The Present & Preterite Tenses

The Präsens and Präteritum are the two "fully conjugated" forms in German (that is, they don't use an auxiliary verb), so it's good to learn them together. Here’s the weak verb kaufen (to buy):

Präsens Präteritum
singular 1st ich kaufe I buy ich kaufte I bought
2nd du kaufst you buy du kauftest you bought
3rd er/sie/es kauft he/she/it buys er/sie/es kaufte he/she/it bought
plural 1st wir kaufen we buy wir kauften we bought
2nd ihr kauft you (pl.) buy ihr kauftet you (pl.) bought
3rd sie/Sie kaufen they buy sie/Sie kauften they bought


Notice the pattern: the "en" ending of the infinitive is removed (sometimes it’s just an "n") and replaced with the appropriate highlighted ending. The past tense endings are mostly just the present tense endings with an extra t; this is the “weak” past tense ending mentioned in V.I, and it’s directly related to the –d ending in the weak English past tense.

These twelve endings are used for every weak verb in German, without exception. Some of them are hard to pronounce if the verb has certain consonants at the end of the stem; in this case an e is added in between the stem and the ending. For example, here is the weak verb reden (to talk). Notice how without the extra e it would be harder to distinguish among these forms:

Präsens Präteritum
singular 1st ich rede I talk ich redete I talked
2nd du redest you talk du redetest you talked
3rd er/sie/es redet he/she/it talks er/sie/es redete he/she/it talked
plural 1st wir reden we talk wir redeten we talked
2nd ihr redet you (pl) talk ihr redetet you (pl) talked
3rd sie/Sie reden they talk sie/Sie redeten they talked

Also notice that the Sie form, the formal second person that we learned about in Section 4, is conjugated exactly the same as the third person plural (“they”). This is true for all tenses and moods, and for all types of verbs.

Strong verbs are a little different. Remember that strong verbs form their past tense with a vowel shift rather than an added t; some of them also have a (different) vowel shift in the present tense, but only in the 2nd and 3rd person singular. There’s no one rule for these vowel shifts -- you have to learn them when you learn the verb, just as you once learned to say "broke" instead of "breaked" in English. Here’s the strong verb fallen (to fall):

STRONG VERBS Präsens Präteritum
singular 1st ich falle I fall ich fiel I fell
2nd du fällst you fall du fielst you fell
3rd er/sie/es fällt he/she/it falls er/sie/es fiel he/she/it fell
plural 1st wir fallen we fall wir fielen we fell
2nd ihr fallt you (pl) fall ihr fielt you (pl) fell
3rd sie/Sie fallen they fall sie/Sie fielen they fell

Notice that the present tense endings are the same as for weak verbs. Also notice that with both strong and weak verbs, the 1st and 3rd person singular are the same in the past tense, and the 1st and 3rd person plural (we and they) are the same in both tenses.

Now let’s try a mixed verb. Remember that there are only a few of these, and they combine the strong past stem changes with the weak past endings. Mixed verbs do not have the strong vowel shift in the present tense, except for wissen (which becomes weiß). Here is bringen (to bring):

MIXED VERBS Präsens Präteritum
singular 1st ich bringe I bring ich brachte I brought
2nd du bringst you bring du brachtest you brought
3rd er/sie/es bringt he/she/it brings er/sie/es brachte he/she/it brought
plural 1st wir bringen we bring wir brachten we brought
2nd ihr bringt you (pl) bring ihr brachtet you (pl) brought
3rd sie/Sie bringen they bring sie/Sie brachten they brought

Modal verbs are irregular in the present singular tenses, and weak in the plural:

MODAL VERBS: Präsens dürfen können mögen müssen sollen wollen
singular 1st ich darf kann mag muss soll will
2nd du darfst kannst magst musst sollst willst
3rd er/sie/es darf kann mag muss soll will
plural 1st wir dürfen können mögen müssen sollen wollen
2nd ihr dürft könnt mögt müsst sollt wollt
3rd sie/Sie dürfen können mögen müssen sollen wollen

You may have guessed that the English modal verbs can and must are directly related to these forms. So is will, but be careful, because the way we use it in modern English translates to werden rather than wollen. Ich werde es tun means I will do it, while Ich will es tun means I want to do it.

The modal verbs have weak endings in the past tense, but they lose their umlauts and mögen has a stem change:

MODAL VERBS: Präteritum dürfen können mögen müssen sollen wollen
singular 1st ich durfte konnte mochte musste sollte wollte
2nd du durftest konntest mochtest musstest solltest wolltest
3rd er/sie/es durfte konnte mochte musste sollte wollte
plural 1st wir durften konnten mochten mussten sollten wollten
2nd ihr durftet konntet mochtet musstet solltet wolltet
3rd sie/Sie durften konnten mochten mussten sollten wollten

Finally, the three auxiliary verbs are almost completely irregular, especially sein:

AUXILIARY VERBS sein haben werden
Präs. Prät. Präs. Prät. Präs. Prät.
singular 1st ich bin war habe hatte werde wurde
2nd du bist warst hast hattest wirst wurdest
3rd er/sie/es ist war hat hatte wird wurde
plural 1st wir sind waren haben hatten werden wurden
2nd ihr seid wart habt hattet werdet wurdet
3rd sie/Sie sind waren haben hatten werden wurden