These are verbs that you can’t do without: fahren - drive, sprechen - talk, talk, lesen - read,sehen- look, see, geben - give, nehmen - take, essen- There is... But they have one feature: a change in the root vowel in the 2nd and 3rd person singular present tense. These forms are highlighted in bold below.

The pattern is this: all these are strong verbs, the root vowel of which can undergo any changes. If a strong verb has a vowel at its root i or diphthong ei(bitten - ask, heißen - to be called, to be called), then further changes to the root vowels are impossible. And if the root of a strong verb is a vowel a, diphthong au or vowel e, then in the overwhelming majority of cases such verbs change the root vowel in the 2nd and 3rd l. units present time.

The spelling of some of these verbs is determined by the need to convey a long or short vowel:

Just like essen - There is, strong verbs vergessen are conjugated - forget and fressen - eat, eat (about animals and roughly - about people). Strong verbs with prefixes are conjugated in the same way as corresponding verbs without prefixes: for example, treten - step on (sth.)- betreten - enter (into a room), sprechen - talk, talk- unpretentious - discuss.

Strong verbs gehen - go And stehen - stand also have e in the root, but they have a vowel during conjugation does not change: ich gehe - du gehst, er geht; ich stehe - du stehst, er steht.

Now you know how the verb sprechen is conjugated - talk, talk, and can report what language you, your companion, etc. speak. Here are the symbols of different languages:

• Russian ["rʋsɪʃ] - in Russian
• Deutsch- in German
• Englisch ["εŋlɪʃ] - in English
• Französisch - French
• Spanisch ["ʃpa:nɪʃ] - in Spanish
• Italienisch - in Italian
• Chinesisch [çi"ne:zɪʃ] - in Chinese

So, “ich spreche Deutsch.” Make up examples with the verb sprechen in different persons and numbers and language symbols. Ask your interlocutor (addressing him “you” and “you”) whether he speaks such and such a language.

In such cases, explanations that can be inserted between “ich spreche” and the name of the language are very useful:

• auch - too, also
• ein wenig - A little
• ein bisschen ["bisçən] - a little bit, a little bit
• nur - only

Example: Ich spreche ein wenig Deutsch. - I speak German a little bit.

According to the old German spelling, a distinction was made between the nouns Russisch, Deutsch, etc., on the one hand, and the adverbs russisch, deutsch, etc. - with another. Now the names of languages ​​are in all cases written with a capital letter.

According to the method of formation of the main forms, all verbs in the German language are divided into weak, strong and irregular. The formation of Imperfekt (Präteritum) and Partizip II of all weak verbs follows one general rule and does not cause difficulties. The basic forms of irregular verbs can be memorized in just a few days, since the number of such verbs is limited.

Strong verbs in German so numerous that the need to memorize them can cause panic and doubt in one’s own abilities. In fact, everything is not so scary.

So, what is the difference between strong and weak verbs in German?

Changing the root vowel during conjugation, for example:

Ending -en in Partizip II (the ending of weak verbs in Partizip II is -t), for example:

Appearance umlaut or changing the root vowel e, ä or ö on i in 2l. units and 3l. units Präsens (not always), for example:

raten - er r ä t (he advises)
stoßen - er st ö ßt (he pushes)
bergen - er b i rgt (he saves)
essen-er i sst (he eats)

For better memorization,list of strong verbs in Germancan be divided into several subgroups (according to the nature of changes in the root vowel in basic forms):

Table of strong verbs in German. Top - 30

A summary table of strong and irregular verbs can almost always be found in the dictionary. Remembering everything is quite difficult, it takes a lot of time. We suggest you start with the thirty most commonly used strong verbs in the German language.

Strong verbs (die starken Verben) are the most complex verbs in the German language. Memorizing 5 new words every day will make the learning process easier and more enjoyable.

In this article we will not present countless tables; there is no doubt that they are useful, but for most students they are tedious and create the impression that German grammar is tough only for “smart people.”

Therefore, here we will tell you point by point and in simple language, everything you need to know about conjugating German verbs to get started.

The conjugation of verbs in German is accompanied by changes in:

1. Persons (I, you, you, we, he, she, they).
2. Numbers (singular, plural).
3. Times (present, past, future).

Verbs change in the same way in Russian, so such diversity should not surprise us. It is enough to get acquainted with exactly what forms the conjugation of German verbs gives.

In order to conjugate, you need to determine the initial form of the German verb:

If in Russian it ends in “-т” (deeds t, cook t, running t), then in German it is “-en”.

mach en- -do,

koch en- prepare,

heß en- call,

lauf en- run.

