German grammar, topic by topic
Start with the topic that's giving you trouble, whether that's the four cases, adjective endings or where the verb goes. Each page says what matters most and lists the lessons on it from A0 up, with exercises and answers. Prefer to go level by level? See all German lessons by level.
The four German cases, explained8 lessons · A1–B2. German shows a noun's job in the sentence with its case: the subject is in the nominative, the direct object in the accusative, the indirect object in the dative, and the owner in the genitive.Der, die, das: German gender and articles, explained5 lessons · A0–A1. Every German noun is masculine (der), feminine (die) or neuter (das), and the gender is part of the word.German word order, explained8 lessons · A0–C1. German word order follows a few firm rules.German adjective endings, explained8 lessons · A1–B2. An adjective after the noun has no ending: Das Haus ist alt.German prepositions and their cases, explained9 lessons · A1–B1. Each German preposition takes a fixed case.German past tenses: Perfekt and Präteritum, explained9 lessons · A1–C2. In conversation, German talks about the past with the Perfekt: a form of haben or sein plus a past participle at the end of the sentence.German modal verbs, explained5 lessons · A1–B2. German has six modal verbs: können (can), müssen (must, have to), wollen (want), dürfen (may, be allowed to), sollen (should, be supposed to) and mögen (like), plus the very common möchte (would like).German separable verbs, explained3 lessons · A1–B2. Many German verbs have a prefix that splits off in a main clause and goes to the end: anrufen, Ich rufe dich morgen an.German conjunctions and subordinate clauses, explained11 lessons · A1–B2. German joins clauses in two ways.German relative clauses, explained2 lessons · B1. A German relative clause starts with a relative pronoun that looks almost exactly like the definite article, ends with its verb, and is always set off by commas: Der Mann, der dort steht, ist mein Nachbar.Konjunktiv II: würde, hätte, wäre, explained5 lessons · A2–C2. The Konjunktiv II is the German mood for anything unreal or hypothetical, and for politeness.Konjunktiv I and reported speech, explained3 lessons · B2–C1. News reports and formal writing report what someone said with the Konjunktiv I: Der Minister sagte, er sei nicht informiert worden.The German passive, explained5 lessons · B1–C1. The German passive puts the action first and the doer in the background: Das Haus wird gebaut.Du or Sie, and German pronouns, explained6 lessons · A0–A2. German has two words for “you”.Nicht or kein: German negation, explained3 lessons · A0–C1. German has two main ways to say “not”.German modal particles: doch, mal, ja, eben, explained4 lessons · A1–C2. Small words like doch, mal, ja, denn and eben don't change what a sentence says; they change how it sounds.German pronunciation and spelling, explained3 lessons · A0. German is spelled much more regularly than English: once you know the rules, you can read almost any word aloud.