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This is your first grammar overview. Every fifth lesson is a grammar overview that will explain the things you saw in the previous lessons.
Nouns are words used for things, object, people, professions and are at the core of any language. Nouns in German are written with first letter capitalized so you can easily distinguish them from other words. Some of the nouns you saw in previous lessons are: Tag (day), Adresse (address), Bier (beer), Zeitung (magazine).
In German nouns have grammatical gender. There are three genders in German language: masculine (der), feminine (die) and neuter (das). Gender of a noun is very important because gender defines which definite or indefinite article is used with the noun. We will see later that these articles are very important when nouns are declined (when they change form). There are numerous rules on how to detect the gender of a noun, but there are also exceptions. It is best if you learn gender of a noun together with the noun.
German nouns also have singular (one) and plural (two or more) versions. Plural of a noun is constructed in different ways so it is recommended that you learn plural of a noun together with the noun.
Typically when you want to write down a German noun you would write the gender, singular version and plural version of a noun. For example:
| dog | der Hund, Hunde |
| cat | die Katze, Katzen |
| beer | das Bier, Biere |
Der, die and das are definite articles for nouns in nominative. Nominative is a grammatical case, first and basic case, one of four that exist in German language. Indefinite articles for nouns in Nominative in German are: ein (masculine), eine (feminine) and ein (neuter).
Nominative case is used to describe a subject in a sentence. For example: Die Zeitung kostet 5 Euro. "Die Zeitung" (the magazine) is the subject in this sentence so the noun is in nominative case.
There is also a definite article for nouns in plural. "Eine" is the definite article used for plural of a noun, no matter what the gender of the noun is.
So here is a table of definite articles in nominative for nouns:
| Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Plural | |
| N | der | die | das | die |
Here is also a table for indefinite articles. Notice that indefinite articles are not used in plural.
| Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Plural | |
| N | ein | eine | ein | - |
We will talk more about nouns and other noun cases in future lessons, but this is all you need to know about nouns for now.
Personal pronouns in German language are: ich (I), du (you), er (he), sie (she), es (it), wir (we), ihr (you all), sie (they). There is also a personal pronoun used in polite communication: Sie (You).
Verbs are words that typically describe an action. For example, haben (to have), kosten (to cost), kommen (to come). Verbs in German are conjugated (they change form) based on the grammatical person. There are six plus one grammatical person in German language: ich (I), du (you), er/sie/es (he/she/it), wir (we), ihr (you all), sie (they) and a polite form Sie (You).
Basic form of a verb is called infinitive (that is what you look for in dictionary for example) and in large majority of cases, infinite in German ends on "en". One exception for example is lächeln (to smile) which ends on "-n".
Verbs also have tenses, so an action can be taking place right now, it might have happened in the past, or it will happen in the future. In the beginning we will first take a look at present tense.
Two most important verbs in German language are sein (to be) and haben (to have). In the table below, you can see how these verbs are conjugated, that is, how they change depending on the grammatical person. Note that "sein" is irregular (like in English) while "haben" follows general rules for verbs conjugation in present tense.
| sein | translation | |
| ich | bin | I am |
| du | bist | you are |
| er/sie/es | ist | he/she/it is |
| wir | sind | we are |
| ihr | seid | you all are |
| sie | sind | they are |
| haben | translation | |
| ich | habe | I have |
| du | hast | you have |
| er/sie/es | hat | he/she/it has |
| wir | haben | we have |
| ihr | habt | you all have |
| sie | haben | they have |
In general, when you conjugate the German verb in present tense, you remove the last "en" on the infinitive version of a verb and add following suffixes: -e, -st, -t, -en, -t, -en. Sometimes, when you remove final "en" from the infinitve, the last letter does not work nice with some suffixes, so additional "e" is added to ease pronounciation. Take a look below to see how some common German verbs are conjugated. notice how "arbeiten" has extra "e" in second person singular, for example, since without it, "arbeitst" would be very hard to pronounce.
| gehen | wohnen | arbeiten | |
| ich | gehe | wohne | arbeite |
| du | gehst | wohnst | arbeitest |
| er/sie/es | geht | wohnt | arbeitet |
| wir | gehen | wohnen | arbeiten |
| ihr | geht | wohnt | arbeitet |
| sie | gehen | wohnen | arbeiten |
Adjectives are word that describe nouns while adverbs are words that describe verbs. There are three ways to use adjectives, as attributes, in a predicative manner and as adverbs. Look at the following examples:
| Guten Tag. | Good day. |
| Der Tag ist gut. | The day is good. |
| Es geht gut | It goes well. |
In the first example, the adjective "gut" (good) is used as attribute and is in front of the noun. In this scenario the adjecive is declined (gut => guten). We will talk about this scenario in lessons to come.
In the second example, the adjective is used in predicative way. The adjective is behind the noun and doesn't change (it is not declined).
In the third example, adjective is used as an adverb. In German you can use adjectives as adverbs without any modification. In English, you would typically create an adverb from adjective by adding -ly (for example, quick => quickly).
This was our first grammar overview which provided you with very basic introduction to German nouns, verbs and adjectives. We will explore nouns, verbs and adjectives in future lessons, so don't worry if everything is not clear right not. You have just started learning German language, and you should focus on learning vocabulary and over time you will build you grammar skills.
Now please, do the last four lessons again. Now, you will have the grammar knowledge that will help you to understand the lessons better.