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In German what is, or is there an equivalent to "ing"?

I.e., when I want to say for example, "we are practicing" is there a consistent rule or suffix that I would use to indicate that this action is currently ongoing?

Peter Mortensen
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Ghost Jackal
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2 Answers2

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There isn't. German doesn't mark the continous aspect of an action in its verbs. (The perfect aspect of an action is handled very differently as well.)

If you want to tell that an action is ongoing, you can use an adverbial as e.g. gerade or im Moment. But that sounds clumsy most of the time which is why we only mark the continous aspect if it cannot be told from context anyways.

We practice. — Wir üben.

We are practicing. — Wir üben.

We are practicing at this moment. — Wir üben gerade.

And yes, that means when you are translating from German to English, you have to understand the context and invent those markings English requires out of thin air.

Janka
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    There is the Partizip 1 in German which nearly always ends in "end", but that's not at all used like the English present participle, even though, taken literally, it means the same thing. – Raketenolli Sep 22 '23 at 21:07
  • @Janka so if I'm understanding this correctly. Whether the action is continuous or not is based on context and in some cases adverbials indicate that the action is ongoing? – Ghost Jackal Sep 22 '23 at 22:17
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    Yes, you understand correctly. The adverbials are only placed if it makes a semantic difference and there is not enough other context. – Janka Sep 23 '23 at 01:21
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    Well, there is the niederrheinische Verlaufsform ("Wir sind am Üben.") but it isn't exactly considered standard German. – AndreKR Sep 23 '23 at 02:15
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    @AndreKR That's just one of many possible Verlaufsformen – Bergi Sep 23 '23 at 04:37
  • English has another form of -ing words which form adjectives. For instance, if you want to sell a bottle of moisturizing lotion in Germany you'll need to get creative. The label (might) say "Feuchtigkeits-spendende Reinigungslotion". Since German can't say "moisturizing", it has to instead be "moisture-donating". https://www.amazon.de/dp/B07HF9GT4L – Sompom Sep 23 '23 at 17:44
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    @Sompom What's wrong with "befeuchtend"? – Bergi Sep 23 '23 at 20:12
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    @Sompom If you want to sell anything you have to be creative, and someone in advertising thought "feuchtigkeitsspendend" sounded better than "befeuchtend" or whatever (it sure sounds more wholesome than the clinical English "moisturizing"), but your broader point, that German does not have present participles like English, is completely wrong and nonsense, as "spendend" is an obvious counterexample. – Sebastian Koppehel Sep 23 '23 at 20:22
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It's literally "-ung". Used for nouns, but not as participles

"-end" used as a standalone, without a verb, as a participle.

It doesn't work like in English.

SwissCodeMen
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user56864
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    Can you provide an example? (But *** *** *without* *** *** "Edit:", "Update:", or similar—the answer should appear as if it was written right now.) – Peter Mortensen Sep 23 '23 at 17:43
  • Splittung > splitting. But splittende "splitting" Splittung as it is a noun is written with a capital letter, while splittende is not as it is writtzen without a capital letter. – user56864 Sep 26 '23 at 17:56