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Ablaut Classes in German

There are seven main ablaut classes that describe the vowel shift patterns found in conjugating strong verbs in Germanic languages like German. These patterns make German strong verb conjugation easier to learn. Some German verbs even follow the same pattern as their English cognates. The classes are defined by the vowels in the infinitive, past tense, and past participle forms. The document provides a table to look up the class of individual German verbs based on their vowel pattern.

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Satya Narayanan
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419 views

Ablaut Classes in German

There are seven main ablaut classes that describe the vowel shift patterns found in conjugating strong verbs in Germanic languages like German. These patterns make German strong verb conjugation easier to learn. Some German verbs even follow the same pattern as their English cognates. The classes are defined by the vowels in the infinitive, past tense, and past participle forms. The document provides a table to look up the class of individual German verbs based on their vowel pattern.

Uploaded by

Satya Narayanan
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Ablaut Classes Strong-verb vowel patterns in German ablaut n. [G, fr.

ab away from + Laut sound] (1849) a systematic variation of vowels in the same root or affix or in related roots or affixes esp. in the Indo-European languages that is usu. paralleled by differences in use or meaning (as in sing, sang, sung, song) There are seven main ablaut classes or categories found in the conjugation of verbs in modern Germanic languages (German, Dutch, English, etc.). These vowel-shift patterns make it easier to learn how to conjugate strong verbs in German. Some German verbs even follow the identical English vowel pattern: German trinken, trank, getrunken vs. English drink, drank, drunk. In modern German, classes 3b and 4 are identical. In English, Class 4 verbs have retained an -n in the past participle (broken, spoken) not found in Class 3b. Use the table below to learn more about German strong-verb patterns and the ablaut classes. Click on a class to see German verbs in that class and the vowel pattern for that category. Also see the alphabetical list below.

Ablaut Patterns in German - Strong-Verb Conjugation Patterns


Click on an ablaut class for details Note: Because the ablaut classes are based on the vowel sounds in Proto-Indo-European, Old English, and Old High German, the spelling of the vowels may differ in modern English and German. Ablaut Class 1a. ei - i - i 1b. ei - ie - ie 2. ie - o - o 3a. i - a - u/o 3b. e - a - o 4. e - a - o 5. e/i - a - e 6. a - u - a 7. [x] - ie - [x]* German Examples beissen, biss, gebissen leiden, litt, gelitten bleiben, blieb, geblieben schreiben, schrieb, geschrieben fliegen, flog, geflogen ziehen, zog, gezogen finden, fand, gefunden beginnen, begann, begonnen helfen, half, geholfen befehlen, befahl, befohlen See Class 3b Same as 3b in modern German essen, a, gegessen bitten, bat, gebeten graben, grub, gegraben blasen, blies, geblasen freeze, froze, frozen shoot, shot, shot begin, began, begun sing, sang, sung win, won, won find, found, found break, broke, broken speak, spoke (spake), spoken eat, ate, eaten give, gave, given shake, shook, shaken fall, fell, fallen English Examples drive, drove, driven slide, slid, slid

*Class 7 verbs are uniform in having an ie past tense form, but the other vowels in the infinitive or past participle forms can vary: a/au/ei/o/u. See the chart for details. Exceptions Ausnahmen Odd verb patterns Mixed Verbs - German verbs that combine weak and strong forms Ablaut Classes - Alphabetical List German Strong-Verb Vowel Patterns a - ie - a (Class 7) a - u - a (Class 6) e - a - e (Class 5) e - a - o (Class 3b/4) e - o - o (Class 3b/4) ei - i - i (Class 1a) ei - ie - ie (Class 1b) i - a - o/u (Class 3a) ie - o - o (Class 2) [x] - ie - [x] (Class 7)

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