German Verbs - wissen (to know) conjugated in all its tenses

In the following chart you will find the conjugation of the irregular German verb wissen (to know). Although it is not a modal verb, the conjugation of wissen follows the same pattern as the modal verbs. Like the modals, and unlike normal German verbs, wissen has the same form for ich (1st person sing.) and er, sie, es (3rd person sing.).

German, like many other languages, has two different verbs that can correspond to the single English verb "to know." Like Spanish, Italian and French, for example, German makes a distinction between knowing or being familiar with a person or thing (kennen) AND knowing a fact (wissen).

The verb wissen is a stem-changing verb. That is to say, the infinitive's stem vowel i changes to eiin all the singular present tense forms (weiß), and to u in the past participle (gewusst). In many ways, as we said above, it behaves like a modal verb. Except for ihr wisst (formerly wißt), spelling reform has not affected wissen, so you should note that its singular forms are still spelled with an ess-zett (ß, except in Swiss German), while the plural forms use a double-s (ss).

This verb chart uses the new German spelling (die neue Rechtschreibung).

Wissen Conjugations

PRÄSENS
(Present)
PRÄTERITUM
(Preterite/Past)
PERFEKT
(Pres. Perfect)
SINGULAR
ich weiß
I know
ich wusste
I knew
ich habe gewusst
I knew, have known
du weißt
you know
du wusstest
you knew
du hast gewusst
you knew, have known
er/sie weiß
he/she knows
er/sie wusste
he/she knew
er/sie hat gewusst
he/she knew, has known
PLURAL
wir/Sie/sie wissen
we/you/they have to
wir/Sie/sie wussten
we/you/they knew
wir/Sie/sie haben gewusst
we/you/they knew, have known
ihr wisst
you (pl.) know
ihr wusstet
you (pl.) knew
ihr habt gewusst
you (pl.) knew, have known

Sample Sentences/Idioms

Er weiß Bescheid.
He knows all about it. (He's been kept informed.)
Weißt du, wann der Bus kommt?
Do you know when the bus is coming?
Ich habe nicht Bescheid gewusst.
I didn't know a thing about it.


Related Pages

The 20 Most-Used German Verbs
Ranked by frequency of use. With conjugations and examples.

German for Beginners
Our free online German course!

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Schmitz, Michael. "German Verbs - wissen (to know) conjugated in all its tenses." ThoughtCo, Apr. 5, 2023, thoughtco.com/wissen-to-know-conjugated-all-tenses-4077226. Schmitz, Michael. (2023, April 5). German Verbs - wissen (to know) conjugated in all its tenses. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/wissen-to-know-conjugated-all-tenses-4077226 Schmitz, Michael. "German Verbs - wissen (to know) conjugated in all its tenses." ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/wissen-to-know-conjugated-all-tenses-4077226 (accessed March 28, 2024).