Haben

Haben is a core German verb with two primary functions: to express possession and to serve as the auxiliary used to form perfect tenses. It is irregular and among the most frequent verbs in German. The word is cognate with the English “have” and related to Dutch hebben.

In the present indicative, haben takes the forms: ich habe, du hast, er hat, wir haben, ihr habt, sie haben. The simple past (Präteritum) forms are ich hatte, du hattest, er hatte, wir hatten, ihr hattet, sie hatten. The past participle is gehabt. In the Perfekt (present perfect), haben is used as the auxiliary with the past participle of the main verb, e.g., ich habe gegessen; with haben as the auxiliary, the construction for the verb allein is ich habe gehabt.

Future forms are built with werden: Future I is ich werde haben; Future II is ich werde gehabt haben. The verb also appears in the Konjunktiv (subjunctive): Konjunktiv I forms include ich habe, du habest, er habe, wir haben, ihr habet, sie haben; Konjunktiv II forms are ich hätte, du hättest, er hätte, wir hätten, ihr hättet, sie hätten. Konjunktiv II is commonly used for hypotheticals or in reported speech.

As a main verb, haben denotes possession (Ich habe einen Hund). As an auxiliary, it forms the perfect tenses for most verbs (Ich habe gearbeitet, Wir haben gelesen). A smaller set of verbs use sein as their auxiliary in the perfect, typically verbs of motion or change of state. Haben also plays a central, multifunctional role in German grammar.