Learning German — frequently asked questions
23 questions people really ask when learning German, with answers that stand on their own. Where there is more to say, the link comes underneath — not instead of the answer.
Getting started
Where to begin, how long it takes, which German to learn, and what the levels mean.
How should I start learning German?
With three things side by side rather than one after another: the present tense of the verbs you need every day, a first stock of nouns learnt together with their article, and the rule that the verb comes second in a statement. Grammar on its own leaves you with nothing to say; word lists on their own leave you reciting word lists. Say whole sentences aloud from the first day — Ich heiße Sam. Ich komme aus Leeds. Ich wohne jetzt in Berlin. — because the pattern of a sentence is what carries every sentence you build after it.
What do A1, A2, B1, B2, C1 and C2 mean on this site?
They are the six steps of a widely used European scale, from first sentences (A1) to effortless command of the language (C2). The labels are free for anyone to use; the official wording that describes each step is not, and this site deliberately does not reproduce it. What you find here instead is its own sorting of the material, and the yardstick is stated openly: the question is not how difficult a word is, but from what point you cannot get by without it. der Kühlschrank is long and sits at A1, because every kitchen has one; leugnen, ‘to deny’, is short and sits at C1, because you can go a long way without ever needing it.
How long does it take to learn German?
There is no honest figure in hours, and any page that states one as a fact has made it up: it depends on what you already know, how often you practise and what you need the language for. Two things can be said with confidence. English speakers start with an advantage that is easy to overlook — das Haus, das Wasser, der Schuh, die Hand and a great many other everyday words share their root with English. And the beginning feels slower than it is, because German asks for its articles, its cases and its word order almost at once. They are the price of the first sentences, and everything later builds on them rather than adding a new system of its own.
Which German should I learn: Germany, Austria or Switzerland?
The standard language, which is shared by all three for reading and writing and differs mainly in vocabulary and a few habits. Austria says der Jänner where Germany says der Januar, and der Paradeiser for die Tomate; Switzerland rides das Velo rather than das Fahrrad and never writes ß, so Strasse is correct there and nowhere else. In the south and in Austria people say ich bin gesessen where the north says ich habe gesessen, and both are standard. What really differs is everyday speech in German-speaking Switzerland: that is dialect, which even Germans can find hard to follow, while standard German is kept for writing, the news and school. Start with the standard and add the local words for the place you are going to.
Grammar
The points at which German most often trips up an English speaker.
Do I have to learn der, die or das with every noun?
Yes, and it pays to do it from the very first noun rather than going back later. The gender of a German noun belongs to the word, not to the thing: der Löffel, die Gabel and das Messer lie side by side on the same table with three genders between them, and das Mädchen is neuter because of its ending, not because of anything about girls. Learn each noun as a unit — article, word and plural together — and the endings will then do part of the work for you: a noun built with the suffix -ung, -heit, -keit or -schaft is feminine (die Zeitung, die Freiheit), and one built with -chen or -lein is neuter.
What are the German cases, and do I really need them?
There are four: nominative, accusative, dative and genitive. English has kept only scraps of the same system — ‘he’ and ‘him’, ‘who’ and ‘whom’ — while German shows it on every article: der Hund is doing something, den Hund is having something done to it. That is why German can move words around without changing who did what: Der Mann beißt den Hund and Den Hund beißt der Mann both have the man doing the biting. You need the cases to be understood precisely, not to be understood at all — a wrong ending rarely hides the meaning — so take them in order: nominative and accusative first, then the dative, and the genitive last.
Why does the verb come second — and sometimes last?
In an ordinary statement the conjugated verb takes second place, whatever comes first. English says ‘Today I am going to the cinema’; German puts the verb straight after the first element: Heute gehe ich ins Kino. In a clause that begins with weil, dass, wenn and similar words, the verb moves to the very end: Ich bleibe zu Hause, weil ich morgen früh arbeiten muss. Both rules are fixed, which makes them easier than they look: once you know which kind of clause you are in, you know where the verb goes.
Why is part of the verb at the end of the sentence?
Because German often splits the verb in two and puts the rest of the sentence between the halves. With a separable verb the prefix goes to the end: anrufen becomes Ich rufe dich morgen an. The same frame holds the perfect (Ich habe das Buch gestern gelesen) and a modal verb with its infinitive (Ich muss heute lange arbeiten). So the last word of a German sentence often completes its meaning — Ich rufe dich morgen an and Ich rufe dich morgen zurück differ only there — which is why listening to the end is a habit worth forming early.
When do I say du and when Sie?
Sie to any adult you do not know, in shops and offices, and at work unless you are told otherwise; du to children, family, friends and anyone who has offered it. The offer is a small ritual, usually made by the older or more senior person, and waiting for it is never wrong. Among young people, in many workplaces and online, du is often the norm from the start — but switching to it uninvited with a stranger is more noticeable than staying formal for too long. Sie takes the same verb form as ‘they’ and always has a capital S: Kommen Sie mit?
Which past tense should I use: Perfekt or Präteritum?
In conversation, mostly the Perfekt: Ich habe gestern Fußball gespielt. In writing, above all in stories and reports, the Präteritum: Er spielte jeden Samstag. A few very common verbs use the Präteritum in speech as well — war, hatte and the modal verbs, such as konnte and musste. The difference is one of style, not of meaning, and this is where English leads you astray: German has no rule like the English one against ‘I have seen him yesterday’, so Ich habe ihn gestern gesehen is exactly right.
