German Verbs in the Present Tense (Konjugasi)

The Basics
Each verb has a basic "infinitive" ("to") form. This is the form of the verb you find in a German dictionary. The verb "to play" in English is the infinitive form. ("He plays" is a conjugated form.) The German equivalent of "to play" is spielen. Each verb has a "stem" form, the basic part of the verb left after you remove the -en ending. For spielen the stem is spiel- (spielen - en). To conjugate the verb—that is, use it in a sentence—you must add the correct ending to the stem. If you want to say "I play" you add an -e ending: "ich spiele" (which can also be translated into English as "I am playing"). Each "person" (he, you, they, etc.) requires its own ending on the verb. This is called "conjugating the verb." If you don't know how to conjugate verbs correctly it means your German will sound strange to people who understand the language. German verbs require more different endings than English verbs. In English we use only an s ending or no ending for most verbs: "I/they/we/you play" or "he/she plays." In the present tense, German has a different ending for almost all of those verb situations: ich spiele, sie spielen, du spielst, er spielt, etc. Observe that the verb spielen has a different ending in each of the examples. If you want to sound intelligent in German, you need to learn when to use which ending. That's why we have this chart for you!

German has no present progressive tense ("am going"/"are buying"). The German Präsens "ich kaufe" can be translated into English as "I buy" or "I am buying," depending on the context.

The chart below lists two sample German verbs—one an example of a "normal" verb, the other an example of verbs that require a "connecting e" in the 2nd person singular and plural, and the 3rd person singular (du/ihr, er/sie/es)—as in er arbeitet.

We have also included a helpful list of some representative common stem-changing verbs. These are verbs that follow the normal pattern of endings, but have a vowel change in their stem or base form (hence the name "stem-changing"). In the chart below, the verb endings for each pronoun (person) are indicated in bold type.

spielen - to play
Deutsch	English	Sample Sentences
SINGULAR
ich spiele	I play	Ich spiele gern Basketball.
du spielst	you (fam.) play	Spielst du Schach? (chess)
er spielt	he plays	Er spielt mit mir. (with me)
sie spielt	she plays	Sie spielt Karten. (cards)
es spielt	it plays	Es spielt keine Rolle. It doesn't matter.
PLURAL
wir spielen	we play	Wir spielen Basketball.
ihr spielt	you (guys) play	Spielt ihr Monopoly?
sie spielen	they play	Sie spielen Golf.
Sie spielen	you play	Spielen Sie heute? (Sie, formal "you," is both singular and plural.)

Now let's look at another German verb. This one is only slightly different from the others. The verb arbeiten (to work) belongs to a category of verbs that add a "connecting" e in the 2nd person singular and plural, and the 3rd person singular (du/ihr, er/sie/es) in the present tense: er arbeitet. Verbs whose stem ends in d or t do this. The following are examples of verbs in this category: antworten (answer), bedeuten (mean), enden (end), senden (send).

arbeiten - to work
Deutsch	English	Sample Sentences
SINGULAR
ich arbeite	I work	Ich arbeite am Samstag.
du arbeitest *	you (fam.) work	Arbeitest du in der Stadt?
er arbeitet *	he works	Er arbeitet mit mir. (with me)
sie arbeitet *	she works	Sie arbeitet nicht.
es arbeitet *	it works	--
PLURAL
wir arbeiten	we work	Wir arbeiten zu viel.
ihr arbeitet *	you (guys) work	Arbeitet ihr am Montag?
sie arbeiten	they work	Sie arbeiten bei BMW.
Sie arbeiten	you work	Arbeiten Sie heute? (Sie, formal "you," is both singular and plural.)

Sample Stem-Changing Verbs
Deutsch	English	Sample Sentence
In the examples below, er stands for all three third-person pronouns (er, sie, es). Stem-changing verbs only change in the singular (except for ich). Their plural forms are completely regular.
fahren er fährt du fährst	to travel he travels you travel	Er fährt nach Berlin. He's traveling/going to Berlin. Ich fahre nach Berlin. I'm traveling/going to Berlin.
lesen er liest du liest	to read he reads you read	Maria liest die Zeitung. Maria's reading the newspaper. Wir lesen die Zeitung. We read the newspaper.
nehmen er nimmt du nimmst	to take he takes you take	Karl nimmt sein Geld. Karl's taking his money. Ich nehme mein Geld. I'm taking my money.
vergessen er vergisst du vergisst	to forget he forgets you forget	Er vergisst immer. He always forgets. Vergiss es! / Vergessen Sie es! Forget it!