How to Conjugate German Verbs

Conjugation might seem like a complicated, fancy word, but it's actually something you do all the time. Anytime you change a verb based on its subject (I walk, she walks) or tense (I walk, I walked), you are performing a conjugation. This article will simply explain the basics of conjugation in German.

Part 1
Part 1 of 4:

Understanding Conjugation

  1. 1
    Know that verb conjugation is when you change the verb in a sentence based on the sentence’s subject and tense. Conjugation is done in many languages, including English.
    • Take the verb “to be”. This is an example of a verb that has not yet been conjugated. We call these verbs infinitives. When we change the verb “to be” based on the subject of a sentence (he is, I am, you are) or the tense (I will, I am, I was), this is conjugation.
  2. 2
    Learn the Nominative German pronouns. Nominative pronouns are pronouns that replace the subject of a sentence. For example, in the sentence, “Mary had a little lamb,” we could replace the subject, “Mary,” with the pronoun “she.” That makes “she” a nominative pronoun. The nominative German pronouns are as follows:
    • ich (I)
    • du (you)
    • er/sie/es (he/she/it)
    • wir (we)
    • ihr (you, plural)
    • sie (they)
    • Sie (you, formal)
    • German pronouns, except the formal you (Sie), are not capitalized unless they are the first word of a sentence. Capitalization is what distinguishes formal you from the pronouns she and they.
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  3. 3
    Memorize the verb endings. Each ending corresponds with a nominative pronoun, and the endings will follow you through all sorts of tenses. It’s important to know them before trying to conjugate a verb. The endings are:
    • -e , which corresponds to ich
    • -st , which corresponds to du
    • -t , which corresponds to er, sie, es, and ihr
    • -en , which corresponds to wir, sie, and Sie
  4. 4
    Understand how to recognize an infinitive verb. In german, infinitive verbs almost always end with -en . Examples include fahren (to drive), tanzen (to dance), and wissen (to know). The majority of unconjugated verbs will end with this -en .
    • This is helpful to know because it helps spot verbs that may need conjugation in an exercise, and it’s also the same as the conjugation for the pronouns wir, sie, and Sie. This means you don’t have to memorize those conjugations because the verb already comes in the -en form.
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Part 2
Part 2 of 4:

