Strong verbs
There are two groups of verbs in German:
- weak, or regular verbs
- strong, or irregular verbs
Strong verbs are called strong because they do not weakly follow the pattern of other verbs. They are more independent.
This is what they do:
- some verbs have endings like weak verbs in the present tense, but are strong in some other tenses
- some verbs also make changes to the du and er/sie/es forms
Question
If gehen (to go) is identical to weak verbs in the present tense, how would you write out different forms?
stem: geh-
- ich gehe – I go
- du gehst – you go
- er geht – he goes
- sie geht – she goes
- es geht – it goes
- wir gehen – we go
- ihr geht – you go
- Sie gehen – you go
- sie gehen – they go
Question
If trinken (to drink) is identical to weak verbs in the present tense, how would you write out different forms?
stem: trink-
- ich trinke – I drink
- du trinkst – you drink
- er trinkt – he drinks
- sie trinkt – she drinks
- es trinkt – he drinks
- wir trinken – we drink
- ihr trinkt – you drink
- Sie trinken – you drink
- sie trinken – they drink