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Lesson 4: Regular verbs (machen, lernen, wohnen, arbeiten, spielen)

Vocabulary: Professions

Completing this lesson will add to your overall progress:

VocabularyA1+4%A2+0.5%
GrammarA1+4%A2+0.5%

How to work with this lesson

  1. Read — understand the rule (5 minutes, no more!)
  2. Say it out loud — slowly, consciously, every ending
  3. Speed up — repeat until the phrases fly out on their own

You already know sein and haben. Now — regular verbs. Good news: 80% of German verbs conjugate the same way. Learn one pattern — and you've got 80% of all verbs in your pocket.

Part 1: The conjugation pattern

In English, verbs barely change: I have, you have, he has, we have, they have. Only the 3rd-person singular gets an "-s". Easy.

German is more honest about it. Each person gets its own ending. But there are only three endings to memorize. The rest of the forms = the infinitive itself.

Any regular verb in the infinitive ends in -en: machen, lernen, wohnen.

To conjugate:

  1. Drop -en → get the stem: mach-, lern-, wohn-
  2. Add the ending for the person.
PronounEndingmachen (to make/do)
ich-emache
du-stmachst
er / sie / es-tmacht
wir-enmachen
ihr-tmacht
Sie / sie (formal / they)-enmachen

This is the only table you have to memorize. That's it.

Cognate: machen ≈ "to make". German m-ch ↔ English m-k. Listen for the resemblance.

Part 2: The main hack — three endings

ich = -e, du = -st, er = -t. Everything else = infinitive.

Unpacked:

  • ich → -e (the only unique one)
  • du → -st (always sounds like "-st") ← cognate alert: thou shalst, thou hast. Old English used "-st" for "thou" too!
  • er / sie / es → -t (one letter, third person)
  • wir → -en (= infinitive)
  • ihr → -t (same as er)
  • Sie / sie → -en (= infinitive)

So you really only need three endings: -e, -st, -t. The rest = infinitive.

The "thou-st" connection is real. English had "thou hast / thou makest / thou learnst". Then English ditched "thou" and lost the system. German kept it.

Part 3: The trap — stems ending in -t, -d, -n

Some verbs have stems ending in -t, -d, or -n (after a consonant): arbeit-en, find-en, öffn-en.

Try saying "du arbeitst" — you'll break your tongue. So Germans slip in an -e- before the -st and -t endings.

Personmachen (normal)arbeiten (-t stem)
ichmachearbeite
dumachstarbeitest
er/sie/esmachtarbeitet
wirmachenarbeiten
ihrmachtarbeitet
sie/Siemachenarbeiten

Trap! du machst — but du arbeitest. Er macht — but er arbeitet. The little -e- rescues you from a consonant pile-up. Same instinct as why English says "washes" instead of "washs".

Same trick with finden (to find — cognate: find!): du findest, er findet. And öffnen (to open — cognate: open): du öffnest, er öffnet.

Part 4: Key verbs for this lesson

Most of these have English cousins. Spot them.

VerbEnglishCognate hintExample
machento make / to do≈ "make"Ich mache die Hausaufgabe.
lernento learn / to study≈ "learn"Du lernst Deutsch.
wohnento live (reside)≈ "to dwell" (old "wonen")Er wohnt in Hamburg.
arbeitento work"Arbeit" → English "arbeitsmacht-frei", but no direct cognate. Just learn it.Sie arbeitet als Ärztin.
spielento play≈ "play" (verb form. spiel = play/game)Wir spielen Fußball.
trinkento drink≈ "drink"Ihr trinkt Kaffee.
kaufento buy≈ "shop" (no, but "Kauf" = purchase)Sie kaufen Brot.
hörento hear / listen≈ "hear"Ich höre Musik.
kochento cook≈ "cook"Du kochst gut.
fragento ask(no English cognate)Er fragt den Lehrer.

Next up: Lesson 5 — verbs that change their stem vowel (fahren, lesen, sprechen, sehen). You'll find out why du fährst, du liest, du sprichst. Regular verbs are well-behaved. These are the vowel-shift bandits — and they only misbehave in two forms.

Lesson 4: Regular verbs (machen, lernen, wohnen, arbeiten, spielen) · Deutsch · Glottos Matrix