Verbs in German Grammar

What is a verb?

Verbs (Verben) (also: Tätigkeitswort, Tuwort or Zeitwort) are doing words. They can express actions performed by the subject of the sentence as well as states, concepts, and processes.

Weak, strong or mixed?

German verbs are conjugated; they change their form according to the tense and the subject of the sentence.

Examples:-

Like other languages, German has regular and irregular verbs, but we can also classify German verbs as being weak (schwach), strong (stark) or mixed (gemischt).

Weak verbs (schwache Verben) are regular verbs:

Weak verbs are conjugated by simply adding an ending to the stem, which remains the same for every form.

Examples:

We will add in the past participle (Partizip II) of a weak verbs with ge…t.

Example:

gemacht

Strong verbs (starke Verben) are irregular verbs:

Strong verbs change their stem in Präteritum and/or past participle. Some strong verbs also change their stem in certain present tense forms.

We will add in the past participle of strong verbs with ge…en.

Example: geschlafen

Mixed verbs (gemischte Verben) are also irregular.

Their conjugation is a mix of strong and weak:

Like strong verbs, mixed verbs also change their stem in the Präteritum and/or past participle.

Example:

However, unlike strong verbs, we form the past participle of mixed verbs in the same way as weak verbs: with ge…t.Example:gedacht TipThere is no way to tell if a verb is weak, strong or mixed; we have to learn them by heart or look them up in a list of irregular verbs.However, English can help us out a bit. If the German verb has an English cognate that is irregular, then the German verb is usually strong or mixed.

Examples:

Likewise, if the German verb has an English cognate that is regular, the German verb is likely regular (weak) too.

Examples:

But be careful: this rule isn’t failsafe. There are some important exceptions:Example:

Main verbs, auxiliary or modal verb?

We can categorise verbs into the following three types: main verbs (Vollverben), auxiliaries (Hilfsverben) and modal verbs (Modalverben).Main verbs (Vollverben) express an action, state or process.Example:Sie machen die Hausaufgabe.Auxiliary verbs (Hilfsverben) have a strictly grammatical function and have no meaning of their own. Auxiliary verbs work together with main verbs to form compound tenses and the passive. The German auxiliary verbs are sein, haben and werden.

Examples:

in these examples the main verb is machen, this conveys meaning while the auxiliaries only fulfil a grammatical roleModal verbs (Modalverben) come before main verbs and express things like permission, obligation, advice, ability, etc. The German modal verbs are dürfen, können, mögen , möchten, müssen, sollen, wollen.

Example:

Separable or non-separable(Trennbare oder Untrennbare)?

We can add prefixes to many German verbs to change their meaning.

Example:

Verbs with prefixes can be separable (trennbar) or non-separable (nicht trennbar).

Separable verbs: the prefix is separated from the main verb. It comes at the end of the sentence in Präsens and Präteritum and is attached to the beginning of past participles that start with ge-.

Example:

Non-separable verbs: The prefix remains attached to the verb. The past participle of non-separable verbs is not formed with ge-.

Example:

Note: Some verbs with prefixes have different meanings depending on whether they are separable or not.

Example:

Reflexive verbs

Reflexive verbs (reflexive Verben) are formed with a reflexive pronoun. With reflexive verbs, the subject and the object of the verb are the same.

Example:

Transitive or intransitive?

In the dictionary, transitive and intransitive verbs are marked with the letters vt and vi. But what does transitive or intransitive actually mean?

Transitive verbs take an accusative object (Wen/Was?).

Example:

Without an accusative object, their meaning is incomplete.

Example:

Intransitive verbs do not take an accusative object. These verbs can stand alone and still make complete sense.

Example:

an der Kreuzung (at the crossing) is not an object, it just tells us where the action is happening

Transitive and intransitive verbs in the passive

We can only form passive sentences with transitive verbs. This is because the accusative object of an active sentence is needed to become the subject of the passive sentence.

Example:

Intransitive verbs only exist in the impersonal passive. This form is often used to give orders. The impersonal passive can take the pronoun es or an adverbial phrase (jetzt, gestern …) as its subject.

Examples:

Personal or impersonal?

We can distinguish between personal and impersonal verbs in German.

Most verbs are personal verbs (persönliche Verben); they can be used with all subject pronouns and with a noun in the 3rd person forms.

Example:

A handful of personal verbs only exist in the 3rd person singular/plural.

Example:

note:

Impersonal verbs (unpersönliche Verben) can only take the pronoun “es” as their subject. It is not possible to use these verbs with a noun as their subject. The most common impersonal verbs are weather verbs.

Examples:

Indicative, subjunctive or imperative?

The indicative, subjunctive and imperative are all moods (der Modus). The mood of a sentence gives context to the verb; it tells us the speaker’s intention.

The indicative (der Indikativ) is the default mood. It presents information as fact and grounded in reality.

Example:

The subjunctive (der Konjunktiv) indicates that the information being presented has an element of possibility, fantasy, impossibility or doubt. We can often translate the subjunctive with English phrases like would, should and could. In German, there are two types of subjunctive: Konjunktiv I and Konjunktiv II.

The subjunctive mood is used for:

sentences with wenn that express something that can only occur if a certain condition is fulfilled

Example:

reported speech (when the speaker wishes to distance themselves from the information being repeated)

Example:

wishes

Example:

The imperative (der Imperativ) gives orders and commands to one person or more.

Example:

Finite or infinite?

The conjugated forms of the verb are also known as finite forms. The conjugated form of the verb always occupies second position in a main clause. The first position is occupied by the subject or an adverbial phrase (time, place, manner, etc.).

Examples:

The non-conjugated forms of a verb are known as the infinite forms. Infinite forms are invariable (they do not change their form) and they occupy the final position in a main clause.

The infinite verb forms in German are:

The infinitive: this is the basic form of the verb. We use the infinitive in tenses like Future I or after modal verbs.

Examples: