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German grammar · A1

Sein and Haben: The Two German Verbs to Learn First

Sein (to be) and haben (to have) are the two most frequent verbs in German, they are both irregular, and they are the auxiliaries used to build the past tense. There is no way around learning them cold.

The forms

Sein: ich bin, du bist, er ist, wir sind, ihr seid, sie sind. Almost nothing here resembles the infinitive, which is why it has to be memorised rather than derived.

Haben: ich habe, du hast, er hat, wir haben, ihr habt, sie haben. This one is closer to regular — the irregularity is only the missing b in the du and er forms.

Where German uses haben and English uses to be

A set of everyday states are expressed in German with haben where English uses to be. Ich habe Hunger (I am hungry), ich habe Durst (I am thirsty), ich habe Angst (I am afraid), and crucially ich bin 30 Jahre alt for age — that last one goes the other way, using sein.

These are fixed expressions rather than a rule you can reason from, so they are best learned as whole phrases. Ich bin Hunger is not a small slip; it is unintelligible.

Their role in the past tense

Both verbs do double duty as auxiliaries in the perfect tense, the normal way of talking about the past in spoken German. Most verbs take haben; verbs of movement and change of state take sein.

Both also have their own simple past forms — war and hatte — which are used in speech far more than the simple past of other verbs. Ich war in Berlin is much more natural than the perfect equivalent.

Es gibt: the other way to say there is

English there is and there are do not translate with sein. German uses the fixed expression es gibt, and it takes the accusative.

Es gibt einen Supermarkt in der Nähe. Es gibt keine Milch mehr. The form never changes for number: es gibt covers both singular and plural, so es gibt zwei Kinos is correct as it stands.

The literal-looking es ist exists but means something different, and building da ist ein Supermarkt on the English pattern points at a specific visible thing rather than stating that one exists.

Examples

• Wir sind Studenten.We are students.
• Hast du Zeit?Do you have time?

Mistakes to avoid

The classic errors are translating English I am hungry literally with sein, and mixing the two verbs' irregular forms under pressure.

• ✗ du habst / er habt✓ du hast / er hat
• ✗ Ich bin Hunger.✓ Ich habe Hunger.
• ✗ Ich bin 25 Jahre.✓ Ich bin 25 Jahre alt.

How this is tested in the exam

You cannot complete Sprechen Teil 1 — the self-introduction — without both verbs, since name, age, origin and family all run through them. They are equally unavoidable in Schreiben. Because they appear so often, an error in either is repeated across the whole paper.

Frequently asked questions

How do you conjugate sein in German?

Ich bin, du bist, er/sie/es ist, wir sind, ihr seid, sie/Sie sind. The forms do not resemble the infinitive and have to be memorised.

Why does German say ich habe Hunger?

Because German treats hunger as something you have rather than something you are. The same pattern covers Durst, Angst and Recht. Age, by contrast, uses sein: ich bin 30 Jahre alt.

When is sein used in the perfect tense?

With verbs of movement and change of state, such as gehen, fahren, kommen, bleiben and werden. Most other verbs take haben.

Should I say ich war or ich bin gewesen?

Both are correct, but ich war is far more common in speech and is what an examiner will expect. The same applies to ich hatte rather than ich habe gehabt.