Warten ("to wait") is a high-frequency weak verb with one phonological wrinkle and one syntactic rule that matter enormously. The wrinkle: because the stem wart- ends in -t, German inserts a linking -e- before any ending that begins with a consonant (du wartest, er wartet, ihr wartet, past wartete) — otherwise the -t + -st/-t would be unpronounceable. The rule: "wait for" something is warten auf + Akkusativ, and the preposition is obligatory and accusative. Mishandling either of these is the classic English-speaker error with this verb.
Principal parts
| Infinitive | Präteritum | Partizip II (auxiliary) |
|---|---|---|
| warten | wartete | gewartet (hat) |
Read this as: warten – wartete – hat gewartet. Warten is weak, but the t-stem forces the linking -e- everywhere a consonant ending follows: the past is wartete (not wartte) and the participle is ge-wart-et (not gewartt). The auxiliary is haben — waiting involves no motion or change of state, so it never takes sein.
Präsens (present)
| Person | Form | Note |
|---|---|---|
| ich | warte | — |
| du | wartest | linking -e- (not *wartst) |
| er / sie / es | wartet | linking -e- (not *wartt) |
| wir | warten | — |
| ihr | wartet | linking -e- |
| sie / Sie | warten | — |
The linking -e- is purely about pronounceability: wart-st and wart-t would jam three or four consonants together. The same rule applies to every verb whose stem ends in -t, -d, or certain consonant clusters — see stems in -t, -d and -s.
Warte mal, ich komme sofort!
Wait a sec, I'm coming right away! (informal; imperative warte)
Sie wartet schon seit einer halben Stunde.
She's been waiting for half an hour already. (informal; note the -e- in wartet)
Präteritum (simple past)
The weak past stem is wartete — note the doubled syllable from the linking -e- plus the -te- marker.
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| ich | wartete |
| du | wartetest |
| er / sie / es | wartete |
| wir | warteten |
| ihr | wartetet |
| sie / Sie | warteten |
Wir warteten vergeblich auf den Bus.
We waited for the bus in vain. (narrative past; warten auf + accusative)
Perfekt (present perfect)
Built with the present of haben plus the participle gewartet.
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| ich | habe gewartet |
| du | hast gewartet |
| er / sie / es | hat gewartet |
| wir | haben gewartet |
| ihr | habt gewartet |
| sie / Sie | haben gewartet |
Ich habe eine Ewigkeit auf dich gewartet!
I waited for you forever! (informal; reproachful)
Worauf habt ihr so lange gewartet?
What were you waiting for so long? (informal; worauf = wait for what)
Plusquamperfekt (past perfect)
Past form of the auxiliary (hatte) + gewartet.
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| ich | hatte gewartet |
| du | hattest gewartet |
| er / sie / es | hatte gewartet |
| wir | hatten gewartet |
| ihr | hattet gewartet |
| sie / Sie | hatten gewartet |
Als der Arzt endlich kam, hatten wir schon zwei Stunden gewartet.
By the time the doctor finally came, we had already been waiting for two hours.
Futur I
The future uses werden + the infinitive warten.
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| ich | werde warten |
| du | wirst warten |
| er / sie / es | wird warten |
| wir | werden warten |
| ihr | werdet warten |
| sie / Sie | werden warten |
Keine Sorge, ich werde auf dich warten.
Don't worry, I'll wait for you. (warten auf + accusative)
Konjunktiv II (would / hypothetical)
The synthetic Konjunktiv II wartete is identical to the Präteritum, so the würde-form is standard in conversation.
| Person | würde-form |
|---|---|
| ich | würde warten |
| du | würdest warten |
| er / sie / es | würde warten |
| wir | würden warten |
| ihr | würdet warten |
| sie / Sie | würden warten |
An deiner Stelle würde ich nicht länger warten.
If I were you, I wouldn't wait any longer.
Imperativ (commands)
The imperative is very common with warten and shows the linking -e- clearly.
| Addressee | Form |
|---|---|
| du | warte |
| ihr | wartet |
| Sie | warten Sie |
Warten Sie bitte einen Moment, ich verbinde Sie.