Present Tense

  1. The present tense is used when an action is happening at the moment. It’s often characterized in English with words like am, is, and are.
    • Example: “We are eating,” is in the present tense. You can tell this because of the word “are.”
  2. 2
    Determine the verb you are going to conjugate. The verb is likely to be the second word in your sentence since subjects and verbs are rarely separated in the German language. If your sentence is a question, the verb will be the first word.
  3. 3
    Ditch the habit of using “being” words before each verb. Am, is, are, was, were, being, been, and be are not used in German like they are in English.
    • English speakers are used to using “be” words before verbs, such as in sentences like, “I am watching a movie,” or “They are dancing.” German sentences would translate to something like, “I watch a movie” or, “They dance.” German doesn’t use being verbs to introduce action verbs.
  4. Is it a pronoun or a noun? Is it singular or plural? Who is speaking the sentence? The answers to these questions will help you decide which verb ending to use.
  5. 5
    Use the -e ending when the subject of the sentence is ich. Do this by taking the stem of the verb (the part of the verb without the -en ) and adding an “e” to the end. For example, if your verb was tragen (to wear), and you wanted to say “I wear a hat” you’d take the stem of the verb (trag) and add an -e to the end. The final conjugated verb is trage.
    • The final sentence is, “Ich trage einen Hut.”
    • Ich is the first person singular pronoun in the German language. It corresponds to the pronoun “I” in English. You’ll use the -e ending anytime a sentence is written/spoken with a first-person singular subject.
    • First person is when a sentence is written/spoken from the speaker’s/writer’s point of view. An example in English is the sentence “I go to the store.” Since the sentence is told from the speaker’s point of view and uses the word I, we know the sentence is in first-person. Similarly, the Germans use ich.
  6. 6
    Use the ending -st when the subject of the sentence is du. Follow the same steps you would for ich: take away the -en from an infinitive and replace it with an ending. For sentences with du as a subject, the ending is -st.
    • Example: if you want to say, “You swim well,” your infinitive verb is schwimmen (to swim). Take away the -en to find the stem of the verb (schwimm), and add the ending -st. The final conjugated verb is schwimmst.
    • The final sentence is, “Du schwimmst gut.”
    • Du is the second-person singular pronoun in the German language. It corresponds to the singular you in English. You’ll use the -st ending anytime a sentence is written/spoken with a second-person singular subject.
    • Second-person is a point of view addressing one person, such as a conversation partner or reader. Statements like, “You look beautiful,” and questions like, “What did you do yesterday?” are examples of the second-person singular point of view. Second-person is easy to spot because it almost always has “you” as the subject. Unless, of course, the sentence is in German, where they will use “du.”
  7. 7
    Use the ending -t when the subject is er, sie, es, or one noun (third-person singular point of view). This means you’ll use this ending with er (he) sie (she) and es (it), as well as any sentence with a subject that is one noun. To conjugate a verb with these subjects, take the stem by removing the -en at the end of the verb and replace it with the ending -t.
    • My mother, the dog, Erica, it, and Peter’s bowl are all examples of third-person singular subjects.
    • Example: If you want to say, “The dog barks,” your verb is bellen. Take the stem by removing the -en (to get bell), and add the ending -t. Your conjugated verb is bellt.
    • The final sentence is, “Der Hund bellt.”
    • Third-person is a point of view that speaks about others. In English it’s characterized by the pronouns he, she, and it. If you said something like “Colton won,” or “She said something rude,” you’d be using third-person. You know the sentence is in third-person because it doesn’t have you talking for yourself/and others or addressing someone directly. German uses the words er, sie, and es where we use he, she, and it.
  8. 8
    Use the ending -en when the subject is wir. Since German verbs’ infinitive forms always end in -en , you won’t have to change the verb.
    • A first-person plural sentence will often start with “wir”, which is the German word for “we”.
    • For example: “Wir spielen Fußball,” means, “We play soccer.” The verb is spielen. Since spielen comes in its infinitive form (which always ends in -en ) the verb doesn’t need to be changed at all.
    • First-person plural is just like the first-person singular, except it involves multiple people instead of just one. “We play soccer,” is in first person plural, and you can tell that because of the word we . In German, we is wir.
  9. 9
    Use the -t ending when the subject is ihr (second-person plural). These verbs will be conjugated just like verbs with er, sie, and es.
    • In terms of point of view, second-person singular is just like second-person plural, except for the fact that it addressed multiple people (opposed to just one). Saying, “How are you doing,” or, “Hey y’all” to an audience uses the second-person plural point of view. German uses the pronoun “ihr” to address an audience.
  10. 10
    Use the -en ending with Sie (formal you) or sie (they) as the subject. Although Sie represents the formal second-person singular point of view and sie is the third-person plural, their verbs are conjugated the same way. Since infinitive German verbs already end in -en , simply leave the verb as it is.
    • This is also the same conjugation as “wir”, or first-person plural.
    • Third-person plural is just like third-person singular, except it speaks about multiple people/things.
    • The formal you, Sie, is typically used when referring to a stranger or a person in a position of authority in the second person.
  11. 11
    Know common irregularities. Though German is a fairly logical language, it still has exceptions to its rules. Here are some of the most important irregular verbs to learn.
    • Sein (to be)
    • Haben (to have)
    • Werden (to become)
    • Fahren (to drive)
    • Geben (to give)
    • Lesen (to read)
  12. 12
    Know about separable prefix verbs. These verbs will have endings that follow the rules listed in this section. However, they have one extra step. After conjugating the main verb, the prefix will be detached and placed at the end of the sentence.
    • Example: If you want to say, “I call my friend,” in German, you’d use the verb anrufen, which means to call. Anrufen is a separable prefix verb. You’d conjugate anrufen according to the regular rules first to end up with anrufe. It has the -e ending because the subject of the sentence is “ich” (I). Next, you’d take the prefix, an, and move it to the end of the sentence. Your final sentence is, “Ich rufe meinen Freund an.” As you can see, the prefix is moved to the end of the sentence and the rest of the verb is conjugated as normal.
    • Separable prefix verbs are fairly easy to spot because they usually start with recognizable prefixes, such as an, ab, aus, and mit. Some common separable prefix verbs are: anhaben (lit. to have on), abfahren (to depart), abholen (to pick up), auskommen (to get by), mitbringen (to bring with), mitnehmen (to take with), and einladen (to invite).
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Part 3
Part 3 of 4:

