German Verbs (SQLite)

Node.js project that builds a local SQLite database of German verb conjugations by scraping Wiktionary.

The database contains:

• verbs: infinitive, separable prefix, irregular flag, usage popularity
• verb_conjugations: 6 person/number slots per tense (sg1–pl3) for:
  • Präsens
  • Präteritum
  • Perfekt
• verb_translations: schema included (not populated by this scraper)

See: schema.sql

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Data sources / credits

Irregular verbs list (German Wiktionary)

• Verb list is taken from the German Wiktionary category:
  https://de.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=Kategorie:Verbkonjugation_unregelmäßig_(Deutsch)

Conjugation forms (German Wiktionary Flexion pages)

• Each verb’s forms are parsed from its Flexion page linked from that list (e.g. Flexion:<verb> on de.wiktionary.org).

Frequency list (English Wiktionary user page)

Usage frequency data is taken from the English Wiktionary user pages by Matthias Buchmeier:

• https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/User:Matthias_Buchmeier/German_frequency_list-1-5000
• https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/User:Matthias_Buchmeier/German_frequency_list-5001-10000

These lists are used to update the usage_popularity field for verbs present in the local database.

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Requirements

• Node.js (ESM; project uses "type": "module")
• npm install

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Usage

Install

npm install

Run tests

npm test

Scrape conjugations into german-verbs.db

npm run scrape

Resume scraping after an interruption / rate limit

npm run scrape:resume

Re-scrape only “incomplete” verbs already in the DB

(verbs missing one of: praesens, praeteritum, perfekt)

npm run scrape:incomplete

Update usage frequencies

Fetches the frequency list(s) above and updates verbs.usage_popularity for matches:

npm run update-frequencies

Cleanup incomplete verbs

Deletes verbs that still don’t have all three required tenses:

npm run cleanup

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State / resume file

Scraping progress is saved to:

• .scraper-state.json (not committed; see .gitignore)

This enables continuing long runs across multiple sessions.

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License

See LICENSE.