Regular verb conjugation (present tense)

This is the pattern that quietly unlocks hundreds of German verbs at once — so it’s worth getting comfy with early. Think of a verb like a little kit: take the base, then snap on an ending depending on who’s doing the action. Learn these six endings and you can confidently use almost any regular verb you bump into.

• •Start with the dictionary form (the infinitive), e.g. wohnen (to live). Snip off the -en and you’re left with the stem: wohn.
• •Now add the ending for whoever’s doing it — the table below has all six. For “I”, it’s -e: ich wohne.
• •Two you already know for free: wir (we) and sie/Sie are just the full infinitive again — wohnen.

Watch out: The slip almost every beginner makes: ihr (you all) takes -t — the same ending as er/sie/es — so it’s tempting to reach for the infinitive instead. It’s ihr wohnt, not “ihr wohnen”.