A1 Lesson 6 — haben & sein

HABEN & SEIN

The Two Verbs That Unlock Everything

Master "to have" and "to be" — the foundation almost every German sentence leans on.

Why this matters: haben (to have) and sein (to be) are the two most irregular, most-used verbs in German. They don't follow the normal conjugation pattern, so you can't guess them — you have to know them cold. Once you do, you can describe almost anything: who you are, what you have, where you are, how you feel.

Conjugating haben (to have)

Used for possession — but also for a surprising number of feelings and states, as you'll see below.

Pronoun	haben	Example
ich	habe	Ich habe einen Hund.
du	hast	Du hast Zeit.
er / sie / es	hat	Sie hat ein Auto.
wir	haben	Wir haben Hunger.
ihr	habt	Ihr habt eine Frage.
sie / Sie	haben	Sie haben Recht.

Conjugating sein (to be)

Used for identity, descriptions, and location — this is your other essential verb.

Pronoun	sein	Example
ich	bin	Ich bin müde.
du	bist	Du bist nett.
er / sie / es	ist	Er ist zu Hause.
wir	sind	Wir sind in Berlin.
ihr	seid	Ihr seid pünktlich.
sie / Sie	sind	Sie sind Kollegen.

🇩🇪 Quick tip: There's no shortcut here — haben and sein are both irregular, so the forms above just need to be memorized. The good news: once you know these two, you've also learned the helping verbs used to build the past tense (Perfekt) later on, so this isn't just A1 grammar — it's the base for everything after it.

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