stopfen — German conjugation

to stuff, to plug

Frequency#581Regular

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
ichstopfeI stuff
dustopfstyou stuff
er/sie/esstopfthe/she/it stuffs
wirstopfenwe stuff
ihrstopftyou (pl.) stuff
sie/Siestopfenthey stuff

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
ichstopfteI stuffed
dustopftestyou stuffed
er/sie/esstopftehe/she/it stuffed
wirstopftenwe stuffed
ihrstopftetyou (pl.) stuffed
sie/Siestopftenthey stuffed

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
ichhabe gestopftI have stuffed
duhast gestopftyou have stuffed
er/sie/eshat gestopfthe/she/it has stuffed
wirhaben gestopftwe have stuffed
ihrhabt gestopftyou (pl.) have stuffed
sie/Siehaben gestopftthey have stuffed

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
ichhatte gestopftI had stuffed
duhattest gestopftyou had stuffed
er/sie/eshatte gestopfthe/she/it had stuffed
wirhatten gestopftwe had stuffed
ihrhattet gestopftyou (pl.) had stuffed
sie/Siehatten gestopftthey had stuffed

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 stopfenI will stuff
duwirst stopfenyou will stuff
er/sie/eswird stopfenhe/she/it will stuff
wirwerden stopfenwe will stuff
ihrwerdet stopfenyou (pl.) will stuff
sie/Siewerden stopfenthey will stuff

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 gestopft habenI will have stuffed
duwirst gestopft habenyou will have stuffed
er/sie/eswird gestopft habenhe/she/it will have stuffed
wirwerden gestopft habenwe will have stuffed
ihrwerdet gestopft habenyou (pl.) will have stuffed
sie/Siewerden gestopft habenthey will have stuffed

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
ichstopfte
dustopftest
er/sie/esstopfte
wirstopften
ihrstopftet
sie/Siestopften

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
dustopfe
ihrstopft