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Verb Sein in German

The German verb sein, like its English counterpart (to be), is the most important verb in German. This lesson explains the verb sein (to be) in the present.
This lesson contains topics:

1. Conjugation of verb "sein"
2. Negation with "nicht"
   1. Difference between "kein" and "nicht"
   2. Position of "nicht" in German sentences

Conjugation of verb sein

The verb sein is irregularly conjugated, just like its English counterpart “to be”, i.e., am, are, and is.

We have already learned some examples of the verb sein in previous lessons:

Er ist ein Arzt. (He is a doctor.)

Hier ist ein Mann. (Here is a man.)

Warum ist keine Frau hier? (why is no woman here?)

Die Hunde sind keine Katzen. (Dogs are not cats.)

In these sentences “ist” and "sind" are conjugations of the German verb “sein”.

Sein is an infinitive form. Infinitive forms are important to memorize because, in dictionaries, verbs are written in their infinitive forms.

Following is the sein conjugation table in the present tense.

The easy way to memorize the conjugation of the verb "sein" is to practice it with personal pronouns. The following table shows the conjugation of "sein" with personal pronouns.

Negation with nicht

Previously, we learned the word kein (not, not a, not any), which is used to negate a statement. For example:
Ich bin keine Frau. (I am not a woman.)
Herr Müller ist kein Arzt. (Mr. Müller is not a doctor.)
Sie sind keine Zwillinge. (They are not twins.)
We have also used another word, nicht, for negations in some examples, i.e., "Nein, nicht immer" (no, not always).

Difference between kein and nicht

Kein is used:

• with nouns having indefinite articles (ein, eine)
  Er ist ein Mann. (He is a man.)
  Er ist kein Mann. (He is not a man.)
• and with most of the nouns, which are without an article.
  Er ist Arzt. (He is a doctor.)
  Er ist kein Arzt. (He is not a doctor.)

"Kein" can't be used with adjectives. For example,
"krank" (ill, sick) is an adjective,
and "die Kranke" (the patient) is a noun.
Instead of saying "Ich bin kein krank" ✘, we would say "Ich bin nicht krank" ✔ (I am not ill).

Nicht is an adverb and can be used:

• with nouns having definite articles (der, die, das),
• with nouns having possessive pronouns (mein, dein, sein),
• with possessive pronouns
• with proper nouns,
• with adjectives,
• and to negate a whole sentence.

Ich bin nicht Herr Müller. (I am not Mr. Müller.)
Herr Müller ist nicht mein Bruder. (Mr. Müller is not my borther.)
Sie sind nicht die Zwillinge. (They are not twins.)
Ich bin nicht hungrig. (I'm not hungry)

Du bist Jan oder? (You are Jan?)
Nein, ich bin nicht Jan. (No, I'm not Jan)

Position of "nicht" in German sentences

1. The first element remains the subject.
2. The second element is the verb.
3. The negation "nicht" comes after the verb as an adverb and negates a noun or an adjective.

In the sentence Nein, ich bin nicht Jan, the word "Nein" is an interjection, a particle. Particles don't occupy any position in the beginning. Their position is counted as zero. So, the subject "Ich" is still the first element in this sentence. Some other words that don't occupy position one, if placed at the start of a sentence, are:
ja (yes)
vielleicht (maybe)
wenigstens (at least)
Particles are discussed in detail in lesson 26 (Particles in German) .

Vocabulary building

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