We build the comparative in German by adding the ending “-er” to the positive (basic adjective form), while the superlative is being built by adding “am” in front of the positive and adding the ending “-sten” to the end.
Here are the typical scenarios for building the comparative and superlative in German:
The simplest examples:
schön > schöner > am schönsten Other similar examples: klein, schnell, neu, langsam
When the adjective ends in d/-t or -s/-ß/-x/-z we have to add one additional “e” in front of the ending -sten in superlative:
interessant > interessanter > am interessantesten Other similar examples: nett heiß > heißer > am heißesten
Monosyllable Adjectives with the stem-vocal “a”, “o”, “u” get the umlaut:
alt > älter > am ältesten Other similar examples: warm, kalt, lang, stark, hart
groß > größer > am größten Other similar examples: oft, grob
jung > jünger >am jüngsten Other similar examples: kurz, klug, dumm, gesund
There are also the so called irregular forms and we have to learn them by heart:
gern > lieber > am liebsten gut > besser > am besten viel > mehr > am meisten
There are some interesting cases/adjectives where slight changes happen and we need to notice and learn them:
hoch > höher > am höchsten
nah > näher > am nächsten
teuer > teurer > am teuersten
dunkel > dunkler > am dunkelsten
Let us see how the positive, comparative and superlative should be used in a sentence:
We will use the positive when two things share the same quality:
Maria läuft soschnellwie Susanne.
We will use the comparative when there is a difference between them:
Friederike läuft schnellerals Maria.
“als” requires the Nominative: ich bin schneller als du.
And here is the superlative:
Marko läuft am schnellsten.
When the adjective is placed on the RIGHT hand side of the noun, it looks like in all the above examples i.e. it doesn’t get any additional endings:
Das Mädchen ist schön.
Maria ist schöner als Eva.
Lisa ist am schönsten.
When the adjective is placed on the LEFT hand side of the noun, its forms (positive, comparative and superlative) get some endings in accordance with the adjective declension and then it looks like this:
When we are learning German grammar, we learn it from the start gradually and in a straight line. We start with a subject in a sentence, then continue with an object, learn adverbs and adjectives and at some point start learning about subordinated sentences (wenn, weil, obwohl etc.).
As we learn more, we start forgetting more, right? At the point when we reach the B2 level, we start mixing things up and loosing orientation in abundance of information.
This becomes very noticeable when we, for example, try to resolve the tasks from the so called Sprachbausteine part 2 – which is much more difficult than the Sprachbausteine part 1 – and one of the most notorious parts of the exam TELC B2.
If you are preparing yourself for the TELC B2 exam, then you know what I am talking about. For those who still don’t know what it’s about, here is a short description: Sprachbausteine 2 look like a letter with blanks and your task is to choose the correct answer among the words in a word box below the letter. Here is an example:
When you start exercising, it may look scary, but I assure you, it doesn’t have to be. There are some tips for resolving the tasks in this part of the TELC B2 exam:
Sort & organize. Apply. Greater picture.
Sort & organize. Before you start resolving each of the blanks, take a look at the box with offered solutions below the text, take a pencil and mark all the words that are the same part of speech (nouns/verbs/adjectives,adverbs/pronouns/particles/conjunctions). For example, underline with a straight line all nouns, mark all verbs with a star (asterisk*) etc. By sorting and organizing the offered words in this way you will have a better overview and will be able to choose better the correct solution.
Here are descriptions of basic parts of speech:
Apply. When resolving the blanks (tasks), ask yourself first:
Which part of speech is needed here? Is the missing word a noun, a verb, an adjective/adverb or a conjunction?
Once you answer this question, take a look ONLY at exactly the words in the word box that you have previously marked as one and the same part of speech that you now need. Take a look at those words and choose the correct one according to its form and meaning.
