Legen means "to lay (down)" — to place something into a flat, horizontal position. It is a perfectly regular weak verb, so its forms hold no surprises. The real challenge is not its conjugation but its meaning: legen is one half of a notorious German verb pair (legen / liegen) that English collapses into the sloppy single verb "put" or even "lay/lie," which most English speakers confuse anyway. Master the pair and you master a whole category of German placement verbs.
Principal parts
| Infinitive | Präteritum | Partizip II (auxiliary) |
|---|---|---|
| legen | legte | gelegt (hat) |
Read this as legen – legte – hat gelegt. Because legen is a weak (regular) verb, the Präteritum adds -te and the Partizip II adds the ge- … -t frame to the unchanged stem. The Perfekt auxiliary is haben, because legen is transitive (it takes a direct object) — you always lay something somewhere. See transitive vs intransitive verbs and haben vs sein in the Perfekt.
Präsens (present)
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| ich | lege |
| du | legst |
| er / sie / es | legt |
| wir | legen |
| ihr | legt |
| sie / Sie | legen |
There is no vowel change in the stem — legen keeps its e throughout. This is worth noticing because its strong-verb partner liegen does change, and learners sometimes "borrow" the wrong stem.
Ich lege den Schlüssel immer auf den Tisch im Flur.
I always lay the key on the table in the hall. (informal; auf + accusative because the key moves onto the table)
Leg das Handy weg und hör mir bitte zu!
Put the phone down and listen to me, please! (informal du-imperative; bare stem 'leg')
Präteritum (simple past)
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| ich | legte |
| du | legtest |
| er / sie / es | legte |
| wir | legten |
| ihr | legtet |
| sie / Sie | legten |
In everyday speech, Germans usually reach for the Perfekt (hat gelegt) to talk about the past. The Präteritum legte is the written/narrative form, common in novels, reports, and news.
Sie legte den Brief vorsichtig zurück in die Schublade.
She laid the letter carefully back into the drawer. (literary/narrative Präteritum)
Perfekt (present perfect)
Present of haben + the participle gelegt.
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| ich | habe gelegt |
| du | hast gelegt |
| er / sie / es | hat gelegt |
| wir | haben gelegt |
| ihr | habt gelegt |
| sie / Sie | haben gelegt |
Wo hast du meine Brille hingelegt? Ich finde sie nirgends.
Where did you put my glasses? I can't find them anywhere. (informal; note the separable hin- showing direction)
Wir haben das Baby gerade erst ins Bett gelegt — sei bitte leise.
We've only just put the baby to bed — please be quiet. (informal)
Plusquamperfekt (past perfect)
Past of haben (hatte) + gelegt.
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| ich | hatte gelegt |
| du | hattest gelegt |
| er / sie / es | hatte gelegt |
| wir | hatten gelegt |
| ihr | hattet gelegt |
| sie / Sie | hatten gelegt |
Ich hatte den Zettel auf den Schreibtisch gelegt, aber jetzt ist er weg.
I had laid the note on the desk, but now it's gone.
Futur I
werden + the infinitive legen.
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| ich | werde legen |
| du | wirst legen |
| er / sie / es | wird legen |
| wir | werden legen |
| ihr | werdet legen |
| sie / Sie | werden legen |
Ich werde die Unterlagen morgen auf deinen Schreibtisch legen.
I'll put the documents on your desk tomorrow. (formal/neutral)
Imperativ (commands)
| Addressee | Form |
|---|---|
| du | leg(e) |
| ihr | legt |
| Sie | legen Sie |
The du-imperative is normally just leg in speech; the older lege with -e sounds slightly formal or careful.
Legen Sie Ihre Tasche bitte hier auf das Band.
Please place your bag here on the belt. (formal Sie-imperative, e.g. airport security)
Konjunktiv II (would / hypothetical)
Because legen is weak, its Konjunktiv II is identical to the Präteritum (legte). To avoid ambiguity, German almost always uses würde + legen instead.
| Person | würde-form |
|---|---|
| ich | würde legen |
| du | würdest legen |
| er / sie / es | würde legen |
| wir | würden legen |
| ihr | würdet legen |
| sie / Sie | würden legen |
An deiner Stelle würde ich das Geld nicht einfach so auf den Tisch legen.
If I were you, I wouldn't just put the money on the table like that.
