Elementary German Grammar Topics
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Course Content
German Adjectives Adverbs and Prepositions
Adjectives are words that describe nouns. Most adjectives are stand-alone words; however, present and past participles can also be used as adjectives. Numbers are also adjectives, though they do not decline.
Adverbs based on adjectives are one of the simplest parts of German grammar. Any adjective can be used as an adverb simply by placing its uninflected form within the sentence, usually towards the end.
Prepositions are words that are used to describe the relationship between one noun or pronoun (person, object, thing, etc.) to another noun or pronoun (person, object, thing, etc.) in a sentence.
Lesson-German Adjectives Adverbs and Prepositions
Reading Exercise-German Adjectives Adverbs and Prepositions
Writing Exercise-German Adjectives Adverbs and Prepositions
Listening Exercise-German Adjectives Adverbs and Prepositions
German Adverbs of Place
Adverbs provide information about how, where, when, to what degree, or how often an action takes place. They modify other adjectives and adverbs.Examples of adverbs of place (wo?):
da
dort
hier
oben
unten
vorne
Lesson-German Adverbs of Place
00:00Reading Exercise-German Adverbs of Place
Writing Exercise-German Adverbs of Place
Listening Exercise-German Adverbs of Place
German Adverbs of Time and Frequency
Adverbs provide information about how, where, when, to what degree, or how often an action takes place. They modify verbs or adjectives or other adverbs.examples of adverbs of time:
heute
gestern
morgen
neulich
seitexamples of adverbs of frequency:
manchmal
oft
ab und zu
nie
selten
Lesson-German Adverbs of Time and Frequency
00:00Reading Exercise-German Adverbs of Time and Frequency
Writing Exercise-German Adverbs of Time and Frequency
Listening Exercise-German Adverbs of Time and Frequency
German Comparative and Superlative Endings
If you’re comparing two things, people, actions, characteristics or qualities and they’re not equal, you need a comparative.
Always form comparative by adding -er. Note variations on this for adjectives ending in -e, -er, or -el. Unlike in English, it can never be formed by “mehr + adjective.”
German-Comparative and Superlative Endings Review
Lesson-German Comparative and Superlative
12:31Reading Exercise-German Comparative and Superlative
Writing Exercise-German Comparative and Superlative
Listening Exercise-German Comparative and Superlative
German Comparative
A comparative adjective in English is one with -er added to it or more or less in front of it, that is used to compare people or things. (slower, more beautiful)
In German, to say that something is easier, more expensive and so on, you add -er to the simple form of most adjectives.
Lesson-German Comparative
00:00Reading Exercise-German Comparative
Writing Exercise-German Comparative
Listening Exercise-German Comparative
German Conjunctions and Word Order
In German, a conjunction either “coordinates” two “equally important” clauses, or it “subordinates” one clause to the other.Subordinating conjunctions make the verb go to the end in the clause.
bevore
ehe
nachdem
seit
währendCoordinating conjunctions leave the verb position unchanged.
und
denn
sondern
aber
oder
Lesson-German Conjunctions and Word Order
00:00Reading Exercise-German Conjunctions and Word Order
Writing Exercise-German Conjunctions and Word Order
Listening Exercise-German Conjunctions and Word Order
German Da Compounds
German can use words formed by affixing da– or dar– to the beginning of a preposition in order to refer back to something.Er schreibt damit. He writes with it.Sie sitzt darauf. She sits on it.
Lesson-German Da Compounds
00:00Reading Exercise-German Da Compounds
Writing Exercise-German Da Compounds
Listening Exercise-German Da Compounds
German Directional Adverbs
Adverbs of location will tell us where something is going to or coming from. They will always indicate some kind of movement.The questions they are answering are Wohin? (Where to?) and Woher? (Where from?)
Lesson-German Directional Adverbs
00:00Reading Exercise-German Directional Adverbs
Writing Exercise-German Directional Adverbs
Listening Exercise-German Directional Adverbs
German Future Perfect
The future perfect is a verb form or construction used to describe an event that is expected or planned to happen before a time of reference in the future.
For example... will have finished in the English sentence "I will have finished by tomorrow."
It is a combination of the future tense, or other marking of future time, and the perfect.
