German/Appendices/Grammar II

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Conjugating 'to be'
Ich bin groß. I am tall. Du bist sehr groß. You are very tall. Sie ist klein. She is short. Sie sind groß. They are tall.

In these cases, we use the correct form of sein for each situation. Please notice the final two sentences both use 'Sie', and we must look at the verb to determine the difference between 'she' and 'they'.

In German, the English infinitive 'to be' is translated as sein.

This is the table of the forms of 'sein', with rough English translations. Note that in English, there are only three forms (am, is, are) while German has five (bin, bist, ist, sind, seid).

Also, the verb conjugation of the two you-formals are always the exact same.

German

sein

English

to be

Conjugating Normal Verbs
Er spielt Volleyball. He plays volleyball. Ich mache Hausaufgaben. I do my homework. Wir kommen aus München. We come from Munich. Was machst du? What are you doing?

In these sentences, different verbs and endings are used. Note that the verb is always in second position.

When conjugating normal verbs, use the endings shown below (a memory hook is the "best ten" endings). Note that in normal verbs, such as spielen and machen, ihr-form and er/sie/es-form are the same and the wir-form, sie (pl)-form and the formal are all the same as the infinitive.

-en

spielen - to play

machen - to make/do

Conjugating Irregular Verbs
Ich habe keine Zeit. I have no time. Gib mir das Buch! Give me the book. Sie wandert gern. She likes to hike. Er liest einen Roman. He is reading a novel.

In each of these sentences, we use an irregular verb. Irregularity occurs in the ich-form or the du-form and er/sie/es-forms. There are three types of irregularity.

E in the first syllable
One form of irregularity occurs sometimes when the verb contains an 'e' in the first syllable. The change is simple: the du-form and er/sie/es forms both change the 'e' to an 'i.e.' or an 'i'. Two common examples are shown. Note that the er/sie/es-form and ihr-form are no longer the same.

sehen - to see

geben - to give

Haben
A similar, yet different, change occurs in the verb "haben". As in the irregularity above, the du-form and er/sie/es-form change.

haben - to have

Verbs ending in Consonant-N
Some verbs change the ich-form for obvious reasons. "Wandern" and "basteln"  are two examples. Both drop the first e in the ich-form.

wandern - to hike

basteln - to build

Conjugating Modals
Ich will ins Kino gehen. I want to go to the movies. Dürfen wir hier essen? May we eat here? Was kann ich für dich tun? What can I do for you? Er mag Romane lesen. He likes to read books.

Modals are a new kind of verb. They are the equivalent to helping verbs in English. There are seven basic modals: können (can), mögen (like), dürfen (may), wollen (want), sollen (should), müssen (must), and möchten (would like). Möchten isn't technically a modal, but it acts like one in most aspects.

Modals are conjugated very differently. The ich-form and er/sie/es-form are always alike and singular has a different verb in the first syllable (except in sollen and möchten). Below are the conjugations of the six basic modals and möchten.

können - can

mögen - like

dürfen - may

wollen - want

sollen - should

müssen - must

möchten - would like

Separable Verbs
Du siehst schön aus! You look good! Ich muss mein Zimmer aufräumen. I have to clean my room. Komm mit! Come with! Probier diese Jeans an! Try these jeans on.

Some verbs in German are separable: they have a prefix that can be separated from the base. When the verb is used with a modal, it regains the prefix at the end of the sentence. When it is the main verb of the sentence, the prefix is moved to the end of the sentence.

An "example" in English would be the word "intake". When it is used as a verb, it becomes "take ... in". When it is used as an adjective or a noun, it becomes "intake" again.

Two easy examples of separable verbs are aussehen and mitkommen. Note that aussehen is also irregular.

aussehen - to appear

mitkommen - to come along/with