FormInfinitiv (a, au, u, ei) → Präteritum (ie oder i) → Partizip II (Vokal des Infinitivs)
Meaning and usage
This group of strong verbs keeps the vowel of the infinitive in the participle but changes it to ie (or short i) in the preterite: schlafen, schlief, geschlafen, fallen, fiel, gefallen, halten, hielt, gehalten, lassen, ließ, gelassen, laufen, lief, gelaufen, rufen, rief, gerufen, raten, riet, geraten, heißen, hieß, geheißen. The participle usually keeps the infinitive vowel, so you must learn each set of three forms together. In the perfect you use haben or sein: ich habe geschlafen, wir sind gelaufen.
The separable verb anfangen belongs here too: fing an in the preterite, angefangen in the perfect. A common mistake is building the preterite with an umlaut or a weak ending, as in ich schläfte or ich schlafte instead of ich schlief.
Examples 6
Ich habe im Flugzeug ein paar Stunden geschlafen.
I slept for a few hours on the plane.
Wir sind an dem Tag zehn Meilen gelaufen.
We walked ten miles that day.
Der Dieb lief weg und der Polizist hinterher.
The thief ran away and the policeman ran after him.
Eine Polizistin hielt das Kind auf dem Arm.
One of the female police officers was holding the baby.
Der Lehrer ließ den Jungen nach Hause gehen.
The teacher let the boy go home.
Es hat in Boston gerade angefangen zu schneien.
It's just started to snow in Boston.
Test yourself
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1 Sprachbausteine
Gestern ich bis zehn Uhr, ich war so müde.
Show answer
Correct answer: schlief
The time word gestern and the second clause ich war so müde show that the preterite is needed, and the preterite of schlafen is schlief.
- schlafe This is the present tense, which does not fit with gestern.
- schlafte This weak form with -te does not exist for schlafen; the preterite is schlief.
- habe geschlafen This perfect tense needs a second verb position and does not fit a single gap in this sentence.
In this topic: Strong verbs
- drei Stammformen: gehen, ging, gegangen learn strong verbs as three forms together
- bleiben, blieb, geblieben strong verbs with ei that become ie in the past
- trinken, trank, getrunken strong verbs with i, a, u: trinken, trank, getrunken
- sprechen, sprach, gesprochen strong verbs with a in the past and o in the participle
- geben, gab, gegeben strong verbs with e to a in the past, e in the participle
- fahren, fuhr, gefahren strong verbs with a → u in the past tense
- fliegen, flog, geflogen strong verbs with o in preterite and participle
- schlafen, schlief, geschlafen strong verbs with ie in the preterite
- stehen, stand, gestanden; tun, tat, getan very common strong verbs with irregular vowel changes
Example sentences from Tatoeba, used under CC BY 2.0 FR. See sources.