German verb conjugation: Rules, chart and examples

Every German verb has a stem and an ending, and the ending shifts depending on the subject (ich, du, er/sie/es, wir, ihr, sie/Sie) and the tense. Once you know the pattern, most German verbs become predictable fast.

Main points to keep in mind:

• German verbs fall into three classes: regular, irregular, and mixed
• There are six tenses and two additional moods to learn
• The vast majority of German verbs follow predictable, regular patterns
• A handful of irregular verbs (sein, haben, the modal verbs) do the heavy lifting in everyday conversation, so they're worth memorizing first

Learning German with Lingoda means you get to practice these patterns out loud with a teacher who can catch mistakes in real time, instead of just memorizing tables alone.

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What are the three verb classes in German?

Every German verb belongs to one of three classes, and knowing which one you're dealing with tells you exactly which rules apply. 

Regular (weak) verbs follow a fixed, predictable pattern in every tense. The vast majority of German verbs fall into this group, including lernen (to learn), kaufen (to buy), and arbeiten (to work). If you learn the pattern once, you can apply it to hundreds of verbs.

Irregular (strong) verbs don't follow the standard formula. Many of them change their stem vowel depending on the subject or tense, like sehen (to see), which becomes du siehst, not du sehst. There are a few hundred of these, but they include some of the most common verbs in the language.

Mixed verbs are mostly regular but throw in an irregular twist, usually a vowel change in the past tense. Bringen (to bring), for example, becomes brachte in the simple past, not bringte.

One more small group worth flagging: verbs ending in -ieren, like studieren (to study) or telefonieren (to make a phone call). They're regular in every way except one: their past participle. In this tense they drop the usual ge- prefix: studiert, not gestudiert.

Class	Example	Present (du)	Simple past (ich)
Regular	lernen (to learn)	lernst	lernte
Irregular	sehen (to see)	siehst	sah
Mixed	bringen (to bring)	bringst	brachte
-ieren (regular subtype)	studieren (to study)	studierst	studierte

How do you conjugate a verb in German?

Once you can spot the class, conjugating any German verb comes down to the same three moves.

1. Find the infinitive. This is the dictionary form, usually ending in -en (spielen, to play) and occasionally -eln or -ern (wandern, to hike).
2. Strip the ending to find the stem. Drop the -en (spiel-) or, for -eln/-ern verbs, just the final -n (wander-).
3. Add the ending that matches your subject and tense. For ich, that's usually -e; for du, -st; and so on.

This process holds for regular verbs in every tense. Irregular and mixed verbs use the same three steps, just with a different stem to work from. The trick is knowing which stem to reach for, which is really just a matter of exposure over time.

How do you conjugate German verbs in the present tense (Präsens)?

The present tense, or Präsens, is the one you'll use the most, by a wide margin. It covers both current actions and, often, the near future, similar to how English uses "I'm learning" to mean both "right now" and "soon."

Here's lernen (to learn), a regular verb, conjugated in full:

Subject	Conjugation
ich	lerne
du	lernst
er/sie/es	lernt
wir	lernen
ihr	lernt
sie/Sie	lernen

Notice that wir and sie/Sie just take the infinitive form. That's one less thing to memorize.

German irregular verbs often add a stem-vowel change, but only for du and er/sie/es. Everyone else keeps the regular stem. The three most common patterns:

• e → i: nehmen (to take) → du nimmst
• e → ie: sehen (to see) → du siehst
• a → ä: fahren (to drive) → du fährst

Once you spot one of these patterns, you'll start recognizing it across dozens of other verbs and it’ll feel less random surprisingly fast.

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How do you conjugate German verbs in the simple past tense (Präteritum)?

The Präteritum is German's simple past tense, and regular verbs form it by inserting a -t- between the stem and the ending:

Subject	lernen (Präteritum)
ich	lernte
du	lerntest
er/sie/es	lernte
wir	lernten
ihr	lerntet
sie/Sie	lernten

Here's a nuance worth knowing, and one that trips up a lot of learners coming from English: German speakers use the Präteritum far more in writing than in everyday conversation. If you're chatting with a friend about your weekend, you'll almost always reach for the Perfekt tense instead, even in situations where English would default to a simple past. Let's look at that next.

