Language Learning Factory

To converse well in German, it is essential to know few basic grammar rules. The knowledge of grammar rules will help you form correct sentences in German.

Use of Gender in German
The most important point to note is that German language is the only language in the world that requires capitalization of all Nouns.

German language has nouns that are feminine, masculine or neuter. The feminine definite article (“the”) is die, masculine is der, and neuter is das.

• The other word for car in German is das Auto, while German-speakers depict the brand names of car as: Mercedes as der Mercedes (masculine), Wagen(car) as der Wagen(masculine) etc.
• There are 3 different German words for “sea” or “ocean”, all of which has a different gender: die See, das Meer, and der Ozean.
• A German moon is masculine (der Mond) whereas sun is feminine (die Sonne).
• Knowing the gender of a word is essential as not knowing the gender can create confusion among the meanings of the word.
• The maximum German Nouns are masculine and hence if one is guessing the gender, guess der.

Use of Plural in German
Regardless of gender, all German Nouns become die in the accusative and nominative plural. For example, a noun such as das Fenster (window) becomes die Fenster (windows), Jahr (year) becomes die Jahre (years) in the plural.

German Plural formation: -
Plural 1- Foreign word plurals: das Prinzip - Prinzipien
Plural 2-   Suffix/ending changes: der Organismus - Organismen, das Museum – Museen
Plural 3- Add ¨e: der Kran - Kräne
Plural 4- Add an -se: das Erlebnis – Erlebnisse
Plural 5- Add an -nen: die Lehrerin - Lehrerinnen
Plural 6- Stem vowel adds ¨: der Apfel - Äpfel, der Bruder – Brüder
Plural 7- Add an -s: das Auto - Autos
Plural 8- Add ¨er or -er: das Haus - Häuser, das Kleid - Kleider
Plural 9- Add an -n: die Kugel - Kugeln
Plural 10- No change: das Mädchen - Mädchen
Plural 11- Add an -en: die Zeit - Zeiten
Plural 12- Add an -e: der Hund - Hunde

Plural forms of few German words: -
Singular Plural
das Kleid(dress) – Kleider(dresses)
das Ei (egg) – Eier(eggs)
das Dach(roof) – Dacher(roofs)
die Schule(school) – Schulen(schools)
die Familie(family) – Familien(families)
das Madchen(girl) – Madchen(girls)
der Becher(cup) – Becher(cups)
die Zeitung(newspaper) – Zeitungen(newspapers)
der Kapitan(captain) – Kapitane(captains)

Use of negation in German
There are several ways of negating a sentence. The most widely used negation is “nicht”. The other words used as negation are:
Nicht = Not
No = Nein
Never = Niemals/ Nie
No one = Kiener
Nobody = Niemand
Let’s look at few phrases in which negation is used: -
I do not read this book. = Ich lese dieses Buch nicht.
A human does never do something like this. = Ein Mensch tut so etwas niemals
Nobody was able to tell me. = Niemand war in der Lage, es mir zu sagen...
I do not eat it. = Ich esse es nicht
He knows nobody / He does not know anybody. = Er kennt niemanden.
He comes never. = Er kommt nie.
You want an apple? No, thanks. = Willst du einen Apfel? Nein, danke.

Er kommt nicht = He does not come.