2. Another case for Agent 8

3. To investigate mystery of the present tense in German To present findings and evidence To share solution to mystery CASE OPENED

4. A verb is a word representing an action. Ich schwimme. Ich faulenze. Ich tanze. so, what is a verb?

5. The ‘tense’ of a sentence tells you if the sentence refers to the past, the present or the future. and what is ‘tense’? In German as in English, verbs usually change their spelling to reflect different tenses. Present = I play or I am playing Past = I played or I have played Future = I will play

6. e.g. Ich lese jeden Tag (I read every day) e.g. Ruhe! Ich lese! (Quiet! I’m reading!) let’s take a closer look. The present tense is used to describe what happens regularly and what is happening. Test if a sentence is in the present tense by inserting ‘now’ or ‘every day’ and seeing if it makes sense.

7. We need to know 3 key words to be able to investigate and write German verbs properly : INFINITIVESTEMENDING

8. This is how the verb is listed in the dictionary because there are too many spellings to list individually The infinitive always ends in –n or -en The infinitive is translated into English as ‘ to...’

9. The STEM is simply the infinitive form minus the –en at the end spielen = STEM This part is called the stem because its runs through all parts of the verb

10. Different endings are added to the stem of the verb The same set of endings is used for all present tense verbs The ending you add depends on the person or thing doing the action of the verb

11. ich ihr er/es/sie wir du Sie sie I you (friend) he/it/she we you (friends) you (formal, sing./pl) they All people or things doing the action of the verb could be replaced by the following pronouns: This part is one half of the SNAP pair in German.

12. The other half of the SNAP pair is the SNAP ending you add to the stem of the verb ich stem +e du stem +st er/es/sie stem +t wir stem +en ihr stem +t Sie/sie stem +en It’s called SNAP after the card game because you have to find a matching pair!

13. so, there’s no mystery about it! Choose a verb Decide who or what is doing the action Add a matching ending to the stem of the verb CASE dismissed