What you’ll be able to do
After this lesson, you will be able to say what something is and what someone has in German. You will conjugate sein (to be) and haben (to have) in the present tense for all six grammatical persons. You will also recognise both verbs in a real German news article at A1 level.
The idea
German has many irregular verbs, but two matter more than all the others at the start: sein and haben. You need them to describe identity, state, possession, and feelings. You also need them as helping verbs to build past tenses later on. That is why this lesson comes before almost everything else in Phase 2.
Both verbs are irregular. You cannot predict their forms from a pattern. You simply have to learn each one. The good news: once you know these two, you can build hundreds of useful sentences immediately.
Sein covers identity and state. Use it for professions, nationalities, feelings, and descriptions. Haben covers possession and relationships. Use it for objects, family members, time, and many common expressions.
See it in German
Here is the full present-tense conjugation of both verbs, followed by example sentences you could use this week.
Sein (to be)
- Ich bin – I am
- Du bist – You are (informal singular)
- Er / Sie / Es ist – He / She / It is
- Wir sind – We are
- Ihr seid – You are (informal plural)
- Sie sind – They are / You are (formal)
Haben (to have)
- Ich habe – I have
- Du hast – You have (informal singular)
- Er / Sie / Es hat – He / She / It has
- Wir haben – We have
- Ihr habt – You have (informal plural)
- Sie haben – They have / You have (formal)
Example sentences with sein
- Ich bin Lehrer. (I am a teacher.)
- Sie ist müde. (She is tired.)
- Wir sind in Berlin. (We are in Berlin.)
- Das ist gut. (That is good.)
Example sentences with haben
- Ich habe einen Hund. (I have a dog.)
- Du hast Zeit. (You have time.)
- Wir haben zwei Kinder. (We have two children.)
- Er hat Hunger. (He is hungry. Literally: He has hunger.)
Notice that German often uses haben where English uses sein. Hunger haben, Durst haben (to be thirsty), Recht haben (to be right) — these all take haben. This is one of the first habits you need to build.
Read it in the wild
Now put the conjugation into practice. Every news article on this site publishes an A1 German version and an A2 German version, each with a vocabulary box above the text. The vocabulary box translates every word that is not part of the previous lesson vocabulary. That puts you at roughly 95–98% known words, which is the threshold where reading actually teaches you new language.
Your task: Open any A1 article on this site. Read through it once without stopping. Then go back and highlight every form of sein and haben you can find. You will see ist, sind, bin, hat, haben, hast, and seid. Count them. Notice which subject goes with which form. That pattern recognition is the whole point of reading practice.
If you want a place to start, try any article in the [INTERNAL: Daily Life & Culture] category. Those topics use sein and haben constantly because they describe people, places, and possessions.
Common mistakes
These are the errors learners make most often with these two verbs. Read them before you practise so you can catch yourself.
- Mixing up ist and sind. Ist goes with one person or thing (er, sie, es, or a singular noun). Sind goes with wir, ihr, sie (plural), or a plural noun. Die Kinder sind klein, not Die Kinder ist klein.
- Saying ich hab instead of ich habe in writing. In spoken German, ich hab is completely normal. In writing, use the full form ich habe until you are comfortable with register.
- Using sein where German needs haben. Ich bin hungrig is understandable but not idiomatic. Say Ich habe Hunger. The same goes for Durst haben and Recht haben.
- Forgetting that Sie (formal) takes the same verb form as sie (they). Sie sind and Sie haben cover both “you formal” and “they”. Context tells you which one is meant.
- Confusing du bist and du hast. The -st ending on bist belongs to sein. The -st ending on hast belongs to haben. They sound similar but mean completely different things.
Where you are now
This is lesson 9 of 49. You came here from How to Form a German Sentence, where you learned basic word order. Now you have the two most important verbs to fill those sentence structures with real meaning. Next up is I, You, We: German Personal Pronouns, which will make every sentence you have studied so far feel more natural. From there, you will start building longer, more useful sentences every lesson.
