All the vocabulary in the world, is useless if you can’t use it in a sentence. Let’s talk about the word “sein”, which is just “to be”.
The Present Tense
We are always in some sort of state of emotional being, for example we can be tired (müde) or we can be awake (wach).
To describe what we are, or the state we are in, basically to say “I am…” we use the German word “sein” or “bist”
It has the typical 6 conjugation, but is a bit trickier as each conjugation has a completely different looking word.
The conjugations here are (watch this part →)
| Ich bin | I am |
| Du bist | You are |
| Er/Sie/es ist | He/She/It is |
| Wir sind | We are |
| Ihr seid | Ya’ll are |
| Sie sind | They are |
Here are some examples (watch this part →)
| Ich bin müde. | I am tired. |
| Du bist sauer. | You are angry. |
| Er ist erschöpft. | He is exhausted. |
| Wir sind wach. | We are awake. |
| Ihr seid fröhlich. | Ya’ll are happy. |
| Sie sind traurig. | They are sad. |
Profession, Nationality & the Article Rule
It’s not just used as an emotional state though, you can use it to describe your profession, nationality, or most other nouns. (watch this part →)
| Er ist Lehrer. | He is a teacher. |
| Ich bin Amerikaner. | I am an American. |
You may be questioning me on what I just wrote and rightfully so. In English, we have to use some sort of Article when describing something as a noun. “He is a teacher” vs “He is teacher”.
Grammar textbooks and teachers officially will teach you that you do not need an article if the noun is not modified by an adjective. Meaning as long as you are only saying “I am a teacher” you can say “Ich bin Lehrer”. But if you describe the noun, or use an adjective to modify it, you have to use an Article. So for example “I am a good teacher” becomes “Ich bin ein guter Lehrer”
Here is where it can get frustrating for those learning German, that rule is really only the high level standard, or official written requirements. The truth is, if you are speaking to somebody, you will not drop the article. You will typically include the a or an if you are describing something with a noun. (watch this part →)
| Ich bin ein Hund | I am a dog |
| Du bist eine Katze | You are a cat |
| Er ist ein Japaner | He is Japanese. |
I want to touch on the different tenses as well. There are overall 6 different tenses, but truth be told, for most of us, we are only using 3 for the most part. I do want to eventually write up a post about the nuances of all the different tenses, but for the purposes of getting you to be able to have a conversation, I don’t want to overwhelm you.
The Past Tense (Präteritum)
You have your past tense, specifically simple past (Präteritum), which is going to be (watch this part →)
| Ich war | I was |
| Du warst | You were |
| Er/Sie/es war | He/She/It was |
| Wir waren | We were |
| Ihr wart | Ya’ll were |
| Sie waren | They were |
The Future Tense (Futur I)
and then your future tense, specifically simple Future (Futur I) (watch this part →)
| Ich werde sein | I will be |
| Du wirst sein | You will be |
| Er/Sie/Es wird sein | He/She/It will be |
| Wir werden sein | We will be |
| Ihr werdet sein | Ya’ll will be |
| Sie werden sein | They will be |
Sein as a Helper Verb
To add to the confusion,
There are some other uses for the word “Sein” as well. Depending in which tense you are speaking in, it may be a auxiliary (fancy word for helper word) verb to help put the main verb into it’s proper tense.
Generally speaking, if you are using a verb that describe motion, condition or state of being, or refers to a certain change in circumstances, you’ll need to use a helper word. (watch this part →)
| Ich bin eingeschlafen. | I fell asleep. |
| Er ist dahin gelaufen. | He walked there. |
| Es ist ihm nicht gelungen. | He did not succeed |
