Verbs Flashcards
what letter do German infinitives always finish with?
N - e.g.
kaufen - to buy
sein - to be
what are the 5 main groups of German verbs?
- Auxiliary
- Modal
- Weak
- Strong
- Mixed
what are auxiliary verbs?
Auxiliary (“helping”) verbs are used with other verbs to form compound tenses, like the future tense in English (I will find it) and German (Ich werde es finden)
- sein / to be
- haben / to have
- werden / to wiil
Translate auxilliary verb “to be”
sein
Translate auxilliary verb “to have”
haben
Translate auxilliary verb “will/would”
werden
what are modal verbs?
Modal verbs are used with other verbs to indicate their modality, which means the desire, ability, permission or obligation to do them: “You must listen to me!” (“Du musst mir zuhören!”)
- dürfen - may
- können - can
- mögen - to like (to)
- müssen - must
- sollen - should
- wollen - to want to
Translate modal verb “may”
durfen
Translate modal verb “can”
können
Translate modal verb “to like (to)”
mögen
Translate modal verb “must”
müssen
Translate modal verb “should”
sollen
Translate modal verb “to want to”
wollen
what are weak verbs?
Weak verbs form the past tense with a hard consonant added at the end, t in German and d (or sometimes t) in English.
Learn is a weak verb in both English (I learn, or learnt and German (ich lerne, ich lernte).
N.B. Weak verbs are all regular.
what are strong verbs?
Strong verbs form the past (preterite) tense with a vowel shift, like “swim / swam” in English (schwimmen / schwammen in German).
Strong verbs in German have an irregular participle form that ends in –n, which is also true of many strong verbs in English (I choose, I chose, I have chosen).
N.B. Strong verbs are all irregular.