German Present Tense: Regular Verb Conjugation

How it works

This is the single most valuable pattern in German. Thousands of verbs follow it exactly, and once you have the six endings you can conjugate a verb you have never seen before with confidence.

The method is mechanical. Take the infinitive — lernen, wohnen, spielen, arbeiten — and remove the -en to get the stem: lern-, wohn-, spiel-, arbeit-. Then add the ending that matches the person. Note that two pairs are identical: wir and sie/Sie both take -en (the same as the infinitive), and du and ihr both end in -t or -st in a way worth memorising as a pair.

There is one adjustment. If the stem ends in -t, -d or a difficult consonant cluster — arbeiten, finden, öffnen — an -e is inserted before the du, er and ihr endings so the word remains pronounceable: du arbeitest, er arbeitet, ihr arbeitet. Say arbeitst out loud once and the reason is obvious. And remember German has no continuous tense: ich lerne covers both "I learn" and "I am learning".

Examples

• Ich lerne Deutsch.I learn / I am learning German.
• Du wohnst in Berlin.You live in Berlin.
• Er spielt Fußball.He plays football.
• Wir kochen heute Abend.We are cooking this evening.
• Ihr macht das gut.You are doing that well.
• Sie kaufen ein Auto.They are buying a car.
• Ich arbeite bei Siemens.I work at Siemens.
• Du arbeitest zu viel.You work too much.
• Was machst du?What are you doing?
• Sie hört Musik.She is listening to music.

Mistakes to avoid

Wortschatz

The words from this lesson.

Kulturnotiz

The absence of a continuous tense is why German speakers learning English so often say "I am working here since 2019". German makes no distinction between "I work" and "I am working", so the habit has to be built from scratch in the other direction — and, going your way, it means one less tense to learn. Ich lerne Deutsch is all you ever need.

Common questions