Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
Some verbs in the 3 categories above may contain separable (trennbar) or inseparable (untrennbar) prefixes. The point of using these
prefixes is to create new meanings from the original verb. This concept is not strange to English, lets look at the verb to stand if we add the
prefix under it will give us a whole new verb to understand, the same thing in German, stehen means to stand, verstehen means
to understand. Easy, right! Well not exactly, because German uses these prefixes more often. And some prefixes can be detached from the
original verb and take a specific spot in the sentences, sometimes even far from the verb.
Separable prefixes (trennbar) are (ab, bei, ein, vor, an, auf, mit, weg, etc.) can stand independently as words, or can stay
connected to the verb, Kann ich mitkommen? (Can I come with you?), kommen Sie mit ans Meer? (are you coming with to
the sea), here the verb is mitkommen, see how in the first example it was connected, and in the second example the prefix
mit was placed after Sie. The meaning of mitkommen is to accompany or come with.
The inseparable prefixes (untrennbar) are (be-, emp-, ent-, er-, ver-, zer-). These kind of prefixes cannot be removed from
their verbs, The most common inseparable prefix verbs are: verkaufen (to sell), bekommen (to get), empfangen (to receive),
empfehlen (to recommend), entdecken (to discover), verstehen (to understand), versagen (to fail), zerstren (to destroy).
German Tenses
Below you will find the most used tenses in German, with the verb endings in each tense, as well as some examples, try to master them if you
can, that would help you a lot and makes you feel comfortable expressing yourself in German, we will start with the present tense, which is a
very important and a must to learn tense:
Weak verb
spielen (to play)
ich spiele
du spielst (familiar)
er, sie, es spielt
wir spielen
ihr spielt (familiar)
Sie spielen (formal)
sie spielen
Strong verb
nehmen (to take)
ich nehme
du nimmst (familiar)
er, sie, es nimmt
wir nehmen
ihr nehmt (familiar)
Sie nehmen (formal)
sie nehmen
Mixed verbs are irregular and are best learnt by heart, because theyre
unpredictable. The good news is that te most common conjugation is the one for
the weak verb. But like any other language there are some exceptions for all three
types of verbs.
Now we will have a look at the past tense, also called the imperfect, another very important fact in knowing how to conjugate verbs in
German:
German Past Tense (Imperfect)
In German as well as in English the simple past tense (imperfect) is used to
describe past events, more literal than conversational, regularly used when
writing about the past. The endings for the weak verb are:
ich -te, du -test, Sie -ten, er (sie, es, man) -te, wir -ten, ihr -tet, Sie -ten, sie
-ten.
So just take any weak verb stem and add it to the endings above, for example our
previous verb spielen (to play), its stem is spiel, plus the endings above we will
get: ich spielte, du spieltest, er spielte, wir spielten, ihr spieltet, Sie, sie spielten
To form the past tense with strong verbs, the trickiest part is knowing the stem,
for example in English, you dont say I comed, but you say I came to refer to
Strong verb
kommen (to come)
ich kam
du kamst (familiar)
Sie kamen (formal)
er, sie, es kam
wir kamen
ihr kamt (familiar)
Sie kamen (formal)
sie kamen
Irregular verb
wissen (to know)
ich wusste
du wusstest (familiar)
Sie wussten (formal)
er, sie, es wusste
wir wussten
ihr wusstet (familiar)
Sie wussten (formal)
sie wussten
the past of the verb to come, strong verbs in German change their stem vowels
and add the following endings:
ich (-nothing added to the stem), du -st, Sie -en, er, sie, es (-nothing added to
the stem), wir -en, ihr -t, Sie -en, sie -en. (look at the example on the side)
For the irregular verbs, theyre tricky too in forming their stem, sometimes the
stem doesnt look like the original verb at all, just like I go and I went, but
these German irregular verbs change the vowel in the stem and, in addition,
they take weak verb endings in the past tense.
Now we will learn the future tense, which is considered the easiest, because you only need to learn the conjugated form of werden plus the
infinitive of the verbs you want to conjugate:
Future Tense in German
There are two ways to express the German future. The easiest and most common method is to use
thepresent tense with an appropriate time marker; Wir gehen morgen nach Berlin (were going to
Berlin tomorrow). The other method is to use the appropriate present tense form of werden with the
infinitive of the main verb, note that the main verb in this method comes at the end of the sentence,
relatively far from the future verb werden. Wir werden Schach und Kreuzwortrtsel spielen (we will
play chess and cross puzzels). Did you see how the verb spielen was kicked to the end of the sentence, its
like youre saying in English: we willchess and cross puzzles play. Remember this structure, because this
is how you will be forming verbs in the future if you use the verb werden with it.
Note that if you choose to use the first method, which is present tense you have to mention the time
marker such as morgen/ tomorrow, nchstes Jahr/ next yearnot using them will make people think
that youre talking about the present and not the future tense.