Learning Path
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Nominativ — the subject case
The subject case — wer? was? (who? what?)
- Nominativ — the subject caseNext up
The subject case — wer? was? (who? what?)
- Word order — the V2 rule
German word order: V2 rule for main clauses, verb-final for subordinate clauses, inversion for questions
- Präsens — present tense
Present tense — regular and irregular verb conjugation
- Akkusativ — the direct object case
The direct object case — wen? was? (whom? what?)
- Personal pronouns — ich, mich, mir
Personal pronoun declension: mich, dich, ihn, mir, dir, ihm — Akkusativ and Dativ forms
- Possessive articles — mein, dein, sein
Possessive determiners used before a noun: mein, dein, sein, ihr, unser, euer — how to decline them in all four cases
- Akkusativ prepositions — durch, für, gegen, ohne, um
Prepositions that always take the Akkusativ case: durch, für, gegen, ohne, um
- Imperativ — giving commands
The command form — giving instructions, requests, and orders
- Verneinung — saying no with nicht and kein
Negation with 'nicht' (negates verbs, adjectives, adverbs) and 'kein' (negates nouns with indefinite article or no article)
- Conjunctions — connecting sentences
Coordinating conjunctions (und, aber, denn, oder, sondern) keep V2 order; subordinating conjunctions (weil, dass, obwohl) trigger verb-final
- Modal verbs, part 1 — können, müssen, wollen
Modal verbs — können, müssen, dürfen, sollen, wollen, mögen
- Modal verbs, part 2 — dürfen, sollen, mögen
Modal verbs — können, müssen, dürfen, sollen, wollen, mögen
- Dativ — the indirect object case
The indirect object case — wem? (to whom?)
- Dativ prepositions — aus, bei, mit, nach, seit, von, zu
Prepositions that always take the Dativ case: aus, bei, mit, nach, seit, von, zu, gegenüber, außer
- Two-way prepositions — wo? / wohin?
Two-way prepositions: Akkusativ (movement) or Dativ (location) — an, auf, hinter, in, neben, über, unter, vor, zwischen
- Perfekt, part 1 — haben or sein
Perfect tense — haben/sein + Partizip II for past events
- Perfekt, part 2 — strong participles
Perfect tense — haben/sein + Partizip II for past events
- Präteritum — the written past
Simple past tense — used in writing and with sein/haben
- Separable verbs — trennbare Verben
Separable verbs split in main clauses — the prefix moves to the end; in Nebensätze and with modals the verb stays together
- Irregular verbs — the reference
Master reference for irregular verb forms — Infinitiv, Präteritum, and Partizip II
- Adjective endings, part 1 — with der/die/das
Adjective endings change by case, gender, and article type — strong, weak, or mixed
- Adjective endings, part 2 — with ein and with no article
Adjective endings change by case, gender, and article type — strong, weak, or mixed
- Komparativ & Superlativ — more and most
Comparative and superlative forms of adjectives — regular patterns and irregular forms
- Reflexive pronouns — mich, dich, sich
Reflexive pronouns: sich, mich, dich, uns, euch — used with reflexive verbs like sich freuen, sich waschen, sich erinnern
- Possessive pronouns — meiner, deiner, seiner
Standalone possessive pronouns: meiner, meines, meinem, deiner, seiner, ihrer — used without a following noun
- Demonstrative pronouns — dieser, jener, der
Demonstrative pronouns: dieser, diese, dieses, diesem, diesen — pointing to specific things (this/that)
- Interrogative pronouns — wer, was, welcher
Question pronouns: wer, wen, wem, wessen (who/whom) and was (what) — used to ask about people and things
- Indefinite pronouns — man, jemand, niemand, etwas, nichts
Indefinite pronouns: man, jemand, niemand, etwas, nichts, alle, jeder, einige — referring to unspecified people or things
- Participles as adjectives
Using Partizip I (spielend) and Partizip II (gespielt) as adjectives before nouns
- Futur I — werden + infinitive
Future tense formed with werden + infinitive — also expresses assumptions and intentions
- Genitiv — the possessive case
The possessive case — wessen? (whose?)
- N-Deklination — weak masculine nouns
Weak masculine nouns that add -(e)n in every case except Nominativ singular
- Genitiv prepositions — wegen, trotz, während, statt
Prepositions that require Genitiv: wegen, während, trotz, statt, innerhalb, außerhalb, aufgrund, anstatt
- Nebensätze — verb-final subordinate clauses
Subordinate clauses push the conjugated verb to the end — introduced by subordinating conjunctions
- Relative pronouns — der, die, das (as who/which)
Relative pronouns der/die/das used to form relative clauses — identical to the definite article except dessen/deren/denen
- Relative clauses — Relativsätze
Relative clauses modify nouns — the relative pronoun agrees with its antecedent in gender and number, but its case depends on its role in the relative clause
- Plusquamperfekt — the past of the past
Past perfect tense — hatte/war + Partizip II for events before another past event
- Konjunktiv II — the 'would' mood
Subjunctive II — hypotheticals, wishes, polite requests (würde + Infinitiv)
- Passiv — the passive voice
Passive voice formed with werden + Partizip II — focuses on the action, not the agent
- Infinitive clauses — zu + infinitive
Infinitive clauses with 'zu' — Ich versuche, Deutsch zu lernen
- Doppelkonjunktionen — paired connectors
Two-part conjunctions: sowohl...als auch, weder...noch, entweder...oder, nicht nur...sondern auch, je...desto
- Konjunktiv I — reported speech
Subjunctive I — used primarily for indirect/reported speech (indirekte Rede)
- Indirekte Rede — reported speech
Reported speech — using Konjunktiv I (or II) to report what someone said
- Futur II — future perfect
Future perfect — werden + Partizip II + haben/sein, for completed future actions and assumptions about the past