German

External Resources
https://www.reddit.com/r/duolingo/wiki/index#wiki_german

Capitalizing nouns
In German, all nouns are capitalized. For example, "my name" is "mein Name," and "the apple" is "der Apfel." This helps you identify which are the nouns in a sentence.

Three grammatical genders, three types of nouns
Nouns in German are either feminine, masculine or neuter. For example, "Frau" (woman) is feminine, "Mann" (man) is masculine, and "Kind" (child) is neuter. The grammatical gender may not match the biological gender: "Mädchen" (girl) is a neuter noun.

It is very important to learn every noun along with its gender because parts of German sentences change depending on the gender of their nouns.

Generally speaking, the definite article "die" (the) and the indefinite article "eine" (a/an) are used for feminine nouns, "der" and "ein" for masculine nouns, and "das" and "ein" for neuter nouns. For example, it is "die Frau," "der Mann," and "das Kind." However, later you will see that this changes depending on something called the "case of the noun."

Conjugations of the verb  sein  (to be)
A few verbs like "sein" (to be) are completely irregular, and their conjugations simply need to be memorized:

Conjugating regular verbs
Verb conjugation in German is more challenging than in English. To conjugate a regular verb in the present tense, identify the invariant stem of the verb and add the ending corresponding to any of the grammatical persons, which you can simply memorize:

trinken  (to drink) Notice that the 1st and the 3rd person plural have the same ending as "you (formal)."

Umlaute
Umlaute are letters (more specifically vowels) that have two dots above them and appear in some German words like "Mädchen." Literally, "Umlaut" means "around the sound," because its function is to change how the vowel sounds.

An Umlaut can sometimes indicate the plural of a word. For example, the plural of "Mutter" (mother) is "Mütter." It might even change the meaning of a word entirely. That's why it's very important not to ignore those little dots.

No continuous aspect
In German, there's no continuous aspect, i.e. there are no separate forms for "I drink" and "I am drinking". There's only one form:  Ich trinke.

There's no such thing as  Ich bin trinke  or  Ich bin trinken!

When translating into English, how can I tell whether to use the simple (I drink) or the continuous form (I am drinking)?

Unless the context suggests otherwise, either form should be accepted.

Generic vs. specific (German is not Spanish or French)
Just like in English, using or dropping the definite article makes the difference between specific and generic.

I like bread = Ich mag Brot (bread in general)

I like the bread = Ich mag das Brot (specific bread)

It gets more complicated when it comes to abstract nouns, but we'll see about that later.

German plurals - the nominative Case
In English, making plurals out of singular nouns is typically as straightforward as adding an "s" or an "es" at the end of the word. In German, the transformation is more complex, and also the articles for each gender change. The following five suggestions can help: There is no change for most neuter or masculine nouns that contain any of these in the singular: -chen, -lein, -el, or -er. There may be umlaut changes. For example: "das Mädchen" (the girl) becomes "die Mädchen," and "die Mutter" (the mother) becomes "die Mütter."
 * 1) -e ending: most German one-syllable nouns will need -e in their plural form. For example, in the nominative case, "das Brot" (the bread) becomes "die Brote," and "das Spiel" (the game) becomes "die Spiele."
 * 2) -er ending: most masculine or neuter nouns will need the -er ending, and there may be umlaut changes. For example, in the nominative case "das Kind" (the child) becomes "die Kinder," and "der Mann" (the man) becomes "die Männer."
 * 3) -n/-en ending: most feminine nouns will take either -n or -en in all four grammatical cases, with no umlaut changes. For example, "die Frau" (the woman) becomes "die Frauen" and "die Kartoffel" becomes "die Kartoffeln."
 * 4) -s ending: most foreign-origin nouns will take the -s ending for the plural, usually with no umlaut changes. For example: "der Chef" (the boss) becomes "die Chefs."

'''Regardless of grammatical gender, all plural nouns take the definite article "die" (in the nominative case). '''This does not make them feminine. The grammatical gender of a word never changes. Like many other words, "die" is simply used for multiple purposes.

