German Irregular Verbs

A fixed number of frequently used verbs in German change the stem of the verb when forming some of the finite forms of the verb. Therefore, it is necessary to learn the variant finite forms as well as the infinitive forms of these verbs.

The Vocab Builder will help you learn the third-person singular for all irregular verbs, for:

• the Present Tense,
• the Imperfect Tense (also called the Past Tense), and
• the Perfect Tense.

For example, sein, the verb "to be", has these forms:

• Present Tense: ist "is" (e.g. Er ist ... He is ...)
• Imperfect Tense: war "was" (e.g. Sie war ... She was ...)
• Perfect Tense: ist gewesen "has been" (e.g. Es ist gewesen ... It has been ...)