German grammar
The main rules of German, each on one short page with tables and examples you can listen to. Use it to look something up, or read it alongside the course: every chapter links to the pages it uses.
Start here: sounds and spelling
Beginner (A1)
- Articles and gender: der, die, dasEvery German noun is masculine, feminine or neuter. Learn der, die, das and ein, eine, and some tips for guessing the gender.
- Asking questionsHow to ask yes/no questions and questions with wer, was, wo and wie, and how to answer with ja, nein and doch.
- Cases: nominative and accusativeWhy der sometimes becomes den: how German shows who does what, and which prepositions always take the accusative.
- German numbers: from 0 to a millionCount from 0 to a million in German, say years, dates and prices, and understand why 21 is einundzwanzig, “one-and-twenty”.
- Modal verbs: können, müssen, wollen …The six German modal verbs: what they mean, how to conjugate them, and where the second verb goes.
- Negation: nicht and keinHow to say “not” and “no” in German: when to use kein, when to use nicht, and where nicht goes in the sentence.
- Personal pronouns: ich, du, Sie …The German words for I, you, he, she and they, when to say du, ihr or Sie, and the forms mich, mir, dich, dir.
- Plural of nounsGerman nouns form their plural in several ways. Learn the main patterns and some rules of thumb to guess the right one.
- Possessives: mein, dein, sein …How to say my, your, his, her, our and their in German, and the endings these words take.
- Sein and haben: to be and to haveThe two most important German verbs: their forms, what they're used for, and where German uses haben but English uses “to be”.
- The perfect tense (Perfekt)The everyday German past tense: haben or sein plus the past participle, how to form participles, and which verbs take sein.
- The present tenseHow to form the German present tense: regular endings, small spelling changes, and verbs that change their vowel.
- Word orderWhere the verb goes in a German sentence: second in statements, split in two, or at the very end after weil and dass.
Elementary (A2)
- Adjective endings after ein, kein and meinWhy German adjectives change their ending before a noun: the endings after ein, kein and mein, and with plurals without an article.
- Comparatives and superlatives: größer, am größtenHow to compare in German: -er als, so … wie, am -sten, umlauts, and irregular forms like besser and lieber.
- Reflexive verbs: sich freuen, sich treffenVerbs with sich: the reflexive pronouns mich, dich, sich, where they go, and the most useful reflexive verbs.
- Talking about the future: present tense and werdenHow German talks about the future: the present tense with a time word for plans, and werden + infinitive for predictions and promises.
- The dative caseThe dative case: giving something to someone, prepositions like mit and zu, and verbs like helfen and gefallen.
- The imperative: Geh! Geht! Gehen Sie!How to tell someone what to do in German: the imperative for du, ihr and Sie, vowel changes, separable verbs and sounding polite.
- The simple past (Präteritum): war, hatte, mussteThe one-word past tense: war and hatte, the modal verbs in the past, and which verbs Germans use it for in conversation.
Intermediate (B1)
- Linking clauses: als, wenn, obwohl, damit, um … zuThe linking words that send the verb to the end (als, wenn, ob, obwohl, damit, nachdem), um … zu, and the ones that don't (denn, deshalb, trotzdem).
- Relative clauses: der Mann, der …How to describe people and things with relative clauses: the relative pronouns der, die, das, den, dem, denen, with and without a preposition.
- The genitive: des Kontos, der FirmaThe fourth German case: how the genitive shows belonging, its articles and endings, prepositions like wegen and während, and von + dative in speech.
- The Konjunktiv II: würde, hätte, wäre, könnteHow to talk about wishes, imagined situations and polite requests, and what would have happened, with the German Konjunktiv II.
- The passive: wird gemacht, wurde gemachtHow German says what is done without saying who does it: werden + past participle, in the present, the past and with modal verbs.
- The past perfect (Plusquamperfekt): hatte gemacht, war gegangenHow to say what had happened before another event in the past: hatte or war + past participle.
Upper intermediate (B2)
- Formal style: nouns, fixed noun-verb pairs and genitive prepositionsHow formal German differs from speech: nouns instead of verbs, fixed pairs like eine Entscheidung treffen, and prepositions like aufgrund and trotz.
- Modal particles: doch, ja, mal, halt, eben, dennThe small words that make spoken German sound natural: what doch, ja, mal, halt, eben, denn and schon add to a sentence.
- Participles as adjectives: spannend, gespieltHow to use the Partizip I (spannend) and Partizip II (versteckt) as adjectives, and how to read long participle phrases in written German.
- The Konjunktiv I: reported speech (er sei, sie habe)How newspapers and formal texts report what someone said: the Konjunktiv I, when to use the Konjunktiv II instead, and what people say in everyday speech.
- The n-declension: der Student, den StudentenMasculine nouns like der Student, der Kollege and der Herr add -n or -en in every case except the nominative singular. How to recognise and use them.
- Two-part connectors: zwar … aber, sowohl … als auch, je … destoConnectors in two parts: zwar … aber, einerseits … andererseits, sowohl … als auch, nicht nur … sondern auch, weder … noch, entweder … oder and je … desto.
No page matches. Try a shorter word, or look through the list.