Just like in English, there's no plural indefinite article.

ein Mann = a man

Männer = men

German feminine plurals - nouns ending in -in
Feminine nouns that end in "-in" will need "-nen" in the plural. For example, "die Köchin" (the female cook) becomes "die Köchinnen" in its plural form.

ihr vs er
If you're new to German,  ihr  and  er  may sound exactly the same, but there is actually a difference. ihr  sounds similar to the English word  ear, and  er  sounds similar to the English word  air  (imagine a British/RP accent).

Don't worry if you can't pick up on the difference at first. You may need some more listening practice before you can tell them apart. Also, try using headphones instead of speakers.

Even if this doesn't seem to help, knowing your conjugation tables will greatly reduce the amount of ambiguity.

You are can refer to one or more people
In your own dialect, you might prefer to use something like  y'all  or  you guys  when addressing more than one person, but remember that, in Standard English,  you are  can refer to one person or multiple people. When translating  you are  into German, you need to decide whether to use  du bist  (informal, addressing one person) or  ihr seid  (informal, addressing more than one person).

(There's also the formal you (Sie sind), which will be introduced later in the course.)

SIMPLE GERMAN PRESENT TENSE
In English, the present tense can be simple or progressive (as in "I eat" or "I am eating"). Both forms translate to just one German present tense form, because there is no continuous tense in standard German. So, "she learns" and "she is learning" are both "sie lernt."

WIE GEHT'S?
There are many ways to ask someone how he or she is doing. Take "How are you?," "How do you do?" and "How is it going?" as examples. In German, the common phrase or idiom uses the verb "gehen" (go): "Wie geht es dir?" (How are you?).

WILLKOMMEN CAN BE A FALSE FRIEND
In German, "Willkommen" means welcome as in "Welcome to our home", but it does not mean welcome as in "Thank you - You're welcome". The German for the latter is "Gern geschehen" or "Keine Ursache".

DUO
Duo is the name of Duolingo's mascot (the green owl).

German Cases
In English, the words "he" and "I" can be used as subjects (the ones doing the action in a sentence), and they change to "him" and "me" when they are objects (the ones the action is applied to). For example, we say "He likes me" and "I like him." This is exactly the notion of a "grammatical case:" the same word changes its form depending on its relationship to the verb. In English, only pronouns have cases, but in German most words other than verbs have cases: nouns, pronouns, determiners, adjectives, etc.

Understanding the four German cases is one of the biggest hurdles in learning the language. The good news is that most words change very predictably so you only have to memorize a small set of rules. We'll see more about cases later, but for now you just need to understand the difference between the two simplest cases: nominative and accusative.

The subject of a sentence (the one doing the action) is in the nominative case. So when we say "Die Frau spielt" (the woman plays), "Frau" is in the nominative.

The accusative object is the thing or person that is directly receiving the action. For example, in "Der Lehrer sieht den Ball" (the teacher sees the ball), "Lehrer" is the nominative subject and "Ball" is the accusative object. Notice that the articles for accusative objects are not the same as the articles in the nominative case: "the" is "der" in the nominative case and "den" in the accusative. The following table shows how the articles change based on these two cases: The fact that most words in German are affected by the case explains why the sentence order is more flexible than in English. For example, you can say "Das Mädchen hat den Apfel" (the girl has the apple) or "Den Apfel hat das Mädchen." In both cases, "den Apfel" (the apple) is the accusative object, and "das Mädchen" is the nominative subject.

Conjugations of the verb sein (to be)
The verb "sein" (to be) is irregular, and its conjugations simply need to be memorized:

Conjugations of the verb essen (to eat)
The verb "essen" (to eat) is slightly irregular in that the stem vowel changes from  e  to  i  in the second (du isst) and third person singular (er/sie/es isst) forms.

How can you hear the difference between isst and ist?
You can't. "isst" and "ist" sound exactly the same. In colloquial (rapid) speech, some speakers drop the "t" in "ist".

So "Es ist ein Apfel" and "Es isst ein Apfel" sound the same?

Yes, but you can tell it's "Es ist ein Apfel" because "Es isst ein Apfel" is ungrammatical. The accusative of "ein Apfel" is "einen Apfel". Hence, "It is eating an apple" translates as "Es isst einen Apfel."

The verb haben (to have)
In English, you can say "I'm having bread" when you really mean that you're eating or about to eat bread. This does not work in German. The verb  haben  refers to possession only. Hence, the sentence  Ich habe Brot  only translates to  I have bread, not  I'm having bread. Of course, the same applies to drinks. Ich habe Wasser  only translates to  I have water,  not  I'm having water.

