German irregular verbs: list and learning strategies

German irregular verbs: strong, weak and mixed

German has three groups of verbs. Most are weak, meaning regular: machen – machte – gemacht (to make, to do). Strong verbs change their stem vowel and usually end the past participle in -en: schreiben – schrieb – geschrieben (to write). Mixed verbs change the vowel but keep the regular endings: bringen – brachte – gebracht (to bring).

Weak verbs form the simple past (Präteritum) with -te and the past participle (Partizip II) with ge- … -t. The vowel change in strong verbs is called ablaut, and mixed verbs combine it with the weak endings -te and -t.

In everyday language, strong and mixed verbs together are called “irregular verbs”. The group is manageable and is even shrinking. According to grammis, Leibniz Institute for the German Language, Middle High German had 349 strong verbs; today there are only 169. Over the centuries many verbs became weak, and others disappeared altogether. With some verbs you can still see the change today: alongside backte (baked) there is the old form buk, which you hardly ever hear.

However, the most common everyday verbs are irregular. Sein, haben, werden, gehen, kommen, geben, nehmen, sehen, sprechen (to be, have, become, go, come, give, take, see, speak) are verbs you need every day, whether chatting with colleagues or writing an email to HR. If you master these forms, you immediately sound much more fluent. That is why we practise them in context from the very start in our German courses online, rather than as an isolated list.

Which forms do I need to learn?

For each irregular verb you should know four things: the infinitive (gehen), the simple past (ging), the past participle (gegangen) and the auxiliary verb for the perfect tense (ist gegangen). For some verbs there is a fifth piece of information: the vowel change in the 2nd and 3rd person singular present, for example ich spreche, du sprichst, er spricht or ich fahre, du fährst, sie fährt.

• Simple past (Präteritum): mainly in written texts, reports and the news; with sein, haben and the modal verbs also in conversation.
• Perfect (Perfekt): the typical past tense in spoken German, especially in southern Germany.
• Past participle (Partizip II): also needed for the passive (Der Vertrag wurde unterschrieben. The contract was signed.) and the past perfect.

Ablaut patterns: learning German irregular verbs in groups

Irregular does not mean chaotic. Many strong verbs follow fixed vowel patterns, known as ablaut series. Once you know a pattern, you can often work out new verbs in the same group correctly. The following table shows the most important patterns for everyday use, each with several common examples you will meet at work and in daily life.

Memory aids for the patterns

• “Ei becomes ie or i”: verbs with ei in the infinitive almost always change to ie or i, with the same vowel in the simple past and the participle: blieb – geblieben, schnitt – geschnitten.
• “Ding – dang – dung”: say singen – sang – gesungen like a rhythm. Almost all verbs ending in -ingen and -inken follow it: klingen, springen, trinken, sinken.
• “Hilf mir, ich habe geholfen”: verbs with e in the infinitive that change to i in the present (helfen – hilft) often have an o in the participle.
• “Fahr, fuhr, gefahren”: if the simple past has a u, the participle usually returns to the a of the infinitive.

There are exceptions, of course, for example bringen – brachte – gebracht (mixed) rather than *brang – *gebrungen. The patterns do not replace learning, but they reduce the number of forms you have to memorise from scratch.

List of German irregular verbs with simple past and past participle

The following list contains 89 irregular verbs that are particularly common in everyday life and at work, each with its simple past, past participle, auxiliary and English meaning. Verbs with prefixes such as verstehen, bekommen, entscheiden or einladen form their tenses like the base verb: verstehen – verstand – verstanden.

Inseparable prefixes such as be-, ent-, er-, ver-, zer- take no ge- in the participle. With separable verbs, ge- goes between the prefix and the verb: eingeladen, angefangen, aufgestanden. Read more in our article on German separable verbs.

A note on the “Auxiliary” column: “haben / sein” means both auxiliaries are possible, but with different meanings. “S. Germany: sein” means that in southern Germany, Austria and Switzerland the perfect is formed with sein. We explain the rules in the next section.

Perfect tense with haben or sein? The rule for irregular verbs

Most verbs form the perfect tense with haben. Sein is used for movement from A to B without an accusative object (gehen, kommen, fahren), for a change of state (werden, wachsen, sterben) and for sein, bleiben, geschehen, gelingen and passieren. Some verbs switch auxiliary depending on their meaning.

