German grammar, explained simply

Free bite-size German grammar lessons: articles, word order, verbs and more. Read the lesson, then practise it with spaced repetition on Langrit.

• Personal pronouns and formal Sie (Personalpronomen) A1 · What personal pronouns do A subject pronoun replaces the person or thing doing the action. German has one more
• Noun gender and articles (der, die, das, ein, eine) A1 · Three genders Every German noun has a grammatical gender: masculine, feminine or neuter. The gender belongs to
• The verbs sein and haben (to be, to have) A1 · Two irregular key verbs sein (to be) and haben (to have) are the most frequent verbs in German. They are irreg
• Present tense: regular verbs (Präsens) A1 · Stem + ending Take the infinitive, remove en (or n) to get the stem, then add an ending for each person: wohne
• Present tense: stem-vowel changes A1 · Same endings, different vowel Some common verbs change the vowel of their stem, but only in the du and er/sie/
• Negation: nicht and kein A1 · Two words for "not" German negates with kein or nicht. The choice depends on what you negate. kein negates a n
• W-questions and yes/no questions (W-Fragen, Ja/Nein-Fragen) A1 · Two kinds of questions German builds questions by moving the conjugated verb. There is no helper verb like "do
• Verb-second word order (Verbzweitstellung) A1 · The verb in position 2 In a German statement, the conjugated verb is the second element. Yes/no questions and
• Plural nouns (Plural) A1 · Many endings, one article English adds s to almost every noun. German has several plural patterns, and some ad
• The accusative case (Akkusativ) A1 · Subject and direct object German marks the role of a noun with its article. The subject (who does it) is in th
• Possessive articles (Possessivartikel) A1 · Two decisions A possessive article (mein, dein, ...) answers two questions: 1. Who owns it? This chooses the w
• Numbers, dates and telling time (Zahlen, Datum, Uhrzeit) A1 · Numbers Number German Number German 1 eins 13 dreizehn 2 zwei 16 sechzehn 3 drei 17 siebzehn 6 sechs 20 zwanzi
• Modal verbs (Modalverben) A1 · What modal verbs do Modal verbs add ability, obligation, permission or wish to another verb. The modal is conj
• Separable verbs (trennbare Verben) A1 · Prefix + verb Many German verbs consist of a prefix and a base verb: auf + stehen = aufstehen (get up). In a m
• The imperative (Imperativ) A1 · Three forms for "you" English has one imperative ("Come!"). German has three, because it has three ways to say
• Coordinating conjunctions (und, aber, oder, denn, sondern) A1 · Position 0 These five conjunctions join two main clauses without changing the word order. They stand in "posit
• The dative case (Dativ) A2 · The indirect object With verbs like geben, schenken, zeigen, schicken or erklären, there is often a person who
• Prepositions with the accusative or dative A2 · Each preposition decides the case In German, the noun or pronoun after a preposition is in a specific case. Fo
• Two-way prepositions (Wechselpräpositionen) A2 · Nine prepositions, two cases The prepositions an, auf, hinter, in, neben, über, unter, vor, zwischen can take
• The perfect tense (Perfekt) A2 · The normal past tense in speech In spoken German, the Perfekt is the standard way to talk about the past. It c
• The simple past (Präteritum) of common verbs A2 · Two past tenses, different jobs German has two main past tenses with almost the same meaning. The difference i
• Reflexive verbs (reflexive Verben) A2 · What a reflexive verb is A reflexive verb carries a pronoun that points back to the subject: Ich wasche mich.
• Subordinate clauses (weil, dass, wenn, ob) A2 · The verb goes to the end A subordinate clause (Nebensatz) is introduced by a subordinating conjunction, and it
• Adjective endings (Adjektivendungen) A2 · Only in front of a noun An adjective takes an ending only when it stands before a noun. After sein, werden and
• Comparatives and superlatives (Komparativ und Superlativ) A2 · One ending for every adjective German has no equivalent of English "more ...". Every adjective, short or long,
• Talking about the future (Futur I) B1 · The present tense is the normal future For plans and appointments, German uses the present tense plus a time e
• Infinitive with zu and um ... zu B1 · zu + infinitive at the end Many verbs and expressions are followed by a second verb in the form zu + infinitiv
• Relative clauses (Relativsätze) B1 · Two questions decide the pronoun A relative clause describes a noun. It starts with a relative pronoun, is sep
• Konjunktiv II: würde, hätte, wäre and wishes B1 · What it is for Konjunktiv II covers everything that is not real: polite requests, wishes, advice, and conditio
• The passive voice (Passiv) B1 · What the passive is for The passive puts the action in the foreground and leaves the doer out. You meet it con
• The genitive case (Genitiv) B1 · What belongs to whom The genitive answers wessen? (whose?) and links two nouns: das Auto meines Bruders — my b
• Verbs with fixed prepositions (Verben mit Präposition) B2 · One unit: verb + preposition + case Many German verbs are tied to one particular preposition, and that preposi
• da- and wo-compounds (Präpositionaladverbien) B2 · Things get da, people get a pronoun After a verb with a fixed preposition you cannot say auf es or über sie ab
• Indirect speech (Konjunktiv I) B2 · Everyday indirect speech In conversation, German reports what someone said with a plain indicative, either in