While you learn German, one of the first and most useful verbs you’ll see popping up everywhere is haben, which means “to have” in German. Since this term is so fundamental, you’ll want to get as comfortable with using haben as you would with “have a good day” in German or the terms for “you” in German. If you want to better understand the many conjugated forms of haben and need some help incorporating it into your German sentences, then check out this clear and easy guide for haben conjugation.
Table of Contents
Why haben is one of the most-used German verbs
Two steps to start conjugating haben in German
Haben conjugation in the 3 German simple tenses
Using past participles with haben correctly
The 3 perfect tenses and how to use haben in them
Frequently asked questions about haben conjugation
Why haben is one of the most-used German verbs
The versatile German verb haben (to have) is one of the most-used auxiliary verbs in the entirety of the German language. This is because, unlike most verbs, haben can be used by itself or combined with other verbs to create new and unique meanings.
Use haben
to show possession
to function as an auxiliary verb for perfect tenses
as a modal verb in German, to say “have to” or “need to” do something
You can read a few practical examples of haben in German sentences in this chart and see how its conjugation changes.
Two steps to start conjugating haben in German
Ready to sound like 133 million people who speak German who use haben (to have) everyday? Then you’ll be happy to know there are only two steps to keep in mind to conjugate haben accurately. Keep in mind that since haben is an irregular German verb, you won’t be able to follow the normal rules of German conjugation.
How long it takes to learn German often relies on how easy you make the process for yourself. Review these two steps below then apply them to each of the six German tenses to be able to conjugate haben in any sentence you can dream up!
1. Identify the subject of your sentence
You’ll likely find this step to be the easiest one out of the two. In order to conjugate haben, you have to identify the subject of your sentence. A “subject” is a noun or pronoun that is performing the action of the sentence. Each pronoun in German has its own influence on verb conjugation, (meaning changing the spelling of haben). Conjugating haben is very similar to sein conjugation, another critically important verb that means “to be.”
See the list below to introduce yourself to how haben is conjugated with each pronoun in the present tense:
ich habe = I have
du hast = you have
er/sie/es hat = he/she/it has
ihr habt = you all (informal) have
sie haben = they have
Sie haben = you (formal) have
If the subject of your sentence is a noun, rather than a pronoun, such as “the butcher” or “Jessica,” then haben conjugation in German will always act as if that noun were “he/she/it” instead. You will find this to be true for all six German tenses, but here are a few examples in the present tense so you can see this in action.
Die Ärztin hat viele schwangere Patientinnen. = The doctor has many pregnant patients.
Ihr Leben hat gerade begonnen. = Her life has just begun.
2. Figure out which German tense is being used
The next step is to know what German tense you need to use. This is because different tenses, which tell the reader or listener when an action or event happened, each have their own forms of haben conjugation and determine where haben shows up in a sentence.
The chart below introduces the six German tenses along with an example in German and English.
Haben conjugation in the 3 German simple tenses
Now that you have the framework for conjugating haben (to have), let’s apply this knowledge to practical sentences. The best place to start is with the simple tenses because their sentence structure is, well, simpler and easier to grasp. The three simple tenses in German are Präsens (simple present tense), Präteritum (simple past tense), Futur I (simple future tense).
Look at the following sections to learn how to conjugate haben and start out easy.
Conjugating haben in the present tense
The simple present tense, or Präsens in German, is how you discuss things in the here and now. Read the table below to see how haben (to have) conjugates in the present tense along with a few practical sentence examples:
Tips for conjugating haben in the simple past tense
When something happened in the past, and is no longer the case in the present, you’ll have to write about it in Präteritum (simple past tense). It’s important to know that, while this past tense is easy to pick up, it isn’t used much, if at all, in speech and should only be used when writing.
Check out how haben conjugation in German works within the simple past tense along with some helpful examples:
How to use haben in the simple future tense
Forward thinkers and hopeful visionaries alike often discuss things yet to come, and in German, this is done in Futur I (simple future tense). This tense may throw you a bit of a curveball, and here’s why: you don’t need to conjugate haben (to have)! Instead, you’ll conjugate werden (will) and place it where you would normally place your conjugated haben. Finally, you’ll drop haben in its infinitive, unchanged spelling at the very end of your sentence.
The chart here shows off this sentence surgery needed to use haben in the simple future tense next to information on how to conjugate werden:
Using past participles with haben correctly
When you get to a point where you feel confident with the conjugation for haben (to have) in the three simple tenses described above, you’re ready to meet a good friend of haben: past participles. Past participles are simply the past tense version of a common German verb (to buy, to eat) and are used to form all three perfect tenses detailed below.
While German sentence structure is more flexible, a past participle will typically find its home at the end of your sentence. Meanwhile, our conjugated haben will stick closer to the front of the sentence right by the subject.
