A1 Grammar Guide

sein & haben — The Two Most Important Verbs

You need these for everything: descriptions, past tense (Perfekt), and basic sentences. Know them cold before your Goethe exam.

sein

to be — Zustand / state

ichbin

dubist

er / sie / esist

wirsind

ihrseid

sie / Siesind

haben

to have — Besitz / possession

ichhabe

duhast

er / sie / eshat

wirhaben

ihrhabt

sie / Siehaben

Perfekt — Past Tense with sein or haben?

Use SEIN (to be) when:

Movement from A to B:
Ich bin nach Nairobi gefahren.
(I drove to Nairobi.)

Change of state:
Das Kind ist eingeschlafen.
(The child fell asleep.)

Use HABEN (to have) when:

Most other verbs:
Ich habe Deutsch gelernt.
(I learned German.)

With a direct object:
Minh hat Brot gekauft.
(Minh bought bread.)

💡 Goethe exam tip: In writing tasks (Schreiben), you'll need to use Perfekt for past events. Always check — is it movement/change? → sein. Everything else? → haben.

✏️ Quick Check

Minh ___ nach Lagos gefahren. (Past tense — movement → sein or haben?)

📚 This topic is part of Module 3: haben and sein — one piece of DeutschWeg's complete A1 German course, free forever. Sign up to track your progress and unlock practice exercises for every topic.

Start free — Sign up → Open Module 3 →

Want to go further? DeutschWeg also covers A2, B1 and B2 for the complete Goethe exam journey.