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Pick what trips you up in German

Each one is a ten-minute round: first you try it, then comes the rule, and a mini-test at the end. No sign-up and no ads.

edumaterial's parts within the level. The European framework does not subdivide them.

CEFR A1 part 1

• Reading German aloud: ei, ie, z, v, w, ch

  Reading any German word aloud, knowing which letters sound different from how they are written, and where the stress falls.

  A110 min56 exercises

• Every noun takes a capital letter

  Capitalising every noun, and using those capitals when reading to find what a long sentence is about.

  A111 min60 exercises

• der, die or das: the gender of nouns

  Choosing der, die or das, and spotting the endings that give the gender away without memorising the word.

  A19 min48 exercises

• sein and haben: where they part company with English

  Conjugating sein and haben in the present, and knowing which one each sentence needs.

  A19 min51 exercises

• The present tense: six endings and the vowel that changes

  Conjugating any regular verb in the present, and spotting the verbs that change their vowel in du and er/sie/es.

  A19 min51 exercises

• The verb always comes second

  Putting the verb in second place whatever the sentence starts with, and moving the subject behind it when needed.

  A18 min44 exercises

• Asking questions in German: no auxiliary, and the seven W-words

  Making both kinds of question: the yes/no one by inverting, and the one that starts with a W-word.

  A19 min49 exercises

• German numbers run backwards: einundzwanzig is 21

  Saying and understanding two-digit numbers and prices, knowing the unit comes before the ten.

  A19 min51 exercises

CEFR A1 part 2

• The plural is not an -s: the five routes

  Forming the plural by its five routes —-e, -er, -(e)n, -s and no change—, with or without Umlaut, and always putting die in front.

  A19 min49 exercises

• The accusative only moves the masculine: der becomes den

  Marking the direct object by changing der to den, and checking that die, das and the plural do not move.

  A19 min47 exercises

• nicht or kein: the two ways of saying no

  Choosing kein when you negate a noun with no definite article, and nicht everywhere else, with its place in the sentence.

  A18 min44 exercises

• Separable verbs: the piece that flies to the end

  Spotting a separable verb and sending its prefix to the end of the sentence when you conjugate it.

  A19 min49 exercises

CEFR A2 part 1

• The dative: dem, der, dem and den + -n

  Putting any phrase into the dative: seeing that the marking travels in the article, knowing that the four genders give dem, der, dem and den, and remembering the -n that gets stuck onto the noun in the plural.

  A29 min49 exercises

• The seven prepositions that take the dative: mit, nach, aus, zu, von, bei, seit

  Automatically putting whatever follows these seven into the dative, without stopping to think each time, and telling apart the three that translate the same into your language but are not interchangeable in German: nach, zu and bei.

  A29 min49 exercises

• Verbs that take the dative: helfen, danken, gefallen, gehören, schmecken

  Recognising the dozen German verbs that take a dative rather than a direct object, and turning gefallen around, since that is the one that changes who does what in the sentence.

  A29 min49 exercises

• The Perfekt with haben: the past that people actually speak

  Telling any past event the way Germans do when they speak: haben conjugated in second position and the participle at the very end of the sentence, however far away that is.

  A29 min49 exercises

• The Perfekt with sein: moving and changing state

  Deciding in a second whether a verb takes haben or sein, using the two questions that settle it nearly always: is there movement from one place to another? is there a change of state? Plus the three that meet neither and take sein anyway.

  A29 min49 exercises

• The participle: ge- -t, ge- -en, and the ones with no ge-

  Building the participle of any verb: the ge- -t mould for regular ones, ge- -en for strong ones, and the two families that end up with no ge- because the stress does not fall on the first syllable.

  A210 min56 exercises

• The six modals: können, müssen, wollen, dürfen, sollen, mögen

  Using the six modals with their odd conjugation —first and third person are identical and take no ending— and putting the infinitive at the end of the sentence, which is where German sends it.

  A29 min49 exercises

• mein, dein, sein: the possessives and their endings

  Using the right possessive with the right ending, which are two separate decisions: the stem is chosen by the OWNER and the ending by the thing OWNED. And it works for free on kein, which declines the same way.

  A29 min49 exercises

CEFR A2 part 2

• weil and dass: the clause where the verb goes to the end

  Joining two clauses with weil, dass, wenn or ob and sending the conjugated verb to the end of the second one, which is the German feature none of this site's four languages has.

  A28 min46 exercises

• in, auf, an…: the nine that take two cases depending on wo or wohin

  Choosing the case with a single question: if the sentence answers wohin —where to, there is movement into somewhere— it is accusative; if it answers wo —where, nothing leaves its place— it is dative. And learning the contractions that come out of it: ins, im, ans, am, aufs.

