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fluentbyear

GERMAN VERB

treiben

to drive; to do, sport

  • #498 most used
  • Strong verb
  • Past participle: getrieben

Conjugation

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

Present

Präsens · now, habits and facts

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

Simple past

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

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

Perfect

Perfekt · the past of speech: “habe gemacht”

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

Future

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

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

Conditional

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

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

Imperative

Imperativ · requests and orders: du, ihr, Sie

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

How to use treiben

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

  1. Present

    Was treibst du denn so am Wochenende?

    So what do you get up to at the weekend?

  2. Simple past

    Früher trieb ich jeden Tag Sport.

    I used to do sport every day.

  3. Perfect

    Der Hunger hat uns in die Pizzeria getrieben.

    Hunger drove us into the pizzeria.

  4. Future

    Ab Januar werde ich wieder mehr Sport treiben.

    From January I'll do more sport again.

  5. Conditional

    Ich würde gern mehr Sport treiben, aber die Zeit fehlt.

    I'd like to do more sport, but there's no time.

  6. Imperative

    Treib es nicht zu weit mit den Witzen!

    Don't push the jokes too far!

Good to know

  • Sport treiben is to do sport. Was treibst du so? is a casual what are you up to?

Verbs like this one

The same pattern, on other verbs: strong verb.