Sein Conjugation: Core Forms, Tables and Examples

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Sein is one of the first verbs many German learners meet, and it is one of the most useful and irregular. It means “to be”, so you'll use it for who you are, where you're from and how you feel. It also has another important job: it is an auxiliary that builds compound past tenses for certain intransitive verbs, especially those expressing a change of place or state, as well as for sein, werden and bleiben. Ich bin gegangen, er ist gefahren, wir sind angekommen. Understanding that second job will make German past-tense sentences much easier to build.

This guide lays out the core forms of sein in clear tables, with examples and practical criteria for choosing sein instead of haben. Meaning, sentence construction and regional usage can all affect that choice. But you do not need to learn every table at once.

Start with These Sein Conjugations

You do not need to memorise every form of sein before you use it in conversation. Start with the present tense and practise it until the forms come easily.

If you learn nothing else today, learn the present tense (Präsens) of sein by heart:

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

That single row of six words lets you make introductions and talk about descriptions, origins, jobs and moods. Add the Präteritum form ich war (“I was”) for talking about the past. You can then add the other forms over time.

Right, now let's build the full picture.

Sein at a Glance

Infinitive	sein
Partizip II (past participle)	gewesen
Perfekt auxiliary	sein (yes, sein uses itself)
English meaning	“to be”
Verb type	irregular (strong, suppletive)

A quick note on the pronouns I'll use in every table:

German	English
ich	I
du	you (informal singular)
er / sie / es	he / she / it
wir	we
ihr	you all (informal plural)
sie / Sie	they / you (formal, singular & plural)

Sein Conjugation: Simple Tenses (Präsens & Präteritum)

German only has two simple (one-word) tenses, and sein is irregular in both of them.

Pronoun	Präsens	Präteritum
ich	bin	war
du	bist	warst
er/sie/es	ist	war
wir	sind	waren
ihr	seid	wart
sie/Sie	sind	waren

• Präsens – Ich bin Ire. – “I am Irish.”
• Präteritum – Ich war letztes Jahr in Berlin. – “I was in Berlin last year.”

One handy quirk: spoken German generally prefers the Perfekt (ich habe gemacht) for past narration, while the Präteritum is more prominent in writing. Sein is one important conversational exception, alongside haben and common modal-verb constructions. Ich war is entirely normal out loud, so it's worth learning solidly rather than treating it as “just for stories”.

Sein Conjugation: Compound Tenses

These are built with an auxiliary: the Perfekt and Plusquamperfekt use a form of sein plus the past participle gewesen, while the Futur tenses use werden plus an infinitive. Sein‘s own auxiliary in the Perfekt and Plusquamperfekt is sein, not haben: Ich bin gewesen, not ich habe gewesen.

Pronoun	Perfekt	Plusquamperfekt	Futur I	Futur II
ich	bin gewesen	war gewesen	werde sein	werde gewesen sein
du	bist gewesen	warst gewesen	wirst sein	wirst gewesen sein
er/sie/es	ist gewesen	war gewesen	wird sein	wird gewesen sein
wir	sind gewesen	waren gewesen	werden sein	werden gewesen sein
ihr	seid gewesen	wart gewesen	werdet sein	werdet gewesen sein
sie/Sie	sind gewesen	waren gewesen	werden sein	werden gewesen sein

• Perfekt – Ich bin noch nie in Japan gewesen. – “I have never been to Japan.”
• Plusquamperfekt – Bevor ich nach Berlin zog, war ich noch nie im Ausland gewesen. – “Before I moved to Berlin, I had never been abroad.”
• Futur I – Nächstes Jahr werde ich dreißig sein. – “Next year I'll be thirty.”
• Futur II – Bis Mitternacht werden wir schon zu Hause gewesen sein. – “By midnight we'll already have been home.”

In everyday German, the Präsens with a time word, such as morgen bin ich…, often expresses the future. You will also meet Futur I and Futur II, so it is useful to recognise their forms.

Sein Conjugation: Konjunktiv

The Konjunktiv forms appear in hypotheticals, wishes and reported speech. For everyday conversation, Konjunktiv II forms such as wäre are especially useful. Konjunktiv I forms such as sei are particularly common in reported speech and formal writing.

Konjunktiv II gives you forms such as “would be” and “if I were”:

Pronoun	Konjunktiv II
ich	wäre
du	wärst
er/sie/es	wäre
wir	wären
ihr	wärt
sie/Sie	wären

• Wenn ich reich wäre, würde ich um die Welt reisen. – “If I were rich, I'd travel the world.”
• Das wäre toll! – “That would be great!”

Konjunktiv I is used especially for reported speech, including the kind of “he said that…” construction you meet in news reports and formal writing:

Pronoun	Konjunktiv I
ich	sei
du	seist
er/sie/es	sei
wir	seien
ihr	seiet
sie/Sie	seien

• Er sagte, er sei müde. – “He said (that) he was tired.”