Greater picture. Be aware of it that a Subject, Object, Information on time, place or cause and even an attribute can be:
1 word
more than 1 word (phrase)
1 sentence
Here is what this looks like:
Subject (answers the question: WER? WAS?):
1 word: Peter schreibt einen Brief. 1 Phrase (more than 1 word): Ein fleißiger Schüler scheibt einen Brief. 1 sentence: Wer alle Regeln gut kennt, kann einen Brief gut schreiben.
Before you continue reading, take a look at this video that I took in order to explain the position of the verb in the main sentence depending on the number of words (1 word/more than 1 word/whole sentence) that we are talking about in this chapter:
Object (WEN? WAS?):
1 word: Ich höre dich. 1 Phrase (more than 1 word): Ich höre einen bellenden Hund. 1 sentence: Er hat mir gesagt, dass er einen bellenden Hund gehört hat. Ich habe ihn gefragt, ob er einen bellenden Hund gehört hat. Ich habe ihn gefragt, wann er einen bellenden Hund gehört hat.
Time (WANN?)
1 word: Ich komme morgen zu dir. 1 phrase (more than 1 word): Ich komme früh am Morgen zu dir. 1 sentence: Ich komme zu dir, wenn ich Zeit finde.
Place (WO?)
1 word: Ich bin hier. 1 Phrase (more than 1 word): Ich bin vor dem Kino. 1 sentence: Ich möchte leben, wo meine Freunde leben.
Attribute (WAS FÜR EIN, EINE?):
1 word: Ich wohne in einem schönen Ort. 1 Phrase (more than 1 word): Ich wohne in einem weit entfernten Ort. 1 sentence: Ich wohne in einem Dorf, wo alle ins Ausland ausgewadert sind. Ich wohne in einem Dorf, das weit entfernt von hier ist.
And now it’s time to exercise Sprachbausteine in the format as they appear in the TELC B2 exam. Order your book here:
These were my tips for Sprachbausteine 2. Do you have some other tips that you’d like to share with me and your fellow learners? Then write an e-mail to jadranka.bokan@yahoo.de. Also, I am here to help you should you have any further questions about the TELC B2 exam or about anything else related to learning German.
Probably you already know that you could use colorswhen writing the German nouns in your vocabulary book: you could for example write masculine nouns in blue, feminine nouns in red and neuter nouns in yellow or green. That would be one way for memorizing noun Gender in German.
There are many other ways for that!
Learning by heart signal suffixes for noun genders in German is very cumbersome
These tips and tricks could be very helpful here:
YOU DON’T HAVE TO LEARN THEM ALL!
You should make an effort to memorize noun gender only for those words which have different gender from the same nouns in your mother tongue. Examples: ‘Stuhl’ is masculine in German, but it is feminine in my mother tongue; ‘Tisch’ is masculine in both German and my mother tongue. Thus, I will put an effort into trying to memorize the gender of ‘Stuhl’, while I do not need to lose time for memorizing the gender of ‘Tisch’.
Learning HOW TO LEARN noun gender in German is deliberating
USE SYMBOLS!
You could imagine masculine nouns (objects) with a hat on them, feminine nouns with braids and neuter nouns with diapers. Also, a lion could be a signal for masculine nouns – if you need to memorize a new masculine noun, just imagine one lion who is trying to swallow that particular item. You get the picture. Feel free to come up with any other similar system.
VISUALIZE!
You could put the nouns with the same gender in some mutual connection or context and create images in your mind. Here is an example: I memorized a hill, a tree, a monkey and an apple all together. Since they are all masculine (der Berg, der Baum, der Apfel, der Affe), I imagined: the tree was on the top of the hill, a monkey sat on the tree and the apple was there too. This helped me remember their gender easier. Drawing on a piece of paper can help here too.
COLORFUL THREADS
Children love using colorful threads. They write words on little pieces of paper and hang them to the appropriate thread: red for feminine, blue for masculine and yellow/green for neuter. The threads can be fixed to some wall or board and new words can be added to them at any time.
ATTENTION! ATTENTION!
Maybe you didn’t know that Thomas Gerstner has written 3 books where he used only nouns with the masculine, feminine and neuter nouns. Very clever, isn’t it? You can order the books here:
If you use some other tricks which you would like to share, please contact mehere.
