Skip to content

A1

German A1: Beginner

At this level the language covers everything the first few days ask for: your name, where you are from, what you do, your family, numbers, the time, food and drink.

Sentences are short and stand on their own. Anyone who gets this far can say what is, what they have and what they want — not yet what happened yesterday.

Alphabet and pronunciation5

Alphabet and pronunciation

5

A1The alphabet and spelling aloudTwenty-six letters plus four, and names that differ from the English ones.A1Vowels, umlauts and ei/ieEvery vowel comes long or short, and the spelling usually says which.A1Consonants: w, v, z, s and jFamiliar letters that stand for unfamiliar sounds.A1ch, sch, sp, st and hard endingsTwo sounds for ch, an sh inside sp and st, and endings that turn hard.A1Stress, capitals and ßStress on the first syllable, no accent marks, and a capital for every noun.

Tenses and the subjunctive1

Tenses

1

A1Perfect tense (Perfekt)haben or sein plus a participle at the end — and it is how Germans talk about yesterday.

Verbs: forms, modals, passive5

The verb: present tense and stem

3

A1The present tenseFour endings on a stem — and one tense doing the work of two English ones.A1sein and haben: to be, to haveIrregular, unavoidable, and needed twice over — as verbs and as the machinery of the past tense.A1Separable verbsThe verb starts the sentence and finishes it, and the meaning is not complete until the last word.

Modal verbs

2

A1The six modal verbsOne irregular pattern, six verbs, and the main verb waiting at the end of the sentence.A1mögen and möchtenOne verb for liking something, another form of it for wanting something — and they are not interchangeable.

Cases, nouns and articles14

The four cases

4

A1Cases: an overviewFour jobs a noun can do, four sets of endings — and one table that is worth learning before any of them.A1The nominativeThe one doing it — and the one the verb agrees with.A1The accusativeOne article changes, and that one change is most of what the accusative is.A1The dativeTo whom, for whom — and after a fixed list of prepositions and a fixed list of verbs.

Nouns: gender, plural, compounds

2

A1The three gendersNot a property of the thing — a property of the word.A1The pluralThere is no default. The plural is learned with the noun, like the gender.

Articles

4

A1The definite articleSix distinct words doing sixteen jobs — fewer forms than the table suggests.A1ein, kein and the possessivesOne pattern shared by nine words — and three cells where it says nothing at all.A1Contractions: im, zum, amTen fused forms that are not shortcuts but the normal way to say it.A1Possessives: mein, dein, sein, ihrSeven possessives that all decline like ein — and one word that means her, their and the polite your.

Pronouns

1

A1Personal pronounsThree cases each, and the dative forms used far more often than English suggests.

Prepositions

2

A1Prepositions with the accusativeFive words, one case, no exceptions — worth memorising as a line.A1Prepositions with the dativeThe seven that carry most of everyday German — and the contractions that come with them.

Adjectives

1

A1Adjectives after seinAfter sein, werden and bleiben an adjective never changes — so learn this position first.

Sentence structure4

Word order

3

A1Verb in second positionOne element in front of the verb — any one you like, but only one.A1QuestionsNo do, no does, no did — the verb simply moves.A1Giving instructionsThree imperative forms, one of which keeps its pronoun and two of which drop it.

Negation

1

A1Negation: kein or nichtA noun takes kein. Everything else takes nicht. That is the whole decision.

Style and fine points2

Fine points and style

2

A1Numbers, dates and timesThree systems that are regular, and each of which runs in the opposite direction from English.A1Spelling and pronunciationGerman spelling is nearly regular, so a written word says how it is pronounced — once eight rules are known.

Word lists at level A1

Lists: 12 · words: 531

Reading texts at level A1

Sentences from this level’s topics

Wie schreibt man das?How do you spell that?

Ich bin müde und möchte schlafen.I am tired and would like to sleep.

Wie viel Zeit haben wir?How much time do we have?

Die Schule ist nicht weit.The school is not far.

Practise level A1 only