BASIC

GRAMMAR

GUIDE TO
GERMAN

INDEX
German AlphabetPage 3
Sentence Structure..Pages 4-8
Verb TensesPages 8-11
ConjunctionsPage 12
Prepositions..Page 13
CasesPages 14-17

German Alphabet:
The German Alphabet has the 26 standard letters found in the English alphabet
plus four letters that are specific to German.
Alphabet
LETTER
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j
k
l
m
n
o

GERMAN NAME
ah
beh
tseh
deh
eh
eff
geh
hah
ih
yot
kah
ell
emm
enn
oh

LETTER
p
q
r
s
t
u
v
w
x
y
z

GERMAN NAME
peh
kuh
err
ess
teh
uh
fau
veh
iks
ppsilon
tsett
h
h
h
ess-tsett

Sentence Structure:
There are three basic sentence types in German:
1. Declarative Sentences (Statements)
2. Interrogative Sentences (Questions)
3. Imperative Sentences (Commands)

Statements:
Simple Tenses In statements in the simple present or simple past tense, the
verb is in the second position, preceded by the subject and followed by the
object or other sentence parts. The subject is usually a noun or pronoun.
Example:
SUBJECT

CONJUGATED VERB

OTHER SENTENCE PARTS

Der Mann
Das Mdchen

ist
hat

unser Lehrer.
einen Pullover.

Der Mann ist unser Lehrer. The man is our teacher.

Das Mdchen hat einen Pullover. The Girl has a sweater.
The subject of sentences are known by this:
Ich
Du
Er/sie/es
Wir
Ihr
Sie/Sie

I
You
He/She/It
We
You (plural)
You (Formal)/They

Compound Tenses In statements containing compound tenses, the

conjugated verb is in the second position. The dependent infinitive (I will help
him), or the past participle (His sister has bought the book for him)

Example:
SUBJECT

CONJUGATED OTHER SENTENCE

VERB
PARTS

INFINITIVE OR
PAST PARTICIPLE

Ich

werde

ihm

helfen.

Seine
Schwester

hat

ihm das Buch

gekauft.

Ich werde ihm helfen. I will help him.

Seine Schwester hat ihm das Buch gekauft. His sister bought him the book.
Separable Prefixes In Simple Tenses, the prefix is separated from the verb
and it then occurs in the final position.
SUBJECT

CONJUGATED OTHER SENTENCE

VERB
PARTS

PREFIX

Wir

gehen

jeden Sonntag

spazieren.

Die
Studenten

kamen

mit dem Zug

an.

Wir gehen jeden Sonntag spazieren. We go walking every Sunday.

Die Studenten kamen mit dem Zug an. The students came on the bus.
spazierengehen = to walk
ankommen = to come on

Questions:
Specific Questions They are questions that ask for particular information.
This type of questions is introduced using an interrogative word:

Wann?
Warum?
Wo?
Wie?
Was?

When?
Why?
Where?
How?
What?

Wer?
Wieso?

Who?
How so?

Example:
INTERROGATIVE CONJUGATED SUBJECT
QUESTION
VERB

OTHER SENTENCE
PARTS

Wann

hat

das Konzert

begonnen?

Wo

ist

ihre Mutter

gegangen?

Wann hat das Konzert begonnen? When did the concert begin?
Wo ist ihre Mutter gegangen? Where has your Mom gone?
General Questions They are questions that ask whether something is true or
false. They can be answered by ja yes or nein no. You use the conjugated verb
as the start of the question.
Examples:
Kennst du meine Freundin? Do you know my girlfriend?
Wirst du ihn dort treffen? Will you meet with him there?

Commands:
The imperative verb is the first element of commands in German. There are 3
types of imperative commands:
1. Commands in the second-person singular (du)
2. Commands in the second-person plural (ihr)
3. Formal Commands (Sie)
Command = Verb (+ Subject)(+ Other sentence parts)!
Note: Imperative commands must always end with an exclamation mark.

Du Command Examples:
Mach auf!
Geh ins Kino!

Open up!
Go in the cinema!

With the first example aufmachen it is a separable verb with auf + machen,
therefore when you use an imperative for a singular person you use the du
stem of mach and send the separable part of the verb to the end of the
command.
When forming a du command, use the stem from the du verb so e.g.
Du gehst = You therefore drop the st and it forms the command, which is Geh!