In order to form another form of the verb, you need to drop the -en and add a new ending to the stem.

First person - me and us

It’s very simple: if you are talking about yourself alone, add the laconic ending “-e” to the base, if you are not alone, then the ending “-en”.

I do - Ich mach e,

We do - Wir mach en.

As you can see, in the first person plural the form of the verb essentially does not change. It is the same as the initial one.

Second person - you and you

It is the second person that we use when addressing someone. Here everything is the other way around, for some reason it deserves a simpler ending. And if you are addressing one interlocutor, then decorate the base of the word with a flowery “-st”. Compare:

You do - Du mach st,

You do - Ihr mach t.

Third person - he, she, they

For the third person, two endings are used: “-t” (singular), “-en” (plural).

He does - Er mach t,

She does - Sie mach t,

They do - Sie mach en.

As you can see, here the plural form of the verb also does not differ from the initial one.

Remembering all these endings is also difficult because they repeat each other. In fact, to form 7 verb forms, only four endings are used: “-e”, “-en”, “-st”, “-t”.

At this point, many people have a logical question: does the base of the word (mach-, koch-, heiß-, lauf-) really not change in any way when conjugating German verbs? After all, it often involves changing the basis (it is not and yeah, I'm not G y)?

German verb conjugation: subtleties

Indeed, in the German language there are special cases of change. Pay attention to verbs that end in a consonant that duplicates the ending. How, for example, to conjugate a word biet en (to offer), because add to the base biet ending "-t" is hardly possible? How to write “you suggest” correctly?

In these cases, the ending is diluted with the letter “-e”.

Ihr biet t- no, they don’t write that way.

Ihr biet et- this is the right option.

This rule also applies to other words that with standard endings will sound dissonant, for example, begegn en (to meet). Its stem ends in -n. Agree, pronouncing -nt is not so easy. And in this example, there is another consonant before the complex -n, so it turns out to be “-gn”. Thus, without dilution, the sentence "You meet" would look like this:

Ihr bege gnt

Three consonants in a row is too difficult to pronounce, and besides, the word is common and clearly deserves to be easily pronounced. Therefore it will be correct:

Ihr begegn et

Irregular Verbs

Verb conjugation in Russian often occurs with alternation at the root. For example, By lag at-po lodge it. German also has irregular verbs, the conjugation of which involves changing the vowel in the root, in addition to adding an ending.

These verbs are really easier to understand in tables - keep them handy. The fact is that irregular verbs are the most commonly used. Therefore, although it is necessary to know them by heart, you should not spend too much time cramming them. Read more, analyze, translate original texts, checking the tables of irregular verbs. They will be repeated often enough so that you can learn them without difficulty, while at the same time becoming familiar with the structure, vocabulary and other aspects of the German language.

The most important irregular verbs are sein- be, haben- have, werden- become. Their conjugation must be learned by heart, which also does not cause any particular difficulties, because these verbs are used both independently and as auxiliaries (in various complex forms of verbs), and are found very often in any tasks in the German language.

Once you thoroughly learn how to conjugate verbs in the present tense and learn how to use their different forms, the peculiarities of conjugating German verbs in the past and future tenses will not seem difficult.

I would like to note that on the site most of the words and cards for study are presented in English, and this is not surprising, because English is studied more than French, Spanish and other languages. But today I’m ready to present a new selection of verbs, albeit in German.

It is not surprising that there are irregular verbs in English and German. In English it is , in German it is Starke Verben. As you may have guessed, you just need to learn them so as not to have problems in the future. We can already find irregular English verbs on the site, and you will find German strong verbs in this post.

How many German strong verbs are there? It is impossible to give an exact answer to this question, since every language has obsolete forms, and vice versa. Why should we study ancient words and expressions, because language also tends to be updated over time. I have prepared a list of the most commonly used strong verbs in the German language. You can study and not be afraid that such a verb is no longer used in modern German.

Let's take a look at our table called “List of strong conjugation verbs”(see below). We have 4 columns:

— Infinitive
— Präsens
— Imperfect
— Partizip II

We all know what they mean (if not, then move on to learning the basics). So, I decided not to include the form in the dictionary for Lingvo Tutor Präsens for the simple reason that we will have to type too many words either on a PDA or on a computer. And the shape Präsens is not considered highly problematic in German.

Don't be greedy with comments, write what you think about the selection!

List of strong conjugation verbs