what are strong and weak verbs in german?

Question

what does it mean by strong or weak?

Answer 1

Weak verbs are called "regular" in English. They follow regular rules of conjugation for all their forms. Strong verbs are called "irregular" in English, they have unique conjugations.

Here's a good way to look at it: Weaklings go along with the crowd. The strong strike out in their own directions.

Answer 2

Hmm how to explain it. I think the simplest way to say it is that weak verbs follow the rules. For example if you put a weak verb into the past tense, such as 'machen' then it follows the normal rule of adding 'ge' at the begin, and replacing the 'en' ending with a 't' instead to make 'gemacht'

Strong verbs don't do this. Some will change their vowel, some will swap vowels around - I think it depends what tense you are using. But for example, 'sehen' is a strong verb and when put into the past tense goes to 'gesehen'. I hope this helps ^^

Answer 3

I can explain this using English as it is a Germanic language.

Strong conjugation of verbs occurs when the vowel changes in different tenses. That sounds a lot more complicated than it actually is!

example of strong conjugation:
Sing, Sang, Sung

whereas in a weakly conjugated verb the vowel remains unaltered
Look,looked,looked

Answer 4

No Fixed Rules As in Sanskrit. German Grammar Can Be Tricky Both The Languages Have A Similar Grammar And Similar Flow

Answer 5

As others have said, strong verbs change the vowel in different tenses, while weak ones add endings, e.g.,
sprechen -> past tense sprach, past participle gesprochen but melden -> meldete, gemeldet. Notice too that there is a further difference, namely, the past participle of strong verbs ends in -en, while that of weak ones ends in -(e)t.

Answer 6

Same as in English - a strong verb changes its vowel sound in different tenses, e.g. I sing, I sang, I have sung; or sometimes keeps it all the same, I hit, I hit (past tense), I have hit.

A weak verb uses standard endings, e.g. I love, I loved, I have loved.

Answer 7

mmkay listen. I'm only a little german. I mean i can fluently speak the language But i'm just saying its not something very 'simple'. Just letting ya know :)