The three groups with sein in detail:

1. Verbs of movement from A to B without an accusative object: gehen, kommen, fahren, fliegen, laufen, springen, steigen.
   Ich bin gestern nach Nürnberg gefahren. (I drove to Nuremberg yesterday.)
2. Verbs expressing a change of state: werden, wachsen, sterben, sinken, einschlafen, aufwachen.
   Die Kosten sind deutlich gestiegen. (Costs have risen considerably.)
3. The verbs sein and bleiben, plus geschehen, gelingen, passieren.
   Wir sind bis 18 Uhr im Büro geblieben. (We stayed in the office until 6 pm.)

When both auxiliaries are possible

Some verbs change their auxiliary depending on meaning. What usually decides is whether the sentence has an accusative object:

• Ich bin nach München gefahren. (I travelled to Munich: movement, no object)
• Ich habe den Firmenwagen gefahren. (I drove the company car: accusative object)
• Das Glas ist gebrochen. (The glass broke: change of state) – Er hat sich den Arm gebrochen. (He broke his arm: object)
• Wir sind im See geschwommen. (We swam in the lake: movement) – in northern Germany you also hear, for the activity alone: Wir haben eine Stunde geschwommen.

Regional differences: “Ich bin gesessen” in Bavaria

If you live in Ansbach, Nuremberg or Munich, you will often hear Ich bin gestanden, ich bin gesessen, ich bin gelegen (I stood, sat, lay). This is not a mistake but the standard in southern Germany and Austria, also recorded in the Duden dictionary. In northern Germany people say Ich habe gestanden, gesessen, gelegen. Both variants are correct in exams and formal texts. Choose one and use it consistently. For more on regional features, see our article on understanding Bavarian dialects.

Mixed verbs and modal verbs: the most important special cases

Mixed verbs such as bringen, denken, kennen, nennen, rennen and wissen change their stem vowel but use the endings -te and -t: bringen, brachte, gebracht. Modal verbs lose their umlaut in the simple past (können, konnte), and in the perfect with a second verb they use the so-called substitute infinitive: Ich habe länger arbeiten müssen.

A small group of verbs is particularly tricky because it combines features of strong and weak verbs. These mixed verbs change their vowel but use the endings -te and -t:

Modal verbs in the perfect tense

The modal verbs dürfen, können, mögen, müssen, sollen, wollen lose their umlaut in the simple past: können – konnte, müssen – musste, dürfen – durfte. In the perfect tense there is a special feature, the substitute infinitive (Ersatzinfinitiv). If the modal verb stands alone, use the participle: Ich habe das nicht gewollt. (I didn’t want that.) If there is a second verb, use the infinitive: Ich habe gestern länger arbeiten müssen. (I had to work late yesterday; not *gemusst). In everyday speech most people avoid this construction and simply say: Ich musste gestern länger arbeiten. This is shorter and just as correct.

Same form, different meaning

• hängen: Das Bild hing an der Wand (the picture was hanging on the wall: intransitive, strong), but Ich hängte das Bild an die Wand (I hung the picture on the wall: transitive, weak).
• schaffen: Gott schuf die Welt (God created the world: strong), but Wir schafften die Deadline (we met the deadline: weak).
• senden: Wir sandten Ihnen die Unterlagen (we sent you the documents: formal), but Der Sender sendete das Interview (the station broadcast the interview).

Common mistakes with German irregular verbs and how to avoid them

The most common mistakes are weak forms of strong verbs (angeruft instead of angerufen), the wrong auxiliary (Ich habe gegeht instead of Ich bin gegangen), wrong participles of prefix verbs (geunterschreibt) and a missing vowel change (fahrt instead of fährt). So learn each verb with its auxiliary and all principal parts.

In our courses we see the same mistakes again and again among learners of all native languages. If you know them, you can avoid them deliberately.

A helpful link with English

English speakers sometimes transfer forms: bring – brought can cause uncertainty with bringen – brachte, while sink – sank – sunk matches sinken – sank – gesunken almost perfectly. Many Germanic verbs have similar vowel patterns in English and German: sing – sang – sung and singen – sang – gesungen, drink – drank – drunk and trinken – trank – getrunken. Use these parallels deliberately. If you are also brushing up on English verbs, see irregular verbs in English (in German).

