German for Beginners: Lesson 1.

Lesson 1.1 Common Greetings and Courtesies

A special word about the "you" pronouns! German, much more than English, makes a clear distinction between formal you (Sie) and familiar you (first name, du) in social situations. (Unlike English, most European and other languages also have both a formal and a familiar you.) In this regard, Germans tend to be more formal than English-speakers and use first names only after a long period of getting to know each other (sometimes years). This is a good example of how language and culture are intertwined, and you need to be aware of this to avoid embarassing yourself and others. In the table below, the familiar you forms (du, ihr) are marked with the abbreviation "fam." to distinguish them from the formal you (Sie).

Lesson 2 : German Personal Pronouns Plus the formal versus the familiar you

and Gender der | die | das - ein | eine | ein

 Always learn German nouns with their genders! Although our Gender Hints page tells you ways by which it is possible to know the gender of some German nouns, there is no better way than to simply learn each noun and its gender together. Don't just learn Baum (tree), learn der Baum (the tree)!

 Der, die and das are the same as "the" in English - the DEFINITE ARTICLE. In German the definite article is much more important than it is in English. For one thing, it is used more often. In English we might say: "Nature is wonderful." In German, the article would be also be included: "Die Natur ist wunderschn." So knowing which article to use becomes even more important!

The INDEFINITE ARTICLE ("a" or "an" in English) is ein or eine in German. Ein basically means "one" and like the definite article, it indicates the gender of the noun it goes with (eine or ein). For a feminine noun, only eine can be used (in the nominative case). For masculine or neuter nouns, only ein is correct. This is a very important concept to learn! It is also reflected in the use of possessive adjectives such as sein(e) (his) or mein(e) (my), which

 Gender is sometimes natural-der Mann/ein Mann (man, masc.), die Frau/eine Frau (woman, fem.), but more often it is not: das Mdchen (girl, neuter). Nor does noun gender carry over from one language to another. The sun is feminine in German (die Sonne) but masculine in Spanish (el sol). A table is masculine in German (der Tisch) but feminine in French (la table). But it is the WORD, not the thing that has gender, and it makes little sense to worry about the whys of gender. Just concentrate on learning the genders. Memorization is key, but you can also use little hints to help you remember a noun's gender. For example, to remind yourself that die Natur, nature, is feminine, you might think of "Mother Nature." As you continue your studies,

 The two most important German verbs are haben (to have) and sein (to be). As in most languages, the verb "to be" is one of the oldest verbs in German, and therefore one of the most irregular. The verb "to have" is only slightly less irregular, but no less vital to surviving in German.

Lesson 4.1 Two Important Verbs: haben and sein

We'll start with haben. Look at the following table for the conjugation of haben (to have) in the present tense, along with sample sentences. Notice the strong resemblance to English for many forms of this verb, with most forms only one letter off from the English (habe/have, hat/has). In the case of the familiar you (du), the German verb is identical to Old English: "thou hast" = "du

Lesson 4.2 German Verbs in the Present Tense

Unlike haben and sein, most German verbs follow a predictable pattern in the present tense. Once you learn the pattern for one German verb, you know how most German verbs are conjugated. (Yes, there are some irregular verbs that don't always follow the rules, but even they will usually have the same endings as other verbs.)

 The Basics Each verb has a basic "infinitive" ("to") form. This is the form of the verb you find in a German dictionary. The verb "to play" in English is the infinitive form. ("He plays" is a conjugated form.) The German equivalent of "to play" is spielen. Each verb has a "stem" form, the basic part of the verb left after you remove the -en ending. For spielen the stem is spiel(spielen - en). To conjugate the verb that is, use it in a sentenceyou must add the correct ending to the stem. If you want to say "I play" you add an -e ending: "ich spiele" (which can also be translated into English as "I am playing"). Each "person" (he, you, they, etc.) requires its own ending on the verb. This is called "conjugating the verb." If you don't know

 German verbs require more different endings than English verbs. In English we use only an s ending or no ending for most verbs: "I/they/we/you play" or "he/she plays." In the present tense, German has a different ending for almost all of those verb situations: ich spiele, sie spielen, du spielst, er spielt, etc. Observe that the verb spielen has a different ending in each of the examples. If you want to sound intelligent in German, you need to learn when to use which ending. That's why we have this chart for you! German has no present progressive tense ("am going"/"are buying"). The German Prsens "ich kaufe" can be translated into English as

 The chart below lists two sample German verbsone an example of a "normal" verb, the other an example of verbs that require a "connecting e" in the 2nd person singular and plural, and the 3rd person singular (du/ihr, er/sie/es)as in er arbeitet. We have also included a helpful list of some representative common stemchanging verbs. These are verbs that follow the normal pattern of endings, but have a vowel change in their stem or base form (hence the name "stemchanging"). In the chart below, the verb endings for each pronoun (person) are indicated in bold type.

 Now let's look at another German verb. This one is only slightly different from the others. The verb arbeiten (to work) belongs to a category of verbs that add a "connecting" e in the 2nd person singular and plural, and the 3rd person singular (du/ihr, er/sie/es) in the present tense: er arbeitet. Verbs whose stem ends in d or t do this. The following are examples of verbs in this category: antworten (answer), bedeuten (mean), enden (end), senden (send). (The more common verbs in this group are included on our 50 Common German Verbs page.) In the chart below we have marked

Adjective Endings German adjectives, like English ones, usually go in front of the noun they modify: "der gute Mann" (the good man), "das groe Haus" (the big house/building), "die schne Dame" (the pretty lady). Unlike English adjectives, a German adjective in front of a noun has to have an ending (-e in the examples above). Just what that ending will be depends on several factors, including gender (der, die, das) and case (nominative, accusative, dative). But most of the time the ending is an -e or an -en (in the plural). With ein-words, the ending varies according to the modified noun's gender (see below).

Lesson 5: Adjectives and Colors