Haben — The Verb "To Have"

Every form of haben — habe, hast, hat, haben, habt, hatte, hattest, hatten, hattet, habend, gehabt — across Possession, Physical & Idiomatic States, and Past uses, plus non-finite forms, for all nine German pronouns. Watch for the places German uses haben where English uses "to be" — that's the trickiest part of this lesson.

Affirmative

Negative

Interrogative

Neg.-Interrogative

Forms & Uses Present · Possession Present · States Past · Possession Habend & Gehabt Summary Translation Quiz Speaking Quiz

Teil 1

Forms & Uses of Haben

Haben is one of the two auxiliary verbs every other German tense leans on. Here's the full picture — all nine pronoun forms — plus the five jobs haben does in a sentence.

Forms of Haben

Pronoun	Present	Past
ich	habe	hatte
du	hast	hattest
er / sie / es	hat	hatte
wir	haben	hatten
ihr	habt	hattet
sie (plural)	haben	hatten
Sie (formal)	haben	hatten

Non-finite forms: habend (present participle) · gehabt (past participle). English equivalents: have / have, has / had / having / had.

Watch for this: German often uses haben where English uses "to be" — Ich habe Hunger literally means "I have hunger" but is translated "I am hungry." Also, when you negate haben plus an indefinite noun, German usually swaps the article for kein/keine/keinen instead of adding nicht — Ich habe kein Auto, not Ich habe ein Auto nicht. When no noun is specified at all, German falls back on nichts ("nothing") to negate haben — Ich habe nichts, "I don't have anything."

Teil 2 · Present Tense

Possession (Subject + habe/hast/hat/haben/habt + Objekt)

All nine German pronouns, each with all four forms and the English and Bangla meanings underneath. Tap any speaker icon to hear the German sentence spoken aloud, and use the dropdown on each card to swap in a different object.

Teil 3 · Present Tense

Physical & Idiomatic States (Subject + habe/hast/hat/haben/habt + Hunger/Durst/Angst...)

Here's the trap for English and Bangla speakers: these are all "to be ___" ideas in English, but German expresses them with haben. Use the dropdown on each card to swap the state.

Teil 4 · Past Tense

Possession (Subject + hatte/hattest/hatten/hattet + Objekt)

Same nine pronouns again, moved into the past. Use the dropdown on each card to swap the object.

Teil 5 · Non-finite Forms

Habend & Gehabt

Habend is the present participle of haben — German almost never uses it as a main verb, and instead expresses "having ___" with a subordinate clause or an infinitive phrase. Gehabt is the past participle, used after haben itself to build the perfect tenses.

Habend

Gehabt

Teil 6

Summary Table

Eight distinct forms of haben, side by side, each with one example sentence.

Teil 7

Translation Quiz

Read the English (and Bangla) sentence and choose its correct German translation. Draws from every form covered above — Possession, States, Past, Habend, and Gehabt — for all nine pronouns.

Teil 8

Speaking Quiz

Read the English and Bangla sentence, press the microphone, and say the German sentence out loud. Your device checks what it heard against the correct German answer.

Lesson 2: Haben — The Verb "To Have"

Passage Text