Here are a few sentence examples showing off this relationship off, with haben and the past participle highlighted:
Ich habe eine Zeitung verkauft. = I have sold a newspaper.
Er hat der Schülerin ein Buch gegeben. = He has given a book to a student.
How to form a past participle in German
To form a past participle in German, known as Partizip II, we just need to change up the spelling of our German verb a bit. In English, we form past participles by dropping off the “-ing” from the end of a verb like “walking” or “talking” and replacing it with “-ed” as in “walked” and “talked.”
For the most part, Germans form their past participles by adding a ge- to the front of a verb stem, meaning the core, unchanging part of the verb, and ending the verb with a -t.
For most verbs, use the formula:
ge- + [verb stem] + -t
Examples:
kaufen (to buy) = gekauft (bought)
warten (to wait) = gewartet (waited)
arbeiten (to work) = gearbeitet (worked)
For irregular German verbs, the process is similar, but the ending will be -en rather than -t and there may be a vowel change in the verb stem:
ge- + [verb stem with possible vowel change] + -en
Examples:
nehmen (to take) = genommen (taken)
schreiben (to write) = geschrieben (written)
sprechen (to speak) = gesprochen (spoken)
Finally, if your verb of choice has a separable prefix like ab-, an-, or auf- for example, then you will follow the formula for regular German verbs, but you’ll keep that prefix in front and add the ge- after it and end the past participle in either -en or -t:
[separable prefix] + ge- + [verb stem] + –en or -t
Examples:
Zurückbringen (to bring back) = zurückgebracht (brought back)
Mitnehmen (to take along) = mitgenommen (taken along)
The 3 perfect tenses and how to use haben in them
The three perfect tenses, also known as compound tenses, give your listener or reader a timeframe when an action or event happened in relation to another point in time or event. For example, if you’re saying that you have eaten German food, you’re describing that the action of eating that kind of food has been completed relative to the present.
Generally, these perfect tenses will use haben (to have) as an auxiliary verb. This means the main “star of the show” verb that dictates your subject will be a past participle. See the sections below to learn how to use haben when expressing a timeframe to someone in German.
Haben conjugation within the present perfect tense
If you want to talk about an action that has already been completed relative to the present, then you will write in the Perfekt (present perfect) tense. In this tense, haben is conjugated according to the subject of the sentence the same as it is for the simple present tense. The only addition is the use of a past participle, which typically calls the end of the sentence home.
The chart below highlights how haben is conjugated for the Perfekt tense with a few useful sentence examples:
Conjugating haben in the past perfect tense
Now, maybe the action or event you’re describing is already completed, but you want to give it a timeframe relative to something else in the past. It’s like saying you had already known about the verb haben (to have) before you opened this article. In this case, you’ll use the Plusquamperfekt (past perfect) tense.
Notice that haben is conjugated in this tense the exact same way that it is in the simple past tense. The table below demonstrates the conjugation of haben in the Plusquamperfekt tense next to some examples for clarity:
Understanding haben conjugation in the future perfect tense
Last but not least, the Futur II (future perfect) tense relates to something that will happen or be in relation to something else that will happen or be. For instance, you could say that you will be happy once you’ve mastered German at some near future date. In this tense, werden is conjugated and haben (to have) is moved to the end of the sentence as with the simple future tense, but a past participle is added in front of haben.
Have a look at the table below to see how to conjugate and set up for this tense, along with some easy examples:
Frequently asked questions about haben conjugation
The German verb haben (to have) does a lot of heavy lifting in German grammar. It’s easy to feel a little confused as you start learning how the conjugation changes for haben in all the tenses. If so, you’ll find the answers to these frequently asked questions helpful.
When to use haben or sein in German?
Both haben (to have) and sein (to be) are used as auxiliary verbs in German to form perfect tenses. However, sein is used as an auxiliary verb for verbs that involve travel or a change of state like fahren (to drive) or aufstehen (to stand up). Meanwhile, haben is used as the auxiliary verb for any other verb that doesn’t involve movement or state changes like essen (to eat), lesen (to read), and arbeiten (to work).
What is the difference between hatte and hätte?
While hatte (had) and hätte (would have) look almost identical, they carry very different meanings. Hatte is the simple past tense version of haben (to have) and describes something someone had in the past but no longer does now. Hätte with umaluts, on the other hand, is the Konjuntiv II (subjunctive form) of haben. This term is used to express hypothetical or unreal situations, like saying I would have a nice car if I were rich.
Is haben a strong verb, a mixed verb, or a weak verb?
Haben (to have) is considered a mixed verb in German. This is because the conjugation of haben combines aspects of both strong and weak German verbs. For example, haben undergoes a stem change for many of its conjugations just like a strong verb, but also has a standard ending for its past participle much like a weak verb.
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