| 15.2.2.2 Strong verbs with change of vowel |
| singen (stem sang) |
trinken (stem trank) |
laufen (stem lief) |
| ich sang | ich trank | ich lief |
| du sangst | du trankst | du liefst |
| er/sie/es sang | er/sie/es trank | er/sie/es lief |
| wir sangen | wir tranken | wir liefen |
| ihr sangt | ihr trankt | ihr lieft |
| sie sangen | sie tranken | sie liefen |
 |
|
|
| sprechen (stem sprach) |
essen (stem aß) |
schlafen (stem schlief) |
| ich sprach | ich aß | ich schlief |
| du sprachst | du aßt | du schliefst |
| er/sie/es sprach | er/sie/es aß | er/sie/es schlief |
| wir sprachen | wir aßen | wir schliefen |
| ihr spracht | ihr aßt | ihr schlieft |
| sie sprachen | sie aßen | sie schliefen |
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|
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For clear comparison, we have here a table of the endings
of the simple tenses (simple present and simple past
tense) for weak and strong verbs. As we can see, the
endings in present tense for weak and for strong verbs
are the same. Here the only difference is in the change
of the vowel (mostly) in second and third person singular.
| weak verb - present tense ending | weak verbs - imperfect ending | strong verbs - present tense ending | strong verbs - imperfect endings |
| e | te | e | - |
| st | test | st | st |
| t | te | t | - |
| en | ten | en | en |
| t | tet | t | t |
| en | ten | en | en |
What we can also see is that the endings of the imperfect are really different. The weak form uses actually the conjugation of the present and adds an t(e) to it.
The strong verbs are even lazier, they just use the same endings like the present tense, and only the stem is changing. How to know which conjugation to choose is described more in detail in chapter 15.3.7.
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