If visualised a content can be better memorised. This is why I decided to collect images with visualised grammar rules which have been posted in several groups on Facebook.
You have just learned that there is a noun gender in German (for example DER Mann, DIE Frau, DAS Kind) and that you have to learn them mostly by heart (although there are some rules that could help you determine the noun gender in German). However, the teacher now wants to ruin your good will to learn German by mentioning the noun plural in German (for example: der Mann – die MÄNNER; die Frau – die FRAUEN; das Kind – die KINDER). Don’t be mad at your teacher, because in order to have all important information about some German noun you will have to learn both their gender and plural form, otherwise you won’t be able to use nouns properly: DER Mann mit dem Hund lächelt mir zu; zwei andere MÄNNER sitzen im Cafe und trinken Kaffee. As you can see, we need those pieces of information.
“There are NOendlesslymany noun plural forms in German”
Once you start learning plural of every new German noun that you learn, you will most probably start asking yourself if there is some scheme or some rules which could simplify the learning process. The answer is affirmative, there are NOendlesslymany noun plural forms that could appear in German. Actually there are some 5 groups of endings, take a look at the following list:
Pixabay
“There are rules which simplify the learning process”
1. -E:
1.1. most of the masculine (89 %) and neuter nouns: der Tag – die Tage (day – days); das Telefon – die Telefone (telephone – telephones). In order to make things easier, I will write only endings (and stem vowel umlauts) instead of the whole plural form: der Tag, e; das Telefon, e.
1.2. masculine nouns mostly take Umlaut (when there is a stem-vowel a, o, u): der Stuhl, ü-e (chairs); der Koch, ö-e (cooks); *but: der Hund, e (no Umlaut) (dogs).
1.3. masculine nouns which end with -eur; -ich; -ier; -ig; -ling; -or: der Ingenieur, e; der Rettich, e (radishes); der Käfig, e (cages); der Lehrling, e (trainees); der Frisör, e (hairdressers).
1.4. many single-syllable feminine nouns (around 75 % of all feminine nouns, they always take the Umlaut): die Hand, ä-e (hands).
1.5. feminine nouns which end with -nis or -sal: die Kenntnis, se (skills).
2.1. most of the feminine nouns (mostly those which end with -e), many foreing words, all masculine nouns which end with -e, -ent, -and, -ant, -ist, -or; some other masculine nouns; a small number of neuter nouns: die Lampe, n (lamps); die Uhr, en (watches); der Deutsche, n (male Germans); der Student, -en (students); der Staat, en (states); das Bett, en (beds).
2.2. feminine nouns which end with -ion, -ik, -heit, -keit, -schaft, -tät, -ung: die Nation, en; die Fabrik, en; die Freundschaft, en (friendships); die Universität, en; die Bedeutung, en (meanings).
2.3. feminine nouns which end with -er, -el: die Regel, n (rules); die Leiter, n (ladders). *exceptions: die Mutter, ü-/ (mothers), die Tochter, ö-/ (daughters).
2.4. feminine nouns which end with -in: die Lehrerin, nen (female teachers); die Freundin, nen (female friends) (they always get the ending -nen in plural).
2.5. foreign words that end with -ma; -um; -us ->>> these endings are replaced with -en: das Thema – die Themen; das Museum -die Museen.
Pixabay
3. / (no ending):
3.1. masculine and neuter nouns which end with -el, -en, -er (they get the Umlaut when possible): der Stecker, / (plugs); das Messer, / (knives); der Apfel, Ä-/ (apples), der Garten, ä-/ (gardens).
3.2. neuter nouns which end with -chen, -lein (the so called diminutives): das Mädchen, / (girls); das Häuschen, / (little houses); das Tischlein, / (little tables).
3.3. all neuter nouns that begin with Ge-: das Gebäude, / (buildings).
4. -ER:
4.1. Note: feminine nouns never get the ending -er.
4.2. many single-syllable neuter nouns and rarely some masculine nouns: das Bild, -er (pictures); der Geist, er (ghosts, spirits).
