A Guide to Irregular Verbs in German for German Learners

German has a great number of irregular verbs, and as an English speaker, it's going to be quite a challenge trying to get a handle on all of them. Between the many different ways that irregular verbs are conjugated and the sheer number of irregular verbs, dealing with them is one of the hardest parts of learning German.

Fortunately, German speakers do realize how difficult it is – just as most English speakers understand when someone doesn’t know how to conjugate an irregular English verb. Many Germans will correct you without being judgmental. Even if they don’t correct you, they will know what you mean.

Here’s what you need to know about irregular verbs, and some tricks to help you better learn some of these tricky verbs.

If you already know the most common irregular verbs, you can skip to the second half of the blog for some of the less common ones. It provides a list of many of the irregular verbs, so you can keep learning and memorizing the verbs that are treated differently.

Understanding Irregular Verbs in German

Every verb has a stem, or the core of the word, and this is more obvious in German. This is because the German infinitive form of verbs ends in -n or (more commonly) -en, so when those are removed, what remains is the root of the verb. In English, the infinitive version is a separate word, to (to be, to sleep, to go), so the root is the second word.

When you conjugate a German verb, you remove the ending so that you are working with just the root word. Then you change the verb to reflect the tense and who is doing the action.

If you are working with a regular verb, this is easy. All you have to do is conjugate based on the regular pattern.

When you are working with an irregular verb, it is almost entirely memorization because the conjugation is (as the term suggests) irregular. The way that you change them is unpredictable, from a logic standpoint, they generally don’t make sense.

Probably the most notorious irregular verb in German is sein, or to be. The following is how it is conjugated based just on the pronoun.

The only time that the verb is predicable is for they and you (plural), which is always true in German. Every other pronoun set has its own version when you conjugate it.

This doesn’t even begin to cover the many ways it is conjugated in other tenses, although it is easier to conjugate in past and future tense than in the present.

This may make it a bit more difficult, but you probably won’t notice the difficulty for long because you will use some form of sein frequently. Over time, it will become almost second nature.

This is not true of many of the other irregular verbs because you probably won’t use them nearly as often. However, there are three more verbs that you are going to use often.

Three Common Irregular Verbs in German: Haben, Werden, and Wollen

The three other often used irregular you need to know are haben (to have), werden (to become), and wollen (to want). Once you master sein, you need to learn these three because you will use them frequently.

Notice that there is more repetition with these irregular verbs, with the wir, Sie, and sie using the original version of the word. The conjugation is fairly predictable. It’s really the singular, informal pronouns that require extra work to get right. This will make it easier to learn them.

Tips to Learning the Irregular Verbs in German

Spend a couple of weeks making sure you know the conjugation of these four verbs before you start working on the other irregular verbs. Practice using them when chatting with a buddy or with someone online.

Once you feel comfortable with some of the most common, you can start building up your irregular verb vocabulary. The following table provides a number of verbs you will probably use at least once a month (and some of them a couple of times a week).

The list is not complete, and it does not conjugate the verbs. With roughly 200 irregular verbs, it would quickly get overwhelming. The list has 50, with will be more than enough to get you started.

Keep Dealing with Irregular Verbs in German

Irregular verbs are tricky because they are unpredictable. Many of them do have similar patterns with each other, so you can group them this way to help you memorize them faster.

Ultimately, dealing with irregular verbs is all about memorization, just like learning vocabulary words. Even when you feel you know what you are doing, it is harder to get it right when you are talking. Remember, that is fine. When you get tired, you probably make similar mistakes when using irregular English verbs. As long as you are learning, that’s what counts.