German — Basic
German — Basic Level
German is spoken by approximately 100 million native speakers across Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and other countries. Its difficulty for English speakers is often overstated but real: the case system, three grammatical genders, and compound noun construction require systematic study. In return, German grammar is highly regular — the rules, once learned, are applied consistently.
Why Cases Matter
German's case system shows grammatical relationships through word endings rather than word order. This allows German significantly more flexibility in sentence structure than English (where order determines meaning). "Der Hund beißt den Mann" and "Den Mann beißt der Hund" both mean "The dog bites the man" — der (nominative) marks the dog as subject in both.
Case quick reference:
- Nominative: who does the action → subject
- Accusative: directly receives the action → direct object
- Dative: indirectly involved → indirect object, with many prepositions
- Genitive: possession/relationship (increasingly replaced by "von + dative" in spoken German)
Gender Rules (Partial)
Some patterns help:
- Masculine: days, months, seasons, weather, -er ending agent nouns (Lehrer — teacher)
- Feminine: most -ung, -heit, -keit, -schaft, -tion nouns (Wohnung — apartment, Gesundheit — health)
- Neuter: -chen and -lein diminutives (Mädchen — girl is neuter despite meaning), most verbs used as nouns (das Laufen — running)
Essential Phrases
Daily: Guten Tag, Wie geht es Ihnen? (How are you? — formal), Wie geht's? (How's it going? — informal), Gut, danke (Fine, thanks), Sprechen Sie Englisch? (Do you speak English?), Ich verstehe nicht (I don't understand), Können Sie das wiederholen? (Can you repeat that?)
Numbers: ein, zwei, drei, vier, fünf, sechs, sieben, acht, neun, zehn, elf, zwölf, dreizehn, vierzehn, fünfzehn, sechzehn, siebzehn, achtzehn, neunzehn, zwanzig
Regular Verb Conjugation
"kommen" (to come): ich komme, du kommst, er/sie/es kommt, wir kommen, ihr kommt, sie/Sie kommen
Note formal "Sie" (capitalised) uses same form as third-person plural "sie" (they) but context makes clear which is meant.