7 Distinct Uses of The German Verb Werden You'Ve Got To Master - FluentU German

22/2/2017 7DistinctUsesoftheGermanVerbWerdenYou'veGottoMaster|FluentUGerman
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by EMILYCATANEO
7 Distinct Uses of the

German Verb Werden Youve
Got to Master
The English language has 170,000 words in current
use.
German only has 135,000.
Each and every one is a keythat unlocks new German

expressions and grammar patterns.
Great! says the innocent German language learner.I

have less vocabularyto learn! Ill be uentin no time.
Not so fast, my friend. Many German vocab words have

a plethora of uses and meanings.Understanding the
http://www.fluentu.com/german/blog/werdengerman/ 1/16
language requires an understanding of context.

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For example, context is what helps you know whether
someones talking about their boyfriend(Freund)or
61 their friend (alsoFreund). You also need to
noteinection (bersetzen means to translate,
whilebersetzen means to travel by ferry across a river,
4
but only when given a different syllabic emphasis).
3 And then theres werden.
Sometime at the beginning of B-levels, youll start to

see this word cropping up everywhere. Youll learn that
its used for passive constructions. Then youll learn its
used for future tense. And subjunctive.Andthe list
goes on.
But never fear. Master the 7 distinct uses of werden

below, and youll open the door to seven brand new
grammatical forms and seven new methods of self-
expression in German.
Download: This blog post is available as a

convenient and portable PDF that you can take
anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)
HowDoYouConjugateWerden?
Lets start with the basics: Conjugation. Werden is used

in various tenses, depending on its grammatical
function, and its important to get those straight before
we go any farther.
Conjugationofwerdeninpresenttense
Heres how you conjugate werden in the present tense:
ich werde
du wirst
Sie werden
er wird
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wir werden
61 ihr werdet
Sie werden
4
Conjugationofwerdeninliterarypasttense
3
Heres how you conjugate werden in the literary past

tense, also known asdas Prteritum:
ich wurde
du wurdest
Sie wurden
er wurde
wir wurden
ihr wurdet
Sie wurden
Conjugationofwerdeninsubjunctive
Heres how you conjugate werden in subjunctive, also

known as Konjuntiv II:
ich wrde
du wrdest
Sie wrden
er wrde
wir wrden
ihr wrdet
Sie wrden
Got all that? Lets move on and learn how we use these
103 different forms.
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7DistinctUsesoftheGerman
61
VerbWerdenYouveGotto
4
Master
3 1.WerdenasaVollverb
What does werden mean when you use it in its normal,

present tense form? Werden means to become.
The incautious German student might think that

bekommen means to become, but be careful!
Bekommen is a falscher Freund (false friend). It actually

means to receive.
If you want to indicate that somethings in the process

of becoming something else, werden is the word for
you. If you want to say youre getting sick, use werden.
Ich werde Krank.

Im getting sick.
If you want to say someones starting a new career, say,

becoming a doctor, use werden.
Er wird Arzt.
Hes becoming a doctor.
If you want to talk about something that became

something else in the near past, you can use the
Particip II of werden to create the present perfect tense
(Perfekt): geworden.
Ich bin Journalistin geworden.

I became a journalist.
Since werden is a word that involves a change, make

sure to use sein, not haben to form the present perfect
tense.
If you want to talk about something that became

something else in the simple past (which is often used
in literary forms or history books), use the Prteritum

103 forms above.
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Goethe wurde Schriftsteller.

61 Goethe became a writer.
2.PassiveconstructionsofWerden
4
Have you gured out how to use werden to mean

3 become or became? Good. Now lets move on to using
werden to construct passive sentences.
Remember, a passive construction is a construction

where the subject of the sentence is acted upon by
something else, rather than the subject of the sentence
performing an action.An English example: The house
was built.
To form a present tense passive construction in

German, use the present tense of werden plus the
Particip II version of a verb. For example:
Das Haus wird gebaut.

The house is being built.
To form a past passive construction in German, you

could use either Perfekt or Prteritum. In Perfekt, use
the Particip II of the verb plus worden. For example:
Das Haus ist gebaut worden.

The house was being built.
In Prteritum, or literary past tense, you would use the

Prteritum version of werden plus the Particip II. For
example:
Der Song wurde von den Beatles gesungen.

The song was sung by the Beatles.
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3.WerdeninKonjunktivIIform
Now lets talk about how you can use werden to

express subjunctive, or conditional, forms.
Remember the Konjunctiv II conjugations in the rst

section of this post? Refresh your memory on those,
because youll need them to create the Konjunctiv.
Basically, these constructions are used to express

something that isnt real: a wish, a hope or an unreal
situation. How do you form these constructions? There
are eight verbs that have their own Konjunctiv II forms,
but the rest of the time youuse the Konjunctiv II form of
werden, plus the innitive of a verb. (You can read more
about those verbs with their own Konjuntiv II
formsthem here.) Here are some examples:
Wenn ich das machen wrde

If I didthat
Ich wrde Sie ja gerne mitnehmen, wenn Sie Zeit

htten.
I would gladly bring you with me, if you had time.
Wenn ich Geld htte, wrde ich einen Kaffee

103 trinken.
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If I had money, I would drink a coffee.
61 Werden can also be used with the innitive form of a

verb to create four different structures. The rst is not
very important:
4
4.TalkingaboutthefuturewithWerden
3
To talk about the future (Zukunft), Germans use werden

plus the innitive form of a verb.
Im August werde ich in den USA Urlaub machen.

In August, I am going to the USA for a vacation.
Why is the future tense the least important use of

werden plus innitive? Because Germans dont actually
use the future tense all that often. Its much more
common for Germans to simply use present tense and
imply future using context clues, such as in the
following example:
Morgen koche ich etwas.

