Reading German aloud: first rules
German spelling gives many useful clues, but it is not a perfect copy of speech: learn letter families and keep the exceptions visible.
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Grammar
This is where the rule makes sense. In Exercises you practise until it comes out.
54 rules
edumaterial's parts within the level. The European framework does not subdivide them.
8 materials
CEFR A1 part 1
der, die, das: learning gender and plural
Gender belongs to the lexical entry: learn article, noun and plural together, and use only genuinely reliable ending clues.
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German capitalization: nouns and nominalizations
In German, capitalization is functional: it marks sentence openings, proper names and, characteristically, every noun and word used as a noun.
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German present tense: endings and stem changes
The regular present combines a stem with six endings; some verbs adjust pronunciation and others change the vowel only with du and er/sie/es.
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sein and haben: complete paradigms and A1 uses
sein identifies, describes or locates; haben expresses possession and several needs. Their forms are frequent and irregular, so every person must be learned.
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Verb-second: slots, not words
In a declarative main clause, one constituent fills the first slot and the finite verb fills the second; that first constituent may contain several words.
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German questions: yes/no and question words
German does not add an auxiliary equivalent to do: a yes/no question begins with the finite verb; an information question begins with the interrogative element and places the verb after it.
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German numbers A1: building blocks, order and irregular forms
Numbers are built from stable pieces: learn 0–12 first; from 21 to 99 say the unit before the ten and connect them with und.
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4 materials
CEFR A1 part 2
German plurals: five patterns and vowel change
There is no single plural ending: store each noun as article + singular + plural and use patterns to organize, not to guess without checking.
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Separable verbs in the present: the sentence bracket
In a main clause with a separable verb, the stem carries the conjugation and occupies the verb position; the particle moves to the end and forms a bracket.
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German accusative: complete articles and pronouns
The accusative mainly marks the direct object and certain prepositions; in articles, the visible nominative-to-accusative change occurs in the masculine singular.
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nicht or kein: form, case and scope
kein takes the place of ein or a bare plural to deny the existence or quantity of a noun; nicht negates verbs, qualities, complements or contrasts, and its position signals scope.
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4 materials
CEFR A2 part 1
German dative A2: forms, functions and government
The dative does not have one single meaning: it marks participants such as recipients or experiencers and is governed by certain verbs and prepositions; form depends on case, gender and number.
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German possessives A2: stems and endings
A possessive is built through two independent choices: the stem identifies the possessor, while the ending agrees with the possessed noun in case, gender and number.
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German perfect A2: auxiliary and participle
The perfect brackets verbal content between a finite auxiliary in second position and a final participle; the auxiliary follows the verb's construction, not one isolated keyword.
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German modal verbs A2: six paradigms
The finite modal occupies the verb position and expresses stance or condition; the lexical verb remains as a final infinitive in a main clause.
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7 materials
CEFR A2 part 2
German personal pronouns A2: three cases
The person stays the same, but form changes with the case required by function, verb or preposition.
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German imperative A2: du, ihr and Sie formulas
Form depends on the addressee: du and ihr have morphological imperatives; formulas with Sie and wir use the finite verb before the pronoun.
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German two-way prepositions A2
These nine prepositions take the accusative when the construction presents a destination or change into a spatial relation, and the dative when it locates something in an established relation.
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German preterite A2: sein, haben and modals
The preterite is a simple tense: one finite form expresses past time; sein, haben and modals occur very frequently in it, but its distribution with the perfect varies by register, region and verb.
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German subordinate clauses A2: finite verb last
A subordinator occupies the first internal position of a subordinate clause and sends the verb group to the end; the finite form is the last component in basic A2 patterns.
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German adjective declension A2: complete tables
The adjective ending shares case, gender and number information with the determiner: a definite article, an ein-word or no article trigger three different patterns.
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German comparative and superlative A2
The comparative marks difference with -er and commonly links the second term with als; equality uses so ... wie, while the superlative has a predicative am ...-sten form and an inflected attributive form.
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5 materials
CEFR B1 part 1
The genitive: whose it is, and when you say it that way
The genitive expresses possession and other noun relations. Determiners distinguish des and der; many masculine and neuter nouns add -(e)s, while other noun classes follow their own patterns. In everyday speech, von plus the dative is a frequent alternative for many possession relations.
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Reflexive verbs: sich, and the mich that is sometimes mir
In a reflexive construction, the pronoun agrees with the person. It is commonly accusative; in patterns such as washing a body part, the explicit object occupies the accusative and the pronoun appears in the dative.
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Relative clauses: der, die, das all over again
The German relative pronoun looks almost like the article, and its form is decided by two separate things: gender and number come from the word it refers back to, while case comes from what it does inside its own clause.