Lesson-German Future Perfect
00:00Reading Exercise-German Future Perfect
Writing Exercise-German Future Perfect
Listening Exercise-German Future Perfect
German Genitive Case Prepositions
A few German prepositions use the genitive case. That is, they take an object in the genitive case. See prepositions below:anstatt-instead of
statt-instead of
außerhalb-outside of
innerhalb-inside of
trotz-despite, in spite of
während-during, in the course of
wegen-because of
Lesson-German Genitive Case Prepositions
00:00Reading Exercise2-German Genitive Case Prepositions
Reading Exercise1-German Genitive Case Prepositions
Writing Exercise1-German Genitive Case Prepositions
Writing Exercise2-German Genitive Case Prepositions
Listening Exercise-German Genitive Case Prepositions
German Indefinite Pronouns
An indefinite pronoun is one of a small group of pronouns such as everything, nobody and something which are used to refer to people or things in a general way without saying exactly who or what they are.In German, the indefinite pronouns jemand (meaning someone, somebody) and niemand (meaning no-one, nobody) are often used in speech without any endings.
Lesson-German Indefinite Pronouns
00:00Reading Exercise-German Indefinite Pronouns
Writing Exercise-German Indefinite Pronouns
Listening Exercise-German Indefinite Pronouns
German Indirect Questions
Indirect questions are questions that are included within the structure of another sentence. They are are dependent clauses.The sentence structure of indirect questions in German grammar differs from that of normal questions – in indirect questions, the finite verb is placed at the end of the sentence. The rule for word order in indirect questions is: question-word + subject + object + verb.
Lesson-German Indirect Questions
00:00Reading Exercise-German Indirect Questions
Writing Exercise-German Indirect Questions
Listening Exercise-German Indirect Questions
German Konjunktiv II (present tense)
Lesson-German Konjunktiv II (present tense)
12:19Reading Exercise-German Konjunktiv II (present tense)
Writing Exercise-German Konjunktiv II (present tense)
Listening Exercise-German Konjunktiv II (present tense)
German Konjunktiv II Modal Verbs
Subjunctive with modal verbshätte is also the auxiliary verb in combination with the modal verbs: dürfen, können, mögen, müssen, sollen, wollen, and to express politeness or to describe a hypothetical situation.Eg: Ich hätte nicht einschlafen sollen!
Lesson-German Konjunktiv II (Modal Verbs)
00:00Reading Exercise-German Konjunktiv II (Modal Verbs)
Writing Exercise-German Konjunktiv II (Modal Verbs)
Listening Exercise-German Konjunktiv II (Modal Verbs)
German Modal Verbs in the Preterite
If you want to read a part of an older German fairy tale or if you are reading the latest news in the papers, chances are that you will stumble upon the German Präteritum (preterite, imperfect or simple past tense). It's a simple past tense that refers to events that happened in the past.
Lesson-German Modal Verbs in the Preterite
00:00Reading Exercise-German Modal Verbs in the Preterite
Writing Exercise-German Modal Verbs in the Preterite
Listening Exercise-German Modal Verbs in the Preterite
German Past Perfect Tense
The past perfect or pluperfect, also known as the Plusquamperfekt, expresses actions that took place before a certain point in the past.Example: Sie hatte sehr lange geübt, bevor sie das Stück so perfekt spielen konnte.
Lesson-German Past Perfect
00:00Reading Exercise1-German Past Perfect
Reading Exercise2-German Past Perfect
Writing Exercise1-German Past Perfect
Writing Exercise2-German Past Perfect
Listening Exercise-German Past Perfect
German Prepositions of Place
Prepositions of place show the relative location of subjects, objects or pronouns.
Prepositions of place are: ab, an, auf, aus, außer, außerhalb, oberhalb, bei, diesseits, durch, gegen, hinter, in, innerhalb, jenseits, mit, nach, neben, über, um, unter, unterhalb, vor, von, zwischen, and zu.
