German Verb Conjugation in English — Complete Reference Tables

Understanding German Verb Conjugation

Conjugation is the process of changing a verb's form to match the grammatical requirements of a sentence — specifically, who is performing the action (person), how many are involved (number), when it happened (tense), and the speaker's attitude toward the action (mood). In English, conjugation is relatively simple: "I go, you go, he goes" — only the third-person singular differs from the base form. German conjugation is considerably more complex.

German verbs have distinct endings for each of the six persons: ich (I), du (you, informal singular), er/sie/es (he/she/it), wir (we), ihr (you, informal plural), sie/Sie (they / you, formal). Beyond the present tense, German has the simple past (Präteritum), the conversational past (Perfekt), the past perfect (Plusquamperfekt), two future tenses (Futur I and Futur II), and three moods: indicative, Konjunktiv I (indirect speech), and Konjunktiv II (hypothetical/conditional).

For everyday communication, the most important tenses are: Präsens (present — covers both English present and near future), Perfekt (spoken past), Präteritum (written past, especially for sein/haben/modals), and Futur I (future predictions). The Konjunktiv II is critical for polite requests and hypothetical sentences. Understanding which tense a German text uses is essential for accurate translation — a verb in the Konjunktiv II signals a hypothetical or polite nuance that must be preserved in English.

In the tables below, every conjugated form is given alongside its natural English equivalent. Note that German often uses the present tense where English uses a progressive ("ich gehe" = "I go" or "I am going"). Context determines which English form is most natural.

Präteritum vs. Perfekt — German Past Tenses

German has two major past tenses that both translate to the English simple past ("I went," "she said"). Präteritum (also called Imperfekt or Vergangenheit) is the literary/written past tense — used in novels, news articles, formal reports, and official documents. It is formed by adding a past tense suffix directly to the verb stem. For weak verbs, the suffix is -te: machen → machte. For strong verbs, the stem vowel changes: gehen → ging, fahren → fuhr.

Perfekt is the conversational past — used in everyday spoken German and informal writing. It is a compound tense formed with the present tense of an auxiliary verb (haben or sein) + the past participle (Partizip II). Most verbs use haben: Ich habe gegessen (I ate). Verbs of motion and change of state use sein: Ich bin gegangen (I went). Both Präteritum and Perfekt translate to the same English simple past in most cases, though context may suggest "I have eaten" for the Perfekt.

An important exception: sein, haben, werden, and the modal verbs use Präteritum even in spoken German — saying Ich war müde (I was tired) rather than the Perfekt form Ich bin müde gewesen.

Präteritum (Simple Past) — Selected Verbs

Perfekt (Conversational Past) — Selected Verbs

Konjunktiv II — The Subjunctive Mood

The Konjunktiv II (subjunctive II) is used in German for hypothetical or unreal situations, polite requests, and conditional sentences. It corresponds to English constructions with "would," "could," "should," and "might." This mood is extremely important in German and appears frequently in formal, literary, and everyday polite speech. The most commonly used Konjunktiv II forms are those of sein → wäre, haben → hätte, werden → würde, and the modal verbs: können → könnte, müssen → müsste, dürfen → dürfte, wollen → wollte, sollen → sollte, mögen → möchte. For most regular verbs, the "würde + infinitive" construction is used instead of a synthetic Konjunktiv II form (which sounds archaic for weak verbs).

Common Konjunktiv II Trigger Expressions