Machen ("to do, to make") is the workhorse of German — an extremely high-frequency verb that covers both English "do" and "make," and that anchors a vast number of everyday set phrases: Spaß machen (to be fun), Pause machen (to take a break), Sinn machen (to make sense), sauber machen (to clean). It is a perfectly regular weak verb, which makes it a useful model: once you can conjugate machen, you can conjugate thousands of weak verbs that follow exactly the same pattern. It is transitive, takes a direct object in the accusative, and forms its Perfekt with haben.
Principal parts
| Infinitive | Präteritum | Partizip II (auxiliary) |
|---|---|---|
| machen | machte | gemacht (hat) |
Read this as machen – machte – hat gemacht. There is no stem-vowel change anywhere — mach- stays mach- throughout. The Präteritum adds the weak past marker -te (machte), and the participle takes the ge-...-t frame (gemacht). The auxiliary is haben, because machen is transitive: "I have done it" is ich habe es gemacht.
Präsens (present)
Fully regular. The endings here (-e, -st, -t, -en, -t, -en) are the template for every regular weak verb in German — see regular verbs in the present.
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| ich | mache |
| du | machst |
| er / sie / es | macht |
| wir | machen |
| ihr | macht |
| sie / Sie | machen |
Was machst du gerade? — Ich mache nur schnell das Abendessen.
What are you doing right now? — I'm just quickly making dinner. (informal — German has no progressive, so 'mache' covers 'am making')
Mach dir keine Sorgen, das schaffen wir schon.
Don't worry, we'll manage. (informal — reflexive dative 'dir' in a fixed phrase)
Das Kind macht den ganzen Tag nichts als Unsinn.
The kid does nothing but mischief all day long.
do vs make: one verb for both
English carefully separates do (perform an activity) from make (create something). German uses machen for both, which is a relief — but it also means you should not overthink which English word fits. Was machst du? can be "What are you doing?" or "What are you making?" depending on context. (German does have tun "to do," but in everyday speech machen covers most of this ground, and tun leans toward fixed phrases and a slightly more abstract "do.")
Ich mache am Wochenende einen Kuchen.
I'm making a cake at the weekend. (machen = make here)
Was machst du beruflich?
What do you do for a living? (machen = do here)
Präteritum (simple past)
The weak past is built on the stem mach- plus the past marker -te- (giving machte, machtest, ...). Like sein and the modals, machen is common enough that its Präteritum appears in speech, though in conversation the Perfekt (hat gemacht) is usually preferred for ordinary actions.
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| ich | machte |
| du | machtest |
| er / sie / es | machte |
| wir | machten |
| ihr | machtet |
| sie / Sie | machten |
Sie machte das Fenster auf und atmete tief durch.
She opened the window and took a deep breath. (narrative Präteritum; 'aufmachen' separable)
Perfekt (present perfect)
Built with the present of haben + the participle gemacht. This is the default everyday spoken past.
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| ich | habe gemacht |
| du | hast gemacht |
| er / sie / es | hat gemacht |
| wir | haben gemacht |
| ihr | habt gemacht |
| sie / Sie | haben gemacht |
Hast du schon die Hausaufgaben gemacht?
Have you done your homework yet? (everyday spoken Perfekt)
Wir haben gestern einen langen Spaziergang gemacht.
We took a long walk yesterday. (hat gemacht — note: 'einen Spaziergang machen' = to take a walk)
Plusquamperfekt (past perfect)
Past form of the auxiliary (hatte) + gemacht.
Nachdem ich die Tür abgeschlossen hatte, machte ich mich auf den Weg.
After I had locked the door, I set off. ('sich auf den Weg machen' = to set off)
Futur I
Future with werden + infinitive machen. For plans, the present plus a time word is more usual (Das mache ich morgen).
Keine Sorge, ich werde das schon richtig machen.
Don't worry, I'll do it properly.
Imperativ (commands)
| Addressee | Form |
|---|---|
| du | mach! (mache!) |
| ihr | macht! |
| Sie | machen Sie! |
The du-command is mach! Everyday speech drops the -e of the older mache!
Mach bitte das Licht aus, wenn du gehst.
Please turn off the light when you leave. (informal du-command; 'ausmachen' separable)
Machen Sie sich bitte keine Umstände.
