The grammar of the German language is quite similar to that of the other Germanic languages. Although some features of German grammar, such as the formation of some of the verb forms, resemble those of English, German grammar differs from that of English in that it has, among other things, cases and gender in nouns and a strict  verb-second word order in main clauses.

Verbs

Verbs (Verben) (also: Tätigkeitswort, Tuwort or Zeitwort) are doing words. They can express actions performed by the subject of the sentence as well as states, concepts and processes.

Nouns and Articles

Nouns are words that describe beings, places and things e. g. die Frau – the woman, der Bahnhof – the train station, das Wetter – the weather. German nouns can be used with masculine (der), feminine (die) or neuter (das) articles and they are always written with a capital letter. German noun endings change to match the case they are in.

Adjectives

Adjectives (Adjektive) are describing words. They give us more information about a person, place or thing. There are three types of adjectives in German: predicative, adverbial and attributive. These types not only dictate how we form the comparative and superlative of an adjective, but also if and how we need to decline it — so it’s good to get familiar!

Adverbs

German adverbs can give information about: place (draußen, hier …), time (gestern, abends …), manner (anders, gern …) or reason (also, darum …). Wo-words like wofür, worüber, etc. are also adverbs.

Read on to learn about the different types of German adverbs in detail and how to use them in a sentence. Practise using adverbs correctly in the interactive exercises.

Sentence Structure

In this part of the site, we explain the order of words in main clauses, questions, and dependent clauses. We pay special attention to the areas of conditional clauses and indirect speech.