Present Tense

The present tense (Präsens) is the most commonly used tense in German. We use it to talk about the present and the future.

Present Tense: Usage

Rule 1: We use present tense in German when talking about:

- Facts and conditions that are true right now or actions that are happening right now:

- Actions that happen regularly or never in the present (but not necessarily right now):

- Something that is always true:

- Actions that have started in the past and are still happening now. Note: this is different from English, where we would use the present perfect tense.

- Planned actions in the future. Note: in English, we would use the present continuous tense here.

Rule 2: To indicate time in the present tense, we use temporal indicators like "heute", "morgen", "in zwei Stunden" in the sentence we want to create, as seen above.

Present Tense: Conjugation

Rule 3: The conjugation puts a verb in the right form for time and person. To conjugate regular verbs or weak verbs in the present tense, we take the verb stem (by removing the -en ending) and add the following endings: -e, -st, -t, -en, -t, -en

Let's look at an example with the verb "spielen" (to play):

Rule 4: The conjugated verb will always be in second position in affirmative sentences in the present tense.