Lesson-German Present Perfect-Mixed Verbs

Another category of verbs that display both strong and weak forms are the “mixed” verbs (gemischte Verben), otherwise known as weak irregular verbs. These verbs have the weak form of the participle (ge + t) along with stem vowel changes found in strong verbs (e.g. e → a, as in kennen → gekannt). The present tense of these verbs is regular in form (exception: “wissen” becomes “weiss”), and the changes only occur in the past tenses.

The most common mixed verbs are: brennen, kennen, rennen, nennen, wissen, denken, and bringen. Their past participles are: gebrannt, gekannt, gerannt, genannt, gewusst, gedacht, and gebracht, respectively.