German grammar

A0 Starter Lessons: 23

Referring to people and things

• Personal pronounsGerman has one word for I, one for we — and three for "you".
• My, your, your (formal)A possessive copies the article of the noun it stands in front of: mein Bruder (der), meine Schwester (die), mein Kind…

Verbs and time

• The verb sein (to be)sein is the first verb you need and the least regular one in the language.
• The verb haben (to have)haben loses its b in exactly two places: du hast and er hat.
• Present tense: regular verbsTake the infinitive, drop -en, add the ending.
• Verbs that change their vowelA small group of very frequent verbs changes its vowel in du and er/sie/es — and only there.
• möchten — asking politelymöchte is the polite way to order, book or ask for anything, and it is the single most useful verb at A0.
• The modal verb können (can)A modal verb has no -e on ich and no -t on er: ich kann, du kannst, er kann.
• müssen and dürfen (must and may)müssen is what you have to do; dürfen is what you are allowed to do.
• Imperatives and polite requestsTo ask a stranger, keep Sie and put the verb first: Kommen Sie bitte herein.
• Separable verbsSome very frequent verbs are built from a prefix plus a verb, and in a normal sentence the prefix goes to the very END…

Nouns and describing

• der, die, dasEvery German noun has one of three articles and you cannot work out which from the meaning: der Tisch, die Tür, das…
• The pluralGerman has five plural endings and no reliable rule about which noun takes which, so the plural is learned with the…
• Nominative and accusativeWhen a der-word is what the verb is DONE TO, der becomes den and ein becomes einen.
• Adjectives after seinAfter sein, a German adjective takes NO ending at all, however many endings the noun has: Die Wohnung ist klein.

Place and direction

• am, um, im — saying whenThree little words, one each: am for a day (am Montag), um for a clock time (um acht Uhr), im for a month (im Mai).
• in, bei, zu, nach — place and directionin for being inside, bei for being at someone or something, zu for going to a person or a building, nach for going to a…

Saying no

• Negating with nichtnicht negates a verb, an adjective or a whole sentence.
• Negating with keinIn front of a noun, German does not use nicht — it uses kein, which behaves exactly like ein: kein Geld, keine Zeit…

Asking questions

• W-questionsA question word takes first place and the verb still takes second: Wo wohnen Sie?
• Yes/no questionsA yes/no question needs no extra word: move the verb to first place and you are done.

Building the sentence

• The verb in second placeThe one rule that shapes every German statement: the conjugated verb is the SECOND element.
• Starting with the timeYou may put the time first for emphasis — but then the SUBJECT moves behind the verb, because the verb keeps second…

A1 Beginner Lessons: 26

Referring to people and things

• Pronouns: accusative and dativeEvery personal pronoun has two object forms, and German chooses between them by the verb, not by meaning: mich/mir…
• Possessives in the object casesmein, dein, sein, ihr, unser, euer, Ihr take the same endings as ein and kein.
• Ordinal numbers and datesOrdinals add -te up to nineteen and -ste from twenty: der dritte, der zwanzigste.

Verbs and time

• The spoken past with habenGermans say the past with two words, not one: a form of haben in second position and the participle at the very end.
• The spoken past with seinA small group of verbs takes sein instead: verbs of going somewhere (gehen, kommen, fahren, fliegen) and verbs of…
• Regular participlesMost German verbs build the participle the same way: ge- in front, the stem, -t at the end.
• Irregular participlesThe most frequent German verbs end their participle in -en, and many change the vowel too: essen → gegessen, trinken →…
• Separable verbs in the pastA separable verb keeps its prefix in the participle and swallows the ge between the two halves: einkaufen → eingekauft…
• war and hatteGerman has a second past tense, and for most verbs it belongs to writing.
• Verbs that take the dativeA handful of very common verbs take the dative where English uses a plain object: helfen, gefallen, gehören, schmecken…
• wollen and sollenA0 taught möchten, können and müssen.
• Modals in the pastModals are the other verbs Germans put in the simple past rather than the Perfekt.
• Reflexive verbsA large group of everyday German verbs carries sich: sich freuen, sich treffen, sich anmelden, sich beschweren, sich…
• Telling someone what to doThree forms, one for each "you".
• Being polite: hätte, könnte, würdeFour frames turn a demand into a request, and they are worth more at a German counter than any amount of vocabulary.
• Talking about the futureMost of the time German says the future with the present tense and a time word: Morgen fahre ich nach Bremen.

Nouns and describing

• The dative objectWhen something is given, shown, sent or explained, German marks the RECEIVER with the dative.
• Adjectives after der, die, dasAfter a definite article the adjective carries almost no information, because der already showed the gender.
• Adjectives after ein, kein, meinAfter ein, kein and the possessives the article sometimes shows nothing — ein is the same for masculine and neuter — so…
• Comparing two thingsAdd -er to the adjective and join the comparison with als — not wie.
• The most, the bestGerman has two superlative shapes.

Place and direction

• Prepositions that always take the dativeSeven prepositions always take the dative, whatever the sentence means: mit, nach, bei, seit, von, zu, aus.
• Prepositions with two casesNine prepositions — in, an, auf, über, unter, vor, hinter, neben, zwischen — take either case, and the sentence decides.

Joining sentences

• weil — giving a reasonAfter weil the verb goes to the very end of its clause.
• dass — reporting what you think or hearddass reports a thought, a statement or a piece of news, and it moves the verb to the end exactly like weil.
• wenn — if, and wheneverwenn does two jobs and moves the verb to the end for both.