Verb conjugation
Stems, personal endings and verb position at level A1.
Verbs and tenses
Regular verbs
Present-tense endings and spelling rules.
The verb sein
Irregular forms, uses and the past tense.
The verb haben
Main verb, accusative object and perfect auxiliary.
Irregular verbs
Vowel changes in the present tense.
Separable verbs
Prefixes and the German verb bracket.
Modal verbs
Ability, necessity, permission and intention.
The imperative
Commands and requests with du, ihr and Sie.
Reflexive verbs
Accusative and dative reflexive pronouns.
Perfect tense
haben or sein and the past participle.
Preterite
Simple past forms in speech and writing.
Pluperfect
Events completed before another past event.
Future I
Plans, predictions and assumptions about the present.
Future II
Completed future actions and assumptions about the past.
Process passive
An action expressed with werden and the past participle.
State passive
The result of an action expressed with sein.
Limits of the passive
Verbs that cannot form a personal passive and impersonal exceptions.
Passive alternatives
man, sich lassen, sein + zu and adjective forms.
Subjunctive I
Reported speech and distance from another person's statement.
Subjunctive II
Wishes, polite requests and hypothetical situations.
Nouns, articles and cases
Gender, plural, declension, pronouns and the four German cases.
Nouns
Gender, plural forms, compounds and cases.
Articles
Definite, indefinite and zero articles.
Declension
Case forms, adjective endings and n-declension.
Pronouns
Personal, reflexive, demonstrative and relative pronouns.
Verb complements
Learn which cases and prepositions German verbs require.
Nominative complement
Subjects and predicate nominatives.
Accusative complement
Direct objects, articles and pronouns.
Dative complement
Dative objects and common dative verbs.
Dative and accusative
Two objects and their order in a sentence.
Location complement
Fixed positions with Wo? and the dative.
Directional complement
Destinations and origins with Wohin? and Woher?
Accusative and direction
Moving an object to a new position.
Prepositional complements
Fixed verb-preposition combinations and cases.
Sentences and clauses
Main clauses, subordinate clauses, relative clauses and connectors.
Sentence structure
Verb position, questions and the verb bracket.
Dass-clauses
Complement clauses with the conjugated verb at the end.
Infinitive clauses
Compact clauses with zu and no separate subject.
Indirect questions
Embedded questions with question words or ob.
Infinitive constructions
um … zu, ohne … zu and anstatt … zu.
Relative clauses
Relative pronouns, cases and prepositions.
Causal clauses
Reasons with weil, da and denn.
Concessive clauses
Counter-reasons with obwohl and trotzdem.
Purpose clauses
Goals with damit and um … zu.
Conditional clauses
Conditions with wenn, falls and sofern.
Contrast clauses
Contrasts with während and wohingegen.
Manner clauses
Means and circumstances with indem and als ob.
Consecutive clauses
Results with sodass and deshalb.
Temporal clauses
Overview of German time relations and connectors.
wenn or als
Repeated events versus one-time events in the past.
bevor
An action that takes place before another.
nachdem
An earlier completed action and tense sequence.
seitdem
A starting point in the past with an ongoing result.
sobald
An action that follows immediately.
solange
Two situations lasting for the same period.
während
Simultaneous actions and temporal contrast.
bis
The endpoint of an action or state.
Continue with advanced German
Study reported speech, hypothetical situations and advanced prepositions.