What's good to know
The good news is that you'll never have to use this form. You simply stick to the regular form which as a quick reminder looks like this:
1. Ich würde gern nach Hause gehen. - I would like to go home.
This form covers 99% of your needs. The irregular form would look like this. I'll add a sentence in Präteritum to the example so that you see where the irregular KII form actually comes from:
2. Ich ging.e nach Hause. - I would go home. === IRREGULAR KII
3. Ich ging nach Hause. - I went home. === PRÄTERITUM
Here are all forms of "gehen" in the irregular KII:
ich ginge
du gingest
es ginge
wir gingen
ihr ginget
sie gingen
The e is a marker for both the Konjunktiv II and Konjunktiv I (covered later in this course). Do not bother to learn these consciously. If you remember them accidentally, so be it. But you will NEVER have to use this form EVER.
Ausnahmen bestätigen die Regel
"haben" and "sein" as so often are exceptions from the rule. You'll come across those very often. Hence, here they are in their KII irregular form:
4. Ich war zu Hause. - I was at home. === PRÄT
5. Ich wär.e zu Hause. - I would be at home. === IRREG. KII
and one example with "haben":
6. Ich hatte keine Zeit. - I didn't have the time. === PRÄT
7. Ich hätt.e keine Zeit. - I would not have the time. === IRREG. KII
IMPORTANT NOTICE
A: with "wäre" and "hätte", you won't find a 2nd verb (or at least not one in its infinitive) like you would with "würde".
B: You'll never use "würde sein" or "würde haben".
How it is built
As you can see, in order to build the irregular form of the KII all you need to do is to add an -e- before the personal ending of the Präteritum form if there ain't any yet and to turn a, o or u into an umlaut. If the stem of a verb doesn't have an umlaut, just add the -e- like in "ging.e"
All relevant irregular forms
SEIN = TO BE
ich wär(e)*
du wär(e)st
es wär(e)
wir wären
ihr wär(e)t
sie wären
*The (e) in parentheses is optional in spoken language. "spoken" also means in personal messages or emails. This only applies to "sein-to be" in the irreg. KII.
HABEN = TO HAVE
ich hätte
du hättest
es hätte
wir hätten
ihr hättet
sie hätten
WERDEN = NO TRANSLATION. USED IN REGULAR KII
ich würde
du würdest
es würde
wir würden
ihr würdet
sie würden
REMEMBER: werden 99% of the times has no meaning as it is solely used to build the passive or the Futur I
Ein kleiner Test
A: Can you create the irregular KII form of the following infinitives?
kommen - es ...
fahren - es ...
fliegen - es ...
sehen - es ...
bleiben - es ...
brauchen - es ...
B: What would you do in the following situation, where the KII form looks exactly the same as the Präteritum form?
B.1: Er machte sich einen Kaffee. === PRÄTERITUM
B.2: Er sagte, er machte sich einen Kaffee. === IRREG. KII
This topic is covered in: B1-L16 and B2-L30.