verkaufen: Full Conjugation and Usage

Verkaufen ("to sell") is a high-frequency weak verb built from the base verb kaufen ("to buy") plus the prefix ver-. That prefix is the key to everything on this page: ver- is one of the handful of inseparable prefixes in German, so verkaufen never splits, it is never stressed on the prefix, and — most importantly — it forms its Perfekt participle without the usual ge-. If you can conjugate the everyday verb kaufen, you already know the shape of verkaufen; you only have to stop yourself from adding ge-.

Principal parts

Read this as verkaufen – verkaufte – hat verkauft. It is a completely regular (weak) verb: the Präteritum adds the -te suffix to the stem, and the participle ends in -t. The only "irregularity" is that there is no ge- prefix — but that is not really irregular, it is the predictable behaviour of every inseparable verb. The auxiliary is haben, because selling something is a transitive action done to a direct object, not a movement or change of state.

Präsens (present)

There is no vowel change in the present (the stem au stays au throughout), which makes verkaufen far easier than strong verbs like fahren → fährst. Note that because the prefix is unstressed and inseparable, the ver- stays glued to the verb even in a main clause — you will never see a sentence ending in a stranded …kauf.

Präteritum (simple past)

In everyday spoken German, you will much more often hear the Perfekt (hat verkauft) for past events; the Präteritum verkaufte belongs mainly to written and narrative registers — news reports, biographies, novels.

Perfekt (present perfect)

Built with the present of haben plus the participle verkauft.

Plusquamperfekt (past perfect)

Past form of the auxiliary (hatte) + verkauft. Used for an action completed before another past action.

Futur I and Futur II

Future tenses use werden + infinitive (Futur I) or werden + Partizip II + haben (Futur II).

Konjunktiv II (would sell)

For hypotheticals and polite statements. Because verkaufen is weak, its synthetic Konjunktiv II (verkaufte) is identical to the Präteritum — so German almost always uses the würde + verkaufen form instead, to avoid ambiguity.

Imperativ (commands)

Usage and government

The thing being sold is a direct object in the accusative. The buyer can be expressed in two ways, and both are extremely common:

• the dative — jemandem etwas verkaufen (to sell someone something), the same two-object pattern as geben;
• the preposition an + accusative — etwas an jemanden verkaufen (to sell something to someone), which is preferred for businesses, formal contracts, and when the buyer is "the market" rather than a familiar person.

verkaufen vs kaufen — the false beginning

English speakers often blur kaufen (buy) and verkaufen (sell) because both involve money changing hands. In German they are strict opposites and never interchangeable. The prefix ver- here adds a sense of "giving away / transferring out," which is exactly what selling is. A useful mental hook: ver- often carries the idea of "away" or "off" (verschenken = to give away, verschicken = to send off), and selling is buying's mirror image — money comes in, the goods go away. See kaufen for the base verb.

The reflexive sich verkaufen ("to sell" in the intransitive sense of "to be sold / move off the shelves") is also worth knowing:

Common idioms and fixed expressions

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

• Principal parts: verkaufen – verkaufte – hat verkauft (auxiliary haben, participle without ge-).
• The ver- prefix is inseparable: the verb never splits and never takes ge-.
• It is a regular weak verb — no vowel change anywhere in the paradigm.
• Government: accusative for the goods; the buyer is dative (mir etwas verkaufen) or an + accusative (an jemanden verkaufen).
• verkaufen (sell) is the strict opposite of kaufen (buy) — never confuse them.