German Grammar — A2

German grammar topics for CEFR level A2: explanations and interactive practice exercises with instant feedback.

Discourse particles: denn, doch and ja — Learn how denn, doch, and ja make spoken German friendlier, more emotional, or more emphatic. Practise curious questions, surprise, reminders, and expected agreement.
Verbs with Prefixes — Learn to distinguish separable, inseparable, and meaning-dependent German verb prefixes. Practise the sentence bracket in present-tense statements and questions.
The Perfect Tense with haben — Learn to talk about past events with haben and the past participle. Practise regular and irregular participles and the sentence bracket in statements and questions.
The Perfect Tense with sein — Learn which German verbs form the perfect tense with sein. Practise verbs of movement and change of state, special verbs, and word order in statements and questions.
Reflexive Verbs in the Accusative — Learn the reflexive pronouns mich, dich, sich, uns, and euch. Practise verbs that are always or sometimes reflexive, their word order, and perfect-tense questions.
Konjunktiv II: Polite Requests — Learn to make polite requests and questions with könnte, hätte, wäre, and würde. Practise the forms and German sentence brackets in everyday situations.
The Preterite: Overview — Get a compact overview of the German preterite and review its most important forms and word order.
Preterite: haben, sein and werden — Practise the especially frequent preterite forms of haben, sein and werden.
Preterite: Modal Verbs — Learn preterite forms of modal verbs and their position with an infinitive.
Preterite: Regular and Irregular Verbs — Form and practise regular and common irregular verbs in the preterite.
The Passive Voice in the Present and Preterite — Learn how German describes actions in the passive when the agent is unknown or unimportant. Practise werden + past participle in the present and preterite and use the correct word order in statements and questions.
Verb Complements: Nominative, Dative, and Accusative — Learn which case German verbs require for their complements. Practise verbs with nominative, dative, and accusative complements and the neutral order of dative and accusative objects.
Verbs with Prepositions — Learn fixed German verb-preposition combinations and whether they take the dative or accusative. Practise questions about people and things with preposition + wem/wen and wo(r)-.
German Cases: Articles and Noun Endings — Learn the definite article forms in all four German cases. Practise genitive -(e)s, dative plural -n, and how verbs and prepositions determine case.
The Four German Cases — Compare the nominative, accusative, dative, and genitive. Learn article forms, identify noun-phrase functions, and choose the case required by a verb or preposition.
Definite, Indefinite and Negative Articles — Learn when German uses a definite, indefinite, negative, or zero article. Practise the forms in the nominative, accusative, dative, and genitive.
Demonstrative and Interrogative Articles — Learn the forms of dies- and welch- and the difference between welch- and was für ein. Practise selection questions, questions about qualities, and the correct endings in the nominative, accusative, and dative.
Personal Pronouns in Three Cases — Learn German personal pronouns in the nominative, accusative, and dative. Practise replacing nouns, distinguishing du from Sie, and ordering pronouns in sentences with two complements.
Possessive Articles: mein, dein, sein — Learn how German possessive articles express ownership and how their endings depend on case, gender, and number. Practise mein-, dein-, sein-, ihr-, unser-, euer-, and formal Ihr- in everyday sentences.
German “es”: Three Functions — Learn the three main functions of German “es”: a pronoun replacing a neuter noun, the fixed subject of impersonal expressions, and a placeholder in first position. Practise when “es” must remain and when it disappears after a different sentence opening.
Possessive Pronouns: meiner, meine, meins — Learn how German possessive pronouns replace a noun that is already known. Practise forms based on the owner, case, gender, and number.
Possessive Pronouns: meiner, meine, meins — Learn how standalone German possessive pronouns replace a noun that has already been mentioned. Practise forms by owner, case, gender, and number in short answers and questions with gehören.
Negative Questions and doch — Learn to understand negative yes/no questions and answer them clearly with nein or doch. Also practise negative questions in the German perfect tense.
German Adjective Declension — Learn the endings of attributive German adjectives after definite articles, after ein-words, and without an article. Practise the nominative, accusative, dative, and genitive in everyday sentences.
Sentence Links: deshalb and trotzdem — Connect two main clauses with deshalb and trotzdem. Distinguish an expected consequence from a surprising contrast and keep the conjugated verb in position 2 in the second clause.
Main Clauses with Conjunctions — Learn to join two German main clauses with denn, aber, sondern, oder, and und. Distinguish reason, contrast, correction, alternative, and addition while keeping normal verb-second order in the second clause.
Time Expressions: im, am, um, von … bis, seit and ab — Learn which preposition German uses with months, days, dates, clock times, and periods. Distinguish im, am, um, and no preposition, then describe beginnings, endings, and duration.
Adverbial Subordinate Clauses — Learn to express reasons, contrasts, conditions, and time with weil, obwohl, wenn, and als. Practise verb-final order in subordinate clauses and inversion after a fronted subordinate clause.
Cardinal and Ordinal Numbers — Learn to express quantities, order, and dates with German number words. Practise forming and declining ordinal numbers and using dates with am, vom, and bis zum.
Comparative and Superlative — Learn how German adjectives form comparative and superlative degrees and how to compare with als, wie, and nicht so ... wie.
Dative Prepositions — Learn the common dative prepositions ab, aus, bei, mit, nach, seit, von, and zu. Distinguish destination, origin, and location, and use beim, vom, zum, and zur.
Interrogative Pronouns: wer, wen, wem, wessen, was — Learn to ask about people, possession, and things with wer, wen, wem, wessen, and was. Also practise standalone forms of welch- and was für ein when the noun is omitted.
Subordinate Clauses with dass — Learn to connect statements, thoughts, knowledge, and feelings with dass-clauses. Practise verb-final order and the word order used when the dass-clause comes first.
Accusative Prepositions — Learn the accusative prepositions bis, durch, für, gegen, ohne, and um. Distinguish their spatial, temporal, and other meanings and use the correct accusative forms.
Infinitive with zu — Learn when German uses an infinitive phrase with zu, how it is formed, and when modal verbs take an infinitive without zu. Practise separable verbs and replacing a dass-clause when both clauses share the same subject.
Two-Way Prepositions: Where or Where To? — Learn the nine German two-way prepositions and choose the dative for location or the accusative for a destination. Practise articles, contractions, and common location verbs.
Word Formation: Nouns — Form German nouns with -chen, -lein, -er, -in, and -ung, and use nominalized infinitives. Learn the gender, plural, and typical meaning of each pattern.
Adverbs: Time, Place and Manner — Learn common German adverbs for time, frequency, place, direction, and manner. Practise their unchanging form, meaning, and position in a sentence.
Verb Position in Simple Sentences — Learn where the conjugated verb goes in statements, wh-questions, yes/no questions, and commands. Practise the verbal bracket with separable verbs, modal verbs, and the perfect tense.
Word Order in the Middle Field — Learn the usual order of objects and adverbial phrases in a German main clause. Practise N-D-A, pronoun order, prepositional complements, and Te-Ka-Mo-Lo.

German — Grammar