The forms of Konjunktiv II
The forms of K.II. are obtained from the Präteritum tense, and the personal endings are identical to those of Konjunktive I.
Weak verbs
| K. II | |
| -e | ich sagte |
| -est | du sagtest |
| -e | er sagte |
| -en | wir sagten |
| -et | ihr sagtet |
| -en | sie sagten |
As the table shows there are no differences at all between the Präteritum of the weak verbs and the Konjunktiv II.
Strong verbs
| K. II | |
| -e | ich führe |
| -est | du führest |
| -e | er führe |
| -en | wir führen |
| -et | ihr führet |
| -en | sie führen |
Strong verbs suffer the following changes:
- if possible, their stem receives an Umlaut, and an -e is added to the end, again if possible (although this ending is rarely used in speech)
- there are a few verbs that form this subjunctive irregularly (an example is sterben - starb - stürbe, or helfen - half - hülfe), but most of these are rarely used anymore today.
The use of Konjunktiv II
K.II. is used to express situations which are only imagined, and they haven't happened, or can't happen at all. The speaker only imagines these situations as possible.
The würde form
In the case of all weak verbs, and those strong verbs that don't recieve an Umlaut, with the exception of 1st and 3rd person singular, the forms of Präteritum and Konjunktiv II are identical. To clearly indicate the Konjunktiv, the würde form is used, which is simply the KII form of werden, or a modal verb + the indicative of the verb. This is however not necessary, if the following sentence is using a Konjunktiv.
- Ich habe nicht geglaubt, dass er die Rechnung bezahlen würde.
- Wir gingen ins Theater, wenn mein Freund mitkäme.
- Wir würden ins Theater gehen, wenn uns mein Freund besuchte.
- Ich kaufte mir einen Anzug, wenn mein Vater Geld schicken sollte.
The main use of KII is in unreal conditional clauses, most of which are introduced with the conjunction wenn. In these clauses, the würde form is often used.
