German grammar guides
Each guide explains one point of German grammar in simple English: what it is, when you use it, the pattern, examples and common mistakes. Practice and progress are in the free app.
A1
- Study strategy & resources — What is this lesson for?
- Alphabet & special letters — What will you learn here?
- Pronunciation — vowels — How do German vowels sound?
- Pronunciation — consonants — Which consonants sound different?
- Word stress — Wortbetonung — Which part of a word is loud?
- Hello & goodbye — Hallo! — What will you learn here?
- Nouns — the basics — What is special about German nouns?
- Gender patterns — Can I guess der, die or das?
- Plural forms — How do German nouns become plural?
- The four cases — overview — What is a case?
- Definite article declension — Why does “the” change?
- Indefinite article — ein/eine/kein — What is an indefinite article?
- Personal pronouns — What is a personal pronoun?
- Sein & haben — Why start with sein and haben?
- Introduce yourself — Ich heiße … — What will you learn here?
- Present tense — regular verbs — What is the present tense?
- Family — meine Familie — What will you learn here?
- Modal verbs — six essentials — What is a modal verb?
- In the café — Ich möchte … — What will you learn here?
- Strong verbs — present — What is a strong verb?
- Separable verbs — What is a separable verb?
- Imperative — commands — What is the imperative?
- Asking the way — Wo ist …? — What will you learn here?
- Numbers — Zahlen — Why learn numbers as a pattern?
- Shopping — Was kostet das? — What will you learn here?
- Telling the time — die Uhrzeit — How do Germans tell the time?
- Days, months, dates & seasons — What will you learn here?
- Negation — nicht vs kein — How do you say “not” and “no”?
A2
- Reflexive verbs — What is a reflexive verb?
- Perfekt — spoken past — What is the Perfekt?
- Perfekt — extra sentence practice — What is this lesson for?
- Adjective endings — 3 patterns — Why do adjectives get endings?
- Comparing — comparative & superlative — How do you compare things?
- Adverbs & word order — TeKaMoLo — What is an adverb?
- Accusative prepositions — DOGFU — What is a preposition?
- Dative prepositions — What do dative prepositions do?
- Two-way prepositions — Wo? or Wohin? — What is a two-way preposition?
- Verbs with a fixed preposition — What is a verb with a preposition?
- Word order — the verb in position 2 — What does “verb in position 2” mean?
- Word order — subordinate clauses — What is a subordinate clause?
- Questions — Fragen — How do German questions work?
- Pronouns — the rest — What are “the other” pronouns?
- n-declension — nouns that add -n — What is the n-declension?
- Common traps — read these twice — What is this lesson?
- False friends — Falsche Freunde — What is a false friend?
B1
- Präteritum — written past — What is the Präteritum?
- Plusquamperfekt & future tenses — Why three more tenses?
- Konjunktiv II — would / could — What is Konjunktiv II?
- Passive voice — Passiv — What is the passive?
- Passive alternatives — man, lässt sich, ist zu — What is a passive alternative?
- Indirect speech — Konjunktiv I — What is indirect speech?
- Genitive prepositions — What are genitive prepositions?
- Relative clauses — der, den, dem, dessen — What is a relative clause?
- Infinitive with zu — um … zu, damit — What is zu + infinitive?
- Word formation — Wortbildung — How does German build words?
- Prefix verbs — separable or not? — What is a prefix verb?
- Modal particles — Modalpartikeln — What is a modal particle?