Verb Conjugations In German: All Forms With Examples From Ich To Sie

VANESSA
Jetzt tanzen die Frau. Wieso tanzen sie?
(Now the woman dances. Why is she dancing?)

DENISA
Es heißt: Jetzt tanzt die Frau.
(It’s called: Now the woman dances.)

Not sure about the verb conjugations in German?

That’s not a problem anymore.

In this lesson we’ll show you how to use the verb conjugations in German in the present tense easily, without having to learn a conjugation table by heart.

Spring German teacher Denisa will explain everything you need to know about this German grammar topic!

1. Verb conjugations in German with Ich (I)

VANESSA
Ich arbeite als Mathelehrerin. Ich bringe meinen Schülern im Moment Sinus und Cosinus bei.
(I work as a math teacher. I teach my students sinus and cosinus at the moment.)

DENISA
Ich verstehe nur Bahnhof.
(I have no clue what you are talking about.)

If you haven’t learned the Personalpronomen (personal pronouns) yet, check Brundhild’s video about them on our Spring German YouTube channel:

If you don’t know what chunks are:

Chunks are word combinations that native speakers use all the time and that you can learn by heart as a whole. Get the most important German chunks in our free essential German chunking kit. The link is in the description.

✔️ Cheat Sheet with 53 Essential German Chunks: chunks and words you’ll hear and use in every German conversation

✔️ Tips on how to speak German WITHOUT thinking about grammar

✔️ A German Chunking Tutorial showing you the 1 technique that’ll help you make 100% of the German from our videos roll off the tongue in just 5 minutes a day (you’re probably only using 50% of our lessons’ potential right now…)

Yes! Send me my FREE German Chunking Kit

Regular verbs in German always end with “en” in the infinitive, e.g.

Did you realize that the verbs ich arbeite (I work) and ich verstehe (I understand) in the dialogue always ended with an -E.

The first person singular ich (I) always conjugates with an -E at the end if it’s a regular verb.

Other examples are:

2. Verb conjugations in German with Du (you)

VANESSA
Gehst du schon nach Hause?
(Are you already going home?)

DENISA
Ja. Ich besuche meine Großeltern.
(Yes. I visit my grandparents.)

VANESSA
Kommst du dann morgen wieder?
(Will you come tomorrow again?)

DENISA
Nein. Ich bleibe da für drei Tage.
(No. I stay there for 3 days.)

With du (you) the regular verbs always end with -ST , just like in the dialogue.

VANESSA
Gehst du schon nach Hause?
(Are you already going home?)

Other examples are:

3. Verb conjugations in German with Er, Sie, Es (he, she, it)

DENISA
Triffst du dich mit ihm heute?
(Will you meet him today?)

VANESSA
Ja. Er kocht heute Abend für mich. Er zündet Kerzen an. Das ist so romantisch!
(Yes. He cooks for me tonight. He lights the candles. That’s so romantic!)

DENISA
Das wird bestimmt schön. Du weißt ja: Liebe geht durch den Magen.
(That’s going to be beautiful for sure. You know: love goes through the stomach.)

Literally the proverb Liebe geht durch den Magen (love goes through the stomach) means love goes through the stomach.

But in English you would normally say “The way through a man’s heart goes through his stomach”. Learn this chunk as a whole. That way you don’t have to think about any verb conjugation rules.

Do you know other proverbs in German or in your native language?

In this dialogue there were a lot of verb conjugations:

Maybe you realized already. The forms for he/she/it always end with a -T.

4. Verb conjugations in German with Wir (we)

VANESSA
Wir gehen jetzt nach Hause. Danke für alles.
(We’re going home now. Thanks for everything.)

DENISA
Ach Schade. Wie kommt ihr nach Hause?
(What a pity. How are you getting home?)

VANESSA
Wir fahren mit dem Taxi.
(We go by taxi.)

When using wir (we) you don’t have to conjugate the verb. It’s the same as in the infinitive. Another Personalpronomen (personal pronoun) has also not to be conjugated.

We will come to that in a second.

Other examples are:

Grammar is important aber sollte nicht im Fokus stehen (but it shouldn’t be the main focus). Listening to a language is always the best way to learn it.

5. Verb conjugations in German with Ihr (plural you)

VANESSA
Arbeitet ihr schon lange zusammen?
(Have you been working together for a long time?)

DENISA
Ja. Wir arbeiten seit fünf Jahren zusammen.
(Yes. We’ve worked together for 5 years now.)

VANESSA
Ihr kennt euch also gut, oder?
(So you know each other well, right?)

DENISA
Ja. Wir gehen zusammen durch dick und dünn.
(Yes. We go through thick and thin together.)

Did you realize that the verbs with ihr end with -T? If you have the infinitives arbeiten (to work) and kennen (to know) you have to erase the -EN and put a -T at the end.

This way you have the ihr (you) conjugation.

Other examples are:

6. Verb conjugations in German with Sie (they)

VANESSA
Kennst du Jana und Marie?
(Do you know Jana and Marie?)

DENISA
Ja. Sie wohnen in meiner Nähe.
(Yes. They live near by.)

VANESSA
Cool. Sie arbeiten mit mir.
(Cool. They work with me.)

DENISA
Was für ein Zufall! Sie sind so nett, oder?
(What a coincidence! They are so nice, right?)

VANESSA
Ja. Sie essen manchmal mit mir zu Mittag.
(Yes. Sometimes they eat with me for lunch.)

With sie (they) the regular verbs end with -EN, so you don’t have to conjugate them. They stay in the same form as the infinitive, just like wir (we).

In the dialogue they also said Sie sind so nett. (They are so nice). Sie sind (They are) is a form of the verb “sein” (to be). Sein (to be) is an irregular verb.

Let’s look at the conjugation table for the verb arbeiten (to work) to sum up all the information. But don’t forget that you shouldn’t learn it by heart because you won’t remember this table in a conversation anyway.

As you can see on the table, er, sie, es (he, she, it) and ihr (you) are conjugated the same way.

Same with Wir (we) and Sie (they).

So in German it’s important to say the personal pronoun with the verb. In other languages you can leave that out, e.g. in Spanish.