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Lesson's Index Level A1

The verb sein (to be) in present

This lesson contains topics:

1. Conjugation of verb sein
2. Negation with "nicht"
3. Difference between "kein" and "nicht"

Verb sein is irregularly conjugated, just like its English counterpart “to be”, i.e. am, are and is.

We have already learned some examples of verb sein, for example:

Er ist ein Arzt. (He is a doctor.)

Hier ist ein Mann. (Here is a man.)

Warum ist keine Frau hier? (why is no woman here?)

Die Hunde sind keine Katzen. (Dogs are not cats.)

In these sentences “ist” and "sind" are conjugations of German verb “sein”.

Sein is infinitive form. Infinitive forms are important to memorize because in dictionaries, verbs are written in their infinitive forms.

1. Conjugation of verb sein (present)

Easy way to memorise the conjugation of verb "sein" is to repeat it with personal pronouns. Following table shows conjugation of "sein" with personal pronouns.

Video lesson of verb sein

2. Nicht in German (Negation with "nicht")

Previously, we have learned a word "kein" (not, not a, not any), which is used to negate a statement, for example. Ich bin keine Frau. (I am not a woman.)
Herr Müller ist kein Arzt. (Mr. Müller is not a doctor.)
Sie sind keine Zwillinge. (They are not twins.)
We have also used another word for negations, "nicht" in some examples i.e. "Nein, nicht immer" (no, not always).

3. Difference between "kein" and "nicht"

Kein is used with:

• Nouns that have indefinite articles (ein, eine).
  Er ist ein Mann. (He is a man.)
  Er ist kein Mann. (He is not a man.)
• Mostly nouns without articles.
  Er ist Arzt. (He is doctor.)
  Er ist kein Arzt. (He is not doctor.)

It can't be used with adjectives. For example,
"krank" (ill, sick) is an adjective,
and "die Kranke" (patients) is a noun.
Instead of saying "Ich bin kein krank", we would say "Ich bin nicht krank" (I am not ill).

"nicht" is an adverb and can be used

• with nouns having definite articles (der, die, das),
• nouns with possessive pronouns (mein, dein, sein),
• with proper nouns,
• with adjectives,
• and to negate a whole sentence.

Ich bin nicht Herr Müller. (I am not Mr. Müller.)
Herr Müller ist nicht mein Bruder. (Mr. Müller is not my borther.)
Sie sind nicht die Zwillinge. (They are not the twins.)
Ich bin nicht hungrig. (I'm not hungry)

Du bist Jan oder? (You are Jan?)
Nein, ich bin nicht Jan. (No, I'm not Jan)

Sentence structure with "nicht"

1. First element remains the subject.
2. Second element is verb.
3. Negation "nicht" comes after the verb as an adverb and negates a noun or an adjective.

In the sentence Nein, ich bin nicht Jan, the word "Nein" is interjection, a particle. Particles don't occupy any position in the beginning. Their position is counted as zero. So, the subject "Ich" is still the first element in this sentence. Some other words that don't occupy position one, if placed at the start of a sentence are:
ja (yes)
vielleicht (may be)
wenigstens (at least)
Particles are discussed in Lesson 26 (Particles in German) in detail.