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A2

Grundkenntnisse

Hier kommt die Zeit dazu. Man kann erzählen, was passiert ist, und ankündigen, was man vorhat. Sätze werden länger, weil sie verbunden werden: and, but, because, when.

Der Wortschatz deckt den Alltag ab — Arbeit, Wohnen, Reisen, Gesundheit, Wetter. Ungewohntes bleibt schwierig, Vertrautes geht flüssig.

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The four cases

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A2The dativeTo whom, for whom — and after a fixed list of prepositions and a fixed list of verbs.A2Verbs that take the dativeA closed list of verbs whose only object is dative, where English would use a plain object.

Nouns: gender, plural, compounds

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A2Compound nounsRead the last part to know what it is, the parts before it to know which one.A2Making things small: -chen and -leinTwo endings that shrink a noun, turn it neuter and sometimes change its meaning entirely.A2Guessing the gender from the endingAbout forty endings decide the gender outright, which covers a large share of the vocabulary.

Articles

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A2When German uses no articleJobs, nationalities, materials and abstract nouns often stand bare where English needs a or the.A2this one and that oneGerman points with dieser — and mostly with a stressed der, which is what speakers actually say.

Pronouns

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A2Reflexive pronounsA large group of German verbs carries a pronoun that translates into nothing at all.A2Somebody, nobody, everythingA small set of pronouns for unspecified people and things, and the endings some of them still carry.A2Question words and which case they takewer changes for case exactly like der, and two different words ask which.

The verb: present tense and stem

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A2Separable verbsThe verb starts the sentence and finishes it, and the meaning is not complete until the last word.A2Strong verbsAbout two hundred verbs change their stem vowel — and they change it in patterns English speakers already own.A2The imperativeThree forms for three ways of saying you — and a particle that turns an order into an offer.A2Prefixes that never separateEight unstressed prefixes that stay attached and take no ge- in the participle.

Tenses

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A2The futureGerman usually says the future in the present tense, and keeps werden for prediction and emphasis.A2What the present tense coversNow, always, tomorrow and since when — all of it in one form.A2haben or sein in the perfectMost verbs take haben; motion and change of state take sein, and one test decides almost every case.A2Saying when: seit, vor, in, fürFour prepositions of time whose English equivalents cross over, plus the tense German uses with each.A2Building the past participleThree patterns, and four situations where the ge- is left off.

Modal verbs

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A2must not and need notThe one place where a negation flips the meaning — and German and English flip it differently.A2sollen: somebody else decidedAn obligation that comes from another person, and a second use that reports what people say.

Word order

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A2The middle of the sentenceNot free, but ordered by a principle rather than by a slot: known things early, new things late.A2What can stand before the verbExactly one element goes in front of the verb — and which one you choose is a decision, not a formality.

Subordinate clauses

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A2dass, weil, wennThe three commonest conjunctions, and the one position they all produce.A2als, wenn, wannThree words English writes as "when", separated by one question: once in the past, or repeatedly?A2Giving a reason: weil, da, dennThree words for because, and each one puts the verb somewhere different.

Prepositions

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A2The nine that take two casesDative for a position, accusative for a movement — one question that settles all nine.A2Going somewhere: nach, zu, in, aufFour prepositions for a destination, chosen by what kind of place it is.A2Being somewhere: in, an, auf, beiFour prepositions for a location, and the one German uses where English says "at somebody’s".A2Coming from: aus and vonaus if you were inside it, von if you were merely at it — the mirror image of in and zu.

Adjectives

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A2Comparative and superlativeGerman has no "more interesting" — every adjective takes the ending, however long it is.A2Comparing things: so wie, alsEquality takes wie, difference takes als, and mixing them is the commonest mistake German speakers make too.A2German has almost no adverb endingThe same word describes a thing and an action, with no -ly and no ending at all.

Negation

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A2Saying yes to a negative questionGerman has a third answer word that English lacks entirely, and leaving it out is genuinely ambiguous.A2noch nicht, nicht mehr, schonFour small words that place a negation in time — and each has an exact opposite.

The subjunctive

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A2Being polite in GermanA handful of subjunctive forms carry almost all German politeness, and they are met long before the grammar is.

The finishing touches

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A2du, Sie, and how formal to beGerman makes you choose a level of formality in every single sentence you address to somebody.