How do you conjugate German verbs in the present perfect tense (Perfekt)?

The Perfekt tense is what most German speakers actually use for past events in conversation, so it earns more of your attention than the Präteritum despite both technically covering "the past." It's built with a conjugated auxiliary verb, either haben or sein, plus the past participle of the main verb.

Most verbs pair with haben. Verbs describing motion or a change of state (gehen, to go; kommen, to come; werden, to become) pair with sein instead:

• Ich habe gelernt. (I have learned.)
• Ich bin gegangen. (I have gone.)

Regular verbs form their past participle with ge- + stem + -t (gelernt). Irregular verbs use ge- + stem + -en, often with a vowel change (gesehen, from sehen). And remember those -ieren verbs from earlier (studiert, telefoniert) no ge- at all.

Picking the right auxiliary verb is genuinely one of the trickier habits to build, even once your German is otherwise fluent, so it's worth practicing out loud rather than just reading the rule. 

What are the past perfect and future tenses in German?

Three more tenses round out the system. They come up less often than the Präsens, Präteritum, and Perfekt in daily conversation, but you'll need them for more nuanced storytelling and for reading anything more advanced.

Tense	Formula	Example (lernen)
Past perfect (Plusquamperfekt)	Präteritum of haben/sein + past participle	Ich hatte gelernt (I had learned)
Future I (Futur I)	Present tense of werden + infinitive	Ich werde lernen (I will learn)
Future II (Futur II)	Present tense of werden + past participle + haben/sein	Ich werde gelernt haben (I will have learned)

In practice, German speakers often skip Futur I altogether and just use the present tense with a time word: Ich lerne morgen Deutsch (I'm learning German tomorrow) works just as well as the "official" future tense, and it's what you'll hear far more often in real conversation.

How do the imperative and subjunctive (Konjunktiv) moods work in German?

Two more moods round out German verb conjugation, beyond the factual, everyday indicative mood covered above.

Imperative is for giving commands. For du, you'll generally just use the verb stem: Lern Deutsch! (Learn German!) A slightly more formal or old-fashioned-sounding version adds an -e: Lerne Deutsch! Both are correct, so don't worry if you hear either one. For ihr and Sie, the regular conjugated forms apply.

Subjunctive (Konjunktiv) expresses hypotheticals, polite requests, or reported speech. In everyday German, the most useful form is Konjunktiv II with würde: Ich würde gerne lernen (I would like to learn). You'll hear this constantly in polite requests and "what if" conversations, so it's worth learning before the more formal Konjunktiv I forms used in news reporting.

What are modal verbs and separable verbs in German?

Two verb behaviors show up constantly in real German and are worth flagging on their own, since they affect word order as much as conjugation.

Modal verbs—können, müssen, dürfen, sollen, wollen, and mögen—express ability, necessity, permission, or desire, and they push the main verb's infinitive to the end of the sentence: Ich kann Deutsch sprechen (I can speak German). 

Separable verbs split their prefix from the main verb in everyday sentences, sending it to the very end: aufstehen (to get up) becomes Ich stehe früh auf (I get up early). It looks strange the first few times, but it becomes second nature fast.German verb conjugation chart

Here's a compact reference covering all three verb classes side by side, present and simple past:

Subject	lernen (regular)	sehen (irregular)	können (modal)
ich	lerne / lernte	sehe / sah	kann / konnte
du	lernst / lerntest	siehst / sahst	kannst / konntest
er/sie/es	lernt / lernte	sieht / sah	kann / konnte
wir	lernen / lernten	sehen / sahen	können / konnten
ihr	lernt / lerntet	seht / saht	könnt / konntet
sie/Sie	lernen / lernten	sehen / sahen	können / konnten

FAQs

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Get comfortable with German verb conjugation

German verb conjugation feels like a lot at first, but the pattern repeats far more than it changes. Once you've got the three-step process down and can spot the difference between a regular, irregular, and mixed verb, the rest is mostly memorization for a manageable list of exceptions.

Reading and listening to real German—a podcast, a show, an online German class with real teacher—is the fastest way to see these patterns in action outside a textbook, and it's a lot more fun than flashcards.

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