The most common German verbs

Verbs are where German grammar becomes visible. These 39 verbs cover the great majority of everyday sentences, and two facts about each one do most of the work: whether the stem vowel changes, and whether the perfect tense takes haben or sein.

Stem-changing verbs

10 of these verbs change their vowel in the du and er/sie/es forms, and nowhere else: ich spreche but du sprichst, ich fahre but er fährt. Those two forms are worth learning separately from the rest of the paradigm, because they are irregular in exactly the places you use most often.

haben or sein in the perfect?

Most verbs form the perfect with haben. 6 of these take sein instead, and they have something in common: they describe movement or a change of state — sein, werden, kommen, gehen, bleiben, fahren. If a verb gets you from one place or condition to another, expect sein.

Every common verb

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