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What
is a Verb?
Most of us learned that a verb is an "action" word: it describes the action in the sentence. However not all verbs describe an action. So how do we identify a verb? A verb is easily distinguishable from other classes of words because it is inflected. "Inflected" basically means that there are different and patterned forms of the same word. Patterned forms (endings, etc.) in German are usually found with nouns, adjectives, and verbs. With nouns and adjectives the different patterned forms are called declensions. With verbs they are called conjugations. We decline nouns and adjectives and conjugate verbs. In German the ending of the verb changes according to what the subject is. If the subject is ich, the subject has one form (usually an -e); if the subject is wir, it usually has a different form (-en). The dictionary entry of the verb is the infinitive form. The infinitive form usually has an -en ending. A few verbs end in -eln and drop only the -n before adding the endings. Thus a German verb might have the following different patterned forms: komm/komme/kommst/kommt/kommen/kam/kamst/kamt/kamen/ käme/kämest/kämen/gekommen. This verb has thirteen forms as opposed to four for most verbs of this type. You can see immediately that German is much more inflected than English.
Some verbs have irregular conjugations. When the stem ends in a consonant such as -t or -d or in a consonant cluster that makes it difficult to pronounce (öffn-), then an -e is added to the stem for ease in pronunciation in the du, er/sie/es, and ihr forms.
When stems end in an "s" sound, the du ending drops the -s and only adds -t. German does not tolerate three "esses" in a row.
Some strong verbs have a stem vowel change in the second and third person singular. Below is a chart of some common changes: a › ä, au › äu, e › i, e › ie
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Copyright 2001 Margaret Eskew and Angela Carr Site developed and maintained by Angela Carr of the Department of Germanic and Slavic Studies