German grammar A1: beginner
The complete guide from A1 to C1: the rules, examples to listen to, the usual mistakes.
Level A1 covers the grammar of first exchanges in German: introducing yourself, naming and describing people and things, talking about daily routines, about what you can, want or have to do, about places and times, and about what happened yesterday. The main features of German appear from the start.
Nouns and articles
- every noun is masculine, feminine or neuter and is written with a capital letter;
- the article changes with the case, which shows the role of the noun in the sentence.
The verb and the sentence
- the conjugated verb stands in second place in a statement;
- a second verb is placed at the end of the clause;
- questions and negatives are formed with no auxiliary like English do.
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The verb in the present tense
German has one present tense where English has two: ich arbeite means “I work” as well as “I am working”.
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Modal verbs and polite wishes
The modal verbs express ability, wishes, necessity, permission and what other people expect.
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Separable verbs
Many everyday verbs consist of a short stressed prefix and a simple verb: aufstehen (“to get up”), anrufen (“to ring, to call”), einkaufen (“to do the shopping”), mitkommen (“to come along”), abfahren (“to leave”).
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The imperative
The imperative is used for orders, instructions, requests and advice.
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The past
At A1 the past is expressed in two ways.
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Nouns and articles
Every German noun has a grammatical gender, masculine, feminine or neuter, and is written with a capital letter.
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The cases
German has four cases.
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Pronouns and possessives
The personal pronouns change with the case, like the article.
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Word order
The place of the verb is fixed in a German clause.
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Questions and negation
In German, questions are formed by changing the place of the verb, and negatives with nicht or kein.
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Prepositions
A German preposition is followed by a fixed case, or by one of two cases according to the meaning.
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Adjectives
An adjective takes an ending when it stands before a noun.
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Numbers, times and dates
The numbers from 13 to 19 are formed with the unit and -zehn: dreizehn, vierzehn; sechzehn and siebzehn are shortened.