Verben.
They frame the sentence.

A verb names an action or a state: what someone does, or what something is, has, or becomes. Every German verb carries two jobs at once. It carries meaning, and it carries grammar: who is doing it, and when. The second job shows up as a change in form and as a fixed slot in the sentence. Often, a verb does not appear as a single piece at all. It splits into two parts that frame everything else around them.

Every verb starts as an infinitive

Every German verb has a base form called the infinitive: the dictionary entry, the form that never conjugates. To use a verb in a sentence, take off the infinitive ending to get the stem, then add a personal ending that matches the subject.

Infinitive	Stem	+ ending for ich	Conjugated
lernen	lern-	-e	ich lerne
sprechen	sprech-	-e	ich spreche
wandern	wander-	-e	ich wandere

This stem-plus-ending pattern is the foundation for every tense. The ending changes depending on the subject and the tense, but the stem itself usually stays recognizable.

Everything about the infinitive itself, including why it always goes to the end of the clause: Infinitiv. The base form.

One stem, six endings

The personal endings for the present tense are the same for nearly every verb, regular or not. Learn this table once, and conjugating becomes a matter of finding the stem and attaching the right piece.

Subject	Ending	lernen
ich	-e	lerne
du	-st	lernst
er · sie · es	-t	lernt
wir	-en	lernen
ihr	-t	lernt
sie · Sie	-en	lernen

A handful of common verbs change their stem vowel for du and er · sie · es → fahren becomes du fährst, lesen becomes er liest. The endings themselves never change, only the vowel in the stem.

The full picture, including every stem-changing pattern and the three uses of this tense: Präsens. The default tense.

Position 2: the verb's home in a main clause

Once a verb is conjugated, it has a fixed address in a main clause: position 2. The subject often comes first, but it does not have to. Whatever opens the sentence, the conjugated verb is always the second element, and the subject moves to wherever it needs to go to make room.

Position 1	Verb (pos. 2)	Subject	Rest
Ich	lerne		Deutsch.
Heute	lerne	ich	Deutsch.

The verb itself never moves. Only the slot in front of it changes, depending on what comes first in the sentence.

More on what can take position 1, and the swap that follows: Adverbien. They never change.

Two-part verbs: a frame around the sentence

Many verb constructions in German are not a single word. They consist of a conjugated part that stays in position 2, and a second part that is sent all the way to the end of the clause. Objects, adverbs, and prepositional phrases sit inside this frame, between the two parts.

Construction	Position 2	End of clause	Example
Modal verb + infinitive	kann	schwimmen	Ich kann sehr gut schwimmen.
Perfekt: auxiliary + past participle	habe	gelernt	Ich habe gestern Deutsch gelernt.
Separable verb	stehe	auf	Ich stehe jeden Tag um sieben Uhr auf.
Futur I: werden + infinitive	werde	lernen	Ich werde morgen Deutsch lernen.

In each case, position 2 tells the listener who is doing something and when, while the end of the clause adds the part that completes the meaning: which action, which verb, which direction. Both parts belong to the same verb. German speakers and listeners hold the two halves in mind across the whole sentence, however long it gets.

Each construction in detail: Six verbs. No case of their own., Perfekt. The spoken past., and Futur I. werden + Infinitiv.

Subordinate clauses: both parts move to the end together

Conjunctions like weil, dass, and wenn change where the verb goes. In the clause they introduce, the conjugated verb leaves position 2 and moves all the way to the end, joining any second part that was already there. The two pieces that used to frame the sentence now sit side by side, in the order they always had: the second part first, the conjugated verb last.

Clause type	Order at the end	Example
Main clause (frame)	second part ... conjugated verb in position 2	Ich kann gut Deutsch sprechen.
Clause with weil	second part, then conjugated verb	weil ich gut Deutsch sprechen kann

Nothing about the two parts changes on its own. Only their positions shift: in a main clause they frame the sentence from both ends, and in a clause with weil they stand together at the very end, with the conjugated verb last.

The full rule, with more examples: weil. The verb goes last.