AÜM: Present tense - meaning

Present tense - meaning

It is very important to remember that German uses a single verb form to express ideas or actions that may require one of three different verb forms in English:

  • Thomas spielt Tennis. 
    • Thomas plays Tennis.
    • Thomas is playing Tennis.
    • Thomas does play Tennis.

Text no continuous (-ing) form in German

Tennisracket.pngIt is a very common mistake among English speakers (and online translation tools) to translate "Thomas is playing tennis" as:

Thomas ist spielen Tennis.

This is incorrect because that construction does not exist in German: German will not use sein (ist in this example) as a helping verb. You would translate this sentence simply as:

Thomas spielt Tennis.

Remember that in this case German is more simple then English. Just use the verb in the present tense.

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