Another case for Agent 8

• To investigate mystery of the present tense in German

• To present findings and evidence

• To share solution to mystery

CASE OPENED

A verb is a word representing an action.

Ich schwimme.

Ich faulenze.

Ich tanze.

so, what is a verb?

The ‘tense’ of a sentence tells you if the sentence refers to the past, the present or the future.

and what is ‘tense’?

In German as in English, verbs usually change their spelling to reflect different tenses.

Present = I play or I am playing

Past = I played or I have played

Future = I will play

e.g. Ich lese jeden Tag (I read every day)

e.g. Ruhe! Ich lese! (Quiet! I’m reading!)

let’s take a closer look.

The present tense is used to describe what happens regularly and what is happening.

Test if a sentence is in the present tense by inserting ‘now’ or ‘every day’ and seeing if it makes sense.

We need to know 3 key words to be able to investigate and write German verbs properly :

INFINITIVE

STEMENDING

This is how the verb is listed in the dictionary because there are too many spellings to list individually

The infinitive always ends in –n or -en

The infinitive is translated into English as ‘ to . . .’

The STEM is simply the infinitive form minus the –en at

the end

spielen = STEM

This part is called the stem because its runs through all

parts of the verb

Different endings are added to the stem of the verb

The same set of endings is used for all present tense verbs

The ending you add depends on the person or thing doing the action of the

verb

ich

ihr

er/es/sie

wir

du

Sie

sie

I

you (friend)he/it/she

we

you (friends)you (formal, sing./pl)they

All people or things doing the action of the verb could be replaced by the following pronouns:

This part is one half of the SNAP pair in German.

The other half of the SNAP pair is the SNAP ending you add to the stem of the verb

ich stem+e

du stem+st

er/es/sie

stem

+t

wir stem

+en

ihr stem

+t

Sie/sie

stem

+en

It’s called SNAP after the card game because you have to find a matching pair!

so, there’s no mystery about it!

• Choose a verb

• Decide who or what is doing the action

• Add a matching ending to the stem of the verb

CASE dismissed