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The present tense in German functions as three different tenses in English.
Because of this, to ask a question, reverse the order of the subject and verb:
In your dictionary and the vocabulary lists in textbooks,
verbs are listed in the infinitive form: to do, to say, to go,
etc. The infinitive form in German is a one-word form ending in -en.
Occasionally they end only in "-n." The part of the verb in front
of the -en (or just -n) is referred to as the "stem."
Look at the following verbs. What is the "stem" of each of these infinitives? schwimmen to swim, machen to do, to make, sagen to say, to tell, kaufen to buy, hören to hear, tun to do, kochen to cook, heißen to be called, reisen to travel, arbeiten to work, to study, reden to talk, to chat, wandern to hike
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In English, we use endings on only one form: the third person singular ends with "s" (swims) or "es" (does). In German, however, we use a different ending for all persons.
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fahren
to drive
Therefore the verb conjugation in the present tense is:
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Worksheet: Regular and Irregular
Verbs in the Present Tense
Verben mit Stammvokabeländerung:
Übung 1,Übung 2, Übung
3 (3 exercises on verbs with stem-vowel changes)
Verben: haben, sein, wissen &
geben, Übung 1, Übung
2
©A. Campitelli, Greensboro, NC 1999-2001