German Practice

Two Major Groups of Verbs by Jeffery Donley, Ph.D.

Weak and strong conjugations are the two major verb groups. Practicing these verbs helps you to master the German language. Once you have a firm understanding of the difference between weak and strong verbs, then you can practice the past participles of these verbs.

Exercise 15

Match the following strong German verbs (questions 1–3) and the weak German verbs (questions 4–6) with the following words: sprang, to follow, followed, to spring, followed, sprung.

<tgroup cols="3" align="center"> <colspec colnum="1" colname="col1" colwidth="25%" colsep="0" rowsep="0" align="left"/> <colspec colnum="2" colname="col2" colwidth="50%" colsep="0" rowsep="0" align="left"/> <colspec colnum="3" colname="col3" colwidth="50%" colsep="0" rowsep="0" align="left"/> <tbody> <tr> <td><p>1. Past Participle:</p></td> <td><p><emphasis>gesprungen</emphasis></p></td> <td><p>___________</p></td> </tr> <tr> <td><p>2. Infinitive:</p></td> <td><p><emphasis>springen</emphasis></p></td> <td><p>___________</p></td> </tr> <tr> <td> <p>3. Past:</p></td> <td><p><emphasis>sprang</emphasis></p></td> <td><p>___________</p></td> </tr><tr> <td> <p>4. Past Participle:</p></td> <td><p><emphasis>gefolgt</emphasis></p></td> <td><p>___________</p></td> </tr> <tr> <td><p>5. Infinitive:</p></td> <td><p><emphasis>folgen</emphasis></p></td> <td><p>___________</p></td> </tr> <tr> <td> <p>6. Past:</p></td> <td><p><emphasis>folgte</emphasis></p></td> <td><p>___________</p></td> </tr> </tbody> </tgroup> </table> <h2>Exercise 16</h2> <p>There is commonality between weak and strong verbs, but this commonality is limited to the present tense. You can find the stem of a strong or weak verb by removing the “en” from the infinitive. However, strong verbs have stem vowel changes such as from <emphasis>a</emphasis> to <emphasis>ä</emphasis> as in <emphasis>ich fahre</emphasis> and <emphasis>er fährt</emphasis>. The verbs also differ in the construction of past participles.</p> <p>Place an <emphasis>e</emphasis> before the consonant ending in every weak and many of the strong verbs in the present tense if their infinitive stems end in <emphasis>-t</emphasis> or <emphasis>-d</emphasis>. Examples are <emphasis>er wartet</emphasis> (“he waits”) <emphasis>du wartest</emphasis> (“you wait”) <emphasis>er wartete</emphasis> (“he waited”), <emphasis>er hat gewartet</emphasis> (“he has waited”), <emphasis>er findet</emphasis> (“he finds”), <emphasis>du findest</emphasis> (“you find”), and <emphasis>ihr findet</emphasis> (“you find”).</p> <p>Don't forget to attach a -<emphasis>t</emphasis> in place of -<emphasis>st</emphasis> in the second person singular of the present tense if the infinitive stem of a weak or strong verb ends in <emphasis>-s</emphasis>, <emphasis>-ss</emphasis>, <emphasis>-z</emphasis>, or -<emphasis>tz</emphasis>, and ß attach the prefix <emphasis>ge</emphasis>- to the past participle to virtually every verb, along with -<emphasis>t</emphasis> to the participle ending of the weak verb and -<emphasis>en</emphasis> of the strong verb.</p> <p>Translate the following.</p> <table width="100%" frame="none"> <title/> <tgroup cols="2" align="center"> <colspec colnum="1" colname="col1" colwidth="50%" colsep="0" rowsep="0" align="left"/> <colspec colnum="2" colname="col2" colwidth="50%" colsep="0" rowsep="0" align="left"/> <tbody> <tr> <td><p>1. <emphasis>gegangen</emphasis></p></td> <td><p>________________</p></td> </tr> <tr> <td><p>2. <emphasis>er sitzt</emphasis></p></td> <td><p>________________</p></td> </tr> <tr> <td><p>3. <emphasis>gewohnt</emphasis></p></td> <td><p>________________</p></td> </tr> <tr> <td><p>4. <emphasis>du sitzt</emphasis></p></td> <td><p>________________</p></td> </tr> <tr> <td><p>5. <emphasis>er reist</emphasis></p></td> <td><p>________________</p></td> </tr> <tr> <td><p>6. <emphasis>ich sitze</emphasis></p></td> <td><p>________________</p></td> </tr> <tr> <td><p>7. <emphasis>du reist</emphasis></p></td> <td><p>________________</p></td> </tr> <tr> <td><p>8. <emphasis>sitzen</emphasis></p></td> <td><p>________________</p></td> </tr> <tr> <td><p>9. <emphasis>ich reise</emphasis></p></td> <td><p>________________</p></td> </tr> <tr> <td><p>10. <emphasis>reisen</emphasis></p></td> <td><p>________________</p></td> </tr> </tbody> </tgroup> </table>  <div id="pagination"><ul><li class="prev"><a href="http://www.netplaces.com/german-practice/verbs-section-a/three-irregular-verbs.htm" title="Three Irregular Verbs">Three Irregular Verbs</a></li><li class="next"><a href="http://www.netplaces.com/german-practice/verbs-section-a/direct-objects-or-no-direct-objects.htm" title="Direct Objects or No Direct Objects?">Direct Objects or No Direct Objects?</a> </li></ul></div></div> <div id="coda"> <div id="rel"><div class="n5">Related Articles</div><ul> <li><a href="http://www.netplaces.com/german-practice/verbs-section-a/two-major-groups-of-verbs.htm" zT="18/1YL/Zn"> Two Major Groups of Verbs - German Practice </a></li> <li><a href="http://french.about.com/od/grammar/g/participle.htm" zT="18/1YL/Zn"> Participle - Participe - French Grammar + Pronunciation Glossary </a></li> <li><a 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