Any two verbs sharing the same stem (e.g. kommen and bekommen) follow the
same strong or weak pattern. But the use of haben or sein as auxiliary depends on the
meaning:Sie ist um halb acht gekommen.
She came at half past seven.Sie hat meinen Brief bekommen.
She received my letter.See 36.2 (p. 84).
33.9 Principal parts of the verb
The principal parts of the verb which need to be learnt are thus:(1) the infinitive
(2) for those verbs which have a change in the stem in the present tense: the present
tense third person singular (the er/sie/es/man form)
(3) the simple past first/third person singular (the ich/er/sie/es/man form)
(4) haben or sein as auxiliary
(5) the past participle. See 33.1–3 (pp. 59–61).
Most dictionaries list these for strong verbs, together with the Subjunctive II forms
(see 39.2). For weak verbs, the forms are absolutely predictable:For mixed verbs, the change in the stem must be learnt:Most attention should be given to strong verbs. Here is a partial list showing
some important patterns of vowel change. Where there is no entry in column (2) this
means that the present tense is regular.1 23 45
machen macht machte hat gemacht ‘to make/do’
reisen reist reiste ist gereist ‘to travel’
studieren studiert studierte hat studiert ‘to study’1 2345
bringen bringt brachte hat gebracht ‘to bring’
rennen rennt rannte ist gerannt ‘to race’1 23 45
(a>ä>ie>a)
schlafen schläft schlief hat geschlafen ‘to sleep’
fallen fällt fiel ist gefallen ‘to fall’(a>ä>i>a)
fangen fängt fing hat gefangen ‘to catch’33
Verb forms