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In this site,

With weak verbs, consonant sounds shift, often in the form of suffixes (endings) added onto the stem.

In the case of strong verbs, the vowel sound shifts, often within the stem.

What exactly does it mean for the sound to shift?

tryst with freedom
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  • “To shift” means “to alternate, change, become different”. For example, the vowel sound [uː] shifts into [iː] when ‘tooth’ and ‘goose’ become plural ‘teeth’ and ‘geese’. – Yellow Sky Nov 07 '21 at 10:03
  • I have no idea what they mean by consonants ‘shifting’ in weak verbs – in general, consonants do not shift in regular verbs in German or English. An extra consonant is added on to the end of the verb, but none of the consonants in the root shift (except for some automatic assimilation, like German reisen with intervocalic [z] vs reiste with preconsonantal [s], or English squeezed with [d] vs fleeced with [t]). It makes sense to say that strong vowels are characterised by vowels shifting, but the statement about weak verbs is nonsense. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Nov 07 '21 at 14:11
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    @JanusBahsJacquet I think the site views assimilation as "consonant shift" and doesn't try to distinguish it from umlaut or ablaut. All inflection and root changes will be strange to English learners, who by and large don't understand how common it is in English. – jlawler Nov 07 '21 at 17:00

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I see that this is from a German course. The statement that "In the case of strong verbs, the vowel sound shifts, often within the stem" is fairly straightforward. It says that in verbs like "ich fahre - ich fuhr" the vowel in the stem changes ("shifts"), in this case from /a/ to /u/. I do not, however, see why it claims that this "shift" is "OFTEN within the stem". Where else is it supposed to shift?

The statement that "With weak verbs, consonant sounds shift, often in the form of suffixes (endings) added onto the stem" does not make any sense. In words like "ich suche - ich suchte" nothing is "shifting"; the past tense is made simply by adding -t to the stem. I suggest that the author of this course does not know what (s)he is talking about.

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    Also, when is a weak verb in German not inflected by adding suffixes onto the stem? Any verb that is conjugated in other ways than suffixation are, by definition, not weak. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Nov 07 '21 at 19:01
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    There are a few weak verbs with Rückumlaut like brennen, brannte, gebrannt or rennen, rannte, gerannt, but I wouldn't take the quoted website too seriously and I doubt they meant this here. – Sir Cornflakes Nov 07 '21 at 19:20
  • Calling verbs "weak" and "strong" instead of "regular" and "irregular" is already unnecessarily confusing; they're not opposed, each with its own idiosyncrasies. One is all idiosyncrasy and the other is just normal inflection. – jlawler Nov 07 '21 at 19:39
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    @jlawler Lumping strong and truly irregular verbs together as the same group is also unnecessarily confusing for learners (and native speakers don’t care either way). Strong verbs follow patterns – complex patterns sometimes, yes, but patterns nonetheless – which the truly irregular verbs do not. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Nov 07 '21 at 21:15
  • Well, yes, but a language learner doesn't need that level of sophistication at first. – jlawler Nov 07 '21 at 23:41