German “haben” in the Present Tense

In Brief

The German verb haben means “to have.” Its present-tense forms are ich habe, du hast, er/sie/es hat, wir haben, ihr habt, sie/Sie haben. The forms hast and hat are irregular, so learn them as part of the complete pattern.

Overview

Haben is one of the most useful verbs in German. You use it to talk about possessions, relationships, available time, appointments, illnesses, and many everyday states: Ich habe ein Fahrrad (“I have a bicycle”), Wir haben Zeit (“We have time”), and Sie hat Hunger (“She is hungry”). It is also used later as an auxiliary verb (a helping verb used to build another tense), especially in the German perfect tense.

This is an A1 topic and one of the first conjugations worth memorizing. Conjugation simply means changing the form of a verb to match its subject—the person or thing doing or experiencing what the sentence describes. English has “I have” but “she has”; German changes the verb for more subjects.

The beginner rule is straightforward: choose the subject, select the matching form of haben, and put it in the normal verb position. The sections on advanced uses explain forms you will meet later; you do not need those details in order to begin using haben correctly.

How It Works

The complete present-tense conjugation

The infinitive (the basic dictionary form of a verb) is haben. In the present tense, it has the following forms:

Person	German pronoun	Form	English equivalent
first-person singular	ich	habe	I have
second-person singular, informal	du	hast	you have
third-person singular	er / sie / es	hat	he / she / it has
first-person plural	wir	haben	we have
second-person plural, informal	ihr	habt	you have / you all have
third-person plural	sie	haben	they have
formal singular or plural	Sie	haben	you have

The most important forms to notice are du hast and er/sie/es hat. If haben followed the most obvious regular pattern, these forms would contain the full stem hab-; instead, the b disappears. Do not say du habst or er habt.

Three forms look like the infinitive: wir haben, sie haben, and Sie haben. Capitalization distinguishes formal Sie (“you”) from sie (“she” or “they”) in writing. The verb and the surrounding context show whether lowercase sie is singular or plural: sie hat means “she has,” while sie haben means “they have.”

Basic statements

In a simple statement, the conjugated verb normally occupies the second position. A position can contain a whole phrase, not only one word.

Pattern	Example	Meaning
subject + haben + rest	Ich habe heute Zeit.	I have time today.
other element + haben + subject + rest	Heute habe ich Zeit.	Today I have time.

When another element comes first, the subject moves after the verb. English says “Today I have time,” but German uses Heute habe ich Zeit, not Heute ich habe Zeit.

Questions

In a yes-or-no question, put the conjugated form first:

• Hast du Zeit? — Do you have time?
• Hat Anna ein Auto? — Does Anna have a car?
• Haben Sie einen Termin? — Do you have an appointment?

In a question with a question word, the question word comes first and haben comes second:

• Was habt ihr heute? — What do you have today?
• Wann hast du Pause? — When do you have a break?
• Wie viel Zeit haben wir? — How much time do we have?

German does not add an equivalent of English “do” or “does.” Do you have...? is simply Hast du...? or Haben Sie...?

What follows haben

When haben means possession or a similar relationship, it often takes a direct object (the person or thing directly connected to the verb). In German, that object is usually in the accusative case—a form that marks this direct-object role.

• Ich habe einen Bruder. — I have a brother.
• Sie hat eine Frage. — She has a question.
• Wir haben das Problem. — We have the problem.

The accusative is most visible with masculine words: nominative ein Bruder becomes accusative einen Bruder. Feminine eine and neuter ein do not change in this pattern. These article changes belong to the German case system; the form of haben itself still depends only on the subject.

Negation

Use kein and its endings to negate an indefinite noun—often where English uses “no” or “not a”:

• Ich habe kein Auto. — I do not have a car.
• Er hat keine Kinder. — He has no children.
• Wir haben keinen Termin. — We do not have an appointment.

Use nicht to negate other information or a definite object:

• Ich habe heute nicht viel Zeit. — I do not have much time today.
• Sie hat das Buch nicht. — She does not have the book.

For a beginner, it is useful to memorize frequent chunks such as keine Zeit haben and kein Geld haben rather than trying to solve every ending while speaking.

Examples in Context

German	English	Note
Ich habe Zeit.	I have time.	ich habe
Du hast eine gute Idee.	You have a good idea.	informal singular du
Er hat ein Auto.	He has a car.	masculine singular subject
Sie hat heute frei.	She has the day off today.	frei haben is a common expression
Das Hotel hat einen Garten.	The hotel has a garden.	a thing can be the subject
Wir haben Hunger.	We are hungry.	German uses haben, unlike English
Ihr habt morgen Unterricht.	You have class tomorrow.	informal plural ihr
Meine Eltern haben zwei Katzen.	My parents have two cats.	third-person plural
Haben Sie einen Termin?	Do you have an appointment?	formal Sie; yes-or-no question
Hast du Geschwister?	Do you have any siblings?	no equivalent of English “do”
Heute habe ich keine Zeit.	I do not have time today.	verb remains in second position
Paul hat Kopfschmerzen.	Paul has a headache.	literally “has headaches”
Wir haben Glück.	We are lucky.	fixed expression with haben
Wie viel Geld habt ihr dabei?	How much money do you have with you?	question word + verb + subject
Sie haben recht.	They are right.	lowercase sie means “they” here

Common Mistakes

Keeping hab- in every form

• Wrong: Du habst viel Arbeit.
• Right: Du hast viel Arbeit.
• Why: The du form is irregular: hast, not habst. The third-person singular is similarly hat.

