Today I put up a page on the 100 most commonly used German verbs. We’ll do lots of fun and useful things with this list — and the 500 most common German words list — in the coming days and weeks.
Since every sentence has a predicate — i.e., verb parts — and since the predicate largely determines the structure of each sentence and what other elements the sentence contains, any insights into the function and usage of verbs can contribute much to the understanding of the language. Let’s take a closer look at the verb list and see how it can serve as a useful guide in learning German.
The top 3 German verbs are not only words with common meanings in their own right but they also serve as auxiliary verbs in German. (1) sein (to be) and (2) haben (to have) are both used as auxiliary verbs in forming the perfect tenses, and (3) werden (to become) is used as an auxiliary in forming the future tenses and the passive voice.
The next two verbs are modal verbs: (4) können (can, to be able to) and (5) müssen (must, to have to). In fact, all 6 German modal verbs are in the top 30. The others are: (10) sollen (should, ought to), (11) wollen (to want), (24) dürfen (may, to be allowed) and (28) mögen (to like). Like the auxiliary verbs, modal verbs are almost always used in combination with other verbs in forming the predicate in a sentence.
The popularity of these 9 verbs — the auxiliaries and the modal verbs — tells us that not only knowing these verbs but also knowing how to make sense of compound tenses and structures will be useful in making sense of German.
Next, let’s look at verb patterns. Only 3 weak verbs — verbs that follow regular and predictable conjugation patterns in every verb tense — are in the top 25 verbs. Of the top 100, 37 of the verbs are weak. For these verbs, only the infinitive needs to be learned. All tenses and moods are based on the infinitive stem. The weak verbs can thus be easily recognized in any tense or mood.
This means that the majority of the verbs — 63 of them to be exact — are strong or irregular (mixed) verbs — verbs with unpredictable stem changes across verb tenses and moods. In fact, many of the most anomalous German verbs occur in the top 100. Because these verbs occur so frequently, it is advisable to learn their various forms. Being able to recognize the principle parts of irregular verbs is essential to understanding them in a sentence.
Here are those 63 irregular verbs with their principle parts. They are in the order of frequency except where verbs share common stems, in which case they are grouped together.
| Infinitive | Present tense stem change, if any (er-form) | Simple past tense (er-form) | Past participle (Marked with ist when sein is used as auxiliary) | Definition |
| 1. sein | ist | war | ist gewesen | to be |
| 2. haben | hatte | gehabt | to have | |
| 3. werden | wird | wurde | ist geworden | to become |
| 4. können | kann | konnte | gekonnt | can to be able to |
| 5. müssen | muss | musste | gemusst | must to have to |
| 8. geben | gibt | gab | gegeben | to give |
| 93. ergeben | ergibt | ergab | ergeben | to result in |
| 9. kommen | kam | ist gekommen | to come | |
| 48. bekommen | to get, receive | |||
| 10. sollen | soll | sollte | gesollt | should, ought to |
| 11. wollen | will | wollte | gewollt | to want |
| 12. gehen | ging | ist gegangen | to go | |
| 85. vergehen | to elapse; to decay | |||
| 13. wissen | weiß | wusste | gewusst | to know |
| 14. sehen | sieht | sah | gesehen | to see |
| 97. an·sehen | sieht an | sah an | angesehen | to look at, watch |
| 77. aus·sehen | sieht aus | sah aus | ausgesehen | to appear, look (a certain way) |
| 15. lassen | lässt | ließ | gelassen | to let, allow, have (something) done |
| 16. stehen | stand | gestanden | to stand | |
| 45. bestehen | bestand | bestanden | to exist, insist, pass (an exam) | |
| 46. verstehen | verstand | verstanden | to understand | |
| 61. entstehen | entstand | entstanden | to originate, develop | |
| 17. finden | fand | gefunden | to find | |
| 18. bleiben | blieb | ist geblieben | to stay, remain | |
| 19. liegen | lag | gelegen | lie, to be lying | |
| 20. heißen | hieß | geheißen | to be called | |
| 21. denken | dachte | gedacht | to think | |
| 22. nehmen | nimmt | nahm | genommen | to take |
| 23. tun | tat | getan | to do | |
| 24. dürfen | darf | durfte | gedurft | may, to be allowed |
| 26. halten | hält | hielt | gehalten | to stop, hold |
| 62. erhalten | erhält | erhielt | erhalten | to receive |
| 27. nennen | nannte | genannt | to name, to call (a name) | |
| 28. mögen | mag | mochte | gemocht | to like |
| 31. sprechen | spricht | sprach | gesprochen | to speak |
| 55. entsprechen | entspricht | entsprach | entsprochen | to correspond |
| 32. bringen | brachte | gebracht | to bring, take | |
| 34. fahren | fährt | fuhr | ist gefahren | to drive, ride, go |
| 37. kennen | kannte | gekannt | to know | |
| 74. erkennen | erkannte | erkannt | to recognize, admit | |
| 38. gelten | gilt | galt | gegolten | to be valid |
| 49. beginnen | began | begonnen | to begin | |
| 52. schreiben | schrieb | geschrieben | to write | |
| 53. laufen | läuft | lief | ist gelaufen | to run |
| 56. sitzen | saß | gesessen | to sit | |
| 57. ziehen | zog | ist gezogen | to pull, move | |
| 58. scheinen | schien | hat geschienen | to shine, seem, appear | |
| 78. erscheinen | erschien | ist erschienen | to appear | |
| 59. fallen | fällt | fiel | ist gefallen | to fall |
| 63. treffen | trifft | traf | getroffen | to meet |
| 83. betreffen | betrifft | betraf | betroffen | to affect, concern |
| 69. tragen | trägt | trug | getragen | to carry, wear |
| 70. schaffen* | schuf | geschaffen | to create | |
| 71. lesen | liest | las | gelesen | to read |
| 72. verlieren | verlor | verloren | to lose | |
| 80. an·fangen | fängt an | fing an | angefangen | to begin |
| 86. helfen | hilft | half | geholfen | to help |
| 87. gewinnen | gewann | gewonnen | to win | |
| 88. schließen | schloss | geschlossen | to close | |
| 90. bieten | bot | geboten | to offer | |
| 94. an·bieten | bot an | angeboten | to offer | |
| 96. verbinden | verband | verbunden | to connect, link | |
| 100. vergleichen | verglich | verglichen | to compare |
* schaffen is a weak verb when it means to manage (to do something).
