robben — German conjugation

to crawl

Frequency#2331Regular

Indicative

Present (Präsens) Regular

Präsens is the default present for facts, habits, and near-future plans. German has no continuous aspect in the same way as English, so a single form often covers both “I work” and “I am working” when you add a time adverb or context.

Ich arbeite heute im Homeoffice.

PronounGermanEnglish
ichrobbeI crawl
durobbstyou crawl
er/sie/esrobbthe/she/it crawls
wirrobbenwe crawl
ihrrobbtyou (pl.) crawl
sie/Sierobbenthey crawl

Simple past (Präteritum) Regular

Präteritum is a narrative past, common in print and in northern speech, while southern speakers lean on the perfect in conversation. sein and haben keep their Präteritum even when you otherwise avoid the preterite.

Er war müde, aber er hatte keinen Kaffee mehr.

PronounGermanEnglish
ichrobbteI crawled
durobbtestyou crawled
er/sie/esrobbtehe/she/it crawled
wirrobbtenwe crawled
ihrrobbtetyou (pl.) crawled
sie/Sierobbtenthey crawled

Present perfect (Perfekt) Regular

The Perfekt is the everyday past for finished events: auxiliary haben or sein plus participle, with sein for most motion, coming/going, and some change-of-state verbs.

Wir sind rechtzeitig angekommen und haben gefeiert.

PronounGermanEnglish
ichbin gerobbtI have crawled
dubist gerobbtyou have crawled
er/sie/esist gerobbthe/she/it has crawled
wirsind gerobbtwe have crawled
ihrseid gerobbtyou (pl.) have crawled
sie/Siesind gerobbtthey have crawled

Pluperfect (Plusquamperfekt) Regular

The Plusquamperfekt is the pluperfect: it marks what had already completed before a later past episode in the same narrative.

Sie war schon gegangen, bevor er ankam.

PronounGermanEnglish
ichwar gerobbtI had crawled
duwarst gerobbtyou had crawled
er/sie/eswar gerobbthe/she/it had crawled
wirwaren gerobbtwe had crawled
ihrwart gerobbtyou (pl.) had crawled
sie/Siewaren gerobbtthey had crawled

Future I (Futur I) Regular

Futur I is for predictions, firm promises, and also probability about the present in colloquial German. Everyday speech very often uses Präsens plus a time expression instead.

Morgen schneit es, sagt der Wetterbericht.

PronounGermanEnglish
ichwerde robbenI will crawl
duwirst robbenyou will crawl
er/sie/eswird robbenhe/she/it will crawl
wirwerden robbenwe will crawl
ihrwerdet robbenyou (pl.) will crawl
sie/Siewerden robbenthey will crawl

Future II (Futur II) Regular

Futur II (werden + participle + haben/sein) names an action that will be completed before a later time, and can also express a guess that something must already have happened.

Bis Freitag werde ich alles gepackt haben.

PronounGermanEnglish
ichwerde gerobbt seinI will have crawled
duwirst gerobbt seinyou will have crawled
er/sie/eswird gerobbt seinhe/she/it will have crawled
wirwerden gerobbt seinwe will have crawled
ihrwerdet gerobbt seinyou (pl.) will have crawled
sie/Siewerden gerobbt seinthey will have crawled

Subjunctive

Subjunctive II (Konjunktiv II) Regular

Konjunktiv II is the mood for politeness, contrary-to-fact if-clauses, and reported views. In speech, würde + infinitive often stands in for rarer preterit-based forms.

Könnten Sie mir bitte helfen?

PronounGerman
ichrobbte
durobbtest
er/sie/esrobbte
wirrobbten
ihrrobbtet
sie/Sierobbten

Other forms

Imperative (Imperativ) Regular

The imperative uses the du, ihr, and Sie forms of command; the informal du form drops the -st of the present for many strong verbs, and separable-prefix verbs place the prefix at the end.

Mach bitte schnell, der Zug fährt gleich ab.

PronounGerman
durobbe
ihrrobbt