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Another area that German is more complex than English, is cases. In English, we don’t have any! However, there are 4 cases in the German language! Nominative, accusative, dative and genitive.

When the noun is the subject of the sentence, the nominative case is used. What changes for each case are the articles. Nominative is the easiest to remember, as the articles used are the same as the ones taught above. ie “der”, “die”, “das”, “ein”, “eine”, “ein”. Obviously, which article is used depends on the gender of the noun.

The accusative case is a little more complicated. It is used when for the object of the sentence. In this case, “der” turns into “den” and “ein” into “einen”.

The dative case is used to the indirect subject of the sentence. In the dative case, “der” turns into “dem”, “die” turns into “der” and “das” turns into “dem”. Also, “ein” turns into “einem”, “eine” turns into “einer” and “ein” turns into “einem”.

The final case (yes that’s all) is called the genitive. It is used when you refer to posession. Check the table below for all the correct forms when a certain case is applied.

Verbs, without any tense associated with them, are known as infinitive verbs. In English, to make a verb infinitive, we add “to” before the verb. In German, we can tell a verb is infinitive, by the -en or -e at the end of the word.

In order to conjugate German verbs, you first need to identify the stem of the verb. This is the part that won’t change, no matter what sort of conjugation you apply. For example, the verb “machen” has a verb stem “mach”. The verb changes depending on who it applies to.

In English, learning about articles is very straightforward. Once again though, German is just a little more complex. An article is the word before a noun and they fall into two categories. Definite and indefinite articles.

In English, the definite article is “the”. It is said to be definite because when you ask for “the” XXXX, then you are explicitly defining what it is you want. In German, there is not 1, but 3 definite articles, based on the gender of the noun. “der” is the masculine definite article, “die” is the feminine definite article and “das” is the neuter definite article.

Indefinite articles are indefinite because they relate to a general group of things. For example, asking for “a” beer means that you don’t care what sort of beer it is, as long as it is a beer! There are a couple more indefinite articles in English, such as “an” and “some”. Once again, German has 3 indefinite articles. “ein” is the masculine, “eine” is the feminine and “ein” is again the neuter.

Nouns are things. Examples include computer, pen, stapler etc etc. While learning about nouns is normally a matter of memory, in German, nouns have a bit of a twist.

You see, every noun in German has a gender attached to it. So a noun can either be masculine, feminine, or neuter. While some things make sense, the vast majority are completely random. This can make it difficult to learn. How is a beginner supposed to know that wine is masculine and beer is neuter? All you can do is learn each nouns gender as you learn the noun itself.

Words that we use to describe people, or ourselves, are called pronouns. In English, the use of pronouns is simpler than in German. It is still rather straight foward in German, so don’t get too worried!

You may be a bit surprised by what you see in the table above. You might be thinking, “Why are there two words for ‘you’?”. The reason for this is that sie is used in more formal situations and du is used when you are talking to a friend or someone you know. It used to be the same in English, however the use of words such as “thee” and “thou” ceased some time ago.

So when do you know when to use “sie” and “du”? If you are meeting someone for the first time, it is usual to use “sie” until they tell you otherwise. It is also recommended to use with people such as doctors, teachers, police etc etc. Once you get to know someone, feel free to use “du”.

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