German Present Perfect - Mixed Verbs

Overview

As with the other irregular verbs, the participles for mixed verbs need to be memorized. As their name implies, these mixed verbs mix elements of the weak and strong verbs to form their past participles. While they end in -t like weak verbs, they have a stem change like strong verbs.

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Mixed Verbs (gemischte Verben)

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.

 Verb Present Tense (3rd person singular) Present Perfect (3rd person singular)
 brennen brennt  hat gebrannt
 bringen bringt  hat gebracht
 denken denkt  hat gedacht
 kennen kennt  hat gekannt
 nennen nennt  hat genannt
 rennen rennt  ist gerannt
 wissen weiß  hat gewusst

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