Subjunctive II of Strong Verbs
We already learned the subjunctive II forms of the auxiliaries and modals in Module 8. In order to use the subjunctive II beyond the polite requests, we have to teach you the forms of the weak and strong verbs. However, the fact of the matter is that Germans themselves by far prefer the subjunctive forms with würde + infinitive over the subjunctive II forms of the verbs. This is especially true for the weak verbs because these forms are virtually identical with the indicative forms. In order to avoid confusion, weak verbs almost always use the würde form. In most cases, strong verbs have clearly distinguishable forms in the subjunctive II. Nevertheless, these forms sound quite antiquated to Germans. That is the reason they prefer the würde form even with the strong verbs.
Let's have a look at the subjunctive II of the strong verb 'geben':
| Past | ||||
| Indicative | Subjunctive | |||
| (Sing) | ||||
| ich | gab | gäbe | ||
| du | gabst | gäbest | ||
| er, sie, es | gab | gäbe | ||
| (Plur) | ||||
| wir | gaben | gäben | ||
| ihr | gabt | gäbet | ||
| sie | gaben | gäben | ||
As you can see, the past tense is quite different in the subjunctive because of the umlaut of the stem vowel.
Here is a sampling of the PAST indicative and subjunctive for some other strong verbs:
| heißen | ziehen | kommen | einladen | |||||
| Indicative | Subjunctive | Indicative | Subjunctive | Indicative | Subjunctive | Indicative | Subjunctive | |
| (Sing) | ||||||||
| ich | hieß | hieße | zog | zöge | kam | käme | lud ein | lüde ein |
| du | hießt | hießet | zogst | zögest | kamst | kämest | ludst ein | lüdest ein |
| er, sie, es | hieß | hieße | zog | zöge | kam | käme | lud ein | lüde ein |
| (Plur) | ||||||||
| wir | hießen | hießen | zogen | zögen | kamen | kämen | luden ein | lüden ein |
| ihr | hießt | hießet | zogt | zöget | kamt | kämet | ludet ein | lüdet ein |
| sie | hießen | hießen | zogen | zögen | kamen | kämen | luden ein | lüden ein |
If you think these subjunctive II forms of the strong verbs sound strange you are not alone. As we said before, the Germans don't like them too much either, and they almost always avoid the subjunctive II of both weak and strong verbs by using the würde + infinitive form. Still, you should be able to recognize the subjunctives when you encounter them.