Grammar Notes - Parts of the verb

Stem Infinitive Present Participle Continuity Verbal Nouns Past Participle Imperative  Test yourself!

 

Stem

This is the part of the Verb from which all the content meaning stems. Here are some examples:

He works in town	Er arbeitet in der Stadt
I invited her quite spontaneously	Ich habe sie ganz spontan eingeladen
Flowers! How charming!	Blumen! Wie reizend!

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Infinitive

The English language has evolved over many centuries. Infinitives used to have similar endings to German ones, but almost all of these endings have now been dropped, leaving just the Stem of the Verb.

German Verbs have not changed in the same way as English ones: Infinitives retain the ending en (exception: sein).

Consider these Infinitives:

make see think have speak come ride	machen sehen denken haben sprechen kommen reiten

Tip: if you need to guess the content meaning of a German Verb, it can help to ignore the ending and focus on the Stem.

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Present Participle

As a rule Verbs form Present Participles as follows:

Infinitive + ing eg: laugh - laughing (Note: pin - pinning, pine - pining)

Infinitive + d eg: lachen - lachend

Uses:

 

Continuity

To express continuity, English uses Present Participle following to be or a verb like to enjoy. German just uses the Simple Form (+ a determiner such as gern):

I was telephoning all morning	Ich telephonierte den ganzen Morgen
I enjoy working for Herr Krüger	Ich arbeite gern für Herrn Krüger

 

Verbal Nouns

Where English uses the '-ing' form of the Verb (the Gerund) as a Verbal Noun, German uses the Infinitive, sometimes as a neuter Noun:

Driving all day makes you tired	Den ganzen Tag fahren, das macht müde!
Writing all day and studying in the evenings as well makes me really tired	Schreiben den ganzen Tag und dann abends auch noch studieren, das macht mich ganz müde
I love her singing	Ihr Singen gefällt mir

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Past Participle

As a rule, Verbs form Past Participles as follows:

Past Participle is formed with Infinitive + ed, eg: laugh - laughed. Variations are verbs like: pin - pinned, pine - pined, cry - cried

Past Participle is formed with ge + Stem + t, eg: gelacht, gesteckt, getrauert, geweint.
Variations on this rule:

• where the Stem ends in t or d you add: et, eg: warten - gewartet
• where the Verb ends in ieren you don't use the prefix ge at all,
  eg: photographieren - photographiert

In both languages, the most common use of the Past Participle is in combination with Modals to form:

• Present Perfect
• Past Perfect
• Future Perfect
• Conditionals
• all tenses, Passive Voice

Imperative

English Imperative Mood is the same form as the Infinitive, eg: come with me, go on! let's go!

German Imperative Mood has various forms:

Familiar: Stem only: Komm mit! Geh weiter! Halt!

Formal:

• Sie form, inverted, eg: Kommen Sie mit!
• wir form, inverted, eg: Gehen wir!
• ('elevated') wollen + Infinitive, eg: wir wollen anfangen

Military-style: Infinitive or Past Participle, eg: Anhalten! Aufpassen! Aufgepaßt!

Test yourself!

In respect of the above sections, try the following:

1. Study the explanations and examples.
2. Print out the table for the grammar point you are working on and fold it into 2 vertically. You will then be able to check your recall of the English and German examples by folding and unfolding the paper.

Created for ULTRALAB trial June 1999 Copyright ULTRALAB at Anglia Polytechnic University