The verb haben (to have)
In English, you can say "I'm having bread" when you really mean that you're eating or about to eat bread. This does not work in German. The verb haben refers to possession only. Hence, the sentence  Ich habe Brot only translates to  I have bread, not  I'm having bread. Of course, the same applies to drinks. Ich habe Wasser  only translates to  I have water,  not  I'm having water.

Having said that, the verb  haben  is sometimes used to describe physical conditions, emotional conditions, and states of being.

For instance, the German for  I am hungry  is  Ich habe Hunger. You can think of it as having the condition of being hungry.

Ich habe Hunger  =  I am hungry

Ich habe Durst  =  I am thirsty

Sie hat Recht  =  She is right

Er hat Angst  =  He is afraid

Mittagessen - lunch or dinner?
We're aware that  dinner  is sometimes used synonymously with  lunch,  but for the purpose of this course, we're defining  Frühstück  as  breakfast,   Mittagessen  as  lunch,  and  dinner  /  supper as  Abendessen  /  Abendbrot.

Compound words
A compound word is a word that consists of two or more words. These are written as one word (no spaces).

The gender of a compound noun is always determined by its last element. This shouldn't be too difficult to remember because the last element is always the most important one. All the previous elements merely describe the last element.

die Autobahn (das Auto + die Bahn)

der Orangensaft (die Orange + der Saft)

das Hundefutter (der Hund + das Futter)

Sometimes, there's a connecting sound ( Fugenlaut ) between two elements. For instance,  die Orange  +  der Saft  becomes  der Orangensaft,   der Hund  +  das Futter  becomes  das Hundefutter ,  die Liebe  +  das Lied  becomes  das Liebeslied, and  der Tag  +  das Gericht  becomes  das Tagesgericht

Cute like sugar!
The word  süß  means  sweet  when referring to food, and  cute when referring to living beings.

Der Zucker ist süß. (The sugar is sweet.)

Die Katze ist süß. (The cat is cute.)

Does Gemüse mean vegetable or vegetables?
In German, "Gemüse" is used as a mass noun. That means it's grammatically singular and takes a singular verb.

Animals 1
Unlike English, German has two similar but different verbs for to eat: essen and fressen. The latter is the standard way of expressing that an animal is eating something. Be careful not to use fressen to refer to humans – this would be a serious insult. Assuming you care about politeness, we will not accept your solutions if you use fressen with human subjects.

The most common way to express that a human being is eating something is the verb essen. It is not wrong to use it for animals as well, so we will accept both solutions. But we strongly recommend you accustom yourself to the distinction between essen and fressen.

Fortunately, both verbs are conjugated very similarly:

German plurals - the nominative Case
In English, making plurals out of singular nouns is typically as straightforward as adding an "s" or an "es" at the end of the word. In German, the transformation is more complex. The following five suggestions can help:
 * 1) -e ending: most German one-syllable nouns will need -e in their plural form. For example, in the nominative case, "das Brot" (the bread) becomes "die Brote," and "das Spiel" (the game) becomes "die Spiele."
 * 2) -er ending: most other masculine or neuter nouns will need the -er ending, and there may be umlaut changes. For example, in the nominative case "das Kind" (the child) becomes "die Kinder," and "der Mann" (the man) becomes "die Männer."
 * 3) -n/-en ending: most feminine nouns will take either -n or -en in all four grammatical cases, with no umlaut changes. For example, "die Frau" (the woman) becomes "die Frauen" and "die Kartoffel" becomes "die Kartoffeln." All nouns ending in -e will have an added -n, so "die Ente" becomes "die Enten".
 * 4) -s ending: most foreign-origin nouns will take the -s ending for the plural, usually with no umlaut changes. For example: "der Chef" (the boss) becomes "die Chefs."
 * 5) There is no change for most neuter or masculine nouns that contain any of these in the singular: -chen, -lein, -el, or -er. There may be umlaut changes. For example: "das Mädchen" (the girl) becomes "die Mädchen," and "der Bruder" (the brother) becomes "die Brüder."

