Vowel changes: e to i/ie (er spricht, sie liest)

Vowel Changes: e to ie

Many common German verbs are "strong," meaning their stem vowel changes in the present tense. For some verbs, the e changes to ie.

Crucially, this change only happens in the du (you, singular informal) and er/sie/es (he/she/it) forms. All other forms remain regular.

Here is lesen (to read):

(Note: Because the stem of *lesen ends in an s, the du and er/sie/es forms are identical.)*

Another verb that follows this pattern is sehen (to see/watch), becoming du siehst and er/sie/es sieht.

Tip: Adding *-s to a time of day creates an adverb meaning "in the morning" (morgens) or "in the evening" (abends). As adverbs, they are not capitalized.*

Vowel Changes: e to i

For other strong verbs, the stem vowel e changes to i in the du and er/sie/es forms.

Common verbs in this group include sprechen (to speak), vergessen (to forget), and essen (to eat).

Here is sprechen: