(un)Pronounceable Verb Forms

We would like to draw your attention to a group of verbs whose stems finish with certain consonants that cause pronunciation problems when you add endings. These fall into three groups, for which German has found different solutions.

• Group 1: -t, -d, consonants + m, consonants + n
• Group 2: -s, -ß
• Group 3: -er, -el

Group 1

You know that the ending of the 2nd person singular is 'st', and the 3rd person singular and the 2nd person plural is 't'.

If you add 'st' or 't' to a stem ending in 't' or 'd' you obviously create pronunciation problems. The verbs whose stem ends with 'm' or 'n' where both are preceded by another consonant (except -r) cause a similar problem.

In order to help your lips and tongue German adds an -e- between the stem and the ending:

To the first group belong verbs like: bitten, gründen, testen, fürchten, retten, warten, streiten, reden, finden, binden, meiden, schneiden, melden, senden. You may add zeichnen and trocknen.

However, verbs like lernen or wärmen also end with 'm' or 'n', but the preceding 'r' has the quality of a vowel, therefore there is no need to insert an -e- to facilitate the prononciation.

Group 2

Verbs ending in -s or -ß pose a problem in the second person singular only, which is solved by omitting the extra -s- of the -st ending.

Reisen is another verb we have studied that is irregular in this way: du reist.

Group 3

'l' and 'r' are liquid consonants that have the quality of vowels, especially between two identical vowels. So verbs with a stem ending in -er or -el have a special pattern of conjugation:

• where the ending is -e (first person singular), the -e- BEFORE the liquid consonant is omitted.
• where the ending is -en or -e- plus another consonant, the -e- AFTER the liquid is omitted.

This is true for the infinitives, too. Therefore: lächeln and klettern, not "lächelen" or "kletteren"! This makes these verbs easy to recognze. They include: streicheln, handeln, zweifeln, wandern, erwidern, bügeln, wechseln, klingeln, fördern, ändern, rudern.