Ihr Command Examples:

Macht auf!
Geht ins Kino!

Open up!
Go in the cinema!

When forming an ihr command:

Ihr geht = You (plural) go, therefore the verb and command stay the same in
the ihr command.

Sie Command Examples:

Machen Sie auf!
Gehen Sie ins Kino!

Open up!
Go in the cinema!

When forming a Sie command:

Sie gehen = They go/You go (formal), therefore when forming a Sie command
swap the verb infinitive with Sie to form the command.

Verb Tenses:
There a four basic tenses with German verbs and sentence structure:
1.
2.
3.
4.

Present
Simple Past
Future Tense
Auxiliary Verbs

Present:
In German, with the present tense, you use the infinitive stem of the verb and
then the present tense personal ending.
Examples of infinitive and stem:
INFINITIVE
Denken to think
Singen to sing
Machen to do

INFINITIVE STEM
denksingmach-

Examples of present tense personal ending:

Ich
Du
Er/sie/es
Wir
Ihr
Sie/sie

denke
denkst
denkt
denken
denkt
denken

singe
singst
singt
singen
singt
singen

mache
machst
macht
machen
macht
machen

Note: e,st,t,en,t,en like est ten ten to helps you remember the personal ending
for the verb endings.

Some present verbs change vowels in the stem of the present tense in the
second (du) and third person singular (er/sie/es) forms.
Example:
Ich
Du
Er/sie/es
Wir
Ihr
Sie/sie

fahre (to drive)

fhrst
fhrt
fahren
fahrt
fahren

laufe (to run)

lufst
luft
laufen
lauft
laufen

Simple Past Tense:

In the simple past tense, there are weak verbs and strong verbs. Weak verbs
follow a certain pattern, while the strong verbs also do but is slightly different.
Weak Verbs = Infinitive stem + Past tense marker te + Personal ending
Ich
Du
Er/sie/es
Wir
Ihr
Sie/sie

bestellte
bestelltest
bestellte
bestellten
bestelltet
bestellten

machte
machtest
machte
machten
machtet
machten

Strong Verbs = Past Tense stem + Personal ending

Ich
Du
Er/sie/es
Wir
Ihr
Sie/sie

blieb (bleiben=to stay)

bliebst
blieb
blieben
bliebt
blieben

ging (gehen=to go)

gingst
ging
gingen
gingt
gingen

Future Tense:
The future tense is formed with the auxiliary verb werden (to become/will)
plus the infinitive verb. The infinitive verb is at the end of the sentence.
Future Tense = Present tense of werden + infinitive
Ich
Du
Er/sie/es
Wir
Ihr
Sie/sie

werde
wirst
wird
werden
werdet
werden

Examples:
Wir werden einen Hund kaufen. We will buy a dog.
Ich werde jetzt gehen. I will go now.
Auxiliary Verbs:
They are helping verbs which are haben (to have), werden (to become/will),
sein (to be)
Ich
Du
Er/sie/es
Wir
Ihr
Sie/sie

habe
hast
hat
haben
habt
haben

Ich
Du
Er/sie/es
Wir
Ihr
Sie/sie

werde
wirst
wird
werden
werdet
werden

Ich
Du
Er/sie/es
Wir
Ihr
Sie/sie

bin
bist
ist
sind
seid
sind

Haben is the only verb which follows the correct verb form, while werden is an
irregular verb as the du and er/sie/es form change. The sein form is all
irregular and must be learnt completely off by heart.

Conjunctions:
A conjunction is a connecting word which connects two clauses together. There
are two types of conjunctions:
Coordinating Conjunctions In German, coordinating conjunctions link words,
phrases and clauses that are parallel or equal and have no effect on the word
order.
Subordinating Conjunctions Subordinating conjunctions introduce a
dependent clause which become a part of the sentence, therefore the
conjunction makes the verb go to the end in the clause that is introduced.
COORDINATING CONJUNCTIONS

und
sondern
oder
denn
aber

and
but (in the
contrary)
or
because
but

SUBORDINATING CONJUNCTIONS

als
bevor
bis
nachdem
whrend
damit
dass
ob
obwohl
seit
weil
wenn
wann

when
before
until
after
during
so that
that
whether, if
although
since
because
when, whenever
when

Examples: Look at the video lecture on conjunctions for examples of each

conjunction, giving you greater depth and understanding of the conjunctions.

