To Have & To Be in German

“Haben” & “Sein” im Deutschen

To Have & To Be – Summary

Zusammenfassung

The verbs „to have“ („haben“) and „to be“ („sein“) are of high importance in German. They occure frequently, due to their meaning and, of course, because of the function as auxiliary verbs, used in different modes, tenses and other grammatical structures. Here is the conjugation of „haben“ and „sein“ in the present tense.

German haben & sein

If you are interested in the conjugation of these verbs in different tenses, just have a look at the following article.

Well, you simply can’t avoid them. They are everywhere… and they will find you, no matter if you speak English or German. So, look into the face of your two worst enemies in this article: to be and to have in German.

Statistically, these two verbs are the most common ones in both languages. You simply need them when you “want to have a coffee”, or “when you are sad”. Apart from that, they are of high importance, if you want to form different kinds of grammatical structures.

  • sein” – to be
  • haben” – to have

Please, try to keep “to be and to have” in German in mind! As I have already mentioned, these two verbs appear really frequently and have an important role as auxiliary verbs. In the following, we will clear up what “to have” and “to be” in German actually mean and in which grammatical constructions they are used. By the end of this lesson, you’ll be able to express your state of being, as well as what you have, with ease!

The Conjugation of haben & sein in Present Tense

Die Konjugation von “haben” & “sein” in der Gegewart

Forms of to have in German

Well, we will start learning something about the verb “haben” (to have). Actually, it is a little easier than “sein” (to be), as it has a simpler conjugation. Of course, “haben” is the infinitive of the verb. In the following, we will discover its conjugation in different tenses and further of the verb to have in German. So, here is its conjugation in the present tense.

to be _ to have Tab 2

For sure, you could observe that the verb to have in German has the stem “ha” and changes its word endings depending on the person. Its different forms are actually quite regular – so, if you want to refresh your knowledge about verb conjugation, take a quick look at our article about German verbs!

Forms of to be in German

Well, the forms of to be in German are a bit more difficult than the ones of to have. Here, we are talking about an irregular verb. So, there is no real rule that you can follow to understand the conjugation of “sein”, you simply have to learn and memorize its different forms.

to be _ to have Tab 3

Now, as we have cleared up the basic forms of “haben” and “sein”, you should know when to use them. Generally, it is quite similar to the use of “to have” and “to be” in English: First, if you want to express possession, you should use to have in German. Second, if you want to express feelings or emotion, you can use “sein”.

The Conjugation of haben & sein in Past Tense

Die Konjugation von “sein” & “haben” in der Vergangenheit

Forms of “Haben”

After we have cleared up the forms of “sein” and “haben” in German present tense, let’s talk about their forms in the past tense. First of all, you have an infinitive form of these verbs in the past tense:

  • waren” – was
  • hatten” – had

And without losing too much time, I want to show you this table, where you can see their conjugation in the past tense. We will start with “haben”, as a more regular verb.

to be _ to have Tab 4

Forms of “Sein”

Of course, you can clearly see the word stem and the regular changes of the word endings, depending on the person. Unfortunately, the conjugation of “sein” remains irregular. Here you have the table showing them.

to be _ to have Tab 5

Well, we have completed the forms of “to be” and “to have” in German in the past tense. As in the present tense forms, “haben” has regular forms, whereas “sein” is still irregular. So, you simply have to learn these forms by heart.

The Conjugation of haben & sein in Perfect Tense

Die Konjugation von “sein” & “haben” im Perfekt

Forms of “Haben”

Now, we have reached a tense where you can see the importance of the different forms of “sein” and “haben”: You need it every time you want to form verbs in the perfect tense. So, let’s start right ahead with the forms of “haben” in perfect tense.

to be _ to have Tab 6

Actually, “sein” works the same way. The form of the present tense works as an auxiliary verb. So, let’s have a look at the forms of “sein” in the perfect tense.

Forms of “Sein”

to be _ to have Tab 7

Well, if you want to say, “She has been (was) glad,” you’ll need to use “sein” twice in the German sentence:

  1. “sein” conjugated as “sie ist” and
  2. The past participle of “sein”, “gewesen”.

So you will get the sentence “Sie ist froh gewesen.” As you can see here, we use “to have” in English to produce a sentence. In German, we take “sein”. In contrast: “Wir haben eine Party gehabt.” 

This follows the same rules as when using these forms of perfect tense of to be.

The Conjugation of haben & sein in Future Tense

Die Konjugation von “sein” & “haben” im Futur

Forms of to have in German

Finally, we will learn the forms of to be and to have in German in the fourth most common tense in German. So, let’s go straight to the different forms. Just like in the sections above, we will start with the forms of “haben”.

So, for the forms of to have in German in the future tense, we will need future tense forms of “sein” as an auxiliary verb. Here you have the table of its forms.

Forms of “to be”

to be _ to have Tab 8

Actually, the future forms of to be and to have in German are not so complicated, as they are really similar to the way it is formed in the English language.

Well, I hope I could clear up things for you – to be and to have in German are not as difficult as you might think. Put a lot of elbow-grease in studying them, especially the irregular forms of “sein”. They are a crucial element of German grammar, as they are also for the English language. By the way, if you want practice the use of to be and to have in German, enter this website where you can find great interactive exercises.

Exercises

Übungen

Finally, we have reached the last part of this article where you can prove the German skills you have just learned. In the following you will see some phrases that you should complete with the correct terms. Once you have filled all the gaps, just click on the “correct” button and  you can see your errors and the correct results. Good luck and… auf Wiedersehen!

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