Lesson-German Prepositions of Place
00:00Reading Exercise-German Prepositions of Place
Writing Exercise-German Prepositions of Place
Listening Exercise-German Prepositions of Place
German Reflexive Verbs in the Dative
A German reflexive verb describes an action of the subject where the action reflects back to the subject. German reflexive verbs are used in connection with a reflexive pronoun such as myself or yourself in English.sich abgewöhnen-to give something up
sich anhören-to listen to
sich ansehen-to watch something
Lesson-German Reflexive Verbs in the Dative
00:00Reading Exercise-German Reflexive Verbs in the Dative
Writing Exercise-German Reflexive Verbs in the Dative
Listening Exercise-German Reflexive Verbs in the Dative
German Reflexive Verbs with Accusative
The reflexive verb “sich freuen” has a nominative and a reflexive addition in the accusative. The reflexive addition is expressed by a reflexive pronoun.mich
dich
sich
uns
euch
sich
Lesson-German Reflexive Verbs with Accusative
00:00Reading Exercise-German Reflexive Verbs with Accusative
Writing Exercise-German Reflexive Verbs with Accusative
Listening Exercise-German Reflexive Verbs with Accusative
German Review of Cases
Nominative
• for the subject of a sentence
• for predicate nouns
Accusative
• for the direct object of a sentence
• after the accusative prepositions and postpositions
• time expressions in a sentence are usually in accusative
Dative
• for the indirect object of a sentence
• after the dative prepositions
• after dative verbs: helfen, danken, gefallen, gehören, schmecken, passen
• with some adjectives which describe a condition
• the preposition “in” often uses the dative case
Genitiv
• possession, ownership, belonging to or with
• “of” in English, when referring to a part or component of something else
• in addition, there are a handful of prepositions that require the genitive
Lesson-German Review of Cases
00:00Reading Exercise-German Review of Cases
Writing Exercise-German Review of Cases
Listening Exercise-German Review of Cases
German Simple Past Tense
In German, the simple past is referred to as Präteritum. In English, the simple past is often used to discuss past events that have a definite timeframe, referring to when something happened. In German, it can be used the same way, though it’s generally used more in writing vs regular conversation.
Lesson-German Simple Past Tense
00:00Reading Exercise-German Simple Past Tense
Writing Exercise-German Simple Past Tense
Listening Exercise-German Simple Past Tense
German Strong Adjective Endings
German adjectives get very precise about their forms by aligning in several ways with the noun they describe (declension). Strong forms of adjectives are used with indefinite articles (“a/an” in English) or when there is no determiner.
Lesson-German Strong Adjective Endings
00:00Reading Exercise-German Strong Adjective Endings
Writing Exercise-German Strong Adjective Endings
Listening Exercise-German Strong Adjective Endings
German Subordinating Conjunctions
Subordinating conjunctions are used to connect an independent and dependent clause together. In German, this affects word order.
Lesson-German Subordinating Conjunctions
00:00Reading Exercise-German Subordinating Conjunctions
Writing Exercise-German Subordinating Conjunctions
Listening Exercise-German Subordinating Conjunctions
German Superlative
To build superlative forms and use them in a sentence, add the ending -sten or -esten to the adjective and place the word am (the) before the adjective. Depending on the context, we can also add -ste to the adjective and put the appropriate definite article before it.Spanisch ist am einfachsten. (Spanish is the easiest.)
Lesson-German Superlative
00:00Reading Exercise-German Superlative
Writing Exercise-German Superlative
Listening Exercise-German Superlative
German The Genitive Case
The genitive case is the lease used German case. The genitive case in English or in German shows a relationship between two nouns. The first noun is part of, connected to, belongs to, or depends on the noun in the genitive case. Think possession...
Lesson-German The Genitive Case
00:00Lesson Review-German The Genitive Case
Reading Exercise1-German The Genitive Case
Reading Exercise2-German The Genitive Case
Writing Exercise2-German The Genitive Case
Writing Exercise1-German The Genitive Case
Listening Exercise-German The Genitive Case
German Transition Words
Here are some common transition words in German:Vorher-before
danach-after
Weil-because
(Immer) noch-still
Deshalb-therefore
Ganz im Gegenteil-on the contrary
Aber-but
Lesson-German Transition Words
00:00Reading Exercise-German Transition Words
Writing Exercise-German Transition Words
Listening Exercise-German Transition Words
German Was für ein vs Welch
"Welch-" is often used when there are multiple options to choose from. It asks for a specific answer."Was für ein/e..." sounds more like you want to get a rough idea of the thing you're asking about.
Lesson-German Question Words
00:00Reading Exercise-German Question Words
Writing Exercise-German Question Words
Listening Exercise-German Question Words
German Weak Adjective Endings
There are two kinds of adjective endings, the strong ending and the weak ending. Whether you use a strong ending or a weak ending depends on which article (der, ein) is used. Use the weak ending following a definite article.
Lesson-German Weak Adjective Endings
00:00Reading Exercise-German Weak Adjective Endings
Writing Exercise-German Weak Adjective Endings
Listening Exercise-German Weak Adjective Endings
German Wo Compounds
Wo-compounds are used in questions when asking about the object of the preposition ('for what', 'about what', etc.).woran, wonach, wobei, wogegen, wovon, womit
Lesson-German Wo Compounds
00:00Reading Exercise-German Wo Compounds
Writing Exercise-German Wo Compounds
Listening Exercise-German Wo Compounds
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