precious article i go through it word by word and it is out of the box thanks alot

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

• Conjugate German Verbs

Conjugation German verbs

In German, there are several grammatical moods for verbs: indicative, subjunctive, imperative, participle and infinitive. Sentences in German are understandable thanks to the presence of conjugated verbs that allow you to express an action or a state. These verbs are essential for the understanding of a sentence in German and they must be perfectly conjugated for the sentence to be well understood.

The spelling of verbs in German and the conjugation of verbs vary depending on the period of time and the person speaking, which is why it is sometimes necessary to use a verb conjugator if there is any doubt about an ending. It is important to know that some verbs are irregular, which complicates the task of conjugating.

Thanks to our German verb conjugator you can consult the conjugation of more than 12,000 verbs in all tenses . Some verbs are more common than others like haben , machen , sein , geben or sagen . It is possible to find the spelling of almost all German verbs, including those with separable and inseparable particles. To do so, you can search in the field above to see the conjugation tables.

Lessons to learn German verbs and tenses

Go through the different rules of German conjugation: modal verbs, weak verbs, strong verbs, subjunctives, etc.

German verbs

Verbal prefix, tenses in german, strong verbs, mixed verbs, auxiliary verbs, modal verbs, subjunctive i. and ii., partizip ii, practice to learn irregular verbs in german.

Train with our exercises

German Exercises

German online exercises that cover the most important grammar areas with a concentration of topics that make most foreigners problems. Free online exercises to practice the application of grammar rules for both beginners and advanced learners. They are in two different formats: multiple choice and fill in the blanks .

In the multiple choice format, you will be provided up to four answer choices; you are required to choose the correct answer. The fill-in-the-blanks exercises do not provide any answer choices. You are required to type the correct answer in the space (gap) provided next to the question.

Hints are provided in most cases. Independent the format, this is an online test and you will instantly receive your scores upon submitting the exercise.

Exercises for beginners

Most popular exercises, why to learn german with us.

• free online resources to learn and practice the German language.
• online exercises and tables for all major grammar topics.
• online trainer for vocabulary , conjugation and to become used to the cases .
• all exercises and examples are written by German native speakers.

How to support German.net

• Recommend us to your friends on Facebook, Google+ & offline:

Quick access:

Practise German for free

At the Goethe-Institut, you learn German from the pros. We have developed a range of free media to help you practise your German – from apps with learning material to videos, podcasts and games, as well as social media and community programmes. However well you speak German and whatever your reasons for improving it, the main thing is that you start practising – and enjoy it!

Learn German with music Your band ok.danke.tschüss

Exercises: a new country, a new job german at work, videos: everyday life in germany the germany lab, you are not alone, your free online community deutsch für dich.

Learning is better together: In our online community, you will find more than 260 German exercises for all levels, free of charge – as well as other people to practise with. Meet new people, compare notes and improve your language skills together.

YOUR EXERCISES BY SUBJECT

Children & Teenagers

Would you like to be able to post comments in German on TikTok and Instagram? Do you enjoy playing exciting online games? Or watching films in German? Then practicing with the Goethe-Institut is for you! We have developed apps and games, made videos and chosen more than 100 films for you. We also show you fascinating experiments in our digital children's and junior university.

Everyday Life

Are you planning to spend a significant amount of time in Germany – perhaps even move there to live or work? Our wide range of free exercises, apps and films help you improve your German at all levels – from A1 to C2 to prepare you for everyday life in Germany. From finding an apartment to shopping for food, you will gain valuable communication skills from members of our learning community who have already made the move. 

Work & Career

Are you planning to live and work in Germany? You can find free exercises here to improve your German for work – from levels A1 to C2. These exercises will also help you find out what it is like to actually work in Germany for a German employer. What should you watch out for in an interview? How many hours a week do people work on average? You’ll find the answers to these, and more workplace-focused questions, in videos from people already at work in Germany. 

Learning & Education

Do you want to learn German for free and practise for the next quiz show at the same time? Then you’ve come to the right place! We’ve prepared general knowledge questions about Germany and the world that are suitable for all levels. Which region of the world has the most penguins? What job did German inventor Carl Benz have in his summer holidays? Test your knowledge and impress your friends with what you know!

Your exercises with Social Media

Social media Your Instagram community

Social Media Your YouTube community

Social Media Your Facebook community

Social Media Your TikTok community

Our recommendations.

