erzählen: Full Conjugation and Usage

Erzählen ("to tell, to recount, to narrate") is a high-frequency weak verb built from the inseparable prefix er- plus a stem related to zählen ("to count" — the same metaphor as English to recount or re-count a story). Like every inseparable verb, it never splits, is never stressed on the prefix, and forms its Perfekt participle without ge-. Grammatically the verb that matters most is its two-object pattern: you tell someone (dative) something (accusative). Get that double government right and the rest is mechanical.

Principal parts

Read this as erzählen – erzählte – hat erzählt. Fully regular (weak): -te in the Präteritum, -t in the participle, and no ge-. The auxiliary is haben — telling is a transitive act with a direct object. Note the ä: the umlaut is part of the stem in every single form (erzähle, erzählte, erzählt), so it must always be written.

Präsens (present)

There is no vowel change of the strong-verb type — the ä is the fixed stem vowel, not an alternation, so it is identical across all six persons.

Präteritum (simple past)

Because erzählen is itself a verb of narration, its Präteritum erzählte is genuinely common in written storytelling — it is the verb that introduces what characters recount.

Perfekt (present perfect)

Built with the present of haben plus the participle erzählt.

Plusquamperfekt (past perfect)

Past form of the auxiliary (hatte) + erzählt.

Futur I and Futur II

Konjunktiv II (would tell)

Being weak, the synthetic Konjunktiv II (erzählte) coincides with the Präteritum, so the würde + erzählen form is the norm.

Imperativ (commands)

Usage and government

The core pattern is jemandem etwas erzählen — to tell someone (dative) something (accusative). The listener is the dative, the content is the accusative.

When the content is a topic rather than a discrete thing, German uses prepositions:

• erzählen von + dative — to tell about something, the everyday choice;
• erzählen über + accusative — to tell about something, slightly more "on the subject of," common with longer, more deliberate accounts.

erzählen vs sagen vs sprechen

This is the trap English speakers fall into, because English tell and say overlap with German verbs that do not overlap:

• erzählen — to tell a story, account, or news — there is content with substance, a narrative. Er erzählt einen Witz (he tells a joke).
• sagen — to say / state a short piece of information, a single statement. Er sagt die Wahrheit (he tells the truth).
• sprechen — to speak / talk, focusing on the act of talking, not the content.

A rule of thumb: if you could replace English "tell" with "recount/narrate," use erzählen; if you could replace it with "state," use sagen. Notably, erzählen takes both dative and accusative, while sagen takes dative + accusative too but is for brief utterances — jemandem etwas sagen (Sag mir die Wahrheit).

Common idioms and fixed expressions

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

• Principal parts: erzählen – erzählte – hat erzählt (auxiliary haben, participle without ge-).
• The er- prefix is inseparable: the verb never splits and never takes ge-; the ä is always written.
• Government: jemandem (dative) etwas (accusative) erzählen; topics use von + dative (usual) or über + accusative.
• Use erzählen for stories and accounts, sagen for short statements — German keeps these apart even though English "tell/say" overlap.