Scheinen is a high-frequency strong verb that carries two distinct meanings English keeps apart with two different words: to shine (the sun, a light) and to seem / appear (an impression about reality). One German verb, two jobs. It follows the strong ei – ie – ie ablaut pattern (scheinen – schien – geschienen), and — pleasingly — both meanings share the same forms, so you only learn one paradigm. The forms are regular within the strong class; what learners actually struggle with is the syntax of the "seem" sense (scheinen zu + infinitive, es scheint, dass...) and remembering that the participle is geschienen, not geschient.
Principal parts
| Infinitive | Präteritum | Partizip II (auxiliary) |
|---|---|---|
| scheinen | schien | geschienen (hat) |
Read this as scheinen – schien – hat geschienen. The vowel marches ei → ie → ie, the classic ablaut row shared with bleiben, schreiben, treiben, leihen and others. The Perfekt auxiliary is haben in both senses. See the ablaut series and weak, strong, and mixed verbs.
Präsens (present)
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| ich | scheine |
| du | scheinst |
| er / sie / es | scheint |
| wir | scheinen |
| ihr | scheint |
| sie / Sie | scheinen |
Note that unlike many strong verbs (sehen → sieht, geben → gibt), scheinen has no vowel change in the present — the stem vowel ei stays put. Strong verbs only change their present-tense vowel in the e→i/ie and a→ä groups, and scheinen belongs to neither.
Die Sonne scheint, lass uns rausgehen!
The sun is shining, let's go outside! (sense 1: to shine; informal)
Du scheinst müde zu sein — willst du dich kurz hinlegen?
You seem tired — do you want to lie down for a bit? (sense 2: to seem; informal)
The two senses, side by side
Sense 1 — to shine (intransitive)
Used of the sun, the moon, stars, lamps — anything that gives off light. It takes no object.
Gestern hat die Sonne den ganzen Tag geschienen.
Yesterday the sun shone all day long. (Perfekt; participle geschienen)
Der Vollmond schien hell über dem stillen See.
The full moon shone brightly over the quiet lake. (literary; Präteritum schien)
Sense 2 — to seem / to appear
Here scheinen expresses an impression. It has two main syntactic frames:
- scheinen + zu + infinitive — "X seems to do/be ..." The subject is the thing that seems.
- es scheint, dass ... or es scheint, als ob ... — impersonal "it seems that ..." The subject is a dummy es.
Er scheint zu schlafen — sei bitte leise.
He seems to be asleep — please be quiet. (scheinen zu + infinitive)
Es scheint, dass niemand etwas davon gewusst hat.
It seems that nobody knew anything about it. (es scheint, dass — formal/neutral)
Es scheint, als ob sich nichts geändert hätte.
It seems as if nothing had changed. (als ob + Konjunktiv II, a marker of unreal appearance)
Präteritum (simple past)
Strong verb, so the stem vowel becomes ie (schien) and the ich/er forms take no ending.
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| ich | schien |
| du | schienst |
| er / sie / es | schien |
| wir | schienen |
| ihr | schient |
| sie / Sie | schienen |
Sie schien zufrieden mit dem Ergebnis, sagte aber kein Wort.
She seemed satisfied with the result, but didn't say a word. (Präteritum, narrative)
Perfekt (present perfect)
Auxiliary haben + participle geschienen (with the strong -en ending).
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| ich | habe geschienen |
| du | hast geschienen |
| er / sie / es | hat geschienen |
| wir | haben geschienen |
| ihr | habt geschienen |
| sie / Sie | haben geschienen |
Den ganzen Urlaub über hat die Sonne geschienen.
The sun shone throughout the entire vacation. (Perfekt, common in spoken accounts)
A note on register: in the "seem" sense, the Perfekt (hat geschienen) is grammatically fine but stylistically rare — German prefers the present (er scheint zu schlafen) or the Präteritum (er schien zu schlafen). The Perfekt is most natural with the "shine" sense.
Plusquamperfekt (past perfect)
Past haben (hatte) + geschienen.
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| ich | hatte geschienen |
| du | hattest geschienen |
| er / sie / es | hatte geschienen |
| wir | hatten geschienen |
| ihr | hattet geschienen |
| sie / Sie | hatten geschienen |
Am Morgen hatte die Sonne noch geschienen, doch jetzt regnete es.
In the morning the sun had still been shining, but now it was raining.
Futur I and Futur II
| Person | Futur I | Futur II |
|---|---|---|
| ich | werde scheinen | werde geschienen haben |
| du | wirst scheinen | wirst geschienen haben |
| er / sie / es | wird scheinen | wird geschienen haben |
| wir | werden scheinen | werden geschienen haben |
| ihr | werdet scheinen | werdet geschienen haben |
| sie / Sie | werden scheinen | werden geschienen haben |
Am Wochenende wird endlich wieder die Sonne scheinen.