Tomorrow, Im cooking something.
But its still important to know the future tense and to

know how to differentiate it from the other forms of
werden plus innitive.
5.Implyingattitudesaboutcertainty
withWerden
Werden plus innitive can also be used to talk about

guaranteesalso known as Sicherheit(security).
Sie wird garantiert krank sein.

Shesdenitely sick.
So how do you distinguish a sentence thats talking

about a certainty from a sentence thats talking about
the future? Its all about the context words, words that
mean denitely or for sure. Look for the following
words as indicators of certainty:
sicher
103 surely
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bestimmt
61 denitely
sicherlich
4
certainly
3 gewiss
assuredly
mit Sicherheit
with certainty
garantiert
guaranteed
auf jeden Fall

absolutely
6.ImplyingprobabilitywithWerden
Just as you can use werden plus innitive to talk about

guarantees, you can also use it to talk about
probabilities. For example, if you wanted to say,
Maria wird gerade am Strand liegen.

Maria is probably lying on the beach right now.
A sentence construction thats used for probabilities

and certainties. Sounds confusing, right? But dont
panic! Look for these context words that mean
probably, and youll be able to spot a sentence like this
in no time.
vermutlich
presumably
wahrscheinlich
probably
vielleicht
maybe
mglicherweise
possibly
wohl
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7.GivingcommandswithWerden
61
Finally, werden plus innitive constructions can be used
to give someone a command.
4
Du wirst jetzt sofort kommen!

3 You need to come now!
This form of command is stricter and more ocial than

an Imperativ command.
Werden has a lot of uses, and it can be confusing to try

to gure them out. But with some studying and a lot of
practice, youll be well on your way to knowing all
these different forms.
Download: This blog post is available as a

convenient and portable PDF that you can take
anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)
AndSpeakingofPractice
When it comes to learning verb usage or any other kind

of German grammar, the key to getting it down pat is
going beyond rote memorization and seeing it used in
real-life situations.
If youre on board with that, youll denitely want to

check out FluentU.
FluentU takes great videoslike music videos, movie

trailers, news and inspiring talksand turns them into
language learning experiences so that you can learn
real German as people really speak it.
A quick look will give you an idea of the diverse

content you can nd on FluentU:
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Watching a fun video, but having trouble understanding

it? FluentU brings native videos within reach with
interactive transcripts.
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You can tap on any word to look it up instantly.Every

denition has examples that have been written to help
you understand how the word is used. If you see an
interesting word you dont know, you can add it to a
vocab list.
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And FluentU isnt just for watching videos. Its a

complete platform for learning. Its designed to
effectively teach you all the vocabulary from any video.
Swipe left or right to see more examples of the word
youre on.
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The best part is that FluentU keeps track of the

vocabulary that youre learning, and it recommends you
examples and videos based on the words youve
already learned. This is a level of personalization that
hasnt been done before.
StartusingFluentU on the websitewith your computer

or tabletor, better yet,download the FluentU app
fromthe iTunes store.
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22/2/2017 7DistinctUsesoftheGermanVerbWerdenYou'veGottoMaster|FluentUGerman

7 Distinct Uses of the

German only has 135,000.

Each and every one is a keythat unlocks new German

Great! says the innocent German language learner.I

Not so fast, my friend. Many German vocab words have

language requires an understanding of context.

3 And then theres werden.

Sometime at the beginning of B-levels, youll start to

But never fear. Master the 7 distinct uses of werden

Download: This blog post is available as a

Lets start with the basics: Conjugation. Werden is used

Heres how you conjugate werden in the present tense:

Heres how you conjugate werden in the literary past

Heres how you conjugate werden in subjunctive, also

What does werden mean when you use it in its normal,

The incautious German student might think that

Bekommen is a falscher Freund (false friend). It actually

If you want to indicate that somethings in the process

Ich werde Krank.

If you want to say someones starting a new career, say,

If you want to talk about something that became

Ich bin Journalistin geworden.

Since werden is a word that involves a change, make

If you want to talk about something that became

in literary forms or history books), use the Prteritum

Goethe wurde Schriftsteller.

Have you gured out how to use werden to mean

Remember, a passive construction is a construction

To form a present tense passive construction in

Das Haus wird gebaut.

To form a past passive construction in German, you

Das Haus ist gebaut worden.

In Prteritum, or literary past tense, you would use the

Der Song wurde von den Beatles gesungen.

Now lets talk about how you can use werden to

Remember the Konjunctiv II conjugations in the rst

Basically, these constructions are used to express

Wenn ich das machen wrde

Ich wrde Sie ja gerne mitnehmen, wenn Sie Zeit

Wenn ich Geld htte, wrde ich einen Kaffee

61 Werden can also be used with the innitive form of a

To talk about the future (Zukunft), Germans use werden

Im August werde ich in den USA Urlaub machen.

Why is the future tense the least important use of

Morgen koche ich etwas.

But its still important to know the future tense and to

Werden plus innitive can also be used to talk about

Sie wird garantiert krank sein.

So how do you distinguish a sentence thats talking

auf jeden Fall

Just as you can use werden plus innitive to talk about

Maria wird gerade am Strand liegen.

A sentence construction thats used for probabilities

Du wirst jetzt sofort kommen!

This form of command is stricter and more ocial than

Werden has a lot of uses, and it can be confusing to try

Download: This blog post is available as a

When it comes to learning verb usage or any other kind

If youre on board with that, youll denitely want to

FluentU takes great videoslike music videos, movie

A quick look will give you an idea of the diverse

Watching a fun video, but having trouble understanding