German feminine plurals - nouns ending in -in
Feminine nouns that end in "-in" will need "-nen" in the plural. For example, "die Köchin" (the female cook) becomes "die Köchinnen" in its plural form.

ihr vs er
If you're new to German,  ihr  and  er  may sound exactly the same, but there is actually a difference. ihr  sounds similar to the English word  ear, and  er  sounds similar to the English word  air  (imagine a British/RP accent).

Don't worry if you can't pick up on the difference at first. You may need some more listening practice before you can tell them apart. Also, try using headphones instead of speakers.

Even if this doesn't seem to help, knowing your conjugation tables will greatly reduce the amount of ambiguity.

Predicate adjectives
Predicate adjectives, i.e. adjectives that don't precede a noun, are not inflected.

Der Mann ist groß.

Die Männer sind groß.

Die Frau ist groß.

Die Frauen sind groß.

Das Haus ist groß.

Die Häuser sind groß.

As you can see, the adjective remains in the base form, regardless of number and gender.

German Negatives
There are different ways to negate expressions in German (much like in English you can use "no" in some cases, and "does not" in others). The German adverb "nicht" (not) is used very often, but sometimes you need to use "kein" (not a).

Nicht
Use "nicht" in the following five situations:
 * 1) Negating a noun that has a definite article like "der Raum" (the room) in "Der Architekt mag den Raum nicht" (the architect does not like the room).
 * 2) Negating a noun that has a possessive pronoun like "sein Glas" (his glass) in "Der Autor sucht sein Glas nicht." (the writer is not looking for his glass).
 * 3) Negating the verb: "Sie trinken nicht" (They/You do not drink).
 * 4) Negating an adverb or adverbial phrase. For instance, "Mein Mann isst nicht immer" (my husband does not eat at all times).
 * 5) Negating an adjective that is used with "sein" (to be): "Du bist nicht hungrig" (you are not hungry).

Position of Nicht
Adverbs go in different places in different languages. You cannot simply place the German adverb "nicht" where you would put "not" in English.

The German "nicht" will precede adjectives and adverbs as in "Das Frühstück ist nicht schlecht" (the breakfast is not bad) and "Das Hemd ist nicht ganz blau" (the shirt is not entirely blue).

For verbs, "nicht" can either precede or follow the verb, depending the type of verb. Typically, "nicht" comes after conjugated verbs as in "Die Maus isst nicht" (the mouse does not eat). In conversational German, the perfect ("Ich habe gegessen" = "I have eaten") is often used to express simple past occurrences ("I ate"). If such statements are negated, "nicht" will come before the participle at the end of the sentence: "Ich habe nicht gegessen" (I did not eat/I have not eaten).

Finally, "nicht" also tends to come at the end of sentences (after direct objects like "mir" = "me,"" or after yes/no questions if there is just one conjugated verb). For example, "Die Lehrerin hilft mir nicht" (The teacher does not help me) and "Hat er den Ball nicht?" (Does he not have the ball?)

Kein
Simply put, "kein" is composed of "k + ein" and placed where the indefinite article would be in a sentence. For instance, look at the positive and negative statement about each noun: "ein Mann" (a man) versus "kein Mann" (not a/not one man), and "eine Frau" versus "keine Frau."

"Kein" is also used for negating nouns that have no article: "Man hat Brot" (one has bread) versus "Man hat kein Brot" (one has no bread).

Nicht versus Nichts
"Nicht" is an adverb and is useful for negations. On the other hand, "nichts" (nothing/anything) is a pronoun and its meaning is different from that of "nicht." Using "nicht" simply negates a fact, and is less overarching than "nichts." For example, "Der Schüler lernt nicht" (the student does not learn) is less extreme than "Der Schüler lernt nichts" (the student does not learn anything).

The word "nichts" can also be a noun if capitalized ("das Nichts" = nothingness).

This skill contains both negative and positive statements.

Yes/No Questions
Questions can be asked by switching the subject and verb. For instance, "Du verstehst das." (You understand this) becomes "Verstehst du das?" (Do you understand this?). These kinds of questions will generally just elicit yes/no answers. In English, the main verb "to be" follows the same principle. "I am hungry." becomes "Am I hungry?". In German, all verbs follow this principle. There's no do-support.

This skill contains both questions and statements.