This weekend the sun will finally shine again.
Konjunktiv II (would seem / would shine)
As a strong verb, scheinen has a real synthetic Konjunktiv II built on the Präteritum stem schien- with an umlaut: schiene. This form is alive and well, especially in the "seem" sense, where it signals a tentative appearance.
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| ich | schiene |
| du | schienest |
| er / sie / es | schiene |
| wir | schienen |
| ihr | schienet |
| sie / Sie | schienen |
Es schiene mir klüger, noch zu warten.
It would seem wiser to me to wait a little longer. (formal; synthetic Konjunktiv II schiene)
The umlauted schiene (Konjunktiv II) contrasts neatly with the indicative schien (Präteritum) — the umlaut is the only visible difference in the ich/er forms, so it carries real grammatical weight. See synthetic Konjunktiv II forms.
Imperativ (commands)
The imperative is essentially limited to the "shine" sense and is rare in practice.
| Addressee | Form |
|---|---|
| du | schein(e) |
| ihr | scheint |
| Sie | scheinen Sie |
Scheine, liebe Sonne, scheine!
Shine, dear sun, shine! (literary/poetic — a line one might find in a children's song)
Related noun and the scheinbar / anscheinend distinction
The verb spawns the noun der Schein ("appearance, glow, light; also banknote/certificate") and two adverbs that German speakers themselves often confuse: scheinbar ("seemingly, but actually not so — apparently false") versus anscheinend ("apparently, evidently — probably true"). Scheinbar tot means "apparently dead but actually alive"; anscheinend tot means "evidently dead."
Anscheinend hat er den Bus verpasst — er ist immer noch nicht da.
Apparently he missed the bus — he's still not here. (anscheinend = likely true)
Common Mistakes
❌ Er scheint schlafen.
Incorrect — the 'seem' sense requires a zu-infinitive.
✅ Er scheint zu schlafen.
He seems to be asleep.
❌ Gestern hat die Sonne geschient.
Incorrect — scheinen is strong; the participle is geschienen, not geschient.
✅ Gestern hat die Sonne geschienen.
The sun shone yesterday.
❌ Es scheint, dass es zu regnen.
Incorrect — after es scheint, dass you need a finite verb, not a zu-infinitive.
✅ Es scheint zu regnen. / Es scheint, dass es regnet.
It seems to be raining. / It seems that it's raining.
❌ Scheinbar geht es ihm besser, der Arzt ist zufrieden.
Wrong adverb — this implies the improvement is illusory; you mean it's genuinely apparent.
✅ Anscheinend geht es ihm besser, der Arzt ist zufrieden.
Apparently he's doing better, the doctor is satisfied.
Key Takeaways
- Principal parts: scheinen – schien – hat geschienen (strong, ei – ie – ie; auxiliary haben).
- One verb, two senses: to shine (intransitive, no object) and to seem (with zu
- infinitive or es scheint, dass...).
- No vowel change in the present: ich scheine, du scheinst, er scheint.
- Konjunktiv II is the umlauted schiene — distinct from the indicative Präteritum schien.
- Watch the adverb pair: anscheinend (genuinely apparent) vs scheinbar (only seemingly).
Now practice German
Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.
Start learning German→Related Topics
- Weak, Strong, and Mixed VerbsA2 — The three German verb classes defined by how they form their past tense and participle — weak (-te / ge-...-t), strong (ablaut / ge-...-en), and mixed (vowel change + weak endings).
- The Ablaut Series: Predicting Strong Verb FormsB2 — How German strong verbs sort into a handful of vowel-change classes, letting you predict an unfamiliar verb's past stem and participle.
- The zu-InfinitiveB1 — When German uses zu + infinitive at the end of a clause, when it doesn't (modals and perception verbs take a bare infinitive), and where zu goes inside separable verbs.
- Impersonal Verbs and es-SubjectsB1 — Verbs that take the dummy subject es, and why German says 'to me it is cold' instead of 'I am cold.'
- Synthetic Konjunktiv II FormsB2 — Building the one-word Konjunktiv II from the Präteritum stem plus umlaut — and why weak verbs surrender these forms to würde.
- erscheinen: Full Conjugation and UsageB2 — Complete conjugation of the strong verb erscheinen 'to appear / be published / seem', with the ei→ie ablaut, the sein auxiliary, the inseparable er- prefix with no ge-, the scheinen contrast, the es erscheint mir construction, and the errors English speakers make.