4.3. these words always get Umlaut when possible: das Buch, ü-er (books); der Mann, ä-er (men); der Mund, ü-er (mouths).
5. -S:
5.1. nouns which end with -a; -i; -o, -u; abbreviations and foreign words that have been taken from English and French: der Opa, s (grandpas); das Foto, s (photos); der Lkw, s (trucks); das Team, s. *Exceptions: das Thema, die Themen; die Firma, die Firmen
6. Note:
Some nouns have only the plural form (pluralia tantum): die Leute (people), die Eltern (parents), die Ferien (vacation).
If you are still a beginner or an advanced learner who would like to check if the plural form that you know is correct, you can either use any of free online dictionaries or this specialised web page for the German plural (all you have to do is to type the word(s) in a box and press the Go button and the plural form will appear).
Sound is very important when you are producing a language. If you don’t pronounce words correctly, no one will understand you. German pronunciation is not very difficult. However, it contains some rules that you should adhere to.
There aren’t many exceptions so if you learn these rules (see below), you can be sure that you are pronouncing the words that you are learning correctly.
I have tried to explain those rules by comparing them with the English pronunciation and I have used basic German words as examples which is very convenient if you are a beginner. For more useful tips, scroll to the bottom of the page.
In addition, it’s good to know that if English or French words in German keep their original pronunciation, e.g. Restaurant – [rɛstoˈrɑ̃ː]).
e = sounds similar to the English “e” in “help” (Example: helfen = to help)
i = sounds like “i” in “to live” (ich bin = I am)
h at the word beginning = h (Haus = house)
vowel + h = long vowel (gehen <- sounds like ‘ge+en’ = to go)
s at the word beginning (singen = to sing); “s” between 2 vowels (Hase = hare, Musik = music) = “z” like in English “zigzag”
ss, ß = s (essen = to eat; heiß = hot, Fuß = foot)
sch = “sh” (Schule = school)
tsch = you get this if you say “t” and “sh” almost at the same time, just try to spell them one after another (i.e. “t” before “sh”) as quickly as you can (Deutsch = German)
ie = long “i” which sounds like “e” in English “me” (sie = she, fliegen = to fly)
v at the word beginning = “f” (Vater = father)
ü = your lips are formed like you would like to say “u”, however, you don’t say “u”, but English “e” (like “e” in “me”) (München = Munich)
ö = your lips are formed like you would like to say “o”, however, you don’t say “o”, but English “a” (like “a” in “apple”) (Köln = Cologne)
st at the word beginning = “sht” (Stunde = hour, Strand = beach)
st in the middle of a word = “st” (lustig = funny)
sp at the word beginning = “shp” (sprechen = speak, Sport = sports)
-ig at the end of the word = sounds like “ich” (lustig= funny, ruhig= quiet, calm)
w = v (weiß = white, was? = what?)
Please bear in mind that all nouns should be written with a capital letter: Sport, Stunde, Strand, Mädchen, Vater, Bett, Sonne, Schule, Haus, etc.
If you would like to find out more about the German language even before you start learning it in a course, click on the picture below.
Those were the basic rules of German pronunciation. If you still feel uncomfortable with it and would like to be sure that you are pronouncing some German work correctly, feel free to use these free online dictionaries with pronunciation. All you have to do is to find the word and click on the speaker icon.
If you would like to see videos with a detailed overview of German pronunciation, then I would recommend that you take a look here: DW ABC
If you are at the A2 level and above and would like to improve your pronunciation of German words, then try out this course with 10 lessons and various exercises (A-G): SIMSALABIM
It often occurs that we wish to use Adjectives as Nouns when we want to designate (a group of) people by one of their characteristics: jugendlich, bekannt etc. There are also many Past Participles which can be used in the same way: behindert, verwandt, angestellt, erwachsen etc.
This is totally OK if it is done correctly. What the secret in doing that correctly?
