| German grammar |
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Nouns |
German verbs may be classified as either weak, with a dental consonant inflection, or strong, showing a vowel gradation (ablaut). Both of these are regular systems. Most verbs of both types are regular, though various subgroups and anomalies do arise. The only completely irregular verb in the language is sein (to be). However, textbooks for foreign learners often class all strong verbs as irregular. There are fewer than 200 strong and irregular verbs, and there is a gradual tendency for strong verbs to become weak.
As German is a Germanic language, the German verb can be understood historically as a development of the Germanic verb.
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The infinitive consists of the root and the suffix -en. With verbs whose roots end in el or er, the e of the infinitive suffix is dropped.
This is a general view of the most important German prefixes. The example is "legen" (to lay)
| Prefix | Verb | Literally | Translation |
|---|---|---|---|
| ab- | legen | to lay down | to lay down to abandon sth. |
| an- | legen | to lay by/at | to attach sth. to dock |
| auf- | legen | to lay up | to apply |
| aus- | legen | to lay out | to lay sth. out |
| be- | legen | to lay sth. on sth. | to overlay |
| bei- | legen | to lay at/by | to add |
| dar- | legen | to lay there | to point sth. out |
| ein- | legen | to lay in | to inlay |
| ent- | legen | dis-lay | faraway, outlying NOTE: entlegen is an adjective and not a verb! |
| er- | legen | to achieve-lay | to kill/ to conclude successfully |
| ge- | legen | to be laid | seated, situated, opportune NOTE: gelegen is an adjective and not a verb! |
| hin- | legen | to lay there | to put down |
| nach- | legen | to lay after | to put some more of sth. on |
| nieder- | legen | to lay down | to put down an object / to lay down an office / to lie down also: to go to sleep |
| über- | legen | to lay over | to think about sth. |
| um- | legen | to lay around/over again | to allocate, also: to kill |
| unter- | legen | to lay under | to put under |
| ver- | legen | – | to be shy [adjective] / to lose [verb] to edit (books, newspaper) |
| vor- | legen | to lay previous to sth. | to bring sth. before so. |
| weg- | legen | to lay away | to put away |
| wider- | legen | to lay against | to disprove |
| zer- | legen | to lay sth. in pieces | to destroy |
| zu- | legen | to lay to sth. | to put on / to buy something new |
| zusammen- | legen | to lay together | to pool sth. |
There are some verbs which have a permanent prefix at their beginning. The most common permanent prefixes found in German are ver-, ge-, be-, er-, ent- (or emp-), and zer-.
The meaning of the permanent prefixes does not have a real system; the alteration in meaning can be subtle or drastic. The prefixes ver-, be- and ge- have several different meanings, although ge- is uncommon and often the root verb is no longer in existence. be- often makes a transitive verb from an intransitive verb. Verbs with er- tend to relate to creative processes, verbs with ent- usually describe processes of removing (as well as emp-, an approximate equivalent to ent- except usually used for root verbs beginning with an f), and zer- is used for destructive actions. Ver- often describes some kind of extreme or excess of the root verb, although not in any systematic way: 'sprechen', for example means to 'speak', but 'versprechen', 'to promise' as in 'to give ones word' and 'fallen', meaning 'to fall' but 'verfallen', 'to decay' or 'to be ruined'.
Many verbs have a separable prefix that changes the meaning of the root verb, but that does not always remain attached to the root verb. German sentence structure normally places verbs in second position or final position. For separable prefix verbs, the prefix always appears in final position. If a particular sentence's structure places the entire verb in final position then the prefix and root verb appear together. If a sentence places the verb in second position then only the root verb will appear in second position. The separated prefix remains at the end of the sentence.
A small number of verbs have a prefix that is separable in some uses and inseparable in others.
If one of the two meanings is figurative, the inseparable version stands for this figurative meaning:
Complex infinitives can be built, consisting of more than the original infinitive. They include objects, predicative nouns and adverbial information. These are packed before the original infinitive, if used isolated. (elliptical)
Pronoun objects are usually mentioned before nominal phrase objects; dative nominal objects before accusative nominal objects; and accusative pronoun objects before dative pronouns. Order may change upon emphasis on the object, the first being more important. This can be viewed as a table:
| Type | Order | Case |
|---|---|---|
| Pronoun | 1 | Accusative |
| Pronoun | 2 | Dative |
| Nominal | 3 | Dative |
| Nominal | 4 | Accusative |
Native adverbs, like nicht, leider or gerne, are placed before the innermost verb (see Compound infinitives).
A predicative adjective can be the positive, comparative or superlative stem of an adjective, therefore it has the same form as the adverb. One might also use positional phrases or pronominal adverbs.
A predicative noun is a nominal phrase in the nominative case.
Note that, if the subject is singular, the predicative noun must not be plural.
3rd person pronouns are handled like any nominal phrase when used in a predicative way.
1st person or 2nd person pronouns are never used as predicative pronouns.
Normally, one makes an inversion when using a definite pronoun as predicativum.
One can use any kind of adverbial phrase or native adverb mentioned above. But beware of modal verbs, they change the meaning and phrase of the sentence.