  A210 min56 exercises

• The adjective in front of the noun: when -e and when -en

  Giving the adjective an ending when it sits in front of the noun, with the short rule that covers most of it: after der, die, das in the nominative it is -e, and in nearly everything else it is -en. And giving it none at all when it follows the verb.

  A29 min49 exercises

• war, hatte, konnte: the past tense people do say out loud

  Using in the past the eight verbs a German never puts into the Perfekt when speaking: sein, haben and the six modals. Everything else takes the Perfekt; these take war, hatte, konnte, musste, wollte, durfte, sollte and mochte.

  A29 min49 exercises

• The imperative and German's three «you»: du, ihr, Sie

  Giving an instruction to the three people German lets you address, and knowing which is which: du to a friend, ihr to several, Sie to anyone you are not on first-name terms with. Plus the detail that throws people: the du form drops the -st and keeps the bare stem.

  A29 min48 exercises

• Comparing in German: -er, als, and am -sten

  Comparing two things and pointing out the top one, with German's three pieces: the -er of the comparative, the als that introduces what you are comparing with, and the am …-sten of the superlative. Plus the three irregulars that come up constantly: gut, viel and gern.

  A210 min52 exercises

• mich or mir, dich or dir: pronouns in the accusative and dative

  Replacing anything already mentioned with a pronoun, in both cases, and placing it right: when there are two pronouns, the accusative comes first and the dative second, the exact opposite of the order with nouns.

  A29 min49 exercises

• be-, ver-, er- against an-, auf-, mit-: which one splits and which does not

  Knowing in advance whether a prefixed verb will split, using the signal that decides everything and is not a list: if the prefix carries the stress, it separates; if the stress falls on the stem, it does not. And with it, whether the participle will take ge- or not.

  A210 min53 exercises

CEFR B1 part 1

• If I could: the Konjunktiv II with würde, hätte and wäre

  Talking about what is not real: what you would do, would have, would be. With the short rule that covers ninety per cent —würde + infinitive— and the three forms that are never replaced: hätte, wäre and the modals.

  B19 min49 exercises

• The passive with werden: when what is done matters, not who

  Building a German passive with its two pieces —werden conjugated and the participle at the end— and knowing when it is used, which in German is far more than in your language: instructions, notices, news and anything with no subject worth naming.

  B18 min46 exercises

• The genitive: des, der, and the -s stuck onto the noun

  Saying whose something is with the fourth case: des Mannes, der Frau, des Kindes, der Kinder. And knowing when spoken German swaps it for von, which is nearly always, so you do not write like a notarial contract.

  B18 min46 exercises

• Relative clauses: der, die, das again, and the verb at the end

  Hooking a description onto a noun with der, die or das, choosing the form with two independent questions: the GENDER comes from the word outside and the CASE from the verb inside. And the verb goes to the end, as in every German subordinate clause.

  B18 min46 exercises

• als, wenn or wann: German's three ways of saying «when»

  Choosing between the three with two questions: is it a QUESTION, direct or indirect? then wann. If not, did it happen ONCE in the past? then als; if it repeats or is present or future, wenn. All three send the verb to the end except wann in a direct question.

  B18 min46 exercises

• The infinitive with zu: when it goes in and when it does not

  Attaching a second verb with zu, and knowing the few cases where it is NOT used: after the six modals, after werden and after three more verbs —sehen, hören, lassen—. And where the zu goes inside a separable verb, the trap no grammar warns you about in time: anzurufen, in the middle.

  B18 min46 exercises

• Reflexive verbs: sich, and the mich that is sometimes mir

  Using the dozen reflexives that come up daily —sich freuen, sich interessieren, sich erinnern, sich waschen— with the pronoun in the right case: accusative nearly always, and dative when the sentence already has another direct object. Ich wasche mich, but ich wasche mir die Hände.

  B18 min46 exercises

• The order of adverbials: time, reason, manner, place

  Placing several adverbials in one sentence without hesitating, using German's default order: first WHEN, then WHY, then HOW and last WHERE. And knowing that the order can be broken on purpose for emphasis, by fronting whatever you want to highlight.

  B18 min46 exercises

CEFR B1 part 2

• The future with werden, and why it is hardly ever used

  Building the future with werden conjugated and the infinitive at the end, and —what really matters— knowing that German uses the PRESENT for nearly everything still to come: Morgen fahre ich nach Berlin. The werden future is kept for promises, predictions and assumptions.

