| 
 
                          
                            | 
                                
                                  |  | singen (stem sang)
 | trinken (stem trank)
 | laufen (stem lief)
 | sprechen (stem sprach)
 | essen (stem aß)
 | schlafen (stem schlief)
 |  
                                  |  | ich sang | ich trank | ich lief | ich sprach | ich aß | ich schlief |  
                                  |  | du sangst | du trankst | du liefst | du sprachst | du aßt | du schliefst |  
                                  |  | er/sie/es sang | er/sie/es trank | er/sie/es lief | er/sie/es sprach | er/sie/es aß | er/sie/es schlief |  
                                  |  | wir sangen | wir tranken | wir liefen | wir sprachen | wir aßen | wir schliefen |  
                                  |  | ihr sangt | ihr trankt | ihr lieft | ihr spracht | ihr aßt | ihr schlieft |  
                                  |  | sie sangen | sie tranken | sie liefen | sie sprachen | sie aßen | sie schliefen |  
                                |  |   |   |   |   |   |   |  |  For clear comparison, we have here a table of the endings
                          of the simple tenses (simple present and simple past
                          tense) for weak and strong verbs. As we can see, the
                          endings in present tense for weak and for strong verbs
                          are the same. Here the only difference is in the change
                          of the vowel (mostly) in second and third person singular.
                         
                          
                            | 
                                
                                  |  | weak verb - present tense ending | weak verbs - imperfect
                                    ending | strong verbs - present tense
                                    ending | strong verbs -
                                    imperfect endings |  
                                  |  | e | te | e | - |  
                                  |  | st | test | st | st |  
                                  |  | t | te | t | - |  
                                  |  | en | ten | en | en |  
                                  |  | t | tet | t | t |  
                                  |  | en | ten | en | en |  |  What we can also see is that the endings of the imperfect
                        are really different. The weak form uses actually the
                        conjugation of the present and adds an t(e)
                        to it.
 The strong verbs are even lazier, they just use the
                        same endings like the present tense, and only the stem is
                        changing. How to know which conjugation to choose is described
                        more in detail in chapter
                        15.3.7.
 
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