Irregular verbs haben and sein: Imperfect Tense

haben - to have

ich hatte                      I had

du hattest                    you had

er/sie/es hatte           he/she/it had

wir hatten                   we had

ihr hattet                     you (pl) had

sie hatten                    they had

sein - to be

ich war                         I was

du warst                      you were

er/sie/es war              he/she/it was

wir waren                   we were

ihr wart                       you (pl) were

sie waren                    they were

Irregular Verbs: ‘haben’ and ‘sein’

Today we are looking at two very important verbs: haben (to have) and sein (to be). Both are irregular and need to be memorized. You need these two verbs to form lots of simple sentences but also to talk about the past.

haben – to have

ich habe                      I have

du hast                        you have

er/sie/es/man hat      he/she/it/one has

wir haben                    we have

ihr habt                       you have (pl)

sie haben                     they have

sein – to be

ich bin                         I am

du bist                         you are

er/sie/es/man ist       he/she/it/one is

wir sind                       we are

ihr seid                        you are (pl)

sie sind                        they are

As mentioned before, you need ‘haben’ and ‘sein’ to form the Perfect Tense - the most common way to report about past events in spoken German. We will look at the Perfect Tense in the next blog.

Tasks

for beginners: Memorize the ich, du, er/sie/es forms of both verbs.

for advanced learners: Memorize all forms of haben and sein.