Purpose

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to correctly conjugate the verb “sein” (to be) in the present tense for all six subject pronouns.

Lesson Explanation

Sein (to be) is one of the most commonly used German verbs, and it is genuinely irregular:

ich bin          (I am)
du bist           (you are, informal)
er/sie/es ist     (he/she/it is)
wir sind          (we are)
ihr seid          (you all are, informal plural)
sie/Sie sind      (they are / you are, formal)

Sein is used to describe identity, characteristics, and states: Ich bin Student. (I am a student.), Sie ist glücklich. (She is happy.)

A genuinely important, specific note: German has a fourth pronoun category English doesn’t distinguish the same way — ihr (informal plural “you all”) is genuinely different from Sie (formal, singular or plural) — covered further in Part 6, Lesson 5.

Practice Questions