German Grammar Explained /
Verb conjugation II
Welcome to part II of our verb topic! This one is about the plural forms, or the form we use for several people or objects.
Reminder:
Verbs in German change their endings to match their subject. This is called conjugation. Most verbs in German are conjugated according to predictable rules.
Remember we have learned ich, du and er/sie/es:
kommen | → | ich komme |
kommen | → | du kommst |
kommen | → | er/sie/es kommt |
And what if you want to use a proper noun? "Peter", for example?
Very good point: Since you could replace Peter with the pronoun "er" then you would be using the er/sie/es conjugation.
Makes sense!
Let's look at the plural forms wir, ihr and sie (we, you and they). The conjugation is really easy, you hardly have to change the ending!
1. Ending for wir:
kommen | → | wir kommen |
wohnen | → | wir wohnen |
sprechen | → | wir sprechen |
Wir wohnen in München.
We live in Munich.
2. Ending for ihr:
kommen | → | kommt |
wohnen | → | wohnt |
sprechen | → | sprecht |
Sprecht ihr Deutsch?
Do you (plural) speak German?
Wait wait, so are you telling me there are two words for "you"? One that is to address one person: du, and the other to address more than one person: ihr.
Yes! And also, remember we have Sie for formal situations. You can use Sie to address one or more people.
To "du" or not to "du".
That is the question! Okay, back to our conjugations, this last one is also easy...
3. Ending for sie:
kommen | → | kommen |
wohnen | → | wohnen |
sprechen | → | sprechen |
The formal Sie uses the same conjugated form as sie, so there's no need to learn anything extra :)
Sie kommen aus Spanien.
They come from Spain.
Woher kommen Sie?
Where are you (formal) from?
That's it! Now you know all of the forms of conjugation. Remember, it's okay to make mistakes as practice makes perfect! :)