What do little words like doch, mal and ja mean?
On their own, almost nothing you could translate; in a sentence, a great deal. They are modal particles, and they carry the speaker’s attitude: Komm doch mit! is a friendly nudge, Mach mal Pause makes a suggestion casual, and Das ist ja interessant marks surprise. English does the same job with tone of voice and with little tags such as ‘just’ or ‘isn’t it’. A sentence without them is correct but can sound stiff; learn them from whole sentences, because a dictionary entry for doch will not tell you much.
Why do German newspapers write sei instead of ist?
That is the Konjunktiv I, the form German uses to report what somebody else said without vouching for it: Der Minister sagte, er sei zufrieden. It marks the sentence as a report, a job English does with ‘reportedly’ or with a shift of tense after ‘said that’. You will meet it constantly in news writing and rarely in conversation, where people use the ordinary indicative or the Konjunktiv II instead (er wäre zufrieden). For a learner it is a form to recognise long before it is a form to produce.
Words and sounds
Which words come first, how to keep them, and how to say them.
How many German words do I need?
No single number is honest, because it depends on what you want to do and on what counts as knowing a word. Two things matter more than the total. A word you can find while speaking is worth several that you only recognise when reading, so practise from English into German rather than rereading lists. And German builds new words out of old ones, so each noun you learn does more work than it seems: die Hand and der Schuh give you der Handschuh, ‘glove’.
Which German words should I learn first?
Not the most interesting ones, but the ones that turn up in every other sentence: the verbs sein, haben, werden, machen, gehen and kommen; the question words wer, was, wo, wann, wie and warum; numbers, days and times; and the small words that hold a sentence together, such as aber, auch, noch and schon. They are inconspicuous and they carry half of everything you say.
Is it worth learning vocabulary by topic?
Yes, once you have the words every sentence needs. Topics help in two ways: words from the same situation are easier to recall together — der Löffel, die Gabel, das Messer — and you can prepare for a particular situation, such as a visit to the doctor, a flat viewing or a job interview, before it happens. Where they mislead is at the very start, when a list of animals looks more rewarding than the words that hold a sentence together.
Does German have irregular verbs?
Yes, and English speakers know the pattern better than they think. The strong verbs change their vowel instead of adding an ending, very much as English does: singen – sang – gesungen runs like ‘sing – sang – sung’, and trinken – trank – getrunken like ‘drink – drank – drunk’. Some also change the vowel in the present tense, in the du and er forms only: ich fahre, but du fährst and er fährt. No rule predicts which verbs are strong, so each one is learnt with its three forms, just like ‘go – went – gone’.
Why are German words so long?
Because German writes a compound as one word where English usually leaves a space: der Kühlschrank is a ‘cool cupboard’, a fridge, and das Krankenhaus a ‘house for the sick’, a hospital. One rule makes them manageable: the last part says what the thing is and decides the gender, and everything in front of it narrows it down. die Tür and der Schlüssel give der Türschlüssel, which is a key and therefore masculine. Read a long word from the right.
How do I practise German pronunciation?
Start from the spelling, because German spelling is regular enough that a word you have never seen can usually be read aloud correctly. A few rules do most of the work: w sounds like English v (Wasser), z like ‘ts’ (Zeit), ei like ‘eye’ and ie like ‘ee’, so Wein and Wien are different words, and a d at the end of a word sounds like t (Hund). Then practise the sounds English lacks in pairs that differ in only one of them — schon and schön, Mutter and Mütter, vier and für — until you can hear the difference as well as make it. And listen for the two sounds written ch: at the back of the mouth after a, o, u and au (Buch), further forward after the other vowels and after a consonant (ich, Milch).
Which German words look English but mean something else?
bekommen means to get or receive, not to become — Ich bekomme das Schnitzel is an order in a restaurant, not a transformation. das Gift is poison; also means ‘so’ or ‘therefore’; eventuell means ‘possibly’, not ‘eventually’; aktuell means ‘current’, not ‘actual’. And das Handy is a mobile phone: a word that looks English and is not used in English at all.
How do I stop sounding translated?
By learning the phrases German speakers actually use as whole units, rather than building them word by word from English. An English speaker is hungry; a German speaker usually has hunger: Ich habe Hunger, and in the same way Ich habe Durst and Ich habe Angst. ‘I like it’ is often Das gefällt mir, with the thing as the subject, and ‘I don’t mind either way’ is Das ist mir egal. None of these can be worked out from its parts, and none has to be: learnt once as a phrase, each one is simply there when you need it.
This site
Where the material comes from, who it is for, and what it is not.
Can I use this site as a complete beginner?
Yes. The grammar begins with what a case is, the three genders and the present tense, every explanation is written in English, and each topic says which level it belongs to — so you can stay at A1 until it feels secure and move on when it does.
Where does the material on this site come from?
Every explanation, example sentence, word list and exercise was written for this site. Nothing is taken from a textbook, a grammar, a dictionary or another learning site — not even a frequency list, because the selection and arrangement of a list is protected even where the single words are not.
Does this site prepare me for a German exam?
No, and that is a statement of fact rather than modesty: it follows no published exam syllabus and is not recognised by any examining body. It explains and it asks questions. If you need a certificate, it comes from an examining body; what you practise here helps with that, but it does not replace it.