German conjugation rules

German verbs change more visibly than English verbs, but the beginner path is simpler than it first looks.

For everyday speech, start with two ideas:

• Present / Future: one present-tense form can mean now or future.
• Past: normal spoken past is usually Perfekt.

Present and future by context

German uses present forms for the present:

• ich mache
• du machst
• er macht
• wir machen

The same present form can also point to the future if the sentence gives a future time:

• Ich mache es morgen.
  I will do it tomorrow.

German can build a formal future with werden, but beginners meet future-by-context constantly.

The normal spoken past

In conversation, German usually uses Perfekt for past events.

Perfekt has two parts:

1. a helper verb: haben or sein
2. a participle, often at the end

Examples:

• Ich habe gemacht.
  I did.

• Ich bin gegangen.
  I went.

Most verbs use haben. Motion or state-change verbs often use sein.

The written past

German also has Präteritum, sometimes called simple past.

You see it often in stories, books, and formal writing:

• ich machte
• ich ging
• ich war

In everyday speech, sein, haben, werden, and modal verbs often use Präteritum too:

• Ich war dort.
• Ich hatte Zeit.

But for many ordinary verbs, spoken German prefers Perfekt.

Participles

Regular participles often look like:

• machen → gemacht
• arbeiten → gearbeitet

The rough shape is ge- + stem + -t.

Some verbs do not add ge-, especially verbs with unstressed prefixes:

• besuchen → besucht
• verstehen → verstanden

Many common verbs are irregular, so their participles must be learned:

• gehen → gegangen
• sehen → gesehen
• wissen → gewusst

Future forms

German can use werden plus the infinitive:

• Ich werde gehen.
  I will go.

This is Futur I.

There is also Futur II:

• Ich werde gegangen sein.
  I will have gone.

Beginners do not need Futur II early. It exists, but it is not the first thing that makes German sentences work.

No continuous tense

German does not have an English-style continuous form like I am doing.

German usually uses the normal present:

• Ich mache.
  I do. / I am doing.

Context tells you whether the action is general, happening now, or planned.

What to learn first

For a beginner, the useful order is:

1. Present forms.
2. Perfekt for normal spoken past.
3. Präteritum for common verbs like sein, haben, werden.
4. Future with werden.
5. Plusquamperfekt and Futur II later.