Most German verbs, when they govern a second verb, connect to it with zu — Ich versuche, früher zu kommen ("I'm trying to come earlier"). But a small, closed set of high-frequency verbs breaks this rule: they take a bare infinitive with no zu at all. Learning exactly which verbs belong to this set is one of the highest-value things you can do in German, because the same group of verbs also triggers a peculiar past tense — the double infinitive. The two patterns travel together.
The closed set: who takes a bare infinitive
There are essentially four groups. Memorize them as a unit, because outside this list, zu is the default.
| Group | Verbs | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Modals | können, müssen, dürfen, sollen, wollen, mögen | Ich kann schwimmen. |
| Perception | sehen, hören, fühlen, spüren | Ich höre sie singen. |
| lassen | lassen | Ich lasse das Auto reparieren. |
| Motion + activity | gehen, fahren, kommen (and bleiben, lernen, helfen) | Ich gehe schwimmen. |
Modals
The six modal verbs (können, müssen, dürfen, sollen, wollen, mögen) always take a bare infinitive. This is the pattern English speakers already know intuitively, because English modals work the same way: "I can swim," not "I can to swim."
Ich kann schon ziemlich gut Deutsch sprechen.
I can already speak German pretty well.
Du musst das nicht heute machen.
You don't have to do that today. (informal)
Wollt ihr morgen mit uns wandern gehen?
Do you want to go hiking with us tomorrow? (informal) — note the chained bare infinitives wandern + gehen.
Perception verbs: sehen, hören, fühlen, spüren
When you perceive someone doing something, German uses a bare infinitive where English uses either a bare infinitive or an -ing form: "I saw him come" / "I saw him coming." German has no -ing option here — it is always the plain infinitive.
Ich sehe ihn jeden Morgen zur Arbeit gehen.
I see him going to work every morning.
Hast du sie gestern Abend singen hören?
Did you hear her singing last night? (informal)
Ich spürte mein Herz schneller schlagen.
I felt my heart beating faster. (literary)
lassen
Lassen with a bare infinitive is one of the most useful constructions in everyday German. It covers "let/allow somebody do something" and the causative "have something done." (It has a full page of its own; here we only note that it joins the bare-infinitive club.)
Lass mich das machen!
Let me do that! (informal)
Wir lassen nächste Woche die Heizung reparieren.
We're having the heating repaired next week. — causative lassen + bare infinitive reparieren.
Motion verbs + activity: gehen, fahren, kommen
When a verb of motion is followed by a second activity you'll do once you get there, German links them with a bare infinitive: schwimmen gehen, einkaufen fahren, essen kommen. English uses "go swimming," "come eat" — also without "to."
Ich gehe heute Abend mit Freunden essen.
I'm going out to eat with friends tonight. (informal)
Wir fahren am Samstag immer einkaufen.
We always drive into town to do the shopping on Saturdays.
The verbs bleiben, lernen, and helfen behave the same way:
Bleib bitte sitzen, ich hole das schon.
Please stay seated, I'll get it. (informal)
Meine Tochter lernt gerade schwimmen.
My daughter is learning to swim right now.
The pattern that travels with it: the double infinitive in the Perfekt
Here is the insight most learners — and most textbooks — fail to connect. Every verb in the bare-infinitive set forms its Perfekt with a double infinitive instead of a past participle. So Ich habe ihn kommen sehen ("I saw him come"), not Ich habe ihn kommen gesehen. The perception verb, the modal, or lassen appears in its infinitive form, even though it's the main verb of the sentence.
| Present | Perfekt (double infinitive) |
|---|---|
| Ich sehe ihn kommen. | Ich habe ihn kommen sehen. |
| Ich höre sie singen. | Ich habe sie singen hören. |
| Ich lasse es reparieren. | Ich habe es reparieren lassen. |
| Ich kann es nicht machen. | Ich habe es nicht machen können. |
Ich habe den Bus leider nicht kommen sehen.
Unfortunately I didn't see the bus coming. — double infinitive: kommen sehen, never gesehen.
Wir haben das Auto in der Werkstatt reparieren lassen.
We had the car repaired at the garage. — reparieren lassen, never gelassen.
Note that the auxiliary in this Perfekt is haben for all of these verbs, and the two infinitives sit together at the very end of the clause in the fixed order full-verb infinitive + governing infinitive (kommen sehen, reparieren lassen).
How English shapes the errors
English has no productive zu-equivalent for this set, so the danger runs in one direction: English speakers either over-insert "to" (which becomes a wrongly added zu) or, knowing the Perfekt uses a participle elsewhere, supply gesehen / gelassen instead of the bare infinitive. Both are predictable transfer errors, and both are listed below.
Common Mistakes
❌ Ich kann zu schwimmen.
Incorrect — modals never take zu before the infinitive.
✅ Ich kann schwimmen.
I can swim. — bare infinitive after a modal.
❌ Ich gehe zu einkaufen.
Incorrect — motion verb + activity takes a bare infinitive, no zu.
✅ Ich gehe einkaufen.
I'm going shopping.
❌ Ich habe ihn kommen gesehen.
Incorrect — perception verbs use a double infinitive in the Perfekt, not a participle.
✅ Ich habe ihn kommen sehen.
I saw him come.
❌ Wir haben das Auto reparieren gelassen.
Incorrect — lassen takes a double infinitive when it governs a second verb.
✅ Wir haben das Auto reparieren lassen.
We had the car repaired.
❌ Ich höre sie zu singen.
Incorrect — hören is a perception verb and takes a bare infinitive.
✅ Ich höre sie singen.
I hear her singing.
Key Takeaways
- The bare-infinitive set is closed and short: modals, perception verbs (sehen, hören, fühlen, spüren), lassen, and motion-plus-activity verbs (gehen, fahren, kommen, plus bleiben, lernen, helfen).
- Everywhere else, the default link to a dependent infinitive is zu.
- This exact set also forms its Perfekt with a double infinitive (kommen sehen, reparieren lassen) — never a past participle.
- The two English-driven errors to watch are inserting zu and using a participle (gesehen/gelassen) in the Perfekt.
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Start learning German→Related Topics
- 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.
- lassen: let, have done, and leaveB2 — The versatile verb lassen — permissive 'let', causative 'have something done', the reflexive sich lassen passive, and standalone 'leave/stop' — plus its double-infinitive Perfekt.
- Modal Verbs: OverviewA2 — The six German modal verbs, their shared word order, and the irregular present tense that makes ich and er identical.
- Verbs of Perception and CausationB2 — How sehen, hören, fühlen, spüren and causative lassen take a bare infinitive with an accusative subject, and why their Perfekt uses the double-infinitive construction.
- The Perfekt of Modals: The Double InfinitiveB2 — Why modal verbs (and lassen, sehen, hören) form their Perfekt with a substitute infinitive instead of a participle, and why the auxiliary jumps forward in subordinate clauses.
- Modals in the Perfekt and Subordinate ClausesB2 — Why modals prefer the Präteritum in speech, how the double infinitive (Ersatzinfinitiv) works, when the participle gekonnt/gemusst appears, and how subordinate clauses front the auxiliary.