Prepositions:
Prepositions are words that, in combination with a noun (or pronoun) show
positions, direction, time, or manner.
In German the prepositions can be followed by the accusative case or the
dative case, depending on whether they are used with verbs that indicate
motion or change of positions, or with verbs that indicate location or position.
Accusative Prepositions:
bis
durch
entlang
fr
gegen
ohne
um

by, until
through
along
for
against
without
around

Dative Prepositions:
aus
auer
bei
mit
nach
seit
von
zu
gegenber

out of, from

except (for), besides
with (at the home of), at, near
with
after
since
from, by, of, about
to
across

Examples: Look at the video lecture on prepositions for examples of each

preposition, giving you greater depth and understanding of the prepositions.

Cases:
A case signals how a noun is used within a sentence, clause or phrase. In
German there are 3 main cases used:
1. Nominative Case
2. Accusative Case
3. Dative Case
Note: There is also another case, known as the Genitive Case but it isnt used in
spoken German as much.

In German, as in English there is a definite article and an indefinite article:

The definite article (der, die, das) is used to refer to a particular or specific
person, place or thing.
E.g Der Arzt hat viele Patienten. The Doctor has many patients.
The indefinite article (ein, eine, ein) is used to refer to an unspecified person,
place or thing.
E.g Ein Arzt hat viele Patienten. A Doctor has many patients.
The (der, die, das) words are known as genders and each word in German has a
gender. Der is a masculine word, die is a feminine word and das is a neuter
word.

Nominative Case:
The Nominative Case is simply the noun or subject of the start of the sentence.

Definite
Article
Indefinite
Article

SINGULAR
MASCULINE
der

NEUTER
das

FEMININE
die

PLURAL
ALL GENDERS
die

ein

ein

eine

(no plural)

Examples:
Der Mann spielt Golf. The man plays Golf.
Die Freundin kommt. The girlfriend is coming.
Das Auto ist neu. The car is new.
Die Autos sind neu. The cars are new.
Die Kinder weinen. The children are crying.

Accusative Case:
The accusative case is simply the direct object of the sentence.

Definite
Article
Indefinite
Article

SINGULAR
MASCULINE
den

NEUTER
das

FEMININE
die

PLURAL
ALL GENDERS
die

einen

ein

eine

(no plural)

In the Accusative Case, the der word is the only word which changes to den
while the rest stay the same.
Examples:
Wir kaufen die Zeitung. We are buying the newspaper.
Wir kaufen den Wagen. We are buying the car.
Kennst du das Drama? Do you know the drama?
Ich habe die Bcher. I have the books.
The accusative case is also used with prepositions as discussed previously,
however here are some more examples of the accusative case with
prepositions:
Ich gehe gern ohne meine Mutter. I go well without my mom.
Ich gehe durch den Sturm. I go through the storm.

Dative Case:
The Dative Case is used as the indirect object of the verb. The person or animal
to whom something is given, shown, or told is in the dative case.

Definite
Article
Indefinite
Article

SINGULAR
MASCULINE
dem

NEUTER
dem

FEMININE
der

PLURAL
ALL GENDERS
den

einem

einem

einer

(no plural)

Examples:
Ich hole dem Hund das Futter. I am getting the dog the food.
In this example, dem Hund is in the dative case and das Futter is in the
accusative case.
Er kauft der Frau die Karte. He is buying the ticket for the woman.
In this example, der Frau is in the dative case and die Karte is in the
accusative case.
The Dative case can also be used with dative verbs. There are only a certain
amount of verbs which only take dative objects. These verbs are used with the
dative case:
DATIVE VERB

EXAMPLE

TRANSLATION

antworten
to answer

Ich antworte dem Herrn.

I answer the gentleman.

danken
to thank

Wir danken dem Lehrer.

We thank the teacher.

helfen
to help

Ich helfe dem Kind.

I help the child.

gefallen
to like

Der Hut gefllt seiner Frau.

His wife likes the hat.

The Dative Case is also used with prepositions as previously discussed,

however here are some examples of the dative case with prepositions:
Ich treffe mit meiner Schwester. Ich meet up with my sister.
Ich gehe zu dem Park. I am going to the Park.