German Grammar

Verbs

A verb is a word that describes an action, state, or occurrence — it tells you what someone or something is doing, being, or experiencing (e.g., to go, to be, to have, to think). In German, verbs change their form depending on who is doing the action — this is called conjugation. Most verbs in their basic form end in -en (e.g., machen, gehen, spielen), and this ending changes based on the subject (Nominativ) pronoun.

Here is how a regular verb, machen (to do/make), is conjugated:

Some common verbs are irregular, like sein (to be) and haben (to have), and don't follow this pattern exactly. Here are some examples:

Examples:

German treats hunger, thirst, and fear as nouns you possess (haben = "to have"), not states you are (sein = "to be") — which is why it says "I have hunger" (Ich habe Hunger) rather than "I am hungry."

1. Verb structure

This is important to understand how verbs are made and how they work with pronouns. This will also help you understand Informal commands, which will come later. A full verb like gehen (to go) has two parts: geh (verb stem) + en (verb ending). The ending changes with the pronoun. An irregular verb like haben (to have) has different endings (see the 3rd table below).

Cases

In German, cases show the role a noun or pronoun plays in a sentence — whether it's the subject, the direct object, the indirect object, or shows possession. There are four cases: Nominativ, Akkusativ, Dativ, and Genitiv, but Nominativ, Akkusativ, and Dativ are the most common and the best place to start.

Pronouns also change form depending on the case. Here are some examples with er (he):

Articles (der/die/das, ein/eine, kein/keine) also change with the case. Here they are side by side for masculine, feminine, neuter, and plural nouns:

If noun is plural and a dative case then add n at the end of noun unless it already ends with s or n.

Personal pronouns

Personal pronouns (I, you, he, she, etc.) change form depending on the case, just like nouns and articles do. Here's the full set:

Possessive adjectives

Possessive adjectives (my, your, his, etc.) show ownership and agree with the noun they describe in gender, number, and case. They decline the same way as kein — same endings, different stem.

Here's how mein (my) declines across gender, number, and case — every other possessive (dein, sein, ihr, unser, euer, Ihr) follows the exact same pattern of endings.

1. Accusative prepositions

These are the words that trigger accusative. There are some connecting words (prepositions) which always signal that you should use the accusative case. If you see any of these in a sentence, the noun after the word should be in the accusative case!

2. Dative prepositions

If any of these words appear in a sentence, the noun that follows will always be in the dative case — whether it would otherwise be the subject, direct object, or indirect object.

Ordering 'Would Like To'

When you order something, you say I would like to have or simply I'd like. In German you say hätte gern, which means would like to have, or simply would like.

Examples:

Ordering In Numbers

In German, when you try to order something and you have to say how much, you use times. Like 1 time, 2 times, 3 times, etc., instead of saying 1 cake, 2 chicken pies, 4 bottles of water, etc. You say 1 time cake, 2 times chicken pie, 3 times burgers, etc. There is only one rule for this.

• Add mal at the end of the number.

Numbers Examples:

Examples:

Formal & Informal commands

For polite requests or commands, add Sie (you) at the end, which makes it a Formal command. The S in Sie is capital. It sounds like if you say Z in English. If you skip Sie, it becomes an Informal command.

Examples (Formal commands):

Examples (Informal commands):

If you want to command not to do anything, just add nicht at the end along with Sie.

More on informal commands:

As you know, if we add Sie after verb, it become a polite / formal command but in informal command, the verb changes a little if it ends in a certain letter. If the verb ends in t, d or fn we add e to the ending stem. There is one more, if the full verb has e it become i (see the 2nd table below).

Questions (Fragen)

Forming questions in German depends on whether you want to ask a Yes/No question or an Open-ended question (using a question word). Here is a simple guide on how to structure them.

Common German Question Words

1. Yes / No Questions (Ja-/Nein-Fragen)

To ask a question that can be answered with a simple "yes" or "no," you must start the sentence with the verb.

Structure:

Verb + Subject + Rest of the sentence?

2. Open Questions (W-Fragen)

To ask for specific information, start the sentence with a question word (most of which start with "W" in German). The verb always comes second.

Structure:

Question Word + Verb + Subject + Rest of the sentence?

3. Sentences with Objects (Akkusativ & Dativ)

German distinguishes between a Direct Object (Akkusativobjekt — answers "wen/was?", whom/what) and an Indirect Object (Dativobjekt — answers "wem?", to/for whom). Word order matters.

Structure (two nouns):

Subject + Verb + Indirect Object (Dativ) + Direct Object (Akkusativ)

Structure (when the Direct Object is a pronoun, the order flips):

Subject + Verb + Direct Object (Pronoun) + Indirect Object (Dativ)

4. Questions with "Do / Does / Can"

German has no helper verb equivalent to English "do/does" — it's simply left out. The main verb moves straight to the front instead. "Can" behaves differently: it's a modal verb (können), which stays in position 2 while the main verb is pushed to the very end as an infinitive.

Structure ("Do/Does" questions — no auxiliary in German):

Main Verb (conjugated) + Subject + Rest of sentence?

Structure ("Can" questions — modal verb + infinitive at the end):

Modal Verb (können) + Subject + Rest of sentence + Main Verb (infinitive)?

Saying 'Like to & don't like to do'

You say you like to do something by adding gern (pleasure) at the end of the verb. To say you don't like doing something, use nicht gern instead: Ich koche nicht gern (I don't like to cook).

Subject + Verb (with correct ending) + gern

Subject + Verb (with correct ending) + nicht gern

Comparisons

Compare two things that one thing is better, faster, bigger... we have three rules, you have to add both and make change to 3rd if spotted.

• Add er at the end of adjective.
• Add als (then) after adjective.
• Many one-syllable add umlaut (ä, ö, ü).

Adjectives are words that describe or give more information about a noun, e.g. big, red, happy, etc. They usually answer questions like what kind, which one, or how many, e.g. a tall building, three books, the blue car, etc.

Examples (simple):

Examples (umlauts):

If you want to say that something is the greatest, the biggest, the tallest... we have four rules, you have to add both and make change to 3rd if spotted.

• Add sten at the end of adjective.
• Add esten if adjective ends in t or s.
• Put am before adjective.
• Put umlaut (ä, ö, ü). in one-syllable.

Examples:

Saying 'please', Bitte

To be polite in German, the common word for please is bitte. The common place to use bitte is in the middle of the sentence. Without please, it may sound rude. You can use the versatile German word bitte to mean "please," "you're welcome," "here you go," "pardon?" or "come again?" depending on the social context.