Does the Top 100 German verbs list reveal anything else about the language? What do you see?
Thank You very much!
This is a great article and worthy of the time you clearly invested. Booked marked your site and will return.
Lovely site! The list of verbs is excellent and the lessons are great. Tschüss!
thanks
really helpful
thanks again
Thank you very much. Very comprehensive and easy to study. I bet it’ll help me a lot in understanding the words spoken in my german class (some of the students are very advanced).
really a fruitful list. Simple and effective list and helped me a lot.
Ausgezeichnet!!!
Freundlichen grüßen.sie machen sehr gut Idee für 500 verb sprachen deutsch. .Dankbar
Great site. Thanks.
I just found your website, it really helps me a lot for studying German’s grammar and more. Please continue to write more helpful articles. Thanks so much! :)
Sehr gut
Gut
Thank you, one of the best I have found online.
It’s much worthy for the people who r really want to learn
Thanks a lot for all these knowledgeable grammar site which would be very fruitful for all German language learner student like me. Keep on posting such meaningful words.
Love this list! Thanks so much- just an fyi,
halten in the 3rd person singular is missing an umlaut on this page:
http://www.thegermanprofessor.com/lessons-top-german-verbs-list/
Thanks again though- honestly- amazing list!
Oh my gosh, I can’t believe that escaped my attention! Thank you for taking the time to point it out, Andy. It has now been fixed.
Hello there!
I am sorry my English is not really good, but my German is much better and therefore I would like to draw your attention to the position of two letters in the word with number 78.
It should be written with “ei” instead of “ie”.
So the correct verb in infinitive should be: “erscheinen”
as “erschienen” is the past participle of this verb not the infinitive!
(78. erschienen erschien ist erschienen to appear)
Many greetings from Austria!
ied
Thank you! I appreciate the extra pair of eyes and that you took the time to point out the typo. It has been fixed. http://www.thegermanprofessor.com/wp-admin/edit-comments.php#comments-form:)
it is very good explanation .
I’m glad you found it useful. :)
Vielen Dank, für die Unterstützung unserer deutschen Sprache. Wir hoffen, mehr nützliche Lektionen zu teilen
Noch einmal eine welt danke
Adeeb
Hi, the verb “scheinen” (58) uses “haben” as an auxiliary to form the perfect: http://www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/scheinen, e.g. “Gestern hat den ganzen Tag die Sonne geschienen.” Interestingly, in certain parts of southern Germany and Austria, this is treated as a weak verb (“Die Sonne hat gescheint”), which is not correct in written standard language, but is still widely used.
Thanks for your great work!
Eek! Thank you for the correction. Extra pairs of eyes are always welcome.
Very very useful. Are all 100 entries now correct? Thanks.
I’ve checked and rechecked — I think so!
Thx for this amazing list!
Vielen Dank! Vor 49 Jahren habe ich Deutsch in der Schule gelernt. Seitdem habe ich kein Deutsch gesprochen oder gehören. Jetzt ich habe die Gelegenheit Deutsch zu wieder lernen. Es gibt fünf Lezionen und das Vokabular kommt wieder zurück. Mir erfreut es dazu. Diese Listen sind mir sehr nützlich.
Danke vielmals!
Robin
Montreal, Canada
Wow, this webpage is very helpful. Thanks so much this makes learning easier and interesting.
I am a graduate of DLI where we had a an instructor who taught auxiliary verbs, using a character named Hauptmann Schmidt or Schultz. It was hilarious and I still remember it.
Does anyone have a copy of it?