ich I -e

du You (singular) -st

er He -t
sie She -t
es It -t
wir We -en
ihr You (plural, informal) -t
Sie You (formal) -en
sie They -en
Weak/irregular verbs

Most regular verbs follow the same pattern:

1. Start with the infinitive e.g lernen
2. Chop off the –en. What is left is called the stem e.g lern-
3. Add the correct present tense ending to the stem, eg lern- > ich lerne Deutsch

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

Besuchen – to visit
There is a group of words that are slightly different.
Verbs which have a stem that ends in –d or –t follow the following pattern for du, er, sie, es, ihr forms.
1. Start with the infinitive e.g finden
2. Chop off the –en
3. You add the usual weak endings to most of the verb
4. You have to add -e- between the stem and the ending for the du, er/sie/es and ihr forms only

ich finde
du findest
er findet
sie findet
er findet
wir finden
ihr findet
Sie finden
sie finden
Strong/regular verbs

Some strong verbs take the same ending as weak verbs, but the spelling and vowel sound changes in du, er, sie, es forms.
Forming questions

To ask a question in German you just have to switch the verb and subject around e.g
Du isst – You eat/You are eating -> Isst du? – Do you eat/Are you eating?
Separable verbs

Separable verbs follow the same pattern as other verbs, but you have to do something extra:
1. Chop off the prefix
2. Conjugate the verb as usual
3. Put the prefix at the end of the clause

Aufstehen – to get up
Auf = prefix
Example  Ich stehe um 7 Uhr auf - I get up at 07:00 Stehen = main part of the verb

Einkaufen – to shop

When you are in a situation where you want to say you ‘are going to’ do something. We do not separate the separable verb.
Example  Ich kaufe ein – I shop
However, in some cases you may say  wir gehen einkaufen – I am going to shop. So we just keep the separable as it is.

ADD THIS WHEN YOU DO FUTURE TENSE

Reflexive verbs

Reflexive verbs describe something you do yourself

Ich wasche das Auto

We make use of a reflexive verb when referring to the
Ich wasche mich person e.g myself, yourself and etc. The reflexive
pronoun must go immediately after the verb.
 Nominative Case
Use the nominative case for the subject of the sentence.

Das Mädchen singt das Lied. – The girl is singing the song.

Das Mädchen is the subject because 'the girl' is doing the singing.

Er ist mein Freund. – He is my friend.

Er and mein Freund are the same person so both are the subject.

Mein Lehrer heißt Herr Klinsmann. – My teacher is called Mr

Klinsmann.
Mein Lehrer and Herr Klinsmann are the same people so both
are the subject.
 Masculine Der ich I
Feminine Die du You (singular)
Neuter Das er He

Plural Die sie She

es It
Masculine Ein/kein wir We
Feminine Eine/keine ihr You (plural, informal)
Neuter Ein/kein Sie You (formal)
Plural -/keine sie They

You can’t have the plural of ‘a’ – But the negative form of ein ‘a’,
for instance you can’t say ‘a which is kein ‘not a’, does have a
things’. plural form keine, which means
‘no things’
 Accusative Case
You use the accusative for the direct object of the sentence.

Das Mädchen singt das Lied. – The girl is singing the song.

Das Lied is the object (accusative) because the song is being

sung by the girl who is the subject (nominative).

Das Mädchen is the subject (nominative) because 'the girl' is

doing the singing.
 Masculine Den mich Me
Feminine Die dich You (singular, informal)
Neuter Das Ihn Him

Plural Die sie Her

es It
Masculine Einen/keinen uns us
Feminine Eine/keine euch You (plural, informal)
Neuter Ein/kein Sie You (singular or plural, formal)
Plural -/keine sie They

You can’t have the plural of ‘a’ – But the negative form of ein ‘a’,
for instance you can’t say ‘a which is kein ‘not a’, does have a
things’. plural form keine, which means
‘no things’
 Dative Case
You use the dative case for the indirect object in a sentence.
The indirect object is the person or thing to or for whom something is done.

Ask yourself three questions

1. Who is the doing the action Nominative
2. What the action is Accusative
3. To whom is the action for Dative

Ich habe meiner Freundin eine E-Mail geschickt. – I sent my friend an email.

Subject (doing the action) Indirect object (receives Direct object (the action)
action)
 Masculine Dem mein My
Feminine Der dein Your (singular, informal)

Neuter Dem ihm His

ihr Her
Plural Den
unser Our

Masculine Einem/keinem euer Your (plural, informal)

Ihr You (singular or plural, formal)
Feminine Einer/keiner
ihr They
Neuter Einem/keinem
Plural -/keinen

You can’t have the plural of ‘a’ – But the negative form of ein ‘a’,
for instance you can’t say ‘a which is kein ‘not a’, does have a
things’. plural form keine, which means
‘no things’

• In the plural add –n or –en to the end of the noun that

follows. E.g. kinder -> kindern
The genitive case is used to show possession.
You use the genitive to show who something belongs to.
Genitive Case
Another way of saying 'the school's headteacher' in English is 'the headteacher of the school'. The 'of the' (ie the possession) is expressed in German using the
genitive case.
mein My
Masculine Des Masculine Eines/keines
dein Your (singular, informal)
Feminine Der Feminine Einer/keiner
sein His
Neuter Des Neuter Eines/keines
ihr Her
Plural Der Plural -/keiner
unser Our
You also need to add an -s or -es to the genitive noun when it's masculine or neuter. euer Your (plural, informal)
Die Handschuhe des Kindes. – The child’s gloves (the gloves of the child). Ihr Your (singular or plural, formal)

The gender of Kind is das. So das changes to des in the genitive, and you add ihr Their
-es to the end of the noun Kind so that it becomes des Kindes – of the child.

As a general rule, one-syllable words usually

Die Familie meines Freundes. – My friend’s family (the family of my friend).
add -es and longer words just -s.
The gender of Freund is der, so 'my friend' is mein Freund. The word mein
changes to meines in the genitive, and you add -es to the end of the noun
Freund so that it becomes meines Freundes – of my friend.
 Verb as second idea
Present tense
In German, the verb is always the second idea in a sentence.

In German, when an extra phrase is added to the front of a sentence, the verb still Think of it like this: If the start of the sentence
has to go second. So: is a subordinating clause i.e. it doesn’t make
sense on its own - then you should consider
Ich wohne in England. - I live in England. the verb as the second idea.
but

Im Winter wohne ich in England – In the winter, I live in England.

Look at these other examples of the verb in second place in German:

Meiner Meinung nach essen wir zu viel Fett. - In my opinion, we eat too much fat.

Vor der Schule spielt Dan Fußball. - Before school, Dan plays football.

The same rule applies for the perfect,

imperfect and future tense.
The time, manner, place rule - TMP