GCSE German: Core Grammar Essentials Revision Guide

Definite articles: der, die, das

Every German noun has a gender: masculine (der), feminine (die) or neuter (das). For example: der Hund (the dog), die Katze (the cat), das Buch (the book). In the plural, all genders use die: die Hunde (the dogs).

Cases: nominative, accusative and dative

The nominative case is used for the subject of the sentence (the person or thing doing the action). The accusative case is used for the direct object (the thing being acted upon), and only the masculine article changes: der becomes den (Ich sehe den Hund. — I see the dog). The dative case is used for the indirect object (to/for whom something is done): der becomes dem, die becomes der, and das becomes dem: Ich gebe der Mutter das Geschenk. (I give the mother the present.)

Key irregular verbs: sein and haben

sein (to be): ich bin, du bist, er/sie/es ist, wir sind, ihr seid, sie/Sie sind. haben (to have): ich habe, du hast, er/sie/es hat, wir haben, ihr habt, sie/Sie haben. These two verbs are used constantly, including as auxiliary verbs in the perfect tense, so they must be learned by heart.

Word order

In a German main clause, the verb is always the second idea, even if the sentence does not start with the subject. For example: Am Wochenende spiele ich Fußball. (At the weekend I play football.) Here, "spiele" stays in second position and "ich" moves after it. In clauses starting with words like weil (because) or dass (that), the verb moves to the very end: Ich bleibe zu Hause, weil es regnet. (I am staying at home because it is raining.)

Common mistakes

• Using English word order (subject-verb-object) instead of putting the verb in second position.
• Forgetting to change "der" to "den" for masculine nouns in the accusative case.
• Confusing the forms of "sein" and "haben", especially "ist" and "hat".