Please don't go to any trouble. (formal Sie-command, reflexive)
Konjunktiv II (would do / would make)
As a weak verb, the synthetic Konjunktiv II of machen (machte) is identical to the Präteritum, so it gives the listener no extra information. For this reason German almost always uses the würde-form — würde machen — for the conditional of weak verbs. See the würde-form.
| Person | Synthetic (rare) | würde-form (normal) |
|---|---|---|
| ich | machte | würde machen |
| du | machtest | würdest machen |
| er / sie / es | machte | würde machen |
| wir | machten | würden machen |
| ihr | machtet | würdet machen |
| sie / Sie | machten | würden machen |
An deiner Stelle würde ich das anders machen.
If I were you, I'd do it differently. (würde machen — the natural conditional)
Konjunktiv I (reported speech)
Used in formal indirect speech. The base is mache.
Der Hersteller versichert, das Gerät mache keinen Lärm.
The manufacturer assures that the device makes no noise. (formal/journalistic Konjunktiv I)
The machen idiom family
A huge share of machen's frequency comes from fixed noun + machen collocations. In several of these, the noun appears without an article — a pattern worth noticing.
| Expression | English |
|---|---|
| Spaß machen | to be fun / to be a joke |
| Pause machen | to take a break |
| Sinn machen / ergeben | to make sense |
| sich Sorgen machen | to worry |
| Schluss machen | to finish / to break up |
| Das macht nichts. | That doesn't matter / no problem. |
| Mach's gut! | Take care! (informal goodbye) |
Die Arbeit mit den Kindern macht mir wirklich Spaß.
Working with the children is really fun for me. ('macht mir Spaß' — the person is in the dative)
Macht nichts, das passiert jedem mal.
No worries, that happens to everyone now and then. (informal — 'das macht nichts')
Common Mistakes
❌ Ich bin meine Hausaufgaben gemacht.
Wrong auxiliary — machen is transitive and takes haben in the Perfekt, never sein.
✅ Ich habe meine Hausaufgaben gemacht.
I did my homework.
❌ Ich bin gerade am Essen machen.
No progressive in German — don't build an 'am ...-ing'; the plain present already means 'am doing'.
✅ Ich mache gerade das Essen.
I'm making the food right now.
❌ Das macht mich Spaß.
Wrong case — the experiencer in 'Spaß machen' is in the dative, not the accusative.
✅ Das macht mir Spaß.
That's fun for me / I enjoy that.
❌ Ich habe einen Foto gemacht.
Gender error — Foto is neuter; it's 'ein Foto', and 'ein Foto machen' = to take a photo.
✅ Ich habe ein Foto gemacht.
I took a photo.
❌ Er macht zur Schule.
Wrong verb — to go somewhere is gehen/fahren; machen needs an object and doesn't mean 'go'.
✅ Er geht zur Schule.
He goes to school.
Key Takeaways
- Principal parts: machen – machte – hat gemacht (Perfekt with haben).
- A model regular weak verb: no vowel change, -te past, ge-...-t participle.
- One verb for both do and make — context decides the English word.
- No progressive: mache = "do" and "am doing."
- The conditional is normally würde machen (the synthetic machte clashes with the past); and learn the idiom family — Spaß machen, Pause machen, sich Sorgen machen — where the person is often dative.
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Start learning German→Related Topics
- Präteritum of Weak Verbs (-te)A2 — The fully regular weak past: stem + -te + endings, the ich/er identity, and the linking -ete- after t- and d-stems.
- Past Participles of Weak Verbs (ge-...-t)A2 — How to build the regular German past participle: ge- + stem + -t, plus the verbs that drop ge- entirely.
- Present Tense: Regular (Weak) VerbsA1 — The full present-tense paradigm of regular German verbs, and why one German form does the work of three English ones.
- The Accusative CaseA1 — The accusative marks the direct object — and because only masculine articles visibly change, masculine 'den/einen' is the system's single biggest stumbling block.
- The würde + Infinitive FormB1 — How to build the everyday spoken Konjunktiv II with würde plus an infinitive — and the sein/haben/modal verbs that refuse it.
- gehen: Full Conjugation and UsageA1 — Complete conjugation of the strong verb gehen 'to go (on foot)' across every tense and mood, with the sein auxiliary, the Es geht idioms, principal parts, and the errors English speakers make.