  B18 min46 exercises

• entweder…oder, nicht nur…sondern auch: two-part connectors

  Linking two ideas with the five commonest pairs —entweder…oder, sowohl…als auch, weder…noch, nicht nur…sondern auch, zwar…aber— and placing each half without breaking the sentence order. They are what stops a text reading like a list of separate sentences.

  B18 min46 exercises

• warten auf, denken an: verbs with a fixed preposition, and the da- and wo- that go with them

  Learning the verb with its preposition attached, as one word —warten AUF, denken AN, sich freuen AUF, sich interessieren FÜR— and using the forms that replace them: darauf, daran, darüber for things, and worauf, woran, worüber for asking.

  B19 min49 exercises

• der Deutsche, etwas Gutes: adjectives turned into nouns

  Turning an adjective into a noun, which German does every day: der Alte, die Kleine, das Beste, ein Bekannter. It takes a capital letter and —the surprising part— it STILL declines like an adjective, so its ending changes with the case even though it is now a noun.

  B18 min46 exercises

• Indirect questions: ob and the seven W-words, with the verb at the end

  Asking politely rather than bluntly, which is what they are really for: Wissen Sie, wo der Bahnhof ist? instead of Wo ist der Bahnhof? Plus the rule of form: a yes-or-no question opens with ob, the others with their W-word, and in both the verb goes to the end.

  B18 min46 exercises

• könnten Sie, ich hätte gern: polite requests and wishes

  Asking for things without sounding blunt, which matters more in Germany than you would expect: Könnten Sie mir helfen? Ich hätte gern einen Kaffee. And expressing wishes with wenn … nur and ich wünschte, the two ways of saying what you would like and is not.

  B18 min46 exercises

• obwohl, damit and um…zu: although, so that and in order to

  Expressing purpose and concession, which is what turns two loose sentences into an argument. Plus the rule that separates them: if both halves share the SAME subject, um…zu; if it changes, damit. Ich lerne, um die Prüfung zu bestehen, but Ich erkläre es, damit du es verstehst.

  B110 min54 exercises

• das gekochte Ei, das kochende Wasser: participles used as adjectives

  Using both participles in front of a noun and telling them apart by the only thing that separates them: the past one says the action HAS HAPPENED to that thing —das gekochte Ei, the boiled egg— and the present one says the thing IS DOING it —das kochende Wasser, the boiling water—. Both decline like any adjective.

  B110 min52 exercises

CEFR B2 part 1

• The passive in the past and with modals: wurde gebaut, muss gemacht werden

  Taking the passive into the tenses that were missing. In the Präteritum only werden changes: wurde gebaut. In the Perfekt the word that surprises everybody turns up, worden with no ge: ist gebaut worden. And with a modal, the whole passive infinitive goes to the end: Das muss heute gemacht werden.

  B29 min47 exercises

• Die Tür wird geöffnet or ist geöffnet: the action and the state

  Telling apart two sentences that look alike and mean different things. Die Tür wird geöffnet is the ACTION: somebody is opening it now. Die Tür ist geöffnet is the STATE: it is already open, and nobody cares who opened it. Werden reports what is going on; sein says how the thing ended up.

  B29 min49 exercises

• Er sagte, er sei krank: the Konjunktiv I of the newspapers

  Reporting what somebody else said without making it yours. German has a verb form just for that: er sei, er habe, er komme. It does not say the claim is false; it says «he says so, not me». It is the form of the press and of official reports, so you have to recognise it even if you never speak it.

  B29 min50 exercises

• Er muss krank sein: when the modal is not an order but a guess

  The modals' second job, the one the dictionary does not mention. Er muss krank sein is not an obligation: it is «he must be ill», meaning I am sure. And there is a whole scale: muss is certain, dürfte is likely, könnte is possible, kann nicht is impossible, and will and soll say who is doing the claiming.

  B29 min50 exercises

• Der gestern von uns gekaufte Tisch: a whole clause wedged inside the article

  Reading —and taking apart— the construction that makes German technical prose look unreadable: a whole clause is wedged between the article and the noun. Der gestern von uns gekaufte Tisch is «the table we bought yesterday». There is one recipe: find the noun at the end and read backwards.

  B29 min47 exercises

• dennoch, folglich, hingegen: the connectors of written German

  The connectors that make a text read as if an adult wrote it: dennoch for concession, folglich and somit for consequence, hingegen and dagegen for contrast, zudem and überdies for addition, allerdings for qualification. All of them fill the first slot and leave the verb in second position.

