SWACHE/STARKE VERBEN KONJUGATION

Weak verbs in das Präsens/Present

ich brauche (I need)
du brauchst (you need)
er/sie/es braucht (he/she/it needs)
wir brauchen (we need)
ihr braucht (you need)
Sie/sie brauchen (you/they need)

Weak verbs in the Präteritum

The Präteritum, or simple past, is also referred to as the literary past tense in German because
it’s typically used in writing. An example in English would be “I wanted.”
Conjugating the Präteritum is more or less the same as the present tense, except for two
things: the 3rd person singular (er/sie/es) and an additional “t” at the beginning of all the verb
endings:

Ich brauchte (I needed)

du brauchtest (you needed)
er/sie/es brauchte (he/she/it needed)
wir brauchten (we needed)
ihr brauchtet (you needed)
Sie/sie brauchten (you/they needed)

Note: Verbs which have a “d” or a “t” at the end of their stem require an extra “e” to be
conjugated correctly. Therefore, reden, which means to speak, would be conjugated as er redet
(he speaks) instead of er redt.
Weak Verbs in the Perfekt
The Präteritum is all good and well, but in spoken German, you typically use the Perfekt tense
to talk about the past. This is an important distinction between German and English: the
Präteritum and Perfekt tenses are used identically, whereas the past tense and present perfect
in English aren’t.
For example, if we were to directly translate “er hat geredet” into English, we’d have “he had
talked,” when in actuality a German would interpret that as “he talked.”
The Perfekt is actually the easiest of the three to conjugate for weak verbs, especially if you’ve
already learned how to conjugate the two auxiliary verbs haben (to have) and sein (to be):
Ich habe gekauft (I bought)
du hast gekauft (you bought)
er/sie/es hat gekauft (he/she/it bought)
wir haben gekauft (we bought)
ihr habt gekauft (you bought)
Sie/sie haben gekauft (you/they bought)

Strong verbs in das Präsens

Irregular verbs in the German present tense only have vowel changes in the second and third
person singular (du/er/sie/es) conjugations, and there are three types of changes:
“e” to “i” — ex: geben (to give) to du gibst (you give)

“e” to “ie” — ex: lesen (to read) and er liest (he reads)

“a” to “ä” — ex: fahren (to drive) and er fährt (he drives)

There are a few verbs in the present tense that fall outside of this pattern, such as haben and
sein, but not many.

Strong verbs in the Präteritum

The Präteritum is where things get a little messy for strong verbs, but luckily there are still some
patterns to pick out (and it’s also a great exercise in German vowel vocalization).
Strong verb Präteritum endings follow the normal conjugation pattern, except in the first and
third person singular conjugations (ich/er/sie/es), where there’s no ending:

Long “e” and “i” sounds change to “o” — ex: bewegen (to move) becomes bewog.

Short “e” and “i” sounds change to “a” — ex: essen (to eat) becomes aß.

Verbs with “ei” change to either “ie” or “i” — ex: schneiden (to cut) becomes schnitt.

Verbs with an “ä” vowel change in the present tense change to either “ie/i” or “u” — ex: laufen
(to work or walk fast) becomes lief and fahren (to drive or go) becomes fuhr.

Again, these are just basic guidelines and there will be exceptions!

Strong Verbs in the Perfekt

When it comes to learning verb tenses, in my experience the strong verb Perfekt tense is the
most challenging.

The Perfekt tense has the most given variations, but as with the previous two tenses, there are
some patterns to look out for:

Most verbs with “a” and “o” stems remain in the infinitive, ex: fahren becomes gefahren.

Verbs with “ei” change to either “ie” or “i” — ex: beißen (to bite) becomes gebissen.
Verbs with “ie” change to “o” — ex: fliegen (to fly) becomes geflogen.
Verbs with “i” infinitive change to “u” — ex: springen (to jump) becomes gesprungen.
Verbs with “e” typically change to “o” — ex: sterben (to die) becomes gestorben.
As with the previous conjugation patterns, there are going to be exceptions! It’s also worth
noting that all of the strong verb participles end in -en, with the exception of tun (to do) which
becomes getan.