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Accusative vs dative: what actually changes, and what never moves at all.

Stop memorising der/die/das one word at a time; read the ending instead.

German nouns (Substantive) are the words that name things; they are always capitalised and carry a gender: das Haus, die Haustür.

The German plural is the form a noun takes to name more than one thing: die Bücher, die Autos.

German compound nouns are nouns built from two or more words stuck together: Handschuh, Krankenhaus, Arbeitszimmer.

The Genitiv is the German case of possession, and certain prepositions also require it: des Mannes, der Frau, trotz des Regens.

German possessives show who something belongs to and agree with the thing owned: mein Bruder, seine Frau.

mich or mir — the full pronoun table and which case turns up when.

dürfen is a German modal verb meaning “to be allowed to”: ich darf · du darfst · er darf.

The imperative (Imperativ) is the German command form; it expresses an order, a suggestion or an invitation: Komm!

Irregular verbs in the German present tense are verbs whose stem vowel changes in the du and er forms: ich fahre, du fährst.

können is a German modal verb meaning “can / to be able to”: kann · kannst · kann.

Modal verbs express ability, permission or obligation alongside another verb: Ich will Deutsch lernen.

mögen means “to like” and möchten means “would like”; they are two forms of the same verb.

The 50 most common German verbs carry most of everyday German, split into five topic groups: basic and modal, movement, communication, thinking and …

müssen is a German modal verb meaning “to have to” or “must”: muss · musst · muss.

Conjugation means the verb changes its ending to match the subject: Ich gehe, du gehst, er geht.

sein, haben and werden are the three most-used German verbs, and they double as auxiliary verbs: ich bin, ich habe, ich werde.

Separable verbs are German compound verbs whose prefix splits off and moves to the end of the sentence: Ich rufe dich an.

sollen is a German modal verb that expresses what someone else wants from you, or a piece of advice: ich soll, du sollst, er soll.

wollen is a German modal verb meaning “to want”: ich will, du willst, er will.

Dativ verbs are German verbs whose object goes in the dative case: helfen, gefallen, gehören, geben.

Reflexive verbs show that the subject does the action to itself, using a reflexive pronoun: sich freuen, sich waschen, sich vorstellen.

The second meaning of German modal verbs expresses the speaker’s judgment or assumption instead of an obligation or permission: muss, soll, will.

The German passive is the structure where the subject undergoes the action instead of doing it: werden + Partizip II.

The spoken past: choosing haben or sein, and building Partizip II.

The Präteritum is the German simple past, used mostly in writing and with a handful of very common verbs: war, hatte, konnte, musste.

Futur I is the German future construction: a form of werden plus an infinitive at the end of the clause (Ich werde gehen).

Konjunktiv II is the German mood for wishes, hypotheticals and polite requests, built with würde, wäre, hätte and the modal forms (könnte, müsste).

The Plusquamperfekt is the German past perfect: it describes an action that was already finished before another past event, built with hatte or war + …

an is a two-way preposition: it takes the dative for a position and the accusative for a direction.

The German preposition auf is a two-way preposition: it takes the dative for location (where?) and the accusative for direction (wohin?

aus is a preposition that always takes the Dativ: aus der Türkei, aus dem Haus, aus Holz.

bei is a German preposition that always takes the dative: bei mir, beim Arzt, bei der Arbeit.

durch is a German preposition that always takes the accusative: durch den Park, durch Zufall.

für is a preposition that always takes the accusative: für dich (for you), für zwei Wochen (for two weeks).

gegen is a German preposition that always takes the accusative: gegen den Plan, gegen acht Uhr.

hinter (“behind”) is a two-way preposition: it takes the Dativ for position and the Akkusativ for direction.

In German, in is a two-way preposition: it takes the Dativ for a location (wo?) and the Akkusativ for a direction (wohin?).

mit (“with”) is a preposition that always takes the Dativ: mit mir, mit dem Bus, mit Milch.

nach is a German preposition that always takes the Dativ: nach Berlin, nach dem Essen, nach links.

neben (next to, beside) is a two-way preposition: it takes the Dativ for location and the Akkusativ for direction.

ohne (“without”) is a preposition that always takes the Akkusativ: ohne dich, ohne Zucker.

seit is a preposition that always takes the Dativ and describes something that is still going on: seit zwei Jahren, seit Montag.

