German word order in a completely standard, neutral main clause is a follows: * nominative subject,* conjugated verb,* accusative then dative pronoun,* nouns with definite determiners, in the order dative, accusative* most adverbials* nicht – or other negation particles* adverbials of manner* nouns with indefinite determiners, in the order dative, accusative* the complement, and finally* any other verbs. My podcast on German word order contains more information about what those terms mean, and also a more detailed version of word order. You can listen to the podcast directly on your computer by clicking here. Less
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German GrammarPod
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The accusative case is used for the direct object (that’s the noun or pronoun to which an action is done). It’s like the shark in Peter ate the shark where shark is the noun that gets eaten. It also follows certain preopstions (words like for, through and without). Only singular (i.e. not plural) masculine nouns change in the accusative. All the determiners and adjectives that stand before these always end in -en. The other nouns stay the same as in the nominative. Some pronouns also change. The most important ones to remember are ich (I) becomes mich (me) and du (you) becomes dich (you). As you can see, that means that not all pronouns change in English to mark the object either. If you want to listen to this podcast directly on your computer, click here. Less
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German GrammarPod
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The present tense is pretty simple in German: there’s only one. So where English has to choose between Sarah is walking to work and Sarah walks to work, German has only Sarah geht zu Fuss zur Arbeit. However, whereas English only has two different forms of each verb in the present tense (apart from for the verb to be), e.g. walk and walks, have and has, German verbs have lots of different forms in the present tense (typically four or five), depending on which personal pronoun you’re using. (Personal pronouns are words like I, you, we and they.) This podcast explains more about the present tense and the different forms the verbs you use in it take. To listen to the podcast on you computer, click here. Less
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German GrammarPod
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I finally have my first podcast up and running. You wouldn’t believe how complicated publishing podcasts is, and I thought the long bit was going to be writing the podcast 
Anyway, I’m all up and running now, so welcome to the first episode. First of all in this episode you get a bit of an introduction to the podcast and who it’s aimed at (basically everyone who wants to learn German, but I’m hoping to get some feedback to make sure I’m not overstretching myself a bit there. So if you think the podcast isn’t right for your level, but you’d like it to be, add a comment or email me at the email address given at the end of the podcast and tell me about it). Anyhow, after that, we go onto the grammar. This time I’m covering gender: What is gender? How does it work in German? How does that affect me? Tips and tricks for working out what gender a word is What effect does gender have on German? I’ve also put some tables, some lists of endings and a transcript of the podcast up on my other German GrammarPod website – you can use the link up on the top left of this blog under LINKS to get to it or just click here. To listen to the podcast, you can either subscribe or click here: MP3 link Less
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German GrammarPod
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The dative case is used for the indirect object (that’s the noun or pronoun which is impacted indirectly by the action, as opposed to the one to which the action is done directly). The classic example is he gives me the book (er gibt mir das Buch), where the direct object is the book and the indirect object is me. The dative also follows certain prepostions (words like with, to and between). All determiners (that’s words like the and a) change in the dative, although a couple of personal pronouns are the same as in the accusative. The most important ones to remember are ich (I) becomes mir (me) and du (you) becomes dir (you). To listen to my podcast directly on your computer, click here. Less
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German GrammarPod
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Hallo all, It’s been longer than I intended yet again, but I’ve finally managed to finish another episode of German GrammarPod. This episode is about the future tense and also about the verb werden in general. The future tense is pretty simple in German. Most of the time you can just use the present tense form. But where this would be ambiguous, you add the verb werden (conjugated into one of its present tense forms) in the same way English adds the verb will to make the future tense. Werden also has another couple of important uses. When used as a main verb instead of an auxiliary verb, then it means to become or a related verb. It also has another use as an auxiliary verb: instead of the future, it can be used to create the passive. Whether it’s being used to form the future or the passive can be seen from the form of the main verb that’s used with it. When it’s used to mean the future, then the main verb will be in the infinitive. If it’s a passive, then the main verb will be in the form of a past participle. To listen to the podcast directly on your computer, click here. Less
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German GrammarPod
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Hallo all, It’s been longer than I intended yet again, but I’ve finally managed to finish another episode of German GrammarPod. This episode is about the future tense and also about the verb werden in general. The future tense is pretty simple in German. Most of the time you can just use the present tense form. But where this would be ambiguous, you add the verb werden (conjugated into one of its present tense forms) in the same way English adds the verb will to make the future tense. Werden also has another couple of important uses. When used as a main verb instead of an auxiliary verb, then it means to become or a related verb. It also has another use as an auxiliary verb: instead of the future, it can be used to create the passive. Whether it’s being used to form the future or the passive can be seen from the form of the main verb that’s used with it. When it’s used to mean the future, then the main verb will be in the infinitive. If it’s a passive, then the main verb will be in the form of a past participle. To listen to the podcast directly on your computer, click here. Less
Learn German for free with podcasts.
German GrammarPod
Copyright: All rights reserved by creator
Hallo all, It’s been longer than I intended yet again, but I’ve finally managed to finish another episode of German GrammarPod. This episode is about the future tense and also about the verb werden in general. The future tense is pretty simple in German. Most of the time you can just use the present tense form. But where this would be ambiguous, you add the verb werden (conjugated into one of its present tense forms) in the same way English adds the verb will to make the future tense. Werden also has another couple of important uses. When used as a main verb instead of an auxiliary verb, then it means to become or a related verb. It also has another use as an auxiliary verb: instead of the future, it can be used to create the passive. Whether it’s being used to form the future or the passive can be seen from the form of the main verb that’s used with it. When it’s used to mean the future, then the main verb will be in the infinitive. If it’s a passive, then the main verb will be in the form of a past participle. To listen to the podcast directly on your computer, click here. Less
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German GrammarPod
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The simple past – also known as the preterite or the imperfect tense – is equivalent in form to the English I did form ( ich tat es). The way that regular verbs form their simple past is by a or being inserted into the present tense ending. For instance ich kaufe – I buy becomes ich kaufte – I bought and du kaufst – you buy becomes du kauftest – you bought. The German simple past is mainly used in written German, where it can express most past tenses expressed in English by either the I have done or the I did forms. It also crops up in spoken German, where it is preferred over the perfect tense for the auxiliary verbs (particularly haben and sein ) and the modal verbs ( müssen, sollen, mögen, können, dürfen, wollen ) and also – in Central and Northern Germany – for some other common verbs. To listen to my podcast on your computer, click here. Less
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German GrammarPod
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I finally have my first podcast up and running. You wouldn’t believe how complicated publishing podcasts is, and I thought the long bit was going to be writing the podcast Anyway, I’m all up and running now, so welcome to the first episode. First of all in this episode you get a bit of an introduction to the podcast and who it’s aimed at (basically everyone who wants to learn German, but I’m hoping to get some feedback to make sure I’m not overstretching myself a bit there. So if you think the podcast isn’t right for your level, but you’d like it to be, add a comment or email me at the email address given at the end of the podcast and tell me about it). Anyhow, after that, we go onto the grammar. This time I’m covering gender: What is gender? How does it work in German? How does that affect me? Tips and tricks for working out what gender a word is What effect does gender have on German? I’ve also put some tables, some lists of endings and a transcript of the podcast up on my other German GrammarPod website – you can use the link up on the top left of this blog under LINKS to get to it or just click here. To listen to the podcast, you can either subscribe or click here: MP3 link Less
Learn German for free with podcasts.
German GrammarPod
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