Using the wrong ending with ihr

• Wrong: Ihr haben heute Schule.
• Right: Ihr habt heute Schule.
• Why: Informal plural ihr always takes habt. Haben belongs with wir, plural sie, and formal Sie.

Copying English “do” into a question

• Wrong: Tun Sie einen Termin haben?
• Right: Haben Sie einen Termin?
• Why: German forms this question by moving the conjugated verb to the beginning. It does not use a helping verb equivalent to “do.”

Forgetting verb-second word order

• Wrong: Heute ich habe keine Zeit.
• Right: Heute habe ich keine Zeit.
• Why: In a main-clause statement, the conjugated verb is normally second. If heute comes first, ich follows the verb.

Translating English be word for word

• Wrong: Ich bin Hunger.
• Right: Ich habe Hunger.
• Why: German uses haben in several expressions where English uses “be”: Hunger haben (“to be hungry”), Durst haben (“to be thirsty”), and Angst haben (“to be afraid”).

Confusing sie hat and sie haben

• Wrong: Sie haben eine Schwester. when you mean “She has a sister.”
• Right: Sie hat eine Schwester.
• Why: Lowercase sie can mean “she” or “they.” Use hat for “she” and haben for “they.” Capitalized Sie haben is formal “you have.”

Usage Notes

Informal and formal “you”

Use du hast with one person you address informally, and ihr habt with two or more people addressed informally. Use Sie haben in formal address, whether speaking to one person or several. Formal Sie is capitalized, as are its related forms in standard writing.

Which form is appropriate depends on the relationship and setting. Workplaces, regions, and generations vary, so follow how people introduce themselves and address one another. The grammar remains fixed: du hast, ihr habt, Sie haben.

Common expressions that differ from English

German frequently combines haben with a noun where natural English uses “be” or another verb:

German expression	Natural English meaning
Hunger haben	to be hungry
Durst haben	to be thirsty
Angst haben	to be afraid
Glück haben	to be lucky
recht haben	to be right
Zeit haben	to have time
frei haben	to have time off / have the day off

Learn these as complete expressions. A literal word-by-word translation may be understandable, but it will often produce the wrong German verb.

Subject pronouns are usually stated

Unlike languages that regularly omit subject pronouns, standard German normally keeps them: Ich habe Zeit, Wir haben Hunger. In casual replies, speakers can omit material that is obvious from context—Keine Zeit! (“No time!”)—but that is not a general rule allowing the subject to disappear from every sentence.

Beyond the Basics / Advanced Use

You do not need to master these points at A1, but they explain why haben appears so often in later German.

Haben as a perfect-tense auxiliary

For most German verbs, haben helps form the Perfekt, a past tense common in conversation. It combines with a past participle (a verb form such as gemacht or gegessen):

• Ich habe gegessen. — I ate / I have eaten.
• Wir haben lange gearbeitet. — We worked for a long time.
• Hat er angerufen? — Did he call?

Here habe, haben, or hat does not express possession by itself. It carries the person and tense, while the participle gives the main action. Some verbs use sein instead, a contrast taught separately at a later level.

Modal verbs and the infinitive

After a modal verb such as müssen (“must”) or wollen (“want”), haben remains in the infinitive and normally goes at the end:

• Ich muss Geduld haben. — I must be patient.
• Wir wollen mehr Zeit haben. — We want to have more time.

The modal verb, not haben, is conjugated in these sentences.

Hätte: wishes and polite requests

The form hätte belongs to the subjunctive (a verb form used for hypothetical situations, wishes, and some polite phrasing). It is not the ordinary present tense, but you will often meet it:

• Ich hätte gern einen Kaffee. — I would like a coffee.
• Wenn ich mehr Zeit hätte, ... — If I had more time, ...

Do not replace ordinary habe with hätte in simple factual statements. Compare Ich habe Zeit (“I have time”) with Ich hätte gern mehr Zeit (“I would like more time”).

Separable expressions with haben

A few verbs contain haben as part of a larger verb. For example, dabeihaben means “to have with you.” In a main clause, its first element appears at the end:

• Hast du deinen Pass dabei? — Do you have your passport with you?

Spelling and analysis can be more advanced than the everyday phrase itself. At first, learning etwas dabeihaben and the common pattern Hast du ... dabei? is enough.

Practice Tips

1. Drill the pattern in three groups. Say ich habe; then du hast, er/sie/es hat; then wir haben, ihr habt, sie/Sie haben. Giving special attention to hast, hat, and habt prevents the most common ending errors.
2. Make the forms personal. Write one true sentence for each pronoun using everyday nouns and expressions: Ich habe Zeit. Du hast Hunger. Wir haben eine Katze. Then turn several statements into questions by moving the verb first.
3. Practice word order in pairs. Rewrite Ich habe heute frei as Heute habe ich frei. This trains both the conjugation and the German verb-second rule instead of memorizing the verb in isolation.

Related Concepts

• Prerequisite: Subject Pronouns (Nominative) — learn the pronouns that determine whether you need habe, hast, hat, haben, or habt.
• Next step: Perfect Tense with haben — use the present forms of haben as a helping verb to talk about past events.