German 3, Semester I; Die Ferien
Sections: Introduction  |   Stufe 1  |   Stufe 2  |   Stufe 3   |   Grammatik  |   Verben  |   Wörterbuch
Stufe 1: Seite A  |   Seite B  |   Seite C  |   Seite D  |   Seite E  |   Seite F  

Stufe 1, Seite C

practice Üben wir!
Guck mal die Bilder an und dann schreib einen Satz im Präsens auf ein Blatt Papier. Benutze das Subjekt neben dem Bild. Dann klicke auf das Bild, um mögliche Antworten zu sehen. Pass auf die Endungen auf! (Look at the pictures and then write a present tense sentence on a piece of paper. Use the subject next to the picture. Then click on the picture to see possible answers. Pay attention to the endings!)

campsie (she)
aisle on planewir
produceich
bikesie (they)
swimdu
soccerer
campihr
cookwir
grcoerydie Mutter
sailich


review Wiederholen wir! The review focus in this Unit is on Verbs, since they are the most important words in a sentence. There are five essential terms you should know:

  • infinitive: the basic form of a verb; the way you find it in the dictionary; they all end in -(e)n.
  • stem: the basic "meaning" part of the verb; the infinitive minus the final -(e)n.
  • ending: the letter(s) added to the stem that match a given subject.
  • conjugate: to put the correct endings one a verb.
  • participle: the form of the verb that is used with "haben" or "sein" to show past time, as in "ich habe gelernt," "er ist gegangen".

If any of these terms is unclear to you, contact your teacher for more help.


key concepts Tenses
For many students the hardest part about verbs is knowing which tense is which, especially in English. In the Grammatik section you will find a chart illustrating English verb tenses. Here in Unit 1, we will focus on four German tenses, one at a time.

Das Präsens (Present tense)
The present-tense endings are:

ich -ewir -en
du -stihr -t
er,sie,es -tsie/Sie -en

If by "irregular" we mean having no pattern at all, then German really has only one irregular verb: sein "to be." Can you give its present tense forms? Fill in this chart; then click on the arrow after the pronoun to see if you had the correct answer.

ichanswer (arrow) wiranswer (arrow)
duanswer (arrow) ihranswer (arrow)
er, sie, es answer (arrow) sie, Sieanswer (arrow)

All other verbs fall into one of three groups, based on how the past tense ("Imperfekt" or "Narrative Past') is formed:

  • "weak" (often called "regular" ): past tense = stem + -te + past tense endings (z.B: "kauften")
  • "strong"(often called "irregular," although they actually follow patterns also):past tense = a changed stem + past tense endings (no -te!) (zB: fuhren)
  • "hybrids" (a combination of weak and strong):past tense = changed stem + -te + past tense endings (zB: wuste)

For all but a group of 7 verbs, the formula is:

  • Präsens = stem* + present tense endings. (z. B.: ich mache, er singt, wir gehen, ihr lacht).

* Several groups of the strong verbs are called "stem-changing verbs," because the vowel of the stem (and sometimes some consonants as well) is changed in the "du" and "er,sie,es" forms (only!). The possible vowel changes are:

a > ä, e > i, e > ie


practice Can you fill in these charts?

fahren
ichanswer (arrow) wiranswer (arrow)
duanswer (arrow) ihranswer (arrow)
er, sie, esanswer (arrow) sie/Sie answer (arrow)
geben
ichanswer (arrow) wiranswer (arrow)
duanswer (arrow) ihranswer (arrow)
er, ise, esanswer (arrow) sie,Sieanswer (arrow)
sehen
ichanswer (arrow) wiranswer (arrow)
duanswer (arrow) ihranswer (arrow)
er, sie, esanswer (arrow) sie, Sieanswer (arrow)


activity Let's practice listening to the difference with this JigSound.


activity Let's try a different game to practice all these present tense verbs, stem-changing and otherwise. SpeedWord.


Now, what about those 7 lonely verbs that do not fit the formula: stem + present tense endings? They still form a group with a pattern, and you should be familiar with them already. They are: wissen and the 6 modals (sollen, müssen, können, wollen, dürfen, and mögen).

What do you remember about their stems?

Richig! For all but sollen, there's a stem change in ALL THREE singular forms, (not just du and er/sie/es, as with the stem-changing verbs).

And what do you remember about their endings?

Nochmals richtig! They have no ending at all in the ich and er/sie/es forms. (Otherwise they have the normal endings.)


practice Let's keep those fingers clicking! Fill in these charts also.
müssen
ich answer (arrow) wiranswer (arrow)
duanswer (arrow) ihranswer (arrow)
er, sie, esanswer (arrow) sie/Sieanswer (arrow)
können
ichanswer (arrow) wiranswer (arrow)
duanswer (arrow) ihranswer (arrow)
er, ise, esanswer (arrow) sie,Sieanswer (arrow)
wollen
ichanswer (arrow) wiranswer (arrow)
duanswer (arrow) ihranswer (arrow)
er, sie, esanswer (arrow) sie/Sieanswer (arrow)
sollen
ichanswer (arrow) wiranswer (arrow)
duanswer (arrow) ihranswer (arrow)
er, ise, esanswer (arrow) sie,Sieanswer (arrow)
dürfen
ichanswer (arrow) wiranswer (arrow)
duanswer (arrow) ihr answer (arrow)
er, sie, esanswer (arrow) sie/Sieanswer (arrow)
mögen
ichanswer (arrow) wiranswer (arrow)
duanswer (arrow) ihranswer (arrow)
er, sie, esanswer (arrow) sie,Sieanswer (arrow)
wissen
ich answer (arrow) wiranswer (arrow)
duanswer (arrow) ihr answer (arrow)
er, sie, es answer (arrow) sie, Sieanswer (arrow)


activity WordWeb OK. One final game with this group and we'll wrap up this formal review. (By the way, the present tense is the most complicated to explain, so it's going to be easier from now on.)


smiley face Well, after all this hard work, how about a couple of really great bits of information? Other than for the ONE irregular verb (sein), the plural forms (wir, ihr, sie/Sie) of every single verb (weak, strong, or hybrid) are ALWAYS regular. Yup, you read correctly: "ALWAYS".

It's always:

wir + stem + -en
ihr + stem + -t
sie/Sie + stem + en

Not only that: except for sein and those 7 lonely verbs above, the "ich-form" of every verb is also ALWAYS predictable!

It's always: ich + stem + -e

Verb Charts

One more help for you: at the top of each page in this course you see a link to Verb Chart. Click on it and you will find a chart of the "principal parts" (key forms) of the non-weak verbs, i.e. verbs whose forms are not 100% predictable. This means that at any time you can look up an Infinitive and find the er-form for the Present Tense (for stem-changing verbs only), the Imperfect, and the Present Perfect. Only the sein-verbs have their helping verb (ist) given. All the others would have hat. As with the dictionaries, there will be a chart for the Unit Verbs and then a Cumulative Verb Chart. They are listed alphabetically. Not all prefixed verbs are listed; so if you don't find a verb with a prefix, try looking up the base verb.


assignment Schriftliche Aufgabe
Wähle 4 von den 6 Bildern/Fotos und dann schreib für jedes Bild 2 Sätze! Was macht diese Person oder was könnte man hier tun? Benutze entweder "er" oder "sie" (she) als Subjekt.

(Choose 4 of the 6 pictures/photographs and then write 2 sentences for each picture. What is this person doing or what could one do here? Use either he or she as the subject.)

Diese Aufgabe hat 12 Punkte.

z.B. Er angelt. Er steht im Fluss.

1. 2.
3. 4.
5. 6.


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