German, explained in English
A good start with
German grammar.
Get comfortable with German pronouns, articles, present-tense verbs, negation and questions. Choose any free lesson to begin.
Your free interactive lessons
German subject pronouns
You will learn to use the basic German pronouns as sentence subjects.
Read and practise Lesson 02Saying “to be” in German
You will learn to select bin, bist, ist, or sind in basic German sentences.
Read and practise Lesson 03Articles and grammatical gender
You will learn to choose an article that matches the noun’s gender, number, and definiteness.
Read and practise Lesson 04The German present tense
You will learn to conjugate regular verbs in present-tense statements.
Read and practise Lesson 05Negation with nicht
You will learn to negate a statement with nicht and place it correctly.
Read and practise Lesson 06German questions
You will learn to form yes/no and information questions with correct word order.
Read and practiseThere is more to explore
Inside the full German course
The free previews are linked below. Continue with the other topics in the app.
Sounds and spelling · 10 topics
- The German alphabet, umlauts and ßAvailable in the app
- Short and long vowelsAvailable in the app
- The umlauts ä, ö and üAvailable in the app
- German diphthongs: ei, ai, au, eu, äuAvailable in the app
- sch and word-initial sp-, st-Available in the app
- The two sounds of chAvailable in the app
- s, ss, ß and zAvailable in the app
- v, w, j and quAvailable in the app
- Unstressed endings -e, -en, -er, -elAvailable in the app
- Capital and lowercase lettersAvailable in the app
Foundations · 7 topics
- German subject pronounsFree preview
- Saying “to be” in GermanFree preview
- Building a simple German sentenceAvailable in the app
- Finite verb positionAvailable in the app
- German questionsFree preview
- Negation with nichtFree preview
- Negation with keinAvailable in the app
Verbs and time · 8 topics
- The German present tenseFree preview
- Sein and habenAvailable in the app
- The present perfectAvailable in the app
- The simple pastAvailable in the app
- Infinitive clauses with zuAvailable in the app
- Complex verbal bracketsAvailable in the app
- The future with werdenAvailable in the app
- Separable verbsAvailable in the app
Nouns, articles and cases · 12 topics
- Articles and grammatical genderFree preview
- The accusative caseAvailable in the app
- The dative caseAvailable in the app
- Two-way prepositionsAvailable in the app
- Comparative constructionsAvailable in the app
- Participial attributesAvailable in the app
- Nominal styleAvailable in the app
- Complex noun phrasesAvailable in the app
- Highly condensed syntaxAvailable in the app
- Plural nounsAvailable in the app
- Possessive articlesAvailable in the app
- Expressing quantityAvailable in the app
Questions and sentence structure · 8 topics
- Subordinate clauses with weilAvailable in the app
- Relative clausesAvailable in the app
- Indirect questionsAvailable in the app
- Concessive clauses and connectorsAvailable in the app
- Expanded first-position constituentsAvailable in the app
- Discourse connectorsAvailable in the app
- Pragmatic ellipsisAvailable in the app
- The imperativeAvailable in the app
Modality, conditions and the passive · 8 topics
- Modal verbsAvailable in the app
- The event passiveAvailable in the app
- Konjunktiv IIAvailable in the app
- Konjunktiv I in reported speechAvailable in the app
- Alternatives to the passiveAvailable in the app
- Fine shades of modalityAvailable in the app
- Evidentiality and reported stanceAvailable in the app
- Unreal comparative clausesAvailable in the app
Style and discourse · 4 topics
- Light-verb constructionsAvailable in the app
- Register and styleAvailable in the app
- Stylistic inversionAvailable in the app
- Rhetorical syntaxAvailable in the app
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