58. The Last of the Irregulars in Present Tense (iii)

58. The Last of the Irregulars in Present Tense (iii)  (See Quiztests 194-195)

In the last post we saw the first of what I called genuine Irregular Verbs in German in the Present Tense. These verbs were very similar to Regular Verbs and the only changes occurred in the singular in the du and er,sie and es forms, where the a of the infinitive changed to ä. The changes in the verb fahren (meaning to travel by vehicle / ride) look like this  ....

ich fahre    du fährst   er, sie, es fährt   wir fahren    ihr fahrt    Sie fahren   sie fahren.

Today we can look at the last of the irregulars where the changes are  e to i  &  e  to ie in the same forms of the verb we saw with fahren.  These verbs are... geben = (to) give & sehen = (to) see

Irregular Change   e - i               e - ie

ich mache            gebe              sehe

du  machst           gibst              siehst

er macht               gibt                sieht

wir machen          geben            sehen

ihr macht              gebt               seht

Sie machen          geben            sehen

sie machen           geben            sehen

Similar verbs to geben are...

essen        =     eat    (* du isst,  er isst)

nehmen    =     take  (*du nimmst,  er nimmt)

sprechen  =     speak

treffen      =     meet, hit  (a Treffer is a goal that hits the back of the net)

helfen       =     help

sterben     =     die

vergessen =     forget  (*du vergisst,  er vergisst)

Similar verbs to sehen are ...

lesen         =      read  (du liest, er liest)

empfehlen =      recommend

stehlen      =      steal

befehlen   =       order 

geschehen =      happen

Heidelberg Bridge & Neckar River