YouTube Learning German with Ida: How to pronounce compounds

Hi! I'm Ida, your German teacher on YouTube. In this video, I'm cleaning my fridge. Why? I was on holiday and now, unfortunately, a lot has gone bad: Cucumber, pepper sauce, strawberry yoghurt. Help me make sure this doesn't happen again and I'll show you how to pronounce compounds like “Erdbeerjoghurt”.

YouTube Learning German with Ida: How to pronounce international words

I am so happy! My tablet works again. But what's the difference between a “Tablet” and a “Tablett”?! In this video I show you how to pronounce international words – that is words that come from another language.

German courses on site and online

German courses worldwide

The Goethe-Institut has 158 locations worldwide, where we offer the highest quality live and online courses in the German language in addition to our internationally recognised certificate exams. For all language levels and learning types, for school, work, friends, family and everyday life – if you are learning German, learn from the pros! We also offer plenty of live German classes in Germany: From evening school to an intensive course with daily language lessons and leisure programmes. Find the course that suits you best.  

• Choose your country here

YOUR EXERCISES BY LEVEL

Independent

Test your German

Practising german with podcasts.

Listening Texts For All Levels

Do you listen to podcasts and want to learn German free of charge? Then you have come to the right place! Our podcasts, from all over the world, cover a wide range of topics and language levels. Whether you are just starting out at level A1 or can already speak more fluently at level B2 or C1 – give us a listen!

List with the 50 most important regular verbs in German

• 1 Basic regular verbs
• 2 Intermediate regular verbs

Basic regular verbs

We are going now to show you the verbs that you just have to learn while studying German because they are used very often. Because they are regular verbs, their conjugation is very simple:

Intermediate regular verbs

These were regular verbs, but, there are other very important verbs that are irregular. If you’d like to see them, you can visit: irregular verbs

Next Lessons:

home > : Pronouns | Prepositions | Nouns | Plurals | Diminutives | Verbs | Conjugation | Passive | Irregular verbs | Modal Verbs | Separable verbs | Reflexive verbs | Reciprocal verbs | Impersonal verbs | Conjunctions | Articles | Adverbs | Konjunktionaladverbien | Adjective | Comparative and superlative | Word order in German | Negation and Affirmation | Interrogation | Indirect question | Subordinates | relative clauses | Conditional clauses | Comma

Suggestions to Help You | Difficulties with learning German | Greetings

Learning from the beginning | Grammar | Glossaries | Practical German

Copyright www.GermanVeryEasy.com 2008-2024 v9| Privacy policy | Term of use

• Difficulties
• Prepositions
• Comparative and superlative
• Conjunctions
• More Grammar...
• Sentence structure
• Negation and Affirmation
• Interrogation
• Relative Clauses
• Masculine gender
• Feminine gender
• Neuter gender
• Verb conjugation
• Plusquamperfekt
• Futur I and Futur II
• Konjunktiv I
• Konjunktiv II
• Modal Verbs
• Reflexive verbs
• Irregular verbs
• Separable Verbs
• du/Sie form
• Mathematics
• More Vocabulary...
• SpanishVeryEasy.com

Russians expelled from NATO HQ in recent years, NATO says

B ERLIN (Reuters) - Comments by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg about expulsions of Russians from NATO headquarters referred to incidents from recent years, not recent months, as originally reported by German daily Bild, the alliance said on Friday.

Bild also issued a correction to its report, clarifying that Stoltenberg had not mentioned a timeframe when talking about the expulsions in an interview with the German outlet.

"Russia suspended its mission to NATO in October 2021. In an interview with Bild this week, the Secretary General referred to steps taken over recent years," a NATO official said.

In the interview, Stoltenberg said: "We have seen that Russian intelligence services have operated across European countries for many years. We’re also seeing attempts to step up their activities but of course, NATO allies are monitoring, following this very closely."

He said NATO "expelled, for instance, Russian personnel from NATO headquarters because we realized that they were carrying out activities that were not actually diplomatic work, but intelligence work."

In October 2021, NATO said it had expelled eight members of Russia's mission to the alliance who were "undeclared Russian intelligence officers".

(Writing by Friederike Heine and Andrew Gray, Editing by Andrey Sychev and Nick Macfie)