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als, wenn or wann: German's three ways of saying when
In this temporal contrast, wann keeps interrogative force, als locates a non-repeated past frame, and wenn presents repetition, present or future time, or a condition. Translation alone cannot choose the form.
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Konjunktiv II: what is not true and what you ask for politely
Konjunktiv II presents hypotheses, wishes, advice and polite requests. The analytic würde plus infinitive form is productive, while sein, haben and the modals commonly keep frequent dedicated forms.
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4 materials
CEFR B1 part 2
The zu-infinitive, and um…zu for purpose
Many German verbs and expressions link to a zu-infinitive, whose placement depends on whether the verb is simple, separable or inseparable. With um…zu, the construction expresses purpose and normally shares its subject with the main clause.
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The passive with werden: when what matters is the deed, not the doer
The German process passive combines conjugated werden with a participle and foregrounds the process, while the agent may be omitted. It contrasts with the state passive built with sein.
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The future with werden: plans, predictions and assumptions
German alternates a present tense with a time marker and Futur I with werden. Context makes the choice a plan, a forward-looking stance, a prediction or an assumption.
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darauf, worauf and verbs with a fixed preposition
Many German verbs select a preposition that is learnt as part of their government. To refer back to or ask about things and propositions, standard German forms words with da(r)- or wo(r)-: darauf, damit, worauf, womit.
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8 materials
CEFR B2 part 1
N-declension: der Student, den Studenten
A limited group of masculine nouns keeps its base form only in the nominative singular and adds -(e)n in the other cases. Similar-looking nouns may follow mixed patterns and must remain separate.
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Subjective modals: deduction, possibility and source
A modal can describe an obligation or show how the speaker evaluates the truth and source of a claim. The structure looks similar; context changes its function.
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Participles as adjectives: condensed attributes
A participle can occupy an adjective position and condense an action around a noun. Its ending depends on determiner, gender, number and case, not on its being a participle.
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Konjunktiv I: reporting without endorsing the claim
Konjunktiv I presents words, thoughts or positions as attributed to another source. It does not prove they are false: it marks who owns the claim.
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Time sequences: earlier events and boundaries
nachdem places its event before the main-clause event.
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Purpose: agents, intention and outcome
damit includes an explicit subject, distinguishing the facilitator from the intended actor.
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Conditions: requirements and converse claims
Wenn P, dann Q presents Q under P without claiming that P is the only route to Q.
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Paired connectors: scope and parallel structure
sowohl…als auch adds two members; weder…noch negates both.
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7 materials
CEFR B2 part 2
Past counterfactuals: what did not happen
The Irrealis der Vergangenheit views a past possibility from a present in which we already know it was not realised. It is formed with hätte or wäre and the corresponding verbal content.
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lassen: leave, allow and have something done
lassen changes frame depending on whether it is a lexical verb or governs another infinitive. The visible form may be the same, but its participants and Perfekt are not.
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Modal particles: stance and common ground
A modal particle does not add a new object to the world being described: it guides how the sentence fits the interlocutors' expectations, knowledge and relationship.
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Relatives: possessor, antecedent and proposition
dessen refers to a masculine or neuter antecedent; deren to a feminine or plural one.
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Infinitives: commas and modifier attachment
Section 73 of the 2024 rules treats infinitival subordinate clauses as comma-delimited clauses.
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sein + zu: obligation or possibility in context
Die Datei ist zu prüfen presents the recipient of the action and omits the actor.
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ohne and statt: absent actions and their actors
ohne…zu asserts a main action without the accompanying action; it adds no purpose.
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7 materials
CEFR C1
Concession and clause chaining
Concession links two facts that coexist although one would normally lead us to expect the opposite of the other: it was raining and, contrary to expectation, we went out. The logical content can be retained with obwohl, dennoch or trotz, but each resource builds a different syntactic unit.
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Collocations and function-verb constructions
A collocation is a combination that a speech community selects conventionally. A sentence may be understandable and grammatical yet fail to be the usual choice: German uses eine Entscheidung treffen, eine Frage stellen and Kritik üben. C1 control means managing such associations and selecting them for context, not collecting isolated verbs.
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Written, spoken and register-appropriate German
There is no automatic translation between 'informal speech' and 'formal writing'. A read-aloud speech is delivered by voice but may be carefully planned; a chat is written but may reproduce conversational proximity, ellipsis and self-repair. At C1, choices follow audience, relationship, purpose, genre, medium and degree of planning.
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Nominalisation: agents, objects and timing
Nominalisation removes a verb’s person and tense marking.
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es: reference, subject and first-field position
In Es kamen drei Gäste, es fills the first field; drei Gäste is the plural subject controlling kamen.
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Quantifiers: logical scope and reformulation
Nicht alle haben zugestimmt denies unanimous approval and permits some or none.
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je…desto: direction, conditions and limits of a claim
je…desto links gradable changes: Je länger wir warten, desto später beginnen wir.
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