German is part of the Romano-Germanic group of languages along with English and French. Many of the principles for constructing offers are similar. But there is an exception to any rule. The German language has its own characteristics and differences. This applies to the verbs haben and sein in German. They are the most common and often used.
The basis for learning a language is another language!
If a person who decided to learn German already speaks any other European, then studying it will be much easier. Especially if the base is English, which is very similar to it.
Otherwise, any subsequent language after German will be easier to learn. This is due to the historical processes that took place in Germany and modern Britain. Due to the numerous conquests in the Middle Ages, languages were mixed and the features of one dialect fell into another. Therefore, they are assigned to one large group.
The difference between the semantic and auxiliary verb
In German there is a feature: auxiliary and semantic verbs.
The semantic verb is a word denoting a specific action, and the auxiliary does not carry a lexical load. But it shows time or condition.
Meaningful verbs that indicate action can be used with auxiliary ones. Such words are called transitional and intransitive. You can learn about the quality of the verb in the list that is in each explanatory dictionary at the end or beginning of the book. Next to the translation in brackets indicates which semantic verb should be used in one case or another - haben or sein. If a sentence requires several verbs, then in the second place it is semantic, and the auxiliary goes to the very end of the sentence.
The meaning of the main auxiliary verbs
The verb sein in German translates as "to be," "to exist." In addition to the main values, there are others:
- indication of the property (often used with adjectives);
- location on the premises, on the street or an indication of the territorial address: city, country;
- season;
- used to indicate time;
- An expression of one’s attitude to one or one’s own state of physical or mental health.
This verb is the equivalent of the verb "to be" in English. The word haben is translated as “have”, “possess”. That is, sein and haben are auxiliary verbs that do not carry lexical meaning in the sentence.
Conjugation pattern
Depending on the pronoun, words can conjugate, that is, change their form thanks to a noun that stands nearby.
In German, 8 pronouns. In the conjugation of the verb sein in German, the word completely changes its basis. As a rule, a certain ending is attached to each pronoun, which is added to the verb. But there are special words to which this rule does not apply. The verbs sein and haben relate to just such a case.
The ending -e is applicable to the pronoun "I", "you" - st, "he" - t, "she" - t, "it" - t, "we" - en, "you" - t, "they" - en. The verb is conjugated as follows:
- ich - bin;
- du - bist;
- er / sie / es - ist;
- wir sind;
- ihr seid;
- sie - sind.
In this form, the verb sein in German is used in the present tense. The word haben also changes in faces in a special order, and the construction scheme of a sentence does not differ from the example with the verb sein.
Use at different times
In terms of times, German is similar to English. If the sentence is built according to the simple time pattern, then the verb must be put in second place after the pronoun or subject. The verb sein in German changes to waren and translates to “was”. In this case, conjugation follows the basic rules with changing endings.
In addition to the present and past tenses, the verb sein in German helps to form other forms, such as the past tense. It is used when there are several actions in the past and you need to show which one happened before. In this case, the auxiliary verb is in second place, and the semantic one is in the last in the third form, which can be learned from a special table of irregular verbs. Then the sentence is as follows: subject, sein or haben, addition and main verb.
Thus, the conjugation of the verbs haben and sein in German has its own characteristics. In learning, most of the changes will need to be remembered. Since these auxiliary verbs are used quite often, with practice all the subtleties of use and conjugation will cease to cause difficulties.