Compound infinitives can be constructed by the usage of modal verbs or auxiliary verbs. One places a new infinitive behind the main infinitive. Then this outer infinitive will be conjugated instead of the old inner infinitive. Sometimes one must turn the old infinitive into a passive participle.
There are two types of passive forms: static passive and dynamic passive. They differ by their auxiliary words. The static passive uses sein, the dynamic passive is formed with werden (which has a slightly different conjugation from its siblings). In both cases, the old infinitive is turned into its passive participle form.
Note that a complex infinitive cannot be turned into passive form, with an accusative object, for obvious reasons. This restriction does not hold for dative objects.
The only exceptions are verbs with two accusative objects. In older forms of German, one of these accusative objects was a dative object. This dative object is removed, whereas the real accusative object stays.
The perfect infinitive is constructed by turning the old infinitive into the passive participle form and attaching the auxiliary verbs haben or sein after the verb.
Note that the perfect infinitive of an intransitive verb is created the same way as the static passive infinitive of a transitive verb.
One can also build perfect infinitives of passive infinitives, both static and dynamic. Since the passive is intransitive, having no accusative object, one must use the auxiliary sein:
sein is used as an auxiliary verb, when the verb is:
haben is used, when
The future infinitive is more theoretical, because this infinite is only used in finite form. One keeps the old infinitive and appends the verb werden, which in the present tense means 'to become'.
The future infinitive can also be built by a perfect infinitive, which is used in the future perfect.
Modal verbs are verbs that modify other verbs, and as such, are never found alone. Examples may include the following: "may", "must", "should", "want", or "can". Such verbs are utilized by placing the modal infinitive behind the old (passive or perfect) infinitive, without changing any other word. Some modal verbs in German are: können, dürfen, müssen, brauchen, wollen, mögen, lassen.
Similar to Latin, there is an accusative and infinitive (ACI) construction possible. To construct it, one places a certain infinitive behind the last infinitive, then adds an accusative object before the inner complex infinitive. This can be done in two ways:
The infinitive with zu has nothing to do with the gerundive, although it is created in a similar way. One simply puts the word zu before the infinitive, perhaps before the permanent prefix, but after the separable prefix.
The infinitive with zu extended with um expresses purpose (in order to...). The subject of the main clause and the verb in the infinitive must be identical.
There are three persons, two numbers and four moods (indicative, conditional, imperative and subjunctive) to consider in conjugation. There are six tenses in German: the present and past are conjugated, and there are four compound tenses. There are two categories of verbs in German: weak and strong. Some grammars use the term mixed verbs to refer to weak verbs with irregularities. For a historical perspective on German verbs, see Germanic weak verb and Germanic strong verb.
Below, the weak verb kaufen 'to buy' and the strong verb singen "to sing" are conjugated.
| Weak verbs | Strong verbs | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Present | Past | Present | Past | |
| ich | kaufe | kaufte | singe | sang |
| du | kaufst | kauftest | singst | sangst |
| er | kauft | kaufte | singt | sang |
| wir | kaufen | kauften | singen | sangen |
| ihr | kauft | kauftet | singt | sangt |
| sie | kaufen | kauften | singen | sangen |
Conditional endings (except for sein "to be")
sein "to be" is irregular in the conditional mood
The (e)s are inserted when the stem of the verb ends in:
The second person singular ending is -t for verbs whose stems end in:
beten "to pray": weak transitive verb
singen "to sing": strong transitive verb
Some strong verbs change their stem vowel in the second and third person singular of the indicative mood of the present tense.
lesen "to read": strong transitive verb
The other tenses are described in the Sentences section, because they include construction of sentences.
werden "to become" (strong)
| Present | Past | |
|---|---|---|
| ich | werde | wurde |
| du | wirst | wurdest |
| er | wird | wurde |
| wir | werden | wurden |
| ihr | werdet | wurdet |
| sie | werden | wurden |
haben "to have" (mixed)
Compare the archaic English conjugation:
| Present | Past | Present | Past | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ich | habe | hatte | I | have | had |
| du | hast | hattest | thou | hast | hadst |
| er | hat | hatte | he | hath | had |
| wir | haben | hatten | we | have | had |
| ihr | habt | hattet | you | have | had |
| sie | haben | hatten | they | have | had |
sein "to be" (strong)
| Present | Past | |
|---|---|---|
| ich | bin | war |
| du | bist | warst |
| er | ist | war |
| wir | sind | waren |
| ihr | seid | wart |
| sie | sind | waren |
Modal verbs are inflected irregularly. In the present tense, they use the endings of the strong verbs. In the past tense, they use the endings of the weak verbs. In addition, most modal verbs have a change of vowel in the singular.
| müssen | sollen | wollen | mögen | können | dürfen | |||||||
| Present | Past | Present | Past | Present | Past | Present | Past | Present | Past | Present | Past | |
| ich | muss | musste | soll | sollte | will | wollte | mag | mochte | kann | konnte | darf | durfte |
| du | musst | musstest | sollst | solltest | willst | wolltest | magst | mochtest | kannst | konntest | darfst | durftest |
| er | muss | musste | soll | sollte | will | wollte | mag | mochte | kann | konnte | darf | durfte |
| wir | müssen | mussten | sollen | sollten | wollen | wollten | mögen | mochten | können | konnten | dürfen | durften |
| ihr | müsst | musstet | sollt | solltet | wollt | wolltet | mögt | mochtet | könnt | konntet | dürft | durftet |
| sie | müssen | mussten | sollen | sollten | wollen | wollten | mögen | mochten | können | konnten | dürfen | durften |
When a modal verb is in use, the main verb is moved to the end of the sentence.
