Lektion Sechs / Lesson Six

An Easy Lesson in Verbs

As a reward for memorizing so many verbs in Lektion Fünf, you were promised easy going the next time we looked at verbs. So there's just one rule to learn here, and it covers a lot in one easy bite.

All the plural verb forms use the infinitive form.

It's hard to understand how such a simple rule could occur in German. Personally, I think the author of the German language was probably exhausted after doing the singular verb forms — which we've already seen a sampling of — and just said, "The heck with the rest of them. Let's just use the infinitives. I've got to get working on those nineteen-syllable names for city officials."

I'm just guessing this is what she said, of course, but whatever the reason for the relative simplicity of the plural verbs, it seems to represent a serious lapse on her part. (Das ist ein Spaß — That is a joke!)

Just to prove that it's really true, though, have a look at the following table. It really is easy.

Plural verb form

der Infinitiv ends with -en	1. person pl. ends with -en	2. person pl. ends with -en	3. person pl. ends with -en
haben to have	wir haben	Sie haben	sie haben
gehen to go, to walk	wir gehen	Sie gehen	sie gehen
schlafen to sleep	wir schlafen	Sie schlafen	sie schlafen

"BUT WAIT," I hear you saying. "What about the familiar form of the second person?"

You're right. It does exist and I omitted it. But you know what? Let's don't even go there. Think about this: How often, while you're a tourist in Germany, are you going to be talking to a group of people you know well enough to address familiarly? Sure, the second person plural familiar verbs are in all the textbooks and most of the phrase books, but it's knowledge you'll never use, and this is a crash course; we're in too big a hurry to bother with it.

 

20 easy words to learn (including some you already know)

der Garten	garden	Der Frosch lebt in meinem Garten. The frog lives in my garden.
das Buch	book	Morgens schreibe ich in meinem Buch. Es is ein Tagebuch. Mornings write I in my book. It is a diary.
jung	young	Ich bin nicht so jung wie meine Schwester. I am not as young as my sister.
alt	old	Und du bist nicht so alt wie ich. And you are not as old as I.
das Wasser	water	Das Wasser ist klar. The water is clear.
das Feuer	fire	Das Feuer macht ein rotes Licht. The fire makes a red light.
die Erde	earth	Die Erde ist der dritte Planet im Sonnensystem. The earth is the third planet in the solar system.
die Luft	air	Feuer, Wasser, Erde, Luft sind die vier Elemente. Fire, water, earth and air are the four elements.
lernen	to learn	Lernst du Deutsch sprechen? Learn you German to speak?
rechts	right	Gehen Sie rechts. Go to the right.
das Papier	paper	Ein Buch ist aus Papier. A book is [made] out [of] paper.
hier	here	Warum sind Sie hier? Why are you here?
der Kaffee die Tasse	coffee cup	Bitte, eine Tasse Kaffee. (Translation not available.)
der Tee	tea	Man trinkt Tee aus einer Teetasse. You drink (one drinks) tea from a teacup.
die Milch die Kuh	milk cow	Täglich gibt meine Kuh vier Liter Milch Daily gives my cow four liters of milk.
lang	long	Die Ende kommt nach lange Zeit. The end comes after a long time.
kurz	short	Die Reise nach Mannheim is kurz. The trip to Mannheim is short.
letzt	last	Das lezte Wort das wir lernen is das zwanzigste. The last word that we learn is the twentieth.

What makes cognates easier to see is understanding the "consonant drift" that has taken place as English and German evolved separately. You will see examples in almost every phrase you learn. Think of the consonants as falling into several families:

D-family: D - T - Th (doesn't exist in German) - S - Z

B-family: B - P - PH/F - V - W

G-family: G - CH - K

Looking at many cognates, it's easy to see the how pronunciation in the two languages has become blurred within each family; for instance, in the D-family, our th is pronounced by Germans as d or t, It's in the pronunciation where this drift began. But eventually it was codified in the spelling, and Wasser became water, Hund became hound, kurz became curt.

Use your understanding of this concept to make it easier to find cognates, because cognates themselves are the key to rapidly expanding your vocabulary.