Lesson 5 - Irregular Verbs
Unfortunately, not all the German verbs follow the regular pattern shown in the previous lesson; there are some verbs with slight variations in their stem. These verbs are called 'Irregular Verbs'.
1. Stem ending with 'd' or 't':
As it would be difficult to pronounce the 'st' ending for 'du' and the
't' ending for 'er/sie/es' & 'ihr', an 'e' is placed before the
ending of these verbs.
The extra 'e' is added only to the 'du',
'er/sie/es', and 'ihr' verb forms, other verb forms
aren't affected.
| Pronoun | finden | leiden |
|---|---|---|
| du | findest | leidest |
| er/sie/es | findet | leidet |
| ihr | findet | leidet |
2. Stem ending with 's', 'ss', 'ß', 'x', 'z', or 'tz':
If the verb stem ends with any of the following endings, then the 'du'
verb ending becomes a 't' instead of 'st'.
Only the 'du' verb form is affected.
| Pronoun | genesen | küssen | heißen | sitzen |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| du | genest | küsst | heißt | sitzt |
3. Verbs with a vowel change
Some verbs have the vowel in their stem change with the 'du'
and 'er/sie/es' form of the verb. These verbs are best
learnt by heart.
The three most common vowel change patterns
are:
- a to ä
| Pronoun | backen | fahren | schlafen | waschen |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| du | bäckst | fährst | schläfst | wäschst |
| er/sie/es | bäckt | fährt | schläft | wäscht |
- e to i
| Pronoun | essen | geben | sprechen | brechen |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| du | isst | gibst | sprichst | brichst |
| er/sie/es | isst | gibt | spricht | bricht |
- e to ie
| Pronoun | befehlen | lesen | sehen | stehlen |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| du | befiehlst | liest | siehst | stiehlst |
| er/sie/es | befiehlt | liest | sieht | stiehlt |
This concludes our lesson, quite simple, eh ?
Make sure to check
the grammar table associated with this lesson, it contains most of the
irregular verbs that appear within the German language.