2.5: Present Tense of Regular Verbs

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“Regular” verbs are simply those which follow the most common pattern of conjugation. Some grammar books refer to these verbs as “weak” verbs. Thus, using spielen (to play) as our model the present tense is formed as follows:

PERSON		SINGULAR		PLURAL
1ST	ich	spiele (I play)	wir	spielen (we play)
2ND	du	spielst (you play)	ihr	spielt (you play)
3RD	er/sie/es	spielt (he/she/it plays)	sie/Sie	spielen (they/you play)

For our purposes the third person singular and plural forms are the main ones. Thus, the ending –t indicates singular and the ending –en plural.

Should the stem of the verb end in –t or –d, for example, warten (to wait) and finden (to find), the stems of which are wart- and find-, then the verb is conjugated as follows:

PERSON		SINGULAR		PLURAL
1ST	ich	warte/finde	wir	warten/finden
2ND	du	wartest/findest	ihr	wartet/findet
3RD	er/sie/es	wartet/findet	sie/Sie	warten/finden

The only differences then are in the singular, second and third person, where an –e is added so that we can append the personal endings –st and –t.

Note: The majority of verbs in German form their present tense in the way shown for our example spielen.

Remember that the German present tense can be translated variously: “he does play,” “he is playing,” “he plays,” or even – depending on time information given in context – “he will play,” “he has played,” or “he has been playing.” Note that all of these translations still share the meaning that the action is taking place at the “present moment” (although that can be defined by a specific future time reference) – whether the action is ongoing, starting, finishing, or only momentary is what you need to interpret from context. In any case, German present tense never indicates a completed, past event.