Regular Verbs in the Present Tense

Stem plus ending

Almost every German verb you meet in a dictionary ends in -en: wohnen (to live), lernen (to learn), spielen (to play). This dictionary form is called the infinitive. Remove the -en and you are left with the stem: wohn-, lern-, spiel-. The stem carries the meaning; the ending tells you who is doing the action.

The endings for regular verbs are: -e for ich, -st for du, -t for er, sie and es, -en for wir, -t for ihr, and -en for sie (they) and formal Sie. Notice two useful shortcuts: the wir form and the sie/Sie form are always identical to the infinitive, and er, sie, es and ihr share the ending -t. Unlike English, which only changes in one place (I live, he lives), German changes in almost every person — but it does so with one completely predictable pattern.

• Ich lerne Deutsch.

  I am learning German.

  German has no separate "-ing" form; ich lerne covers both "I learn" and "I am learning".

• Du lernst schnell.

  You learn quickly.

The full pattern with "wohnen"

Here is the complete present tense of wohnen (to live): ich wohne, du wohnst, er/sie/es wohnt, wir wohnen, ihr wohnt, sie/Sie wohnen. Every regular verb in German follows exactly this pattern — learn it once with one verb and you can conjugate hundreds.

A good way to practise is to take one sentence and push it through all the persons, changing only the subject and the ending. Do it out loud: the sound of -e, -st, -t, -en, -t, -en needs to become automatic, because in fast speech the ending is often the only clue to who is meant.

• Ich wohne in Köln.

  I live in Cologne.

• Er wohnt in Hamburg.

  He lives in Hamburg.

• Wir wohnen in München.

  We live in Munich.

• Ihr wohnt in Bonn.

  You (plural) live in Bonn.

Two small spelling adjustments

Two groups of regular verbs adjust their spelling slightly so the endings stay pronounceable.

First, if the stem ends in -t or -d, German inserts an e before -st and -t: arbeiten (to work) gives du arbeitest and er arbeitet, not the unpronounceable "arbeitst". The same happens with finden (to find): du findest, sie findet.

Second, if the stem already ends in an s-sound (-s, -ß or -z), the du ending loses its s: heißen (to be called) gives du heißt, not "heißst", and tanzen (to dance) gives du tanzt. Nothing else changes — these are the same endings as always, just smoothed out for the mouth.

• Du arbeitest viel.

  You work a lot.

  Extra e: arbeit- + est.

• Sie findet Deutsch interessant.

  She finds German interesting.

• Du heißt Emre, richtig?

  You are called Emre, right?

  The stem heiß- already ends in an s-sound, so du adds only -t.

• Du tanzt sehr gut.

  You dance very well.

Your first set of everyday verbs

The fastest way to make this pattern useful is to attach it to verbs you will need every day. Start with these regular verbs: kommen (to come), wohnen (to live), machen (to do, to make), lernen (to learn), spielen (to play), kaufen (to buy), trinken (to drink), hören (to hear, to listen) and heißen (to be called).

With just these and the endings from this lesson, you can already describe a large part of your daily life. Combine them with the pronouns from the previous lesson and build simple subject–verb sentences: who does what. Keep the subject first and the verb second — that order is the backbone of the German sentence, and we will build on it in every lesson from here on.

One more encouragement before you move on: German has no continuous form and no "do" helper. Ich spiele covers "I play", "I am playing" and even "I do play". Where English juggles three constructions, German has exactly one — so every regular verb you learn is instantly usable in all of those situations.

• Ich komme aus Italien.

  I come from Italy.

• Wir spielen Tennis.

  We play tennis.

• Ich kaufe Brot.

  I am buying bread.

• Sie hören Musik.

  They are listening to music.

• Er macht Sport.

  He does sport.