The heart of it: legen vs. liegen
This is the reason the page exists. German keeps a strict grammatical division that English smudges:
| legen | liegen | |
|---|---|---|
| Meaning | to lay (put into a flat position) | to lie (be in a flat position) |
| Type | weak, transitive (takes an object) | strong, intransitive (no object) |
| Motion? | movement to a new place → accusative | no movement; a state → dative |
| Principal parts | legen – legte – hat gelegt | liegen – lag – hat gelegen |
The logic is mechanical once you see it. Legen is the causative verb: an agent causes something to end up lying down. Because there is movement toward a destination, the two-way preposition takes the accusative (the motion test). Liegen describes the resulting state — no movement — so the same preposition takes the dative.
Ich lege das Buch auf den Tisch.
I lay the book on the table. (legen + accusative: the book moves onto the table)
Das Buch liegt auf dem Tisch.
The book is lying on the table. (liegen + dative: it's already there, no movement)
English speakers should also note that legen / liegen belong to a tidy family of these causative–stative pairs. Learning one pattern unlocks all of them:
| Causative (transitive, accusative) | Stative (intransitive, dative) |
|---|---|
| legen (lay flat) | liegen (lie) |
| stellen (stand upright) | stehen (stand) |
| setzen (set sitting) | sitzen (sit) |
| hängen (hang up — weak) | hängen (hang — strong) |
See positional verb pairs for the full system, and stellen for the upright partner.
Idioms and fixed expressions
| Expression | English |
|---|---|
| Wert auf etwas legen | to attach importance to / value something |
| jemandem etwas ans Herz legen | to urge something on someone earnestly |
| Hand an etwas legen | to start work on something |
| sich ins Zeug legen | to put one's back into it / make a real effort (informal) |
| Eier legen | to lay eggs (a hen) |
Sie legt großen Wert auf Pünktlichkeit.
She places great importance on punctuality. (Wert legen auf + accusative)
Common Mistakes
❌ Ich habe das Buch auf dem Tisch gelegt.
Incorrect case — legen involves movement onto the table, so the two-way preposition needs the accusative (den Tisch), not the dative.
✅ Ich habe das Buch auf den Tisch gelegt.
I laid the book on the table.
❌ Das Buch legt auf dem Tisch.
Wrong verb — there is no object and nothing is moving, so this is the state verb liegen, not legen.
✅ Das Buch liegt auf dem Tisch.
The book is lying on the table.
❌ Ich bin früh ins Bett gelegt.
Wrong auxiliary — legen is transitive and always takes haben, not sein.
✅ Ich habe mich früh ins Bett gelegt.
I lay down in bed early. (reflexive sich legen = lie down)
❌ Sie ligte den Brief auf den Tisch.
Invented form — legen is weak (legte), and its stem keeps the e of legen; liegen's lag belongs to the other verb.
✅ Sie legte den Brief auf den Tisch.
She laid the letter on the table.
Key Takeaways
- Principal parts: legen – legte – hat gelegt (weak, transitive, haben).
- Present has no vowel change: lege, legst, legt, legen, legt, legen.
- legen causes a flat position → accusative with two-way prepositions (movement).
- Its stative partner is liegen (strong, intransitive, dative) — don't mix the stems.
- Reflexive sich legen = "to lie down" (still haben: ich habe mich gelegt).
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Start learning German→Related Topics
- liegen: Full Conjugation and UsageA2 — Complete conjugation of liegen 'to lie / to be located (flat)' across every tense and mood, with principal parts, the two-way dative location pattern, the liegen–legen pair, idioms, and the errors English speakers make.
- Positional Verb Pairs: legen/liegen, stellen/stehen, setzen/sitzen, hängenB1 — The transitive 'put' verbs that take the accusative and the intransitive 'be located' verbs that take the dative, and how to tell hängen apart from itself.
- Choosing Accusative or Dative: The Motion Test in DepthB1 — Why the two-way case depends on crossing into a location versus acting within it — and how verb-governed prepositions override the rule entirely.
- stellen: Full Conjugation and UsageA2 — Complete conjugation of the weak verb stellen 'to put (upright) / to place' across every tense and mood, with its accusative-plus-two-way-preposition valency and its pairing with stehen.
- Perfekt Auxiliary: haben vs seinA2 — How to choose between haben and sein in the German Perfekt — motion and change of state take sein, and a direct object flips it to haben.
- Accusative vs Dative with Two-Way PrepositionsB1 — How to choose accusative or dative after the nine German two-way prepositions, using the wohin?/wo? boundary-crossing test.