Well, apart from the fact that we will write all these adjectives with the capital first letters in order to suggest that they are now nouns, we should also learn another golden rule: treat and change these nouns in the exactly same way as they we still adjectives. Just pay attention to the word which is in front of them and pretend that there is a noun behind them.
For example, if we take the adjective “jugendlich” and make a masculine noun of it, it would look like this: Jugendlicher / ein Jugendlicher / der Jugendliche (Nominative), eines Jugendlichen / des Jugendlichen (Genitive), einem Jugendlichen / dem Jugendlichen (Dative), einen Jugendlichen / den Jugendlichen (Accusative). If we build a female noun, it would sound like this: Jugendliche / eine Jugendliche / die Jugendliche (Nominative), einer Jugendlichen / der Jugendlichen (Genitive), einer Jugendlichen / der Jugendlichen (Dative), eine Jugendliche / die Jugendliche (Accusative); Plural would sound like this: Jugendliche / die Jugendlichen (Nominative), Jugendlicher / der Jugendlichen (Genitive), Jugendlichen / den Jugendlichen (Dative), Jugendliche / die Jugendlichen (Accusative).
Let’s try with Past participles: ein Bekannter (m.), eine Bekannte (f.), meine Bekannten (pl.) etc.; ein Verwandter (m.), eine Verwandte (f.), Verwandte (pl.), meine Verwandten(pl.) etc.
If you take a closer look you will notice that the above nouns get the same endings as if they were still adjectives, just without any subsequent nouns: ein Verwandter Mann
Put more simply, you could just treat any of these nouns as the adjective schön (or any other simple adjective) and change them in the exact same way:
ein schöner … (masculine), eine schöne … (female), schöne … (plural), die schönen … (plural) etc.
There are some verbs which have the same form for Past participle and Infinitive. This might be confusing for learners. They might try to build Past Participle for those verbs as if they would get the prefix ge- which is wrong. Take a look at them and you will notice that they begin with the prefixes be-, ge-, emp-, ent-, er-, ver-, zer and miß-. This means that their Past Participle won’t get the prefix ge-. Also, they are all irregular verbs – only under that circumstance could happen that their Past Participle ends with -en. Here are 11 of those verbs at the A2 level. Make sure that you remember them:
1. bekommen: ich habe eine Einladung bekommen.
2. gefallen: hat dir der Film gut gefallen?
3. vergessen: ich habe seinen Geburtstag vergessen.
4. verlassen: hat er sie verlassen?
5. erfahren: er hat alles erfahren.
6. erhalten: ich habe einen Brief erhalten.
7. beraten: der Steuerberater hat mich gut beraten.
8. sich verlaufen: sie hat sich in der Stadt verlaufen.
9. empfangen: wie hat dich deine Gastfamilie empfangen?
You don’t have to learn the whole list of irregular verbs in its alphabetical order. It’s hard to remember that way. You could learn irregular verbs sorted by the vowel change in Simple Past Tense (Imperfect) and Past Participle. For example, lesen, sehen and essen have the same vowel change: A-E. If you are asking yourself how you could remember these letters, take a look at the bellow list. Those are my personal suggestions, of course, feel free to use some other associations, something that will be easy for you to remember.
