3.1 The present tense — and why German has only one — Epoché
What you will be able to do Write out the six present-tense forms of any regular German verb from the infinitive alone, and say which of the six share a form. Explain why ich gehe is the only translation available for all three of English I go , I am going and I do go — and why that makes the German present easier for you, not harder. Use the present tense to talk about the future, the way German normally does, instead of reaching for a helper verb. Recognise and produce the extra vowel in forms like du arbeitest and er wartet , and say exactly which stems demand it. Prerequisites : 2.1 — the verb-second rule, because every sentence here puts the conjugated verb in the second slot. English has three present tenses. I work states a general truth about my life. I am working reports what is happening as I speak. I do work insists, against someone who has just denied it. The difference is one of the hardest things about English for learners from almost any other language. German has one present tense: one set of six endings, no auxiliary, no separate progressive, no emphatic do . All three English sentences come out as ich arbeite , and a German listener works out from the situation which meaning is intended. So this lesson is less about memorising a paradigm than about unlearning a distinction. The paradigm is regular for most German verbs, and you will have it inside half an hour. What takes longer is stopping your hand from writing a form for am working that does not exist. Three English presents, one German present Look at what English does from the outside. The simple present — I work, she works — does not normally mean "now". It is for habits, timetables, stage directions, sports commentary and general truths. Answering I work to "what are you doing?" sounds odd. The progressive — I am working — is what English uses for now: a helper verb plus a participle, used so constantly that speakers do not notice it is a construction. It is also young: a Shakespeare character says what do you read, my lord? The emphatic — I do work — exists mainly to contradict. It is the same do English inserts in questions and negatives ( do you work? , I do not work ). German has none of this. It keeps one verb form and lets the situation, adverbs and word order carry the rest. At most it adds a small adverb: gerade for "right now", immer for "always", doch for the contradicting emphasis. None of them is a verb form, and none is compulsory. Two corpus sentences show it. The German is the same words both times; only the punctuation differs. The published translations reach for different English presents. German English, as the corpus translates it Ich arbeite. [1] I'm working. Ich arbeite! [2] I work! Nothing in the German chooses between the two; the difference is entirely on the English side. This is the most important fact in this lesson: when you translate into German, you are throwing information away , and that is allowed. Table Each table has the six persons down the left, one verb per table. Say each table out loud down the column; the endings stick faster as sound than as writing. Person Present — lernen , to learn 1 sg ich lerne 2 sg du lernst 3 sg er, sie, es lernt 1 pl wir lernen 2 pl ihr lernt 3 pl sie lernen Person Present — wohnen , to live somewhere 1 sg ich wohne 2 sg du wohnst 3 sg er, sie, es wohnt 1 pl wir wohnen 2 pl ihr wohnt 3 pl sie wohnen The polite form of address has no row of its own. It uses the third person plural with a capital letter: Sie lernen means both "they learn" and "you learn" said to a stranger. The form is identical to the 3 pl row, so only the capital letter and the context tell the two apart. Now verbs whose stem cannot take -st or -t without an extra vowel. Compare the second, third and fifth rows with the tables above. Person Present — arbeiten , to work 1 sg ich arbeite 2 sg du arbeitest 3 sg er, sie, es arbeitet 1 pl wir arbeiten 2 pl ihr arbeitet 3 pl sie arbeiten Person Present — warten , to wait 1 sg ich warte 2 sg du wartest 3 sg er, sie, es wartet 1 pl wir warten 2 pl ihr wartet 3 pl sie warten How to read the endings Take the infinitive, the form a dictionary lists, and cut off the final -en (or just -n , for a verb like wandern ). What remains is the stem . From lernen you get lern- ; from wohnen , wohn- ; from arbeiten , arbeit- . The stem never changes for the verbs in this lesson; the endings are hung on it. The endings are -e , -st , -t , -en , -t , -en . Six rows, four distinct endings, because two pairs share: the 3 sg and the 2 pl are both -t , and the 1 pl and the 3 pl are both -en , identical to the infinitive. Several will feel half-familiar. Old English had -e, -est, -eth, -ath where German has -e, -st, -t, -en ; the -est survives in archaic thou workest and the -eth in he worketh . Modern English kept only a third person singular ending, and even that is -s , which replaced -eth . German has not invented endings; it has merely failed to throw them away. If you have read the King James Bible you already know this system from the inside. Now the extra vowel. When the stem ends in -t or -d , an -e- is inserted before -st and -t , giving -est and -et ; otherwise two identical consonants would meet with nothing between them. The same happens after a stem ending in m or n preceded by another consonant, unless that consonant is l , r or h : "to breathe" has du atmest , but "to learn" has du lernst . The insertion is not a new ending and not an irregularity, just a supporting vowel where the mouth needs one. If a form is hard to say out loud, an -e- is usually missing. The test works only one way, though: du tanzst can be said and is still wrong (see tanzen below). One habit to build from today: read a table down the column and split what you say into stem plus ending: " lern — e , lern — st , lern — t ". Chanted that way the endings detach from the verb and transfer to every new one. Chanted as whole words they stay glued to lernen and you start again