über is a two-way preposition: it takes the Dativ for position and the Akkusativ for direction.

um is a German preposition that always takes the Akkusativ: um acht Uhr (at eight o’clock), um den Tisch (around the table).

unter is a two-way preposition: it takes the Dativ for position and the Akkusativ for direction.

von is a preposition that always takes the Dativ: von mir, vom Arzt, von Montag bis Freitag.

vor is a two-way preposition: it takes the dative for a position and the accusative for a direction.

zu is a preposition that always takes the dative and expresses movement toward a person or an institution: zum Arzt, zur Schule.

zwischen (“between”) is a two-way preposition: it takes the Dative for a location and the Accusative for a direction.

German prepositions are small words that come before a noun, link it to the sentence and decide its case: für dich, mit dir.

German adverbs of place and direction show where something is or which way it moves: hier, dort, hin, her.

The questions wo?, wohin?

warten auf, denken an — the preposition a verb demands, plus wo(r)-/da(r)-.

The Steigerung (comparison of adjectives) is how German compares qualities: schön, schöner, am schönsten.

The 50 most common German adjectives, in 25 pairs of opposites: everyday basics, people and character, things and states.

German adjective endings are the letters an adjective takes when it stands in front of a noun: guter, gute, gutes, guten.

German adverbs describe a verb, an adjective or a whole sentence and never take an ending: heute, hier, schnell.

kein and nicht are the two basic German negation words: kein negates a noun (Ich habe kein Auto), nicht negates everything else.

German has two kinds of questions: a W-question starts with a question word and a yes/no question starts with the verb: Wo wohnst du?

The seven skeleton rules you need to build German sentences: verb position, subordinate clauses, articles, cases, verb endings and negation.

German conjunctions join two clauses or words by meaning, and they split into groups by how they treat word order: und, aber, denn leave it alone …

doch · mal · ja — the small words that stop you sounding like a robot.

schon, noch, noch nicht and nicht mehr look at what a situation was before and what it is now; erst means less than expected or later than expected.

weil, dass and wenn are German subordinating conjunctions: they start a subordinate clause and send the conjugated verb to the end (weil ich müde …

German word order puts the conjugated verb in second position, whatever comes first: Heute gehe ich ins Kino.

Indirect questions are questions asked in a roundabout, embedded way instead of directly: ob, wo, wann, wie.

The infinitive with zu is the German construction where an infinitive is introduced by “zu”: zu, um…zu, ohne…zu.

Relative clauses (Relativsätze) are subordinate clauses that describe a noun and start with a relative pronoun: der, den, dem, dessen.

Time conjunctions say when something happens: als, wenn and wann all mean “when”, but each one is used differently.

Two-part conjunctions (zweiteilige Konnektoren) are German connectors built from two halves that complete each other’s meaning: entweder…oder, je…desto.

The German alphabet has 26 letters plus three umlauts (ä, ö, ü) and ß; several letters sound different from English: W = V, Z = TS.

What to say the second you stop understanding — the rescue lines and their tone.

Directions in German are given with short set phrases such as Biegen Sie rechts ab, geradeaus weiter.

German greetings and goodbyes are the everyday phrases for meeting and parting: Hallo!

Why «Ich bin kalt» is the wrong sentence, and how feelings are built with mir.

German numbers, clock times and dates work like this: 21 = einundzwanzig, 10 Uhr, am 5.

Conversation reflexes are one-word reactions you give without building a sentence: Genau to agree, Echt?

Höflichkeitsformeln are German politeness phrases: some moments have a fixed phrase (Mein Beileid, Gute Besserung), others have none, and what you …

A polite no in German has three steps: a thank-you, a clear refusal with leider, and an open door with gerne.

