Today we’ll be talking about some irregularities in the conjugation of regular verbs in German.
Regular Verbs – Revision
I’m sure you remember well how regular verbs are conjugated. Let’s revise shortly. Machen (to make) is a good example of a regular verb:
ich | mach –e | wir | mach –en |
du | mach –st | ihr | mach –t |
er / sie / es | mach –t | sie / Sie | mach -en |
Well, pretty simple. But sometimes it would be difficult to pronounce some forms.
Verbs with Stems Ending in –d or -t
How about the regular verb reden (to speak)?
Ich red –e, du red –st?, er red –t? Well, verbs like that take an additional e in order to be easier to pronounce. By verbs like that I mean verbs ending in –d or –t (after you remove the infinitive –en ending), so for example red –en, arbeit –en (to work), hust –en (to cough).
Let’s start with a verb whose stem ends in -d, like reden. So, after inserting the additional e, the full conjugations looks like this:
ich | red –e | wir | red –en | ||
du | red –e-st | ihr | red –e-t | ||
er / sie / es | red –e-t | sie / Sie | red -en |
And now a verb whose stem ends in -t, like arbeiten:
ich | arbeit –e | wir | arbeit –en | ||
du | arbeit –e-st | ihr | arbeit –e-t | ||
er / sie / es | arbeit –e-t | sie / Sie | arbeit -en |
Some other popular verbs that behave like this include:
reiten – to ride a horse
bitten – to ask for sth
bieten – to offer
kosten – to cost
leiden – to suffer
So, we say:
er reitet | he rides a horse |
ihr bittet | you’re asking (for something) |
du bietest | you offer |
das kostet | this costs |
sie leidet | she’s suffering |
Verbs with Stems Ending in –m or -n
The same rule, i.e. the insertion of an e applies to verbs with stems ending in –m or –n following another consonant.
An example is atmen (to breathe). It would be really a challenge to pronounce all the consonants in the cluster: du atm –st, er atm –t. But we have this e, lucky us.
Here’s the conjugation of the verb atmen:
ich | atm –e | wir | atm –en | ||
du | atm –e-st | ihr | atm –e-t | ||
er / sie / es | atm –e-t | sie / Sie | atm -en |
And here are some examples with such verbs:
atmen | to breathe | Er atmet zu schnell. | He’s breathing too fast. |
rechnen | to calculate | Du rechnest zu langsam. | You calculate too slowly. |
zeichnen | to draw (a picture) | Ihr zeichnet schön. | You draw beautifully. |
Verbs with Stems Ending in –s, -ß, -z or -tz
Another minor irregularity occurs in verbs with stems ending in –s, –ß, –z, –tz. These verbs conjugate regularly, the only difference is the second person singular, where the ending gets simplified to –t (instead of –st).
As an example let’s take the verb sitzen (to sit):
ich | sitz –e | wir | sitz –en | ||
du | sitz –t | ihr | sitz –t | ||
er / sie / es | sitz –t | sie / Sie | sitz -en |
Some examples:
heißen | to be called | Wie heißt du? | What’s your name? (What are you called?) |
rasen | to move fast | Du rast nie. | You never move (drive) fast. |
heizen | to heat (a room) | Du heizt zu viel. | You’re heating (the room) too much. |
sitzen | to sit | Du sitzt rechts. | You’re sitting on the right. |
tanzen | to dance | Du tanzt gut. | You dance well. |
Verbs with Infinitives Ending in –n
Some infinitives end in –n. They also show some irregularities, so let’s look at them next. They can be divided into those ending in –eln and those ending in –ern. Let’s see how to conjugate them. Let’s take two verbs, one in each group:
lächeln – smile
and
ändern – change
ich | lächl –e | änder –e | wir | lächel –n | änder –n | |
du | lächel -st | änder -st | ihr | lächel -t | änder -t | |
er / sie / es | lächel -t | änder -t | sie / Sie | lächel -n | änder -n |
So, the ones ending in –eln, lose the e in first person singular: ich lächle instead of ich *lächele. The other ones don’t. And look at the plural forms (wir and sie). They’re just like the infinitives, so only ending in –n.
INFO
If you like the article and would like to see more content like this, make sure to subscribe to my Prospero German YouTube channel and visit my blog at prosperolingo.com.
And also please subscribe to my mailing list and newsletter. I have a present for all subscribers – my thorough 121-page compendium of Subjunctive Mood in German that explains the most common use cases for Konjunktiv I, Konjunktiv II, conditionals and more. Besides, the PDF covers lots of verb-related stuff like verb inflection, irregular forms, and many, many more.