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German Irregular Verbs | ||
Tags: Verbs/Conjugation | German | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages |  | |
| Heart of Oak Newbie Scotland Joined 5047 days ago 19 posts - 20 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German | Message 1 of 7 12 July 2010 at 11:55pm | IP Logged | ||
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I am just starting to learn German and as such I am starting to wrestle with verbs in
the present tense (just don't confuse me with past and future tenses yet!). I have some questions about irregular verbs: 1. Roughly how many commonly-used irregular verbs are there? I'm not looking for a definitive answer, but just trying to get to grips with the scale - is 1 in 10 verbs irregular? 1 in 100? 2. Although irregular verbs are irregular to the majority of the language (I assume), do they have their own rules / groupings or does each one just have its own rules (in terms of endings etc) and therefore has to be learned in isolation? 3. I presume that verbs that are considered regular in the present tense are also regular in other tenses? As you will see I am at the very, very early stages with German so please excuse what are probably very simplistic questions, but I am trying to set forth a study plan (as I am self-learning). Many thanks. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Declan1991 Tetraglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 6234 days ago 233 posts - 359 votes  Speaks: English*, German, Irish, French | Message 2 of 7 13 July 2010 at 12:05am | IP Logged | ||
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There aren't many in the present tense. In the past there are quite a few alright, but the most you will ever need to completely conjugate a German verb is 4 forms, the infinitive, second/third person singular of the present tense, imperfect and perfect.
All irregulars are treated the same, unlike French where the entire present tense has to be learned for every irregular verb, as well as a lot of other forms. A verb can be irregular in two ways, the most common, a different past tense (like English sing sang sung), and then for a minority, the second and third person singular and imperative in the present could also be irregular. Examples: Ich fahre, du faehrst, er faehrt, wir fahren, ihr fahrt, sie fahren. Ich bin gefahren/Ich fuhr. Lesen, sehen, nehmen, schlagen, treffen are similiar. There are also modal verbs (to wish to, to want to, to be allowed to) which are irregular but in a very specific way. There are about 6, but they should be learned as a block. Edited by Declan1991 on 13 July 2010 at 12:05am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Heart of Oak Newbie Scotland Joined 5047 days ago 19 posts - 20 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German | Message 3 of 7 13 July 2010 at 12:33am | IP Logged | ||
Thanks. At the moment, I am just trying to get some rules in my head, so if I don't know, I can at least work it out. So for instance, with regular verbs, I know the form is related to the personal pronoun: ich (-e) du (-st) er/sie/es (-t) ihr (-t) wir/Sie/sie (infinitive) So if I come across a new regular verb, I can work out what the form should be. However, irregular verbs seem to add umlauts / change vowels / or just make it up as they go along :0). So I was just trying to get a handle on whether there were rules that could be learned for groups of verbs or whether it was just a case of learning them parrot fashion until they are in your head. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Mareike Senior Member Germany Joined 6019 days ago 267 posts - 323 votes Speaks: German* Studies: English, Swedish | Message 4 of 7 13 July 2010 at 1:38am | IP Logged | ||
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Wikipedia says there are between 200 and 300 irregular verbs.
I don't know if there have any groups, I never learnt German in that way. I know there are schwache and starke Verben, but I don't know if it important for the present tense. A complete list of irregluar list get you from "Duden-Verlag": http://www.duden.de/produkte/downloads/duden04_verben.pdf Importen for you are the first two ripping/slitting(?). For regluar verbs you have rules You are looking for the radical and the ending. There are verbs who have the ending: -en Like: arbeiten, leben, atmen.... Look at the excample: arbeiten the radical: arbeit the ending: en Now you could remember or look in a grammar book to find the new endings. Ich arbeite Du arbeitest Er/Sie/es arbeitet wir arbeiten ihr arbeitet Sie/sie arbeiten Look at an other excample The verb atmen The radical: atm The ending: en Ich atme, du atmest, es/sie/es atmet, wir atmen, ihr atmet, sie/Sie atmen So you could remember for this case: Ich –e Du –est Er/sie/es –et Wir –en Ihr –et Sie -en There are few verbs who ends with a s,ß or x, like reisen, heißen,… Look at the verb reisen The radical is reis the ending en The conjugation is: Ich reise, du reist, er/sie/es reist, wir reisen, ihr reist, sie/Sie reisen. For this case you could remember: Ich –e Du –t Er/sie/es: -t Wir: -en Sie/sie: -en Ihr: -t Then there are verbs who has the ending –n and the radical and with l, like lächeln, klingeln, sammeln… For example the verb klingeln, the radical is klingl the ending is –n Ich klingle, Du klingelst, er/sie/es klingelt, wir klingeln, ihr klingelt, sie klingeln Then there are verbs who has the ending –n and the radical and with r like feiern. The radical is feier and the ending is –n Ich feiere, du feierst , er/sie/es feiert, wir feiern, ihr feiert, Sie/sie feiern You could see in the last two cases the only different is the e who change in radical in the first person singular. When it ends with an l, the most time the e get lost. So you could work out what form should be. So this was it for regular verbs. Come back to irregular, i think you have learned it by heart. There are some programs who you could use like http://www.verben.info/deutsche-verben/deutsche-verben.htm or create your one system/flashcards/... At the page you have only to activate Indikativ Präsens At the bottom you could choose regelmäßige Verben (regular verbs), unregelmäßige Verben (irregular verbs), los geht's=start, Auswertung=corrections. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Mareike Senior Member Germany Joined 6019 days ago 267 posts - 323 votes Speaks: German* Studies: English, Swedish | Message 5 of 7 13 July 2010 at 1:41am | IP Logged | ||
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Ah maybe you should looking for regular ablauts?
I don't if there exist. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Declan1991 Tetraglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 6234 days ago 233 posts - 359 votes Speaks: English*, German, Irish, French | Message 6 of 7 13 July 2010 at 4:37pm | IP Logged | ||
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Well there are some patterns. a -> ae (fahren -> faehrst, schlafen -> schlaefst), and more patterns in the past tense, but you will have to learn them off by heart. I learned "gehen ging gegangen", and then I know the irregular present tense separately. There are not many in the present.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ibraheem Groupie United States Joined 5160 days ago 84 posts - 106 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Russian, Mandarin | Message 7 of 7 04 August 2010 at 6:14pm | IP Logged | ||
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In the "Mastering German Vocabulary" book by Barron's there is a very helpful classification system for regular and irregular verb conjugation which places them into groups. Edited by ibraheem on 04 August 2010 at 6:19pm 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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