A German set phrase (Redemittel) is a ready-made sentence with a gap: put coffee, a ticket or an appointment into Ich hätte gern … and the sentence …

German at the checkout is the set of five questions every supermarket cashier asks in the same order, and the one-word answers to them: Bar oder …

The Anmeldung is the official address registration you must complete after moving in Germany: you go to the Bürgeramt with a Wohnungsgeberbestätigung.

The basic German phrases you need at the doctor are Schmerzen (pain), Termin (appointment) and Rezept (prescription).

Making an appointment (einen Termin vereinbaren) means asking a doctor’s office or an authority for a time slot: Termin, phone call, absagen.

The core German phone phrases are “Hier ist …” to introduce yourself, “Ich rufe wegen … an” to give your reason, and buchstabieren to spell a name …

Apartment hunting in Germany means reading listings, viewing flats and applying: Wohnungssuche, Besichtigung, Selbstauskunft.

A formal letter in German has six fixed boxes: Betreff, Anrede, Grund, Problem, Forderung, Gruß.

Health insurance (die Krankenkasse) is the system that pays for medical treatment in Germany; most employees belong to the statutory scheme (GKV).

A German job application (die Bewerbung) is the set of documents and the interview that get you hired: Anschreiben, Lebenslauf, Vorstellungsgespräch.

A Vorstellungsgespräch is the face-to-face interview that follows a written application; the questions always come in the same order: tell us about …

Kündigung is the German word for ending a contract, such as a job, phone or rental agreement, and it comes with a set form and deadline: kündigen …

The Lohnabrechnung is the official payslip that shows how your pay is calculated: brutto, netto, Steuerklasse.

Personal pronouns are the words that stand in for a noun and point to a person or thing: ich, du, er, sie, es.

Words that stand before a noun to point at it or ask about it: dieser, welcher, jeder, mancher.

Indefinite pronouns point to people or things without saying exactly who or what: man, jemand, etwas, alle.

German time expressions say when, how often or for how long something happens: jeden Tag, morgens, vor einem Jahr.

Some German verbs take two objects, one answering “to whom?” (dative) and one answering “what?” (accusative): geben, zeigen, schenken.

Adjectives as nouns are adjectives written with a capital letter and used like nouns, while still taking adjective endings: der Bekannte, etwas Neues.

Some German adjectives are fixed to one particular preposition (auf, mit, an and so on) and always appear with it, such as stolz auf or zufrieden mit.

The German little word es is a dummy subject: it fills the subject slot when nobody really does the action (es regnet, es gibt) and stands in for a …

lassen is a versatile German verb meaning “to leave”, “to let” and “to have something done”, and with sich it means “can be done”.

The N-Deklination is a group of masculine nouns that add -n or -en in every case except the Nominativ.

Nominalization in German means forming nouns from verbs and adjectives with the endings -ung, -heit, -keit, -er, or with das + infinitive.

Nomen-Verb-Verbindungen are fixed pairs of a noun and a verb that together express a single action (eine Entscheidung treffen = to make a decision).

In German a verb can be used like an adjective to describe a noun: Partizip I for an action still going on (kochend), Partizip II for a finished one (gekocht).

Unreal comparisons in German are built with als ob, als wenn or plain als plus Konjunktiv II, and they mean “as if” or “as though”.

A German conditional clause can drop wenn and put the conjugated verb first instead: Hätte ich Zeit, würde ich kommen.

The extended Partizipialattribut turns the information of a relative clause into a long adjective phrase placed before the noun, using Partizip I or …

Formal genitive prepositions such as aufgrund, infolge, anhand and mittels are advanced prepositions used in writing and official contexts; they …

Nominalstil means turning a subordinate clause (conjunction + verb) into a noun phrase (preposition + noun), so that two clauses become one main clause.

Passive alternatives are German structures such as sich lassen, -bar and sein + zu that give the meaning of a passive sentence (“can be done”, “must …

Indirekte Rede is German reported speech: you pass on what someone else said, usually with Konjunktiv I, to show that the words are theirs.