Mirror-Verbs
Mirror-Verbs
A certain group of irregular verbs behaves in a pretty regular way. Compare the following verbs and their forms.
Infinitiv | Präteritum | Partizip II | English |
schreiben | schrieb | geschrieben | to write |
bleiben | blieb | geblieben | to stay |
reiben | rieb | gerieben | to rub |
meiden | mied | gemieden | to avoid |
leihen | lieh | geliehen | to borrow/to lend |
scheinen | schien | geschienen | to shine |
schreien | schrie | geschrien | to scream |
schweigen | schwieg | geschwiegen | to remain silent |
steigen | stieg | gestiegen | to mount |
treiben | trieb | getrieben | to urge / to thrive |
verzeihen | verzieh | verziehen | to forgive |
They all (!) change the stem-vowels ei into ie. It is as if you held a ‘mirror’ between them: ei / ie.
One specialty
A few of those lose the e when mirrored but make up for their loss by doubling the following consonant. Sometimes a d is turned into a t as a double–d is rather rare in German. Those are:
Infinitiv | Präteritum | Partizip II | English |
leiden | litt | gelitten | to suffer |
reiten | ritt | geritten | to ride a horse |
schneiden | schnitt | geschnitten | to cut |
greifen | griff | gegriffen | to reach for |
pfeifen | pfiff | gepfiffen | to whistle |
streichen | strich | gestrichen | to paint |
reißen | riss | gerissen | to tear |
beißen | biss | gebissen | to bite |
scheißen | schiss | geschissen | to shit |