Word order mistakes

A common follow-on mistake is not about the form but the position: in the perfect tense the participle goes at the end of the sentence. Ich habe gestern mit dem Team gesprochen (I spoke to the team yesterday), not *Ich habe gesprochen gestern mit dem Team. We explain this sentence bracket in detail in our article on German word order.

Learning German irregular verbs: strategies that really work

Learn irregular verbs in small, regular sessions: start with the most frequent ones such as sein, haben, werden and the modal verbs, then group them by vowel pattern, always with the auxiliary, spoken aloud and used in your own sentences. Review new verbs after one day, three days and one week.

Memorising a list of almost 90 verbs in one go rarely works. Small, regular study sessions and plenty of practice are more successful. These are the strategies we recommend to our learners:

1. Learn by frequency: start with sein, haben, werden, the modal verbs and ten to fifteen everyday verbs such as gehen, kommen, geben, nehmen, sehen, sprechen, finden, bleiben.
2. Group by pattern: learn bleiben, schreiben, steigen, scheinen together rather than alphabetically.
3. Always with the auxiliary: don’t write down “gegangen” but “ist gegangen”. That way you store the auxiliary automatically.
4. Say them aloud: the rhythm finden – fand – gefunden sticks better when you hear it.
5. Make your own sentences: for each new verb, write a sentence about your working day: Heute habe ich drei Angebote geschrieben. (Today I wrote three quotes.)
6. Spaced repetition: review new verbs after one day, three days and one week, for example with flashcards or an app.

A 15-minute daily plan

• 5 minutes: read five new verbs aloud with all their forms.
• 5 minutes: write a sentence in the perfect tense for each verb.
• 5 minutes: test yourself on the previous day’s verbs without the list.

After four weeks you will have actively used every verb on the list at least once. It goes even faster with feedback: in an online German course your teacher corrects mistakes immediately and builds the verbs into role plays and work situations. For teams, we offer tailored language courses for companies. Polish-speaking learners will find a separate overview on choices.com.pl: Czasowniki nieregularne w niemieckim (in Polish).

By the way, you are not alone with this task. According to the survey “Deutsch als Fremdsprache weltweit” (German as a foreign language worldwide), more than 15.4 million people are learning German as a foreign language, as the DAAD reports. Sooner or later, they all face the same verbs.

Exercises on German irregular verbs with answers

Use these three short exercises to check what you have learned: fill in the past participle, choose between haben and sein, and put a short text into the simple past. The answers are at the end, so try each exercise without looking first and then compare your forms with the list above.

Exercise 1: fill in the past participle

1. Ich habe den Bericht gestern ______ (schreiben).
2. Wir sind mit dem Zug nach Augsburg ______ (fahren).
3. Hast du die E-Mail schon ______ (lesen)?
4. Der Umsatz ist im letzten Quartal ______ (steigen).
5. Sie hat mir einen guten Tipp ______ (geben).
6. Ich habe das leider nicht ______ (wissen).

Exercise 2: haben or sein?

1. Er ______ den Kollegen in der Kantine getroffen.
2. Das Meeting ______ um zehn Uhr begonnen.
3. Wir ______ zu Hause geblieben.
4. Ich ______ den Transporter in die Werkstatt gefahren.
5. Was ______ passiert?

Exercise 3: simple past

Put the verbs into the simple past: Gestern (kommen) der neue Kollege. Er (bringen) Kuchen mit, und wir (sprechen) lange über seine Pläne. Danach (gehen) alle wieder an die Arbeit.

Answers

Exercise 1: 1. geschrieben, 2. gefahren, 3. gelesen, 4. gestiegen, 5. gegeben, 6. gewusst.
Exercise 2: 1. hat, 2. hat, 3. sind, 4. habe (accusative object), 5. ist.
Exercise 3: Gestern kam der neue Kollege. Er brachte Kuchen mit, und wir sprachen lange über seine Pläne. Danach gingen alle wieder an die Arbeit. (Yesterday the new colleague arrived. He brought cake, and we talked about his plans for a long time. Then everyone went back to work.)

Would you like to know where you stand overall? A short placement test before your course shows which grammar topics you have already mastered. If you are working towards an exam such as Goethe or telc, our article German language exams compared and our exam preparation page show you the next steps. Also helpful for everyday life: our article on German cases explained.

Sources

1. grammis.ids-mannheim.de
2. daad.de: deutsch als fremdsprache afrika asien

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