1. Present Tense Verb Forms
Regular Verbs

2. Present Tense Verb Forms
What does to conjugate a verb mean?

3. Present Tense Verb Forms
To conjugate a verb means to change the form of the verb so it agrees with the subject.

4. Present Tense Verb Forms
In order to do that you need to know the infinitive of the verb.
An infinitive is a verb form that expresses action or condition without reference to person, tense, or number.

5. Present Tense Verb Forms
In English, infinitives are listed in the dictionaries with “to”
Examples:
to walk, to run, to swim, to read, …

6. Present Tense Verb Forms
In German, infinitives end in –en (in a few cases they end in –n).
Examples:
heissen, kommen, sein, …

7. Present Tense Verb Forms
Before you can conjugate a regular verb, you need to know the stem.
You find the stem by taking the –en of the infinitive.

8. Present Tense Verb Forms
Let’s use the regular verb
gehen (to walk)
Take off the –en
Your stem is geh

9. Present Tense Verb Forms
The present tense of the regular verb gehen requires the following endings for singular pronouns.
ich geh + e = gehe (I go)
du geh + st = gehst (you go)
er geh + t = geht (he goes)
sie geh + t = geht (she goes)
es geh + t = geht (it goes)

10. Present Tense Verb Forms
The present tense of the regular verb gehen requires the following ending for plural pronouns.
wir geh + en = gehen (we go)
ihr geh + t = geht (you go)
sie geh + en = gehen (they go)
Sie geh + en = gehen (you go,
sing. & plural
formal)

11. Present Tense Verb Forms
Note:
If the stem of the verb in the du-form ends in s or β, then the “s” in the ending is dropped.

12. Example:
The stem of heiβen is heiβ, drop the “s” and only add the “t” for the du-form.
Du heiβt Martina.