Future Tense

  1. The future tense is used when something has not happened yet, but it will. You’ll find the word “will” a lot in the future tense as a helping verb.
    • Example: “I will move to Paris,” is a sentence in the future tense because it speaks of something that has not yet happened. You can see the use of the word “will” in that sentence.
  2. 2
    Memorize the conjugation of the German word werden. German doesn’t have a word for will like English does, so Germans use their verb “werden” (to become) instead. Werden is irregular, so it doesn’t follow the rules you learned in the previous section. Instead, it has its own set of conjugations:
    • (First person singular) ich werde
    • (Second-person singular) du wirst
    • (Third-person singular) er/sie/es wird
    • (First person plural) wir werden
    • (Second-person plural) ihr werdet
    • (Third-person plural) sie werden
    • (Formal you) werden Sie
  3. 3
    Replace the action verb with the appropriate form of werden. Now that you know the conjugations of werden, you can use it to change a sentence from present to future tense. Simply take out the action verb and add werden in its place. Examples:
    • “Du liest ein Buch” (you read a book). Take out the verb. In this case, that is liest (conjugated form of lesen, to read). Now you have “Du ein Buch.” Put the correct form of werden in place of the verb to get “Du wirst ein Buch.”
  4. 4
    Put the infinitive of the action verb at the end of the sentence. Remember the action verb you replaced with werden? It didn’t go away completely. It’s going to find a new home at the very end of your sentence. It has to be in its infinitive form, however. This means removing any endings from the verb ( -e, -st, -t, -en ) and replacing them with -en. German infinitives almost always end in -en .
    • To continue the previous step’s example, “Du liest ein Buch” became “Du wirst ein Buch” when you replaced the action verb with a conjugation of werden. To finish the sentence, add the infinitive of the action verb at the end. The example sentence becomes, “Du wirst ein Buch lesen.” This is a proper sentence in the German future tense.
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Part 4
Part 4 of 4:

Conversational Past Tense

  1. The past tense talks about events that have already happened. In English, the past tense is often recognizable when the verb in a sentence ends in -ed. Sentences like "I walked", "I liked him", and "I held the baby" are examples of the past tense in English. German has its own set of rules for talking about things that have already happened.
    • In German there are two past tenses: the narrative past and the conversational past. This article explains the conversational past because that's the one you'll use when speaking.
  2. 2
    Determine which helping verb to use. Two helping verbs are used in the conversational past tense: haben (to have) and sein (to be). Which one you use depends on the action verb in the sentence. If the verb includes forward motion, such as gehen (to go) or rennen (to run), use sein. If the action verb indicates a change in a state of being, such as aufwachen (to wake up), use sein. Otherwise, use haben.
  3. 3
    Replace the action verb with a conjugated form of the helping verb. The helping verb will take the place of the action verb, which is right next to the subject of the sentence. Don’t forget to conjugate the helping verb!
    • Example: If you wanted to say, “Ich koche eine Wurst” (I cook a sausage) in the past tense, you’d first replace the action verb (kochen) with the appropriate helping verb (haben in this case). You’d conjugate the helping verb to match the subject, which is in this case “ich”. You’d now have “Ich habe eine Wurst.” You’re not quite finished, however.
    • The helping verb (haben or sein) will technically be conjugated the same way it would be if you were writing in the present tense. However, both of these verbs are irregular and follow their own rules as opposed to the general ones of the present tense. That’s why it’s helpful to memorize their conjugations.
    • This article has the conjugations of both these verbs already in it! Check the section for the present tense for a chart of conjugations for both haben and sein, as well as a few other irregular verbs.
  4. 4
    Place the action verb at the end of the sentence and change the ending to -t . Just like the in future tense, the main action verb resides at the end of its sentence. Unlike the future tense, it won’t be conjugated as an infinitive with an -en ending. Instead, remove the ending the action verb started with and replace it with -t .
    • Keeping the previous example, you’d add the action verb (koche) at the end of the sentence. Then you’d change the ending (in this case -e ) to -t. You’d now have, “Ich habe eine Wurst kocht.”
  5. 5
    Add the prefix ge- to the action verb. Since ge- is a prefix, it goes at the beginning of a word rather than the end. Almost all German verbs will have ge- at the beginning in their conversational past conjugation regardless of whether or not they are irregular.
    • Keeping the previous example, “Ich habe eine Wurst gekocht.” This is a proper sentence in the conversational past tense.
    • The only exceptions to this are separable prefix verbs. Those verbs already have a prefix. Instead of adding ge- to the prefix already there, you’ll put it between the original prefix and the rest of the verb.
    • For example, if you wanted to say, “I called my friend,” you’d say, “Ich habe meinen Freund angerufen.” The original action verb, anrufen, is replaced with the correct form of haben. It is moved to the end of the sentence. The ending is changed to -t, and the ge- is between the prefix and the stem, not in front of both.
  6. 6
    Know common irregularities. Most verbs follow these rules, but many don’t. Here are some common irregular verbs, their proper conversational past tense conjugations, and definitions:
    • Sein (to be): gewesen
    • Tragen (to wear): getragen
    • Gehen (to go): gegangen
    • Trinken (to drink): getrunken
    • Besuchen (to visit): besucht
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