CONJUGATING REGULAR VERBS
Verb conjugation in German is more challenging than in English. To conjugate a regular verb in the present tense, identify the invariant stem of the verb and add the ending corresponding to any of the grammatical persons, which you can simply memorize:

machen  (to do/make): Notice that the 1st and the 3rd person plural have the same ending as "you (formal)."

NO CONTINUOUS ASPECT
In German, there's no continuous aspect, i.e. there are no separate forms for "I drink" and "I am drinking". There's only one form:  Ich trinke.

There's no such thing as  Ich bin trinke  or  Ich bin trinken!

When translating into English, how can I tell whether to use the simple (I drink) or the continuous form (I am drinking)?

Unless the context suggests otherwise, either form should be accepted.

HOW DO YOU LIKE THINGS IN GERMAN?
Use the verb  mögen  to express that you like something or someone, and use the adverb  gern(e)  to express that you like doing something.

mögen  is used for things, animals, and people:
Ich mag Bier (I like beer)

Sie mag Katzen (She likes cats)

Wir mögen dich (We like you)

Ihr mögt Bücher (You like books)

mögen  is conjugated irregularly:

gern(e)  is used for verbs/activities:
Ich trinke gern(e) Bier (I like to drink beer/I like drinking beer)

Er spielt gern(e) Fußball (He likes to play soccer/He likes playing soccer)

Wir lesen gern(e) Bücher (We like to read books/We like reading books)

Sie schreibt gern(e) Briefe (She likes to write letters/She likes writing letters)

mögen  cannot be followed by another verb.
(The subjunctive form  (möchten)  can be followed by a verb, but  Ich möchte Fußball spielen  translates as  I would like to play soccer, not  I like playing soccer .)

What's the difference between  gern  and  gerne ? They're just variations of the same word. There's no difference in terms of meaning or style. You can use whichever you like best.

Kleider  - dresses or clothes?
das Kleid  means  the dress, and  die Kleider  means  the dresses , but the plural  die Kleider  can also mean  clothes  or  clothing. In most cases,  clothing  (or  clothes ) translates to  Kleidung  (usually uncountable), but It's important to be aware that  Kleider  can be used in that sense as well.

Hose  or  Hosen ?
Both  Hose  and  Hosen  translate to  pants  ( trousers  in British English), but they're not interchangeable. The singular  Hose refers to one pair of pants, and the plural  Hosen  refers to multiple pairs of pants.

Lakes and seas - false friends ahoy
The German for  the lake  is  der See  (masculine) and the most commonly used word for  the sea  is  das Meer  (neuter).

There's another slightly less commonly used word for  the sea which is  die See  (feminine).

Be careful not to confuse  der See  (the lake) and  die See  (the sea). Keep in mind that the dative and genitive of  die See  (feminine - the sea) is  der See. This example shows how important it is to know your noun genders and declension tables. The plural forms are identical.

Personal Pronouns in the Nominative Case
A pronoun is a word that represents a noun, like "er" does for "der Mann." In the nominative case, the personal pronouns are simply the grammatical persons you already know: "ich," "du," "er/sie/es," "wir," "ihr," "sie," and "Sie."

Demonstrative Pronouns in the Nominative Case
The demonstrative pronouns in English are: this, that, these, and those. In German, the demonstrative pronouns in the nominative case are the same as the definite articles. That means, "der," "die" and "das" can also mean "that (one)" or "this (one)" depending on the gender of the respective noun, and "die" can mean "these" or "those." For example, if you talk about a certain dog, you could say "Der ist schwarz" (that one is black).

EIN PAAR  VS  EIN PAAR
ein paar  (lowercase p) means  a few ,  some  or  a couple (of)  (only in the sense of at least two, not exactly two!).

ein Paar  (uppercase P) means  a pair (of)  and is only used for things that typically come in pairs of two, e.g. ein Paar Schuhe  (a pair of shoes).

German Negatives
There are different ways to negate expressions in German (much like in English you can use "no" in some cases, and "does not" in others). The German adverb "nicht" (not) is used very often, but sometimes you need to use "kein" (not a).