  B210 min53 exercises

• bestehen aus, auf or in: when the preposition changes the meaning

  The advanced tier of prepositional verbs: the ones with SEVERAL prepositions that mean something different with each. bestehen aus is to consist of, bestehen auf is to insist on, bestehen in is to lie in. halten von is to think of, halten für is to take for. And each preposition brings its own case.

  B29 min50 exercises

• der Junge, den Jungen: the nouns that take an n

  A closed group of masculine nouns that add an n in every case except the nominative singular: der Junge but den Jungen, dem Jungen, des Jungen. Almost all of them are people —Student, Kunde, Mensch, Kollege, Nachbar, Herr— and you spot them by their ending in e, or in ent, ist, ant.

  B29 min49 exercises

CEFR B2 part 2

• Wenn ich das gewusst hätte: what would have happened and did not

  Regret and reproach, which is what this form is for. You build it with hätte or wäre plus the participle: Wenn ich das gewusst hätte, wäre ich nicht gekommen. And with a modal the double infinitive turns up, the strangest construction in German: Ich hätte kommen können.

  B29 min50 exercises

• lassen: to leave, to have something done, to allow and to be doable

  One verb with four distinct jobs, told apart by what sits next to it. Ich lasse den Schlüssel zu Hause is leaving something. Ich lasse mir die Haare schneiden is having something done, the commonest use and the one nobody sees coming. Lass mich gehen is allowing. And das lässt sich machen is «that can be done», a passive in disguise.

  B29 min49 exercises

• eine Entscheidung treffen: the verb that lives inside the noun

  The fixed noun-plus-verb pairs that replace a single verb, and are the hallmark of administrative and journalistic German. eine Entscheidung treffen is entscheiden. in Frage stellen is to doubt. zur Verfügung stehen is to be available. The verb barely means anything: the sentence lives in the noun.

  B29 min49 exercises

• What goes in front of the verb, and what changes when you move it

  That the first slot in a German sentence is a decision, not an accident. Ich fahre morgen nach Berlin, Morgen fahre ich nach Berlin and Nach Berlin fahre ich morgen all say the same thing and underline different parts. The working rule: the first slot links back to what was just said, and the new information goes at the end.

  B29 min47 exercises

• Das ist zu machen, das hast du zu machen: obligation without a modal

  Two constructions that say what the modals say without using them, and they are everywhere in instructions and contracts. sein + zu + infinitive is passive and means «is to be» or «can be»: Das Formular ist auszufüllen. haben + zu + infinitive is active and means «you have to»: Du hast das zu machen, and it sounds curt.

  B29 min47 exercises

• doch, mal, ja, eben: the words that do not translate

  The particles that do not change what a sentence says but do change how it lands, which is what separates someone speaking correct German from someone speaking German. mal softens a request. doch contradicts or insists. ja marks the content as already known. eben and halt shrug. denn takes the edge off a question.

  B29 min51 exercises

CEFR C1

• The same thing said to a friend and said in a report

  Choosing between two forms that are both correct. Spoken German uses weil with the verb in second position, lets the genitive go, says kriegen instead of bekommen and prefers the Perfekt. Written German does the opposite in every one of those. Neither is wrong: each has its place, and using the other gives you away more than a grammar mistake does.

  C19 min49 exercises

• The German that turns verbs into nouns

  Turning a verb clause into a noun phrase and back, which is what separates school German from university German. Nachdem wir die Daten geprüft hatten becomes Nach der Prüfung der Daten. The second direction matters most: reading German officialese is exactly the work of undoing it.

  C19 min47 exercises

• Three-storey sentences: how every verb gets closed

  Writing and above all READING the long German sentence, the one with a clause inside a clause and three verbs piled up at the end. Obwohl er wusste, dass sie kommen würde, ging er. Plus the C1 concessives: sei es, wenn auch, so … doch, and auch wenn against wenn auch, which do not mean the same thing.

  C19 min47 exercises

• Words that look like yours and are not, and the ones that travel in pairs

  The two things that make a correct text sound wrong. False friends —Gymnasium is not a gym, aktuell means current and not actual, sensibel means sensitive— and collocations, the fixed pairs you cannot translate piece by piece: eine Entscheidung TREFFEN, Kritik ÜBEN, Rücksicht NEHMEN.

  C110 min52 exercises

• Daumen drücken, ins Wasser fallen: the bits that do not translate

  The expressions a German uses without thinking and that you cannot work out: die Daumen drücken is to cross your fingers, ins Wasser fallen is for a plan to fall through, unter vier Augen is in private, den Nagel auf den Kopf treffen is to hit the nail on the head. And the most useful C1 skill: knowing which ones sound dated, and not using those.

  C19 min47 exercises

We're writing the rest. New rounds go up every week.