The present tense which is also called “present simple” is the only tense to express the present. In German present simple (Präsens) is used to talk about the “present simple”, “present continuous” and “future with will” and “going to”.
As you might know, a big part of learning German is figuring out how the verbs work.
Table of Contents
The usage of present simple in German
Talking about daily routine activities:
Ich koche jeden Tag.
I cook every day.
Describing a person or something:
Er ist groß.
he is tall.
General tendencies and talking about general habits:
Ich mag Pizza.
l love pizza.
Er kommt immer spät.
He always comes late.
Talking about the things and activities that you are doing at the moment (Present Progressive)
Ich schreibe eine E- Mail.
I’m writing an E-mail.
Talking about future plans (going to + will)
Am Wochenende gehe ich ins Theater.
This weekend I’m going to go to the theater.
As you see, by just knowing the present simple in German you can talk about the future too.
How to form the present tense in German?
The first step to use the present tense (Präsens) is verb conjugation, you need to know how to conjugate the verbs and then put them correctly in the sentences.
Verb conjugation
The verbs which are known with “-en ” at the end, can easily be conjugated by just dropping “-en” and adding the right “ending ” to the “root” of the verbs, just look at the following examples:
- Machen (to do): “Mach” is the root of the Verb.
- Kochen (to cook): “Koch” is the root of the Verb.
Now for each subject, we have the special “ending” for the roots:
- -e /- (e) st / -t
- -en / -(e) t / _en
See some examples:
- Ich arbeite (I work)
- Du arbeitest (You work )
- Er,es,sie arbeitet (He, It, She works)
- Wir arbeiten (We work)
- ihr arbeitet (You work , plural)
- Sie, sie arbeiten (They work, you (formal) work)
For more information about “verb conjugation” please take a look at “German irregular verbs conjugation” article.
Rules
The are three grammatical persons in the singular and in the plural.
The formal singular and plural forms are the same as the third person plural: Sie wohnen.
Almost all verbs have the following present tense endings: singular: -e, / -st / -t.
Plural: -en / – t / – en
Sentence Structure
In indicative sentences (statements) the conjugated verb is in the second position.
Ich koche gern.
I cook a lot.
- Ich: first position
- Koche: second position
- gern: third position
Now see some other examples:
Ich rauche nicht.
I don’t smoke.
Ich gehe nach Hause.
I go home.
Wir arbeiten jeden Tag.
We work every day.
Er kauft eine Theaterkarte.
He buys a theater ticket.
Sie macht viele Fotos.
She takes a lot of photos.
In addition, the German present tense is often used, frequently with specific adverbials of “time”, to express future time. Like:
- Morgen (tomorrow)
- Bald (soon)
Morgen gehe Ich ins Konzert.
Tomorrow I will go to the concert.
wir reisen nach Paris bald.
We will travel to Paris soon.
A very important point here is, that when we use an adverbial of time, place, or any kind of adverb, at the beginning of the sentence, we should change the position of the subject and the Verb of the sentence, I mean, the verb comes before the subject, like the following example:
Morgen treffe ich meine Mutter.
Tomorrow I will see my mom.
In Wh questions, the conjugated verb is in the second position. For example:
Was kocht er gern?
What does he cook?
Wo arbeitest du?
Where do you work?
Wann kommen Sie?
When do you come?
Wie spät ist es?
What time is it?
In Yes/No questions the conjugated verb is in the first position.
Kochst du gern?
Do you cook?
Geht ihr in den Park ?
Do you go to the park?
Ist Franz schon lange krank?
Is Franz sick for a long time?
As you see in Yes/No questions, the verb comes at the beginning of the sentence (first position) and the subject comes at the second position.
For practicing verb conjugation and verb position in the sentences I put some sentences, and try to put the correct form of the Verb in the blank.
Exercises:
1. Wie heißen Sie?
Ich …… Frank.
2. …… du gerne ?
Ja, Ich tanze gerne.
3. …… du im Chor?
Nein, Ich singe nicht im Chor.
4. Er …… Deutsch. (Lernen)
5. Wir …… eine E-Mail. (schreiben)
If you want to learn the present tense (Präsens) perfectly you can write a Paragraph about your daily routine activities and use the verbs correctly.
I hope you have enjoyed the article, if you have questions please write to us and leave a comment.
You can also check out the German Grammar page to read other grammatical articles.