Present tense
Most present-tense verbs use the stem plus -e, -st, -t, -en, -t, -en for ich, du, er/sie/es, wir, ihr, sie/Sie. Common verbs such as sein and haben are irregular.
Understand the idea
Conjugation makes the verb agree with its subject. The infinitive is the dictionary form. For many regular verbs, remove -en and add a personal ending. The present tense describes habits, things happening now and, with a clear time expression, many future plans.
Build it step by step
Find the subject before choosing the ending. Ich usually takes -e, du -st, er/sie/es -t, wir -en, ihr -t, and sie/Sie -en. Some stems need an extra e for pronunciation, as in arbeiten. Strong verbs may change their vowel in du and er/sie/es; their plural forms usually keep the infinitive vowel. Sein and haben have their own very common forms.
See it in a sentence
Ich lerne Deutsch.
Du wohnst in Berlin.
A useful memory aid
Learn a small set of verbs with all six persons rather than learning only ich. Use the Verb conjugations tab to compare a regular verb with sein or haben.
A common trap
Do not confuse ihr with wir, or informal sie with formal Sie. The capital letter matters in writing, even though the plural and formal verb forms are the same.