Regular Verb Conjugation (Präsens)

Almost every German verb you meet at A1 follows this one pattern. Learn the endings once, and you can conjugate hundreds of verbs correctly on sight.

The pattern: strip -en, add the ending

Take the infinitive (dictionary form), which almost always ends in -en: wohnen (to live), lernen (to learn), kommen (to come), machen (to do/make). Remove -en to get the stem, then add:

Notice: ich, wir, sie/Sie often look identical to (or share endings with) the infinitive. The forms that actually change shape the most are du (-st) and er/sie/es (-t) - the same -st/-t swap you already saw with heißen and kommen in Lesson 1.

Irregulars you already know

sein (to be) does not follow this pattern at all - see Glossary. It is the most common verb in the language and simply has to be memorized separately. Most other A1 verbs, however, are regular.

Common A1 regular verbs

*arbeiten inserts an extra -e- before -st/-t (du arbeitest, er arbeitet) purely to keep it pronounceable - the stem ends in -t, and German avoids stacking consonants awkwardly.

Verbs selected from the official Goethe-Zertifikat A1 Wortliste.