0Most verbs in German end with ‘en’ and a verb infinitive form is just 1 word, for example, to learn, the verb infinite form in English comprises of 2 words ‘to’ & ‘learn’; in German, its ‘lernen’.
|
| Singular – English | German | Plural – English | German |
| first person | I | ich | we | wir |
| second person – informal | you | du | you (all) | ihr |
| third person | he, she, it | er, sie es | they | sie |
| second person – formal | you | Sie | you | Sie |
The German verb infinite form is just 1 word, yet it has 2 elements in it – the ‘Stamm’ & ‘Endung’
for example, ‘lernen’ (to learn) is made of ‘lern’ + ‘en’
When we conjugate a German verb, we get rid of the original ‘Endung’ & replace it
with other ‘Endungen’ that represents a particular subject – a personal pronoun
Let’s see how it works:
| Personal pronoun | VC English | Personal pronoun | VC German | ‘Endung’ |
| I | learn | ich | lerne | e |
| you | learn | du | lernst | st |
| he/she/it | learns | er/es/sie | lernt | t |
| we | learn | wir | lernen | en |
| you all | learn | ihr | lernt | t |
| you | learn | sie | lernen | en |
| you | learn | Sie | lernen | en |
So, a sentence in English ‘I learn German’ is ‘Ich lerne Deutsch’.
The German language only has the ‘Präsens’ – present tense, no separate ‘simple present’ or ‘present continuous’ like English, hence the verb position is fixed, but one may change the position of the subject and the object.
Ich lerne Deutsch. = Deutsch lerne ich.