Please wait a moment, I'll put you through. (formal; on the phone)
Government: warten auf + Akkusativ
This is the load-bearing fact. To "wait for" a person, thing, or event, German uses warten auf and the object stands in the accusative — even though auf is a two-way preposition that often takes the dative for static location. Here auf is fixed to the verb (a Verbpräposition), and with warten it locks to the accusative.
Ich warte auf den nächsten Zug.
I'm waiting for the next train. (den = masculine accusative)
Worauf wartest du noch?
What are you still waiting for? (wo + r + auf, because the object is a thing)
When the thing waited for is inanimate, German cannot say auf was (or rarely does in casual speech); the correct form is the wo(r)-compound: worauf for questions, darauf to refer back. When the object is a person, you keep auf + accusative: auf wen wartest du? ("who are you waiting for?"). This wo(r)-/da(r)- split is one of the trickiest things for English speakers, since English just strands the preposition ("what are you waiting for?"). See da- and wo-compounds with verbs and verbs with prepositions.
Wir warten alle gespannt darauf, dass es endlich losgeht.
We're all eagerly waiting for it to finally start. (darauf points forward to the dass-clause)
warten vs. erwarten
A near-synonym worth flagging: erwarten means "to expect / await," takes a direct accusative object with no preposition, and is more about anticipating an outcome than passing time in waiting.
| warten auf + Akk. | erwarten + Akk. |
|---|---|
| to wait for (spend time waiting) | to expect / await (anticipate) |
| Ich warte auf den Brief. | Ich erwarte den Brief. |
| focus: the waiting | focus: the anticipation / certainty it will come |
Sie erwartet ein Kind.
She's expecting a baby. (erwarten, no preposition — not 'wartet auf ein Kind')
Common idioms and fixed expressions
| Expression | English |
|---|---|
| Warte mal! | Wait a sec! / Hang on! (informal) |
| Das kann warten. | That can wait. (it's not urgent) |
| auf sich warten lassen | to be a long time coming |
| Da kannst du lange warten! | You'll be waiting a long time! (= it'll never happen; ironic) |
Der Frühling lässt dieses Jahr auf sich warten.
Spring is a long time coming this year. (idiom)
Common Mistakes
❌ Du wartst zu lange.
Missing linking -e- — a t-stem requires du wartest.
✅ Du wartest zu lange.
You're waiting too long.
❌ Ich warte für den Bus.
Wrong preposition — 'wait for' is warten auf, never warten für.
✅ Ich warte auf den Bus.
I'm waiting for the bus.
❌ Ich warte auf dem Bus.
Wrong case — with warten, auf governs the accusative (den Bus), not the dative.
✅ Ich warte auf den Bus.
I'm waiting for the bus.
❌ Auf was wartest du?
Marginal — for an inanimate thing German uses the wo(r)-compound, not 'auf was'.
✅ Worauf wartest du?
What are you waiting for?
❌ Sie wartet auf ein Baby.
Wrong verb — 'expecting a baby' is erwarten with a direct object.
✅ Sie erwartet ein Baby.
She's expecting a baby.
Key Takeaways
- Principal parts: warten – wartete – hat gewartet (weak t-stem verb, Perfekt with haben).
- Present: warte, wartest, wartet, warten, wartet, warten — the t-stem forces a linking -e- in du, er/sie/es, and ihr.
- Government: warten auf + Akkusativ ("wait for"). The auf is obligatory and accusative.
- Use worauf? / darauf for things, auf wen? for people; never strand the preposition as in English.
- Don't confuse it with erwarten ("to expect/await"), which takes a bare accusative object.
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Start learning German→Related Topics
- Present Tense: Stems Ending in -t, -d, -s, -ß, -zA2 — Two pronunciation-driven adjustments to the present tense — the linking -e- and the disappearing -s of the du-form.
- Verbs with Fixed PrepositionsB1 — The large class of German verbs that govern a fixed preposition with a fixed case (warten auf + Akk., teilnehmen an + Dat.) — why the preposition is never the literal English one and the two-way case is lexically frozen.
- da- and wo-Compounds with Prepositional VerbsB2 — How prepositional verbs build da-compounds for things and wo-compounds in questions, while keeping preposition plus pronoun for people.
- Prepositions That Take the AccusativeA2 — The closed set durch, für, gegen, ohne, um (plus bis, entlang, wider) always governs the accusative — no motion test, no alternation, just a memorized list.
- 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.
- 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.