Present Tense: Key Irregular Verbs

Most German verbs follow one of the four predictable present-tense patterns. A small group does not — but that group is the most frequent vocabulary in the language, so you cannot avoid it. This page is a reference: the full present paradigms of sein, haben, werden, wissen, the modal verbs, and the rogue stem-changers nehmen and tun, plus the specific way each one breaks the rules. Memorise these as whole words; do not try to derive them.

The big three: sein, haben, werden

These three are irregular and the most common verbs in German, because they double as auxiliaries (for the Perfekt, the passive, and the future). Learn them cold. For their full role as auxiliaries see the present of sein, haben, werden.

sein is suppletive — its forms come from different historical roots, exactly like English be / am / is / are, so the irregularity will feel oddly familiar. haben merely contracts: the b drops in du hast and er hat. werden changes its vowel (wir-) and, like the modals below, has no -t on er wird.

wissen: irregular in the singular

wissen ("to know a fact") is the great trap because it looks ordinary but changes its vowel across the whole singular and drops the er-form -t. Note also the ß. Don't confuse it with kennen ("to know / be acquainted with") — see wissen vs kennen.

Notice ich weiß and er weiß are identical, and the plural quietly restores the -ss- of the infinitive (wir wissen, ihr wisst).

The modal verbs

The six core modals — können, müssen, dürfen, wollen, sollen, mögen — plus the polite form möchte all share two oddities: a vowel change in the singular (often losing the umlaut) and no -t in the er/sie/es form, so again ich and er match. They feel exactly like the English modals can / must / may, which also don't add -s (we say he can, not *he cans). For meaning and usage, start at the modal verbs overview.

Two further notes. The singular vowel change is the eye-catcher: müssen → ich muss, dürfen → ich darf, mögen → ich mag all lose the umlaut, while sollen keeps its vowel. And will is a false friend for English speakers: German ich will means "I want," not "I will" (future is a different construction).

möchte — the polite cousin

möchte ("would like") is historically a subjunctive of mögen, and it has its own slightly different endings. It is the verb you actually use to order and request things politely, so learn it as a set.

Here ich möchte = er/sie möchte again — the same "no -t difference between ich and er" you've seen all page, just spelled with the modal subjunctive -e.

nehmen: the most irregular stem-changer

nehmen ("to take") deserves its own warning. Most strong verbs change only the vowel; nehmen changes the vowel and doubles the consonant in du and er/sie/es. There is no logic to memorise — it is simply the most irregular of the everyday stem-changers, so drill it as a one-off. See its full profile in the nehmen reference.

tun: the small irregular

tun ("to do") is irregular mostly because its stem is just tu- (the infinitive has no -en in the usual sense). It's frequent in fixed phrases like Das tut mir leid ("I'm sorry").

Common Mistakes