German present tense (Präsens)

Drop the -en from the infinitive to get the stem, then attach one of six endings: ich -e, du -st, er/sie/es -t, wir -en, ihr -t, sie/Sie -en. For example, "lernen" → stem "lern-" → "ich lerne, du lernst, er lernt, wir lernen, ihr lernt, sie lernen." One exception to watch: if the stem ends in -d, -t, or a consonant cluster, add an extra -e before the du and er/ihr endings (arbeiten → du arbeitest, er arbeitet). When the stem ends in -s, -ss, -ß, -x, or -z, the du-form drops its -s (tanzen → du tanzt).

Stem-changing verbs (starke Verben) alter their stem vowel in the 2nd and 3rd person singular only. There are three patterns: a→ä (fahren → du fährst, er fährt), e→i (geben → du gibst, er gibt), and e→ie (sehen → du siehst, er sieht). All other forms — ich, wir, ihr, sie — keep the original infinitive stem. You must learn which verbs are stem-changers, but the three vowel-change classes are predictable once you recognise the pattern.

These three verbs are fully irregular and must be memorised. Sein: ich bin, du bist, er ist, wir sind, ihr seid, sie sind. Haben: ich habe, du hast, er hat, wir haben, ihr habt, sie haben. Werden: ich werde, du wirst, er wird, wir werden, ihr werdet, sie werden. They are called "load-bearing" irregulars because every compound tense in German — Perfekt, Plusquamperfekt, Futur I, Passiv — is built on one of them as an auxiliary verb.

Yes — and it is the preferred way when a time expression is present. "Morgen fahre ich nach Berlin" is far more natural than "Morgen werde ich nach Berlin fahren." Germans reach for Präsens + a time word (morgen, nächste Woche, in einer Stunde) by default. Futur I (werden + Infinitiv) is reserved for expressing prediction, a strong promise, or uncertainty about the present: "Es wird regnen" (it will rain / it is probably raining) rather than a simple future event you have already planned.

The forms look identical in writing: "er kommt" and "ihr kommt" are both spelled the same. Context — specifically the subject pronoun — is the only disambiguator. In practice this rarely causes confusion because German conversation almost always makes the subject explicit. The same written overlap exists between wir/sie/Sie forms (all end in -en) and between er/sie/es and ihr (both end in -t).

The a→ä stem change only applies in the 2nd and 3rd person singular — du fährst, er/sie/es fährt. All other forms (ich fahre, wir fahren, ihr fahrt, sie fahren) keep the original infinitive stem without the umlaut. This is the defining rule for the a→ä class of strong verbs; the same applies to similar verbs like schlafen (du schläfst), laufen (du läufst), and halten (du hältst).

No. German Präsens covers both "I work" and "I am working" — the single form "ich arbeite" translates either way depending on context. For extra emphasis on an ongoing action, German speakers sometimes use gerade ("Ich arbeite gerade" = I'm working right now) or the colloquial am + infinitive-as-noun construction ("Ich bin am Arbeiten"). The am-construction is common in informal speech but not standard written German.

German has more endings to track (six distinct slots versus effectively two in English: base and -s), but it compensates by having no progressive aspect and no auxiliary verb for questions and negation — you never need a German equivalent of "do/does." The genuinely hard parts of German Präsens are sein/haben/werden plus the roughly 200 strong verbs with vowel changes, not the regular endings themselves. Learners who memorise the three irregular giants and identify the vowel-change classes typically gain confidence in conjugation within a few weeks.