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fluentbyear

GERMAN VERB

sammeln

to collect

  • #351 most used
  • Weak verb
  • Past participle: gesammelt

Conjugation

Tap any form to hear it. The part that changes is in colour.

Present

Präsens · now, habits and facts

  1. ich I collect
  2. du you collect
  3. er, sie, es he/she collects
  4. wir we collect
  5. ihr you all collect
  6. sie, Sie they collect

Simple past

Präteritum · the past of writing, and of sein, haben and the modals in speech

  1. ich I collected
  2. du you collected
  3. er, sie, es he/she collected
  4. wir we collected
  5. ihr you all collected
  6. sie, Sie they collected

Perfect

Perfekt · the past of speech: “habe gemacht”

  1. ich I have collected
  2. du you have collected
  3. er, sie, es he/she has collected
  4. wir we have collected
  5. ihr you all have collected
  6. sie, Sie they have collected

Future

Futur I · “werden”; in speech the present with “morgen” does the job

  1. ich I will collect
  2. du you will collect
  3. er, sie, es he/she will collect
  4. wir we will collect
  5. ihr you all will collect
  6. sie, Sie they will collect

Conditional

Konjunktiv II · “would”: “würde”, and “wäre”, “hätte”, “könnte”

  1. ich I would collect
  2. du you would collect
  3. er, sie, es he/she would collect
  4. wir we would collect
  5. ihr you all would collect
  6. sie, Sie they would collect

Imperative

Imperativ · requests and orders: du, ihr, Sie

  1. du collect!
  2. ihr collect! (all of you)
  3. Sie collect! (formal)

How to use sammeln

One sentence for each tense, the way people say it.

  1. Present

    Mein Sohn sammelt alte Münzen.

    My son collects old coins.

  2. Simple past

    Als Kind sammelte ich Muscheln am Strand.

    As a child I collected shells on the beach.

  3. Perfect

    Wir haben im Wald Pilze gesammelt.

    We gathered mushrooms in the forest.

  4. Future

    Wir werden Spenden für das Tierheim sammeln.

    We'll collect donations for the animal shelter.

  5. Conditional

    Ich würde gern alte Schallplatten sammeln.

    I'd like to collect old records.

  6. Imperative

    Sammelt bitte alle Ideen auf einem Zettel.

    Collect all the ideas on a piece of paper, please.

Good to know

  • Sammeln is for collecting things over time: Briefmarken sammeln, Pilze sammeln, Spenden sammeln.

Verbs like this one

The same pattern, on other verbs: weak verb.