Here are two more irregular verbs. As with many irregular verbs, the stem vowel of "sehen" changes in the present tense for the 2nd and 3rd person singular.
| sehen | ||||
| Singular | ich | sehe | ||
| du | siehst | |||
| er/sie/es | sieht | |||
| Plural | wir | sehen | ||
| ihr | seht | |||
| sie | sehen |
The forms for "wissen" are very irregular. Keep in mind that the stem changes for all three singular forms and the endings are different than those for regular verbs.
| compared to a regular verb |
||||||
| wissen | heißen | |||||
| Singular | ich | weiß | heiße | |||
| du | weißt | heißt | ||||
| er/sie/es | weiß | heißt | ||||
| Plural | wir | wissen | heißen | |||
| ihr | wisst | heißt | ||||
| sie | wissen | heißen |
|
Long or short? As you can see, the stem consonant in "wissen" changes from ss to ß. So which verb forms use ss and which use ß? That's easy, if you're familiar with articulation. Both letters require a voiceless "ess" sound, but ss follows a short vowel and ß follows a long vowel. So if the stem vowel of a verb changes, the spelling of the "ess" can change. With the verb "wissen", the vowel changes from a short i to a long ei. (Double vowels are never short.) |