Grammar
Articles, gender, cases, tenses and word order
Articles and gender
- ArtikelA1The little word in front of a thing: der, die, das, ein. It tells you which thing is meant — a known one or any one — and what gender it is.
- GenusA1Masculine, feminine or neuter: how to guess the gender of a German word from its ending and meaning, so you can pick der, die or das.
- PluralA1Noun plurals: five types of ending, when an umlaut appears, how gender and the end of a word hint at the form and why the dative plural adds -n.
- Dieser und WelcherA2The words for “this”, “which”, “every”, “that” and “such” — dieser, welcher, jeder, jener, solcher: when to use which and how their endings change.
- N-DeklinationB1Weak masculine nouns: why der Student becomes den Studenten, which nouns belong to the group, the special Name, Herz and Herr, and look-alikes that decline normally.
Cases
- KasusA1The four German cases: which questions each one answers, how articles and personal pronouns change by case and how to tell which case a sentence needs.
- AkkusativA1The accusative case (whom? what?): forms of articles and pronouns, the prepositions für, um, durch, ohne, gegen, bis, wider, entlang, es gibt and time expressions without a preposition.
- DativA2Wem? — to whom? Dative forms of articles and pronouns, the verbs and prepositions that take it, the order “to whom — what” and mir ist kalt.
- GenitivB1How to say whose: das Auto meines Vaters — my father's car. The endings you need, the prepositions that take this form and when people say von instead.
Prepositions
- ZeitpräpositionenA1How to say “at”, “before”, “after”, “since” about time: um, am, im, seit, vor, nach and others — which preposition for an hour, a day, a month and a period.
- WechselpräpositionenA2Nine prepositions of place that take the dative for “where?” and the accusative for “where to?”, plus the pairs stehen and stellen, liegen and legen, and the contractions im, ins, am, ans.
Word order and questions
- Verb an Position 2A1The main word-order rule: the verb always comes second in the sentence — whatever comes first: the person acting, the time or the place.
- Wie-FragenA1How long, how often, how far: questions with wie and how to answer them.
- SatzbauA2How the middle of a German sentence works: the two-part verb bracket, time before place (SPZO and TeKaMoLo), the order of objects and pronouns and where nicht goes.
Numbers
Time
- UhrzeitA1Telling the time in German — on the hour, with minutes, “half” and “about” — and how to answer “at what time?”. With an interactive clock.
- ZeitangabenA1How to say “now”, “soon”, “tomorrow evening”, “next week” and “at the start of the year” without a preposition: jetzt and bald, heute Abend and morgen früh, abends and montags, nächste Woche in the accusative, Anfang and Ende with the genitive.
The verb
- Das VerbA1How the German verb works: what role it plays in the sentence (verb type), which words it needs next to it (valency) and which forms it takes (verb forms) — with links to every verb topic.
- Sein und HabenA1“To be” and “to have” — the two key verbs of German: their forms for each person and where you need them.
- ModalverbenA1können, dürfen, müssen, sollen, wollen, mögen and möchte: what each one means, how they conjugate and why the second verb goes to the end of the sentence.
- ImperativA1How to ask, advise and give orders: the four imperative forms for du, ihr, Sie and wir, verbs that change e to i, sein, separable prefixes, softening with mal, doch, bitte and polite requests.
- PrädikativA2Ich bin müde, Mir ist kalt, Ich finde das gut: the word after sein, werden, bleiben, or after finden and halten für, that says what a person or thing is like or what it is.
- Reflexive VerbenA2Reflexive verbs with sich: the pronouns mich, dich, sich in the accusative and the dative, mutual actions with einander, where sich goes in the sentence, verbs with a preposition and the Perfekt.
- Unregelmäßige VerbenA2How irregular verbs change their vowel in the three forms (kommen — kam — gekommen), the ten patterns that make them easy to learn, the vowel in the present tense, prefixes, and haben or sein.
- Unpersönliches manA2Impersonal man — “people in general” and “someone”: the verb in the er form, rules, signs and instructions, man instead of the passive, the forms einen and einem, sich and sein, and the difference from Mann, jemand and the generic du, plus es where nobody does anything: es ist kalt.
