In Einheit 1.8 we first learned about verb conjugation. The verbs we learned in 1.8 had their verb stems plus the ending “-en” (kommen, wohnen, heißen, etc). In the last few lessons you learned a new verbs wandern and klettern. You will notice that these verbs end in “-n” only. Please see the verb conjugation pattern below.

Since 1.8 we have also encountered verbs that don’t follow the typical conjugation pattern for various reasons. Here are few of them:

Verbs whose stem ends in an s-sound (-s, -ß, -z, -ss) do not add an -s in the du-form:

Wie heißt du? – Ich heiße Isabelle.

Tanzt du heute Abend?

Reist du oft nach Deutschland?

Verbs whose stem ends in -t or -d add an -e between the stem and the -st ending for the du-form and between the stem and the -t in the er/sie/es-form and ihr-form:

Du reitest am Donnerstag.

Er arbeitet morgen früh.

Ihr findet den Kurs interessant.

This also applies to some other verbs such as regnen (Es regnet.) and öffnen (Sie öffnet das Buch.).

Compare the following conjugations:

Please note that the underlined portion of the infinitive is the “verb stem”.

To express that you like doing something, we use a verb + “gern”:

Helga spielt gern Fußball. – Helga likes to play soccer.

Lexa und Emilia reisen gern. – Lexa and Emilia like to travel.

To express that you do not like doing something, we use a verb + “nicht gern”:

Jonas geht nicht gern ins Fitnessstudio. – Jonas doesn’t like to go to the gym.

Houssem tanzt nicht gern. – Houssem doesn’t like to dance.

To agree with a statement of liking or disliking to do something, we use “auch gern“ or “auch nicht gern“:

Helga spielt gern Fußball. – Helga likes to play soccer.

Tom spielt auch gern Fußball. – Tom also likes to play soccer.

Jonas geht nicht gern ins Fitnessstudio. – Jonas doesn’t like to go to the gym.

Max geht auch nicht gern ins Fitnessstudio. – Max also doesn’t like to go to the gym.

Read the sentences above again. Where are the “gern“/”nicht gern“/”auch gern“/”auch nicht gern” placed?  They are always after the conjugated verb and before the complement (if there is one;-)! However, in a sentence with inverted word order, these will come after the subject.

Am Samstag spiele ich gern Fußball. – On Saturday, I like to play soccer.

Am Sonntagnachmittag reitet Sasha gern.  – On Sunday afternoon, Sasha likes to ride horseback.

*Achtung* “gern” is NOT a verb! You cannot write: “Ich gern Pizza” and think you are saying “I like Pizza”. You always need a conjugated verb to go with the “gern“. There is a verb in German that means “to like”, but we will only learn that in Einheit 4.