German Language Crash Course For Beginners!

By Author: Nitesh Prasad
Total Articles: 30
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Well, fear not. Grammar is no longer a dirty word! When you consider that understanding grammar is one of the most effective ways of accelerating your ability to speak a language, you will begin to think of it much more affectionately. When that little light-bulb goes off in your mind as you suddenly grasp a new concept, you will feel energized and excited about putting it into practice!

Naturally, it will take more than 5 minutes to learn German grammar. However, in this article, I will share with you the key concepts that will become the cornerstone of your ability to speak German.

What You Need to Know

1. Nouns

Nouns in German always start with a capital letter. (This includes abstract nouns such as ideas and concepts.) They also have gender--masculine, feminine, and neuter. This has nothing to do with how "manly" or "girly" an object is. For instance, the German word for girl is actually a neuter noun. You will need to learn the gender of each noun individually, although there are some common types. Masculine nouns include male people and animals, seasons, months and days ...
... of the week. Most nouns ending in "e" are feminine, while those beginning with "Ge" are usually neuter. You will need to know the gender of a noun because this affects the form of other words used with it, such as adjectives, articles and pronouns.

2. Cases

The German language is based on "cases", which are used to identify the different parts of speech in a sentence. The most important concept to understand here is that words change their endings depending on which case they are in. This is the most difficult aspect of learning German for a native English speaker, but once you memorize the various endings, you will be able to correctly form words in every case and gender. There are 4 cases:

Nominative case identifies the subject (who or what is doing the action).
Accusative case identifies the direct object (whom or what the subject "verbs").
Genitive case indicates that this noun belongs to someone or something.
Dative case identifies the indirect object (the receiver of the object or an action.)

3. Adjectives

Adjectives also vary depending on the gender and case of the noun that they are describing. The best way to learn the endings for adjectives is to memorize one example in each gender and case. Then you will be able to apply the same logic to any noun in that gender and case.

4. Verbs

Verb tenses vary significantly between English and German, and like cases, they also require different endings depending on which tense they are in. At this early stage, the most important point to understand is that German verbs have a different ending depending on "who" is doing the action. Let's take an example:

To Go = gehen
I go/am going = ich gehe
You go/are going (informal) = du gehst
You go (formal) = Sie gehen
He/she/it goes = er/sie/es geht
We go/are going = wir gehen
They go/are going = sie gehen
You (plural, informal) = ihr geht
You (plural, formal) = Sie gehen
Summary of Important Points

Whether you realize it or not, you have just learned the most important concepts in German grammar! Sure, you don't yet know all of the details, and all of the word endings, but at least you are now aware of the concepts. This is a huge step in learning to speak German, so congratulations! Take the time to let these points soak in, then build on them as you continue your German studies. Good luck, and have fun learning German!

For more information please visite: German Language Institute in Delhi, German Language Classes