33.2 Weak, strong and irregular verbs
There are regular patterns which most verbs follow, though some verbs follow irregular
patterns and a special effort must be made to learn these. Many of the most frequently
used verbs are not regular. It is useful to distinguish the following types of verb:(a) Weak verbs (see 33.4) are entirely regular and their forms are therefore completely
predictable. They always add the standard endings to the verb stem, which never
changes. The following are all forms of the weak verb machen ‘to make/do’: mache,
machst, machte, gemacht.(b) Strong verbs (see 33.5) have a change in the verb stem when forming the simple
past tense. The following are forms of singen ‘to sing’. The forms with the change in
the verb stem are past tense: singe, singst, sang, sangst.(c) A small number of verbs combine aspects of the weak and the strong patterns. These
are known as ‘mixed’ verbs (see 33.6).(d) Irregular verbs (see 33.7) are typically strong verbs which also change the verb stem
in some of the present tense forms. The verb nehmen ‘to take’ has present tense forms
based on the stem nehm- such as nehme and nehmt, but it also has nimmst and
nimmt in the present tense.Note the very different uses of the terms ‘weak’ and ’strong’ in relation to nouns
(see 28.1–2).33.3 The six tenses
All verbs have forms corresponding to the six basic tenses. In the table below, all the
finite forms of the verbs (see 33.1c) are in italics. The examples show one weak verb
(studieren) and one strong verb (kommen):There are two simple tense forms:and four compound tense forms:Present sie studiert ‘she studies/is studying’
sie kommt ‘she comes/is coming’
Simple past sie studierte ‘she studied/was studying’
sie kam ‘she came/was coming’Perfect sie hat studiert ‘she has studied/she studied’
sie ist gekommen ‘she has come/came’
Pluperfect sie hatte studiert ‘she had studied’
sie war gekommen ‘she had come’
Future sie wird studieren ‘she will study’
sie wird kommen ‘she will come’
Future perfect sie wird studiert haben ‘she will have studied’
sie wird gekommen sein ‘she will have come’33
VERBS