Play and make verbs in German
Today we are going to introduce you Play and make verbs in German.
In English, the regular conjugation is very easy: only for the third person singular an “-s” is added to the infinitive (“to see” becomes “he/she/it sees”). Unfortunately, there are more endings in German.
The following two tables show the endings for the two regular verbs spielen (to play) and machen (to do; to make):
Verb to play: singular
| English | German | |||
| 1st person | I | play | ich | spiele |
| 2nd person | You | play | du | spielst |
| 3rd person | he/she/it | plays | er/sie/es | spielt |
Verb to play: plural
| English | German | |||
| 1st person | we | play | wir | spielen |
| 2nd person | you | play | ihr | spielt |
| 3rd person | they | play | sie | spielen |
Verb to make: singular
| English | German | |||
| 1st person | I | make | ich | mache |
| 2nd person | You | make | du | machst |
| 3rd person | he/she/it | makes | er/sie/es | macht |
Verb to make: plural
| English | German | |||
| 1st person | we | make/do | wir | machen |
| 2nd person | you | make/do | ihr | macht |
| 3rd person | they | make/do | sie | machen |
As you see, the endings are the same for corresponding forms of spielen and machen. In fact, they are the same for all regular verbs.
Thus, you can always just remove the -en from the infinitive of a regular German verb to form the stem (e.g.,spielen becomes spiel- and machen becomes mach-) and then add the ending for the particular person.
Examples
| What are you doing? | Was machst du? |
| I’m playing basketball. | Ich spiele Basketball. |
| Do you play soccer? | Spielst du Fußball? |
| I’m doing homework. | Ich mache Hausaufgaben. |
| He’s doing homework. | Er macht Hausaufgaben. |
| Do you play sports? | Machst/Treibst du Sport? |
| Why do you play baseball? | Warum spielst du Baseball? |
| When do you do the/your homework? | Wann machst du die Hausaufgaben? |
| Who doesn’t play soccer? | Wer spielt nicht Fußball? |
| We don’t play tennis. | Wir spielen nicht Tennis. |
