In German, weak verbs – also called regulars – are conjugated in a regular way. They do not present any difficulty. These verbs are in the majority in the German language. They have the same conjugation pattern depending on the tense considered.
| The endings of weak verbs in the present tense | -e -st -t -en -t -en |
| The endings of weak verbs ending in -d -t -m -n in the present tense | -t -test -te -ten -tet -ten |
For example, machen (to do) gives :
| 1st person singular | ich mache |
| 2nd person singular | du machst |
| 3rd person singular | er, sie, es macht |
| 1st person plural | wir machen |
| 2nd person plural | ihr macht |
| 3rd person plural | sie, Sie machen |
In the Präteritum tense (which is the equivalent of the English simple past tense), weak verbs end in: -te -test -te -ten -tet -ten. For example, machen (to do) gives:
| 1st person singular | ich machte |
| 2nd person singular | du machtest |
| 3rd person singular | er, sie, es machte |
| 1st person plural | wir machten |
| 2nd person plural | ihr machtet |
| 3rd person plural | sie, Sie machten |
The perfect tense is the equivalent of the simple past tense in English. In German, the past participle is formed with the stem of the verb with the prefix ‘ge’ (when the first syllable of the verb is accented) and the ending -t or -et depending on whether the stem ends with -d -t -m -n or not.
Thus, machen (to do) gives in the perfect tense:
| 1st person singular | ich habe gemacht |
| 2nd person singular | du hast gemacht |
| 3rd person singular | er, sie, hat gemacht |
| 1st person plural | wir haben gemacht |
| 2nd person plural | ihr habt gemacht |
| 3rd person plural | sie, Sie haben gemacht |
In the perfect tense, the haben auxiliary is used to conjugate the German verb.
As in English, this tense (Plusquamperfekt in German) makes it possible to relate an earlier fact in a story to the past. In the past perfect tense, the verb machen (to do) is declined in the following way with the auxiliary haben in the past tense:
| 1st person singular | ich hatte gemacht |
| 2nd person singular | du hattest gemacht |
| 3rd person singular | er, sie, hatte gemacht |
| 1st person plural | wir hatten gemacht |
| 2nd person plural | ihr hattet gemacht |
| 3rd person plural | sie, Sie hatten gemacht |
In the future tense, the conjugation of German weak verbs is not a problem. The stem does not change and is preceded by the auxiliary werden in all persons.
| 1st person singular | ich werde machen |
| 2nd person singular | du wirst machen |
| 3rd person singular | er, sie, wird machen |
| 1st person plural | wir werden machen |
| 2nd person plural | ihr werdet machen |
| 3rd person plural | sie, Sie werden machen |
In German, the future perfect tense – or Future II – is used to make an assumption about a past fact or to assume that the action will be completed at some point in the future. It is constructed with two auxiliaries haben and werden + the past participle of the verb. The verb machen gives :
| 1st person singular | ich werde gemacht haben |
| 2nd person singular | du wirst gemacht haben |
| 3rd person singular | er, sie, wird gemacht haben |
| 1st person plural | wir werden gemacht haben |
| 2nd person plural | ihr werdet gemacht haben |
| 3rd person plural | sie, Sie werden gemacht haben |
The most frequently used verbs in German: sein haben geben finden gehen wissen kommen können liegen sehen