Nicht
Use "nicht" in the following five situations:
 * 1) Negating a noun that has a definite article like "der Raum" (the room) in "Der Architekt mag den Raum nicht" (the architect does not like the room).
 * 2) Negating a noun that has a possessive pronoun like "sein Glas" (his glass) in "Der Autor sucht sein Glas nicht." (the writer is not looking for his glass).
 * 3) Negating the verb: "Sie trinken nicht" (They/You do not drink).
 * 4) Negating an adverb or adverbial phrase. For instance, "Mein Mann isst nicht immer" (my husband does not eat at all times).
 * 5) Negating an adjective that is used with "sein" (to be): "Du bist nicht hungrig" (you are not hungry).

Position of Nicht
Adverbs go in different places in different languages. You cannot simply place the German adverb "nicht" where you would put "not" in English.

The German "nicht" will precede adjectives and adverbs as in "Das Frühstück ist nicht schlecht" (the breakfast is not bad) and "Das Hemd ist nicht ganz blau" (the shirt is not entirely blue).

For verbs, "nicht" can either precede or follow the verb, depending the type of verb. Typically, "nicht" comes after conjugated verbs as in "Die Maus isst nicht" (the mouse does not eat). In conversational German, the perfect ("Ich habe gegessen" = "I have eaten") is often used to express simple past occurrences ("I ate"). If such statements are negated, "nicht" will come before the participle at the end of the sentence: "Ich habe nicht gegessen" (I did not eat/I have not eaten).

Finally, "nicht" also tends to come at the end of sentences (after direct objects like "mir" = "me,"" or after yes/no questions if there is just one conjugated verb). For example, "Die Lehrerin hilft mir nicht" (The teacher does not help me) and "Hat er den Ball nicht?" (Does he not have the ball?)

Kein
Simply put, "kein" is composed of "k + ein" and placed where the indefinite article would be in a sentence. For instance, look at the positive and negative statement about each noun: "ein Mann" (a man) versus "kein Mann" (not a/not one man), and "eine Frau" versus "keine Frau."

"Kein" is also used for negating nouns that have no article: "Man hat Brot" (one has bread) versus "Man hat kein Brot" (one has no bread).

Nicht versus Nichts
"Nicht" is an adverb and is useful for negations. On the other hand, "nichts" (nothing/anything) is a pronoun and its meaning is different from that of "nicht." Using "nicht" simply negates a fact, and is less overarching than "nichts." For example, "Der Schüler lernt nicht" (the student does not learn) is less extreme than "Der Schüler lernt nichts" (the student does not learn anything).

The word "nichts" can also be a noun if capitalized ("das Nichts" = nothingness).

This skill contains both negative and positive statements.

HOW DO YOU LIKE THINGS IN GERMAN? Edit
Use the verb  mögen  to express that you like something or someone, and use the adverb  gern(e)  to express that you like doing something.

mögen  is used for things, animals, and people: Edit

 * Ich mag Bier (I like beer)
 * Sie mag Katzen (She likes cats)
 * Wir mögen dich (We like you)
 * Ihr mögt Bücher (You like books)

gern(e)  is used for verbs/activities: Edit
mögen  cannot be followed by another verb.
 * Ich trinke gern(e) Bier (I like to drink beer/I like drinking beer)
 * Er spielt gern(e) Fußball (He likes to play soccer/He likes playing soccer)
 * Wir lesen gern(e) Bücher (We like to read books/We like reading books)
 * Sie schreibt gern(e) Briefe (She likes to write letters/She likes writing letters)

(The subjunctive form  (möchten)  can be followed by a verb, but  Ich möchte Fußball spielen  translates as  I would like to play soccer, not  I like playing soccer .)

What's the difference between  gern  and  gerne ? They're just variations of the same word. There's no difference in terms of meaning or style. You can use whichever you like best.

Addendum:Previous layout
This German page used to be separated onto 17 sub-pages. For the sake of simplicity and ease of formatting, and also for those users who use "print>save as pdf" from their mobile browsers or applications like Pocket in order to view reference material offline, those pages' contents have been copied here.

The original content of this page:

Basics 1

The (no notes provided)

Basics 2

Common Phrases

Accusative Case

Introduction (no notes provided)

Food 1

Animals 1

Plurals

Adjectives: Predicative 1

Negative and positive statements

Questions and statements 1

Verbs: Present 1

Clothing

Nature 1

/Possessive Pronouns/

/Nominative Pronouns/

/Negatives/

Adverbs 1