For example:
Ich kann das Auto fahren. ("I can drive the car.") Ich soll die Karten kaufen. ("I'm supposed to buy the cards.") Er muss der Mutter danken. ("He must thank the mother.") Note: danken is a dative verb which is why die Mutter becomes der Mutter. For further information, please read the section about Dative verbs.
Some verbs are dative verbs. When used, these verbs change the case of the direct object to dative. Many have in common that they change the direct object. Dative verbs include (but are not limited to):
Some verbs require the use of a reflexive pronoun. These verbs are known as reflexive verbs. In English, these are often slightly modified versions of non-reflexive verbs, such as "to sit oneself down".
There is an imperative for second person singular and second person plural, as well as for first person plural and second person formal.
The endings for second person singular informal are: -(e), -el or -le, and -er(e).
The endings for second person plural informal are: -(e)t, -elt, and -ert.
The imperative of first person plural and second person formal is identical to to the infinitive.
This subtopic is strongly related to the construction of German sentences.
This section details the construction of verbal nouns and verbal adjectives from the main infinitive. The processes are the same both for simple and complex infinitives. For complex infinitives, adverbial phrases and object phrases are ignored, they do not affect this process; except something else is mentioned.
There are some irregularities when creating the past participle form.
Weak verbs form their past participles with ge- plus the third person singular form of the verb.
Verbs with inseparable prefixes, or foreign words ending in -ieren or -eien do not have ge- added to the verb.
For irregular verbs, the infinitive ending -en remains.
The separable prefix remains in place.
The past participles of modal and auxiliary verbs have the same form as their infinitives. But if these verbs are used alone, without an infinitive, they have a regular participle.
To create the basic form of a present participle, you attach the suffix -d to the infinitive of the verb.
A gerundive-like construction is fairly complicated to use. The basic form is created by putting the word zu before the infinitive. This is also the adverb.
The adjective is more complicated. Instead of the infinitive, one uses the present participle, and then declines it corresponding to gender, number, case and article of the nominal phrase. (Compare the German declension of adjectives.)
Agent nouns (e.g. photographer from photograph in English) are constructed by taking the infinitive, removing the ending and replacing it by -er, -ler or -er(er). If the person is a woman, the endings have an extra -in on them. Note that in the feminine form a second syllable er is omitted, if the infinitive ends on ern or eren.
This form is hard to build for complex infinitives, therefore it is unusual:
does not usually become der Weggeher or die Weggeherin, but instead Derjenige, der weggeht ("the one going away")
or even
schnell zum Flughafen fahren um die Maschine noch zu erwischen ("to quickly drive to the airport to just catch the flight")
The normal gerund noun is generally the same word as the infinitive. The gerund does not have a plural, and its gender is neuter.
There is another kind of gerund that (sometimes) implies disapproval of the action. The ending of this form is -erei ( -lerei or erei ). It does not have a plural, and its gender is feminine.
The above form means a loose, vague abstractum of the verb's meaning. It is also often used to designate a whole trade, discipline or industry:
Cf. also Hitlerei, Fleischerei (butcher's establishment) which do not spring from verbs.
Similar to the form presented above, one may place the prefix ge- (after the separable prefix), if the verb doesn't have a permanent prefix, and then attach the ending -e ( -el, -er ). This noun indicates the same disapproval as the other one. It is a singularetantum, too, and it is neuter.
These forms are very hard to build for complex infinitives; therefore they are very unusual. When they occur, all object phrases and adverbial phrases are put before the gerund noun.
Although there are six tenses in German, only two are simple; the others are compound and therefore build on the simple constructions. The tenses are quite similar to English constructions.
Conjugation includes three persons, two numbers, two moods and two tenses. The subjunctive mood is quite complicated to build; even many native speakers have problems with that matter. English native speakers should note that these tenses do not carry aspect information. There are no progressive tenses in standard German. Das Mädchen geht zur Schule may mean "The girl goes to school" as well as "The girl is going to school". A sentence like Das Mädchen ist zur Schule gehend is still – theoretically – correct, but nobody speaks this way (by the way, Das Mädchen ist gehend zur Schule is completely wrong). One must use an adverb to make a visible difference aside from the context. In colloquial German, there does exist a progressive form, but it is only used with intransitive verbs, for example, am Essen sein meaning "to be eating".
In the third person singular and plural conjugations future perfect can also be used to express an assumption and refers to something that is assumed to have happened in the past.
| For a list of words relating to German verbs, see the German verbs category of words in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |