Template:de-conj/documentation

Weak verbs
For most weak verbs, it is unnecessary to specify any parameters. For example, for, just write:

which produces

Note that the module automatically recognizes that verbs in -eln need to be handled specially, and that verbs in ver- don't have the ge- prefix in the past participle.

You can also specify the verb explicitly, which is useful e.g. if you're invoking on a User:... or other test page:

which has the same result as above, but works on any page.

If the verb has a separable prefix, write the verb with a  between the prefix and the main verb, e.g. for, use:

which produces

Note that the module automatically recognizes the need to insert an extra e before certain endings for this particular verb (e.g. third person singular present zeichnet ab vs. verwandelt or macht auf without this extra e); correctly handles placing the separable prefix before or after the main verb depending on the form; and adds a third section for dependent-clause variants of finite forms.

Multiple separable prefixes can be handled, e.g. for :

which produces

If the separable prefix is written with a space after it, use an underscore in place of a dot, e.g. for :

which produces

Note that the module automatically generates the zu-infinitive form kennen zu lernen with a space after, whereas the alternative/older spelling (which would use ) would have a zu-infinitive kennenzulernen.

Multiple underscores can be used, just as with multiple dots, and underscores can be combined with dots, as with :

Strong verbs
For strong verbs, you must specify the principal parts; at minimum, the past tense and past participle, and also the present third-person singular and/or past subjunctive if they are unpredictable. For example, for, use this:

which produces

Here, neither the third-person singular nor past subjunctive need to be given, because they are derivable respectively from the infinitive and past tense.

For separable prefixes, use a  as above, e.g. for :

Note that the separable prefix is only written once, and the forms inside of  are given without the prefix.

If there is an inseparable prefix, however, it must be repeated, e.g. for :

If the past subjunctive has a different stem from the past tense, specify the first singular past subjunctive as the third principal part inside of angle brackets, e.g. for, with first singular past subjunctive fände:



If the second and third singular present indicative have a different stem from the infinitive, specify the third singular present indicative before the past tense, separated by, as for :

Sometimes, you may need to specify both the third singular present indicative and the past subjunctive, as for :

If the third singular present indicative ends in a -t that forms part of the stem, indicate this by placing a  after the form to indicate that it is a stem, as for, with third singular present rät (second singular present rätst not #räst):

Specifying the auxiliary
Some verbs take as an auxiliary instead of or in addition to. An example is, which takes , e.g. ich bin gegangen "I went/I have gone". To indicate this, write the word  inside of angle brackets, as follows:

which produces

Here, a  separates different indicators (specifications) inside of angle brackets; the principal parts function as one indicator, and the auxiliary as another.

To indicate that a weak verb takes, as with , write as follows:

or alternatively



Here, because there is only one indicator inside of angle brackets, no separating  is needed.

If a verb can take either  or , as with , specify them both, separated by a comma:

which produces

Controlling whether ge- appears
In weak verbs, the module tries to predict whether to include the prefix in the past participle. Most of the time it gets it right, using the following algorithm:
 * 1) If the verb ends in  with at least one preceding vowel, as in  or, ge- is suppressed. (The "one preceding vowel" rule avoids firing on , , , , , etc.)
 * 2) If the verb begins with a recognizable inseparable prefix with at least one following vowel in the stem, ge- is suppressed.
 * 3) * The list of inseparable prefixes is as follows:, , , , , , , and , as well as the following, which can be either separable or inseparable: , , , , , , ,.
 * 4) * The "one following vowel" rule avoids firing on, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , etc.
 * 5) * As an exception to this rule, it does not fire on verbs beginning with bei-, beu-, gei- or geu- without a following vowel in the stem. This avoids firing on, , , , and . (It also wrongly excludes , which needs an explicit  indicator; see below.)
 * 6) All other verbs get a ge- prefix by default.

Occasionally, this algorithm fails. For these cases, specify either  or   explicitly inside of angle brackets. For example, does not have ge- but doesn't begin with a recognizable inseparable prefix or end in -ieren. Specify this verb as follows:

Conversely, does not begin with the inseparable prefix  with a following vowel in the stem, and does require ge-. Specify this as follows:

If a verb can go both ways, either taking or not taking ge-, specify both variants, e.g. for, with past participle either offenbart or geoffenbart:

As described above, a specification like  is an indicator. If you need to specify multiple indicators inside of angle brackets, separate them with a dot. A case that needs this is, which needs both  and. Specify this as follows:

Controlling whether the -e- infix appears
Some weak verbs, e.g. and, have an extra -e- in certain forms (du atmest, er atmet, ich atmete), and the bare imperative #atm is suppressed. Normally this is determined automatically: This can be overridden using the  indicator to force the extra -e- to appear, or   to force it not to appear. This can be used, for example, with, which has second person singular du kniest (not #du knist):
 * 1) Verbs whose stem ends in a consonant other than r or l, followed by m or n, have the extra -e-. (Hence  and  do not.)
 * 2) But verbs in a vowel + h + m/n (e.g., ) do not.
 * 3) Nor do verbs ending in -mmen or -nnen (e.g., ).

Some verbs borrowed from English, e.g. and, can be conjugated either with or without the extra -e-. To specify this, use an alternation, as described below under.

Long and short imperatives
Most verbs have both a "long" imperative ending in -e and a "short" one not ending in -e. The exceptions are as follows: For type (1) verbs with only the short imperative, you can force both long and short variants to appear using the indicator. This is used, for example, with, which has third singular present er sieht and imperative either sieh! or siehe!:
 * 1) Verbs with a distinct third-person singular stem (e.g., third person singular er tritt) use that stem for the imperative, and have only the "short" variant: tritt! not #tritte!. Exception: If the third-person singular stem has an ä or ö in it (e.g. , er fährt; , er stößt), this stem is not used. Instead, the infinitive stem is used, and both "long" and "short" variants exist: fahr! or fahre!.
 * 2) Verbs with an -e- infix in the second and third person singular present (see  above) have only the "long" variant: atme! "breathe", zeichne! "draw", not #atm! or #zeichn!.
 * 3) Other verbs have both "long" and "short" variants.

For type (3) verbs with both the long and short imperative, you can suppress the long variant and force only the short one to appear using the indicator.

Irregular weak verbs
Some verbs are conjugated in the past tense as weak verbs but have irregular forms. Examples are (past tense brachte) and  (past tense dachte an). To specify e.g. the conjugation of, use the following:

Note how the format is identical to that of strong verbs, specifying all the necessary principal parts. The module knows that this is a weak verb because the past tense ends in -te, whereas strong verbs have a past tense ending in something else (usually a consonant).

Irregular verbs
A few verbs are irregular beyond the normal variation that can be handled by specifying the principal parts. These verbs are, , and , along with their derivatives. For these verbs, use the indicator. There is no need to specify any principal parts, as the module has special handling for these particular verbs. For example, for :

Here we specify only the indicators  (to indicate that the verb is irregular) and   (to indicate the auxiliary).

Preterite-present verbs
For preterite-present verbs such as and, use the indicator   and specify the principal parts as normal. The main difference between these verbs and strong verbs is that what is normally the second and third person singular present stem is for these verbs used for the entire singular present, with endings reminiscent of strong verbs. For example, for :

which produces

The only preterite-present verb with an imperative is, whose imperative is handled specially by the module.

Multiple variant principal parts
Some verbs have more than one possible past tense, past participle or past subjunctive. To indicate this, separate the variants with a colon. An example is, with past subjunctive either höbe or hübe:

which produces

Another example is, with past tense either sendete or sandte, and corresponding past participle either gesendet or gesandt:

Alternative conjugations
Some verbs have multiple possible conjugations. An example is, which can be conjugated either weak or strong. To indicate such alternatives, place the different conjugations inside of double parentheses, separated by a comma. For example:

which produces

Note how the variants are merged so that redundant forms between the variants are eliminated.

Another situation that comes up occasionally where this syntax can be used is verbs whose prefix is either separable or inseparable. An example is, whose present is either er obwalte (stress on the second syllable, past participle obwalten) or er walte ob (stress on the first syllable, past participle obgewalten). Specify this as follows:

which produces

Another example where this syntax is useful is, which has forms without an extra -e- infix (er framt) and forms with it (er framet). See above for information on this infix. This can be specified as follows:

or even just

A similar but more complex example is, where the forms with the -e- infix (er managet) are less common than the forms without it (er managt). This can be indicated using footnotes:

which produces

Here, we add an infinitive footnote (the first footnote, not attached to anything), as well as footnotes on the past tense and past participle, including two past participle variants (gemanaget and gemanaged). Note that, when deduplicating repeated forms, the footnotes (or lack thereof) come from the first form. This means that only the forms that differ between the two alternative conjugations get the footnotes, which is generally correct.

Third-person-only verbs
Some verbs are conjugated only in the third person, either the singular only or only in the singular and plural. To indicate this, use  for verbs only conjugated in the third person singular (generally impersonal verbs), and   for verbs only conjugated in the third person singular and plural. An example of the former is :

which produces

An example of the latter is :

Third-singular-only verbs change the pronoun from to, consistent with their predominantly or exclusively impersonal use, but verbs conjugated only in the third person singular and plural do not make this change, as they can take inanimate objects (including masculine and feminine ones) as subjects.

Conjoined verbs
Conjoined verbs such as can be conjugated by placing the appropriate angle-bracket specification after each verb. For example:

which produces

Unlike with single weak verbs, the angle brackets cannot be omitted here on.