Present Tense of sein, haben, werden | German Grammar

Three verbs do more work than any others in German: sein (to be), haben (to have), and werden (to become). You will use them constantly as full verbs — I am tired, I have a question, it's getting late — and later as the auxiliaries that build the Perfekt, the passive, and the future. Because they are so frequent, German wore their forms down into irregular shapes. This page drills all three present-tense paradigms so the forms become automatic.

sein — to be (fully irregular)

sein is the most irregular verb in German, just as "to be" is in English. There is no stem to add endings to — every form must be memorized. The good news: there are only six of them, and you will hear them within minutes of any German conversation.

Person	Form	English
ich	bin	I am
du	bist	you are (informal)
er / sie / es	ist	he / she / it is
wir	sind	we are
ihr	seid	you are (plural, informal)
sie / Sie	sind	they are / you are (formal)

Watch the spelling of two forms in particular: seid (the ihr form) is spelled with -d, not -t, and it is a notorious trap even for native writers who confuse it with seit ("since"). And bist / ist both keep their -st / -st without an extra vowel.

Ich bin Student, ich studiere Physik.

I'm a student, I study physics.

Bist du sicher, dass das stimmt?

Are you sure that's right? (informal)

Seid ihr schon mal in Berlin gewesen?

Have you ever been to Berlin? (plural, informal)

haben — to have (drops -b- in two cells)

haben is almost regular. It conjugates like a normal verb everywhere except in du and er/sie/es, where the -b- of the stem disappears: du hast, er hat (not du habst, er habt). Crucially, the b only drops in those two singular cells — wir haben, ihr habt, and sie haben all keep it.

Person	Form	English
ich	habe	I have
du	hast	you have (informal)
er / sie / es	hat	he / she / it has
wir	haben	we have
ihr	habt	you have (plural, informal)
sie / Sie	haben	they have / you have (formal)

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The whole irregularity of haben lives in two cells: du hast and er hat. If you can hold onto those two, the rest is the ordinary -en / -t / -en / -t pattern. Notice that ihr habt keeps the b — only the singular drops it.

Ich habe großen Hunger, gehen wir essen?

I'm really hungry — shall we go eat?

Hast du mal einen Stift für mich?

Do you happen to have a pen for me? (informal)

Sie hat morgen Geburtstag.

It's her birthday tomorrow.

werden — to become (du wirst / er wird)

werden means "to become" or "to get" (in the sense of getting old, getting dark). Its irregular cells are again du and er/sie/es: the stem werd- loses its -d- in the du form, giving du wirst, and shortens to er wird (with a final -d but no ending -t). Everywhere else it is regular.

Person	Form	English
ich	werde	I become / will
du	wirst	you become / will (informal)
er / sie / es	wird	he / she / it becomes / will
wir	werden	we become / will
ihr	werdet	you become / will (plural, informal)
sie / Sie	werden	they / you (formal) become / will

The single form most worth burning into memory is du wirst — it is the one that trips people up. The er wird (ending in -d, no -t) is the next; the remaining forms are essentially regular (ich werde, ihr werdet, wir/sie werden).

Es wird langsam spät, ich muss los.

It's slowly getting late, I have to go.

Du wirst nächste Woche dreißig, oder?

You're turning thirty next week, right? (informal)

Im Oktober wird das Wetter kühler.

In October the weather gets cooler.

Why these three are so irregular

The cross-linguistic rule is simple: the more often a word is used, the more it resists regularization. sein, haben, and werden are among the most-spoken verbs in the language, so they preserved ancient, worn-down forms instead of being smoothed out like rarer verbs. English shows the exact same effect — "to be" (am/is/are/was/were) is wildly irregular for the same reason, while a rare verb like "to scintillate" is perfectly regular. So the irregularity is not random cruelty; it is the fingerprint of high frequency.

How this differs from English

English "to be" is just as irregular as German sein, so that one feels familiar. The trap is with haben and werden, which look almost regular and tempt English speakers to over-regularize: du habst, er werdt. English also has no everyday verb meaning "to become" — we say "get" or "become" — so learners often forget werden exists as a full verb and reach for bekommen by mistake. Beware: bekommen is a false friend that means "to receive," not "to become."

Es wird kalt.

It's getting cold. (correct: it's getting cold)

Common Mistakes

❌ Du habst keine Zeit.

Incorrect — haben drops the b in du: hast.

✅ Du hast keine Zeit.

You don't have time. (informal)

❌ Er werdt Arzt.

Incorrect — the er form is wird (final -d, no -t).

✅ Er wird Arzt.

He's becoming a doctor.

❌ Du sein müde.

Incorrect — sein is fully irregular; the du form is bist.

✅ Du bist müde.

You're tired. (informal)

❌ Ihr seit zu spät.

Incorrect — the ihr form of sein is spelled seid, with -d.

✅ Ihr seid zu spät.

You're too late. (plural, informal)

❌ Ich bekomme alt.

Incorrect — bekommen means 'to receive'; 'to become/get' is werden.

✅ Ich werde alt.

I'm getting old.

Key Takeaways

sein is fully irregular: bin, bist, ist, sind, seid, sind — memorize all six.
haben drops its -b- in just du hast and er hat; ihr habt keeps it.
werden is irregular only in du wirst and er wird; the rest is near-regular.
High frequency, not malice, is why these verbs are irregular — exactly as with English "to be."
Don't confuse werden ("to become") with bekommen ("to receive").

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