- ErsatzinfinitivB1The Perfekt of a modal verb with a second verb: two infinitives at the end instead of the Partizip II, Ich habe arbeiten müssen, in main and subordinate clauses.
- Verben mit PräpositionenB1Verbs and adjectives with a fixed preposition: warten auf, denken an, Angst haben vor — which case follows the preposition, how to ask worauf? or auf wen? and how to point back with darauf.
- PassivB1How to say that something is being done without naming who does it: werden plus Partizip II in every tense, von, durch and mit, the passive with modal verbs, the impersonal passive and the Zustandspassiv.
- Infinitiv mit zuB1When the infinitive needs zu and when it doesn't: modal verbs and verbs of motion, versuchen and hoffen, es ist wichtig, bitten and raten, scheinen and brauchen, and the comma.
Tenses
- PräsensA1The present tense: personal endings, verbs with a vowel change, sein, haben, werden and wissen, separable prefixes and when the Präsens talks about the future.
- PerfektA2The main past tense of conversation: haben or sein, how the Partizip II is formed, the two-part verb bracket, the Perfekt of modal verbs and how it differs from the Präteritum.
- PräteritumA2The simple past: war, hatte, machte, ging. How it is formed, when people say it in conversation and when they write it.
- PlusquamperfektB1How to use hatte or war with the Partizip II to say that one past event happened before another, and where this tense is needed: after nachdem, with als … schon, bevor and weil.
- FuturB1The future tense: werden plus the infinitive, when Germans make do with the Präsens, promises, predictions and guesses, Futur I with a modal verb and Futur II for what will be finished by a point in the future.
Adjectives and pronouns
- PersonalpronomenA1Personal pronouns ich, du, er, sie, es, wir, ihr, sie and the polite Sie in every case (ich, mich, mir), the possessives mein, dein, sein and the traps: sie and Sie, the three meanings of ihr, and the order of two pronouns.
- AdjektivdeklinationA2Which ending an adjective takes before a noun: three tables — after der, after ein and with no article — and the one rule behind them.
- der, die, das als PronomenA2How der, die, das and dieser replace er, sie, es to point at something just mentioned, their forms in each case and why das so often means “this” or “that”.
- Alle und allesB1When to say alle (“everyone”, “all”) and when alles (“everything”): the forms of all- by case, alle with a noun and an adjective, alles Gute and alles, was …, all die and alle meine, the difference from jeder and set phrases like vor allem.
Conjunctions and clauses
- Koordinierende KonjunktionenA1The conjunctions und, aber, oder, denn, sondern and doch join two equal clauses without changing their word order.
- NebensatzA2The subordinate clause: why the conjugated verb goes to the end, where the comma goes, what changes when the clause comes first and which conjunctions start such clauses.
- dass-Sätze und indirekte FragenA2How to report a thought, someone's words or a question inside your own sentence: clauses with dass, ob and question words, where the verb goes to the end.
- Kausale und konditionale NebensätzeA2Clauses of reason, condition, concession, manner and result: weil, da, wenn, falls, obwohl, indem, sodass and their neighbours, and why the verb goes to the end.
- KonjunktionaladverbienB1Deshalb, trotzdem, dann, außerdem and other linking words that take first place themselves, so the verb comes straight after them, and how they differ from und and weil.
- Temporale NebensätzeB1Clauses of time: when to choose wenn, als or wann, how während, solange and bis differ, how bevor, nachdem, sobald and seit work and what changes if you use a preposition instead of a conjunction.
- um … zu und damitB1How to say “in order to”, “instead of” and “without doing”: um … zu or damit, anstatt … zu or anstatt dass, ohne … zu or ohne dass — the choice depends on who does both actions.
- RelativsätzeB1Clauses with “who” and “which”: the forms der, den, dem, dessen, how to find the case, a preposition before the pronoun, was after alles and nichts, wo for places and wer without a noun.
- DoppelkonjunktionenB2The paired conjunctions entweder … oder, weder … noch, sowohl … als auch, nicht nur … sondern auch, zwar … aber, einerseits … andererseits and je … desto: what they mean and where the verb goes in each part.