German Grammar – 6 Things You Need To Learn

Published by Janica Hieronimi on February 9, 2021

When it comes to German grammar, many already stop here but don’t worry, we’ll help you make it easy.

Here’s what you really only need to learn.

To Be And To Have

Two of the most important verbs i n German that you will always need are haben (to have) and sein (to be). There’s no way around it but to learn the conjugations for these verbs by heart.

An easy way to do so is to take a die made of either cardboard or wood and label all the pronouns: ich, du, er, sie, es… (I, you, he, she, it). Then, roll the die and state the correct conjugation for whichever pronoun appears. It’s a simple trick that works for verbs where the conjugations simply have to be memorized.

Irregular Verbs: Put Them In A Verb Book

In the German language, we have tons of irregular verbs. Annoyingly, this means that there’s a long list of verbs that you need to individually learn by heart as they don’t fit the usual patterns of conjugation.

I would suggest adding all the verbs to a verb book. You can quickly make one out of a journal or notepad. To make this most efficient for you, make four columns on each page: One for the English translation, one for the present tense, one for the past tense, and one for the future tense. Research the conjugations with your grammar book or on your favorite conjugation app.

As with anything in life that requires practice it’s all about consistency. Reviewing the conjugations regularly can really help them stick in your head, especially if you speak them out loud! You’ll probably soon realize that there are in fact some patterns to irregular verbs.

German Verbs Come Second, Most Of The Time

Verb position is an easy one in German grammar. Mostly, the verb comes in the second position of a sentence. Take a look at the following examples.

Ich liebe dich. (I love you.)
Wir wohnen dort. (We live there.)
Er studiert Jura. (He studies law.)

These sentence structures are very similar in English. As a rule here, the verb comes in the first position when you ask a question., when you want to ask a question, you have to move the verb to the first position.

Liebst du mich? (Do you love me?)
Wohnt ihr dort? (Do you (plural) live there?)
Studiert er Jura? (Does he study law?)

Always Capitalize German Nouns

If you look at the last sentence examples the word Jura (law) is capitalized. Nouns in German (words that name people, things, and places) are always capitalized. Here are some more examples of this rule.

Ich mag Blumen. (I like flowers.)
Wir leben in dem Haus mit der ganzen Familie. (We live in the house with the whole family.)
Er studiert seit Februar Jura an der Universität. (He has been studying law at the university since February.)

Remember: Nouns are always capitalized, pronouns never (unless they come at the beginning of the sentence).

All German Nouns Have Genders

This one is a little more complicated; We use three different genders with all words: masculine, feminine, and neutral.

When you start learning your vocabulary, learn the gender of the word with it. It will make it a whole lot easier for you in the future to construct proper sentences.

Masculine – Der
Feminine – Die
Neutral – Das

In some cases, you can figure out gender from the ending of the word (for example the ending -in is usually female), but it’s not always so easy (e.g. die Baustelle – the construction site, is female, even though there are no hints about the gender here).

Job positions are all distinguished by gender. Here are some examples:

Der Lehrer (male teacher)
Die Lehrerin (female teacher)
Der Koch (male chef)
Die Köchin (female chef)
Der Student (male student)
Die Studentin (female student)
Der Arzt (male doctor)
Die Ärztin (female doctor)

It is an essential part of knowing the gender of nouns to formulate the rest of your German sentences, so learning them by heart from the beginning makes it a whole lot easier for you in the future if you want to construct sentences.

There Are 4 Cases

Articles (a/an/the in English) vary depending on whether a word is a subject, direct object, indirect object, or possessive object.

How do you determine which case to use? Here’s a little guidance:

the noun’s function in the sentence
the verbs used in the sentence
the prepositions around the noun

Nominativ – The subject – You can find the subject of a sentence by asking yourself who or what is performing an action. Subject takes the nominative case
Accusative – The direct object – A direct object is a noun or pronoun on the receiving end of the subject’s action. The direct object usually takes the accusative case.
Dative – The indirect object – This element of the sentence is passively affected by the action of the verb and takes the dative case.
Genitive – shows belonging or possession – is used in noun-noun constructions

Yes, choosing the correct translation of “the” and “a” requires some thought at first. Please don’t feel discouraged, because even if you choose wrong, native speakers will still understand you! Like everything in life, it all comes with practice. The more you practice, the more it will become clear to you and you won’t worry about which ending is right.

Although sometimes it may seem German sentence structure doesn’t make sense, for almost all of them we have specific rules behind the apparent chaos and only a few exceptions.

Of course, it will take time to learn but if you watch Films with Subtitles, listen to German podcasts or the radio and read German books or newspapers it will come to you sooner than you may think.

The six essential grammar rules above will help you simplify what may seem a lot.

Always remember, people will understand you, even if you make mistakes. So go out there and practice what you have learned and continued to the extent of your knowledge through practice. We Germans are happy and very appreciative of everyone who makes an effort because we know our language is not the easiest to learn. So it’s even a better feeling when you have a conversation with a native, they will probably applaud your efforts.