Lesson 2: Unusual Verbs

2.1 Unusual Verb: werden

Werden is one of these unusual verbs. It has several meanings, and here are two of them:

1. Werden means to become, as in to become a teacher or writer. In this case, it is a full verb. Full verbs are combined with adjectives or nouns.
   • If you are going to become a journalist, and you are a woman, you would say "Ich werde Journalistin". For a man it would be "Ich werde Journalist".
     
   
   
2. Werden is also used to express something that will happen in the future. In this case, it is an auxiliary verb. Auxiliary verbs are combined with other full verbs.
   • You already know "Wir lesen die Nachrichten". That means we are reading the news right now. If instead we decide to read them later this evening, we say "Wir werden die Nachrichten lesen." You must use werden and another verb, and the grammatical object die Nachrichten goes in between them.
     
   
   

Conjugations of the verb werden

ich werde	wir werden
du wirst	ihr werdet
er/sie/es wird	sie/Sie werden

In a statement sentence, werden has to be the second part of the sentence, in what we call 'position 2' following the subject, and the other verb has to be at the end of the sentence.

Wir werden die Nachrichten lesen.

Ihr werdet Kaffee trinken.

Gisela und Johann werden die Nachrichten lesen.

Set werden aside for now, while we explore an unusual group of verbs.

2.2 Unusual Group of Verbs: Separable Verbs

There are quite a few verbs in German that have separable prefixes. The prefix is the first section of a word like an, aus, vor or even zurück, and it plays a vital role, as you will see.

Here are five common verbs you will hear in the news:

anfangen	to begin
ausgeben	to spend (money)
zurücktreten	to resign
losgehen	to leave
vorschlagen	to suggest

They separate like this:

an | fangen aus | geben zurück | treten los | gehen vor | schlagen

When used in a statement, the prefix gets kicked to the end of the sentence, and what's left, what we call the verb stem, is conjugated. Let's try that with anfangen:

Ich fange an.	Wir fangen an.
Du fängst an.	Ihr fangt an.
Er fängt an. Sie fängt an.	Sie fangen an. Sie fangen an.

And any additional information, like the time you begin, goes in the middle. Let's use the word heute.

Ich fange heute an.	Wir fangen heute an.
Du fängst heute an.	Ihr fangt heute an.
Er fängt heute an. Sie fängt heute an.	Sie fangen heute an. Sie fangen heute an.

If we were to talk about how much money an organization (Organisation) is spending, say 500,000 EUR, we can use the verb ausgeben to express this. Keep in mind that the additional information of 500,000 EUR has to go between the verb and the prefix.

Die Organisation gibt 500.000 Euro aus.

This is why it's necessary to listen to or to read an entire sentence in German before you can determine what the meaning is.

The verb zurücktreten is a great example of how a prefix can change the meaning of a verb completely.

Treten by itself means to step or to kick, or in the case of a law, when combined with the two words in Kraft, it means to come into force.

Das Gesetz tritt heute in Kraft. The law comes into force today.

But add the prefix zurück to the verb treten, and the meaning changes completely and becomes to resign.

Boris Johnson tritt als Vorsitzender der Partei zurück. Boris Johnson resigns as the leader of the party.

That prefix may be a short word at the very end of the sentence, however it can change the entire meaning of the sentence.

So when in doubt, wait until you have the entire sentence in front of you. Make sure you have all the parts of the verb.