Learn wäre first if conversation is your priority. Sei and its family are also worth recognising, particularly when you read the news.

Sein Conjugation: Imperativ (Commands)

Telling someone to “be” something (be quiet, be careful) uses the imperative.

Pronoun	Imperative
du	sei!
wir	seien wir!
ihr	seid!
Sie	seien Sie!

• Sei vorsichtig! – “Be careful!”
• Seien wir ehrlich. – “Let's be honest.”

When to Use Sein

Sein has two completely different jobs in German, and the second one is where learners come unstuck.

Job one: the linking verb (“copula”). This is the straightforward one, and if you've studied Spanish you'll actually find German easier here: there's no ser/estar split to worry about. One verb, sein, covers identity, description, origin and mood alike:

• Ich bin Lehrer. – “I am a teacher.” (occupation)
• Sie ist müde. – “She is tired.” (state, no separate verb needed)
• Wir sind aus Irland. – “We're from Ireland.” (origin)
• Das Auto ist rot. – “The car is red.” (description)

Job two: the Perfekt auxiliary for certain verbs of movement and change of state. Most German verbs build their Perfekt with haben (ich habe gemacht, ich habe gegessen). Many intransitive verbs describing movement from A to B (gehen, fahren, kommen, fliegen, laufen) or a change of state (werden, sterben, wachsen, aufwachen) take sein instead:

• Ich bin gestern ins Kino gegangen. – “I went to the cinema yesterday.”
• Er ist letztes Jahr gestorben. – “He died last year.”

Compare that to a verb with an accusative object, which normally uses haben: Ich habe das Buch gelesen (“I have read the book”). Verbs such as fahren can use either auxiliary depending on meaning and construction: Er hat das Auto gefahren (“He drove the car”, transitive, haben) versus Er ist nach Hause gefahren (“He drove home”, change of place, sein). Learn the auxiliary together with the verb's meaning and sentence pattern.

Why Is Sein So Irregular?

The forms of sein reflect more than one historical root. Linguists call this pattern suppletion, which helps explain why its modern forms look so different:

• The b- forms include bin and bist.
• The s- forms include ist, sind, sei and seien.
• The w- forms include war and gewesen.

English has a similar mixture in “am, is, are, was, were, be”. Treat the common German forms as a small family to practise rather than looking for one regular stem.

Common Mistakes with Sein

• Choosing the auxiliary from “movement” alone. Ich habe gegangen is wrong; it's ich bin gegangen. But many movement verbs allow haben or sein depending on their construction, and transitive uses normally take haben. Learn the auxiliary with the verb's meaning and sentence pattern rather than treating every movement verb alike.
• Mixing up war and wäre. War states a plain fact about the past (“I was”). Wäre is hypothetical (“I would be” / “I were”). Ich war müde and Ich wäre müde look one letter apart but mean quite different things.
• Forgetting that sein takes its own auxiliary. It feels odd to say ich bin gewesen rather than ich habe gewesen, but that's the form Germans use, so learn it as a fixed fact rather than trying to reason it out.

Sein Conjugation FAQ

Is sein regular or irregular? Irregular, and one of the most irregular verbs in German. Its forms come from three separate historical roots, which is why bin, ist and war look nothing alike.

What are the six present-tense forms of sein? Bin, bist, ist, sind, seid, sind, which is “I am, you are, he/she/it is, we are, you all are, they are / formal you are.”

How do you conjugate sein in the past? The Präteritum is war, warst, war, waren, wart, waren. These simple-past forms, especially war and waren, are common in everyday speech as well as writing.

When does sein act as an auxiliary instead of haben? It is used in the Perfekt and Plusquamperfekt with intransitive verbs expressing a change of place or state, and with sein, werden and bleiben. Most other verbs use haben, but some movement and position verbs vary with meaning, construction or region.

What's the difference between war and wäre? War is a statement of fact about the past (“I was”). Wäre is the Konjunktiv II form, used for hypotheticals and wishes (“I would be”, “if I were”).

Put Sein into Practice

You now have the core forms of sein, examples of how they work and practical criteria for choosing between sein and haben in compound past tenses.

The fastest way to lock these in is to use them. Build a few of these forms into flashcards (we love Anki for exactly this), then start dropping sein into real sentences out loud. Pair this page with our guide to German phrases to round out your everyday foundations, and if you'd like to hear sein used naturally by native speakers, GermanPod101 is a great listening resource.

But the tables were only ever the warm-up. The whole point of learning ich bin, du bist and er ist is to walk up to a real person and say something true about yourself, which is exactly what we get you doing from day one inside the Fluent in 3 Months Bootcamp. So go and be something in German. Sei mutig!