A-A (here is how you could remember these letters: ANNA)
stehen – steht – stand – hat gestanden
bringen – bringt – brachte – hat gebracht
denken – denkt – dachte – hat gedacht
kennen – kennt – kannte – hat gekannt
brennen – brennt – brannte – hat gebrannt
nennen – nennt – nannte – hat genannt
rennen – rennt – rannte – ist gerannt
tun – tut – tat – hat getan
A-E (here is how you could remember these letters: APFEL)
liegen – liegt – lag – hat gelegen
sitzen – sitzt – saß – hat gesessen
geben – gibt – gab – hat gegeben
lesen – liest – las – hat gelesen
sehen – sieht – sah – hat gesehen
essen – isst – aß – hat gegessen
fressen – frisst – fraß – hat gefressen
messen – misst – maß – hat gemessen
vergessen – vergisst – vergaß – hat vergessen
bitten – bittet – bat – hat gebeten
A-O (here is how you could remember these letters: HALLO)
beginnen – beginnt – begann – hat begonnen
kommen – kommt – kam – ist gekommen
schwimmen – schwimmt – schwamm – ist geschwommen
bewerben – bewirbt – bewarb – hat beworben
brechen – bricht – brach – hat gebrochen
erschecken – erschrickt – erschrak – ist erschrocken
helfen – hilft – half – hat geholfen
nehmen – nimmt – nahm – hat genommen
sprechen – spricht – sprach – hat gesprochen
stechen – sticht – stach – hat gestochen
sterben – stirbt – starb – ist gestorben
treffen – trifft – traf – hat getroffen
werfen – wirft – warf – hat geworfen
empfehlen – empfiehlt – empfahl – hat empfohlen
stehlen – stiehlt – stahl – hat gestohlen
gewinnen – gewinnt – gewann – hat gewonnen
A-U (here is how you could remember these letters: FAUL)
finden – findet – fand – hat gefunden
gelingen – gelingt – gelang – ist gelungen
singen – singt – sang – hat gesungen
sinken – sinkt – sank – ist gesunken
springen – springt – sprang – ist gesprungen
trinken – trinkt – trank – hat getrunken
verbinden – verbindet – verband – hat verbunden
I-A (here is how you could remember these letters: LILA)
gehen – geht – ging – ist gegangen
empfangen – empfängt – empfing – hat empfangen
fangen – fängt – fing – hat gefangen
hängen – hängt – hing – hat gehangen
IE-A (here is how you could remember these letters: SIENNA)
braten – brät – briet – hat gebraten fallen – fällt – fiel – ist gefallen halten – hält – hielt – hat gehalten lassen – lässt – ließ – hat gelassen
schlafen – schläft – schlief – hat geschlafen verraten – verrät – verriet – hat verraten laufen – läuft – lief – ist gelaufen
I-I (here is how you could remember these letters: IGITT)
reißen – reißt – riss – hat gerissen
schneiden – schneidet – schnitt – hat geschnitten
streichen – streicht – strich – hat gestrichen
streiten – streitet – stritt – hat gestritten
vergleichen -vergleicht – verglich – hat verglichen
IE-IE (here is how you could remember these letters: LIEB-LIEB)
beweisen – beweist – bewies – hat bewiesen
bleiben – bleibt – blieb – ist geblieben
entscheiden – entscheidet – entshied – hat entschieden
leihen – leiht – lieh – hat geliehen
scheinen – scheint – schien – hat geschienen
schreiben – schreibt – schrieb – hat geschrieben
schweigen – schweigt – schwieg – hat geschwiegen
steigen – steigt – stieg – ist gestiegen
verzeihen – verzeiht – verzieh – hat verziehen
IE-O
stoßen -stößt – stieß – hat gestoßen
IE-U
rufen – ruft – rief – hat gerufen
O-O (here is how you could remember these letters: DJ BOBO)
heben – hebt – hob – hat gehoben
lügen – lügt – log – hat gelogen
betrügen – betrügt – betrog – hat betrogen
biegen -biegt – bog – hat gebogen
bieten – bietet – bot – hat geboten
fliegen – fliegt – flog – ist geflogen
fließen – fließt – floss – ist geflossen
schieben – schiebt – schob – hat geschoben
wiegen – wiegt – wog – hat gewogen
schießen – schießt – schoss – hat geschossen
schließen – schließt – schloss – hat geschlossen
ziehen – zieht – zog – hat gezogen
U-A (here is how you could remember these letters: SCUBA)
einladen – lädt ein – lud ein – hat eingeladen
graben – gräbt – grub – hat gegraben
fahren – fährt -fuhr – ist gefahren
schlagen – schlägt – schlug – hat geschlagen
tragen – trägt – trug – hat getragen
wachsen – wächst – wuchs – ist gewachsen
waschen – wäscht – wusch – hat gewaschen
