German grammar for

Beginners
A1 level

German Language Training

Harivignesh Ganesan
Programme, BITsathy.
German grammar for Beginners (A1)

Contents
1. Introduction .............................................................................................................................................. 1
2. Personal pronouns .................................................................................................................................... 5
3. Conjugation ............................................................................................................................................... 6
4. Gender and Articles .................................................................................................................................. 9
5. Cases ....................................................................................................................................................... 12
6. Prepositions ............................................................................................................................................ 15
7. Sentence Structure ................................................................................................................................. 23
8. Sentence structure with present perfect tense/ modal verbs/ two verbs. ............................................ 28

1. Introduction

L
earning a language, for a lot of people, has not been an easy task. The reason, in
most cases, would be that people do not know how to approach a new language.
Second language acquisition isn’t spontaneous like mother tongue. Usually,
human brain always tends to compare new information with already existing
information. The point is, it is easy to fill an empty pot, but to add something to an
already filled pot is a hard task but not impossible. It should be meticulously done to
blend in old and new information and finally organizing it in a usable way.

Let’s just assume a language is a Lego set. You just need to put the right pieces in the
right place. It’s just easy as that. But you need to know the nature of the pieces and
mainly what are you going to build with those pieces. Say, you wanted to build a house,
you’ll first build the floor, then the wall and the roof. It can’t be done otherwise.
Similarly, there are certain ways to construct an assertive/ imperative/ interrogative/
compound statement. You just need to put the right piece in the right place.

Let’s get to know about the basic structure of German.

Starting with pronunciation!
As you all know German language has 30 alphabets- 8 vowels and 22 consonants.

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1.1 Pronunciation

1.1.1 Vowels

Vowels are basically the core of any word. There is not a single word in any language
without a vowel sound in it. They are 8 vowels in German and this is how they are
pronounced.
A- as ‘a’ as in father
E- as ‘e’ as in egg
I- as ‘ee’ as in bee
O- same as ‘O’
U- you as ‘oo’ as in food
Ä- as ‘e’ as in present/ president/ hotel
Ö- uhhuh it’s complicated! For now, let’s stick with ‘yo’
Ü- let’s say ‘yu’ for now
i

Vowels when coupled with another sound differently from their original. These are
called diphthongs. Diphthongs are very important in German language.

ei- as ‘i’ as in fire/ just like ‘eye’

au- as ‘ou’ as in ouch
ie- as ‘oe’ as in phoenix
eu- as ‘oy’ as in Roy
äu- almost the same as ‘eu’

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1.1.2 Consonants

B – ‘b’ as in ball
C – ‘ts’ as in pots
D – ‘d’ as in day
F – just the same ‘f’
G – ‘g’ as in good
H - usually silent, but sometimes sounded as ‘h’ in half
J – ‘y’ as in yoghurt
K – ‘k’ as in kite
L- just the same ‘l’
M
N just the same letters as in English
O
P - ‘p’ as in pay
Q – same sound as q
R – no match in English! Just tell errr with a roll in tongue.
S – ‘z’ as in zebra
T – ‘th’ as in theme
V – ‘f’ as in half
W – ‘v’ as in van or ‘w’ as in way
X – just the same as English x
Y – ‘u’ as in tube or ‘y’ as in party
Z – ‘ts’ as in pots
ß – equivalent to ss
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Pronunciation wise German is so predictable and obvious. You should choose the right
piece of Lego from the set to sound right.

1.2 Structure of Language:

Usually, there are three common sentence patterns in which almost every language under
the sky would fall into-
 Subject + Verb + Object
 Subject + Object + Verb
 Verb + Subject + Verb
The first one is which most of European languages follow and so does German.
Subject:
As we all know, subject is always a noun and a noun, in German, is always preceded by an
article.
Object:
An object is also always a noun.
Verb:
A verb in German in its infinitive form always almost ends with en.
z.B., schwimmen - to swim
tanzen - to dance
lesen - to read
some exceptions do exist, but soon with the course of time you would acquaint yourself to
find the verbs.
Another hint to differentiate verbs and nouns is that, nouns always begin with an uppercase.
z.B., schwimmen is a verb whereas das Schwimmen is a noun
and it is also a rule to write a noun with first capital letter.
The verb in the second position is always conjugated with the subject.

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Speaking about sentence structure, and as I quoted above, German follows SVO form. But
sometimes subject and object may interchange their positions but what remains same is the
position of the verb. The verb always takes the second position in a simple sentence with one
clause. And the subject and object can be differentiated with the help of declension (case
assigned to it)
1.3 Case

Case is a grammatical concept that describes the position of the noun in a sentence, say for
example, if the noun is in the subject position or in the object position.
There are four cases in German
Nominative
Accusative
Dative
Genitive- this is rarely used in spoken language but often preferred with written form.
For a beginner level it is just fine to learn the first three cases.
Nominative case describes that the noun is in the subject position
Accusative case describes that the noun is in the position of a direct object
Dative case describes that the noun is in the position of an indirect object

Before going deep into cases let’s talk about pronouns and articles.

2. Personal pronouns
Person Singular Plural
1st ich I wir We
2nd du You (informal) ihr You (informal)
Sie You (formal) Sie You (formal)
3rd er he sie they
sie she
es it

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Well you might wonder how to differentiate between the four sie. With the table it is fine, but
you’ll not have this table around you when having a conversation in German. What could help
you with this task is the verb. Remember that I told you earlier in the verb section that the
verb in the second position always conjugates with the subject, well it conjugates differently
with different pronouns.

3. Conjugation
Verbs can be classified into different types based on the type of conjugation.
 Regular (regelmäßig)
 Irregular (unregelmäßig)
 Separable (trennbaren)
 Inseparable (untrennbaren)
3.1 Regular verb

As mentioned earlier, a verb always ends with en, and the other part of the verb I called the
stem.
z.B., schwimmen to swim gehen to go
stem
conjugation is simple. You’ll have to remove the en take the stem and attach with a different
ending.
Person Singular Plural
1st ich gehe wir gehen
2nd du gehst ihr geht
Sie (formal) gehen Sie (formal) gehen
3rd er geht sie gehen
sie geht
es geht

You could see that Sie for the formal you, is written in capital and should always be written
in capital. And this is one of the ways to differentiate Sie from sie ( formal you from she/ they)
she/they can be differentiated with the help of conjugation.
z.B., she goes is translated as sie geht.
they go is translated as sie gehen.

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3.2 Irregular verb:

The main difference with the regular and irregular verb conjugation is with second and third
person singular i.e., ‘du’ and ‘er’,’es’,’sie’. (you, he, it, she).
The conjugation pattern doesn’t change neither does the ending. What changes is the stem of
the verb.
z.B., geben to give

Person Singular Plural

1st ich gebe wir geben
2nd du gibst ihr gebt
Sie (formal) geben Sie (formal) geben
3rd er gibt sie geben
sie gibt
es gibt
You could see form the above table that the vowel in the stem has changed. And there is a
pattern how this vowel changes.
Let’s acquaint you with the concept of backness of vowels.

ü
i, ie u

ö
e, ä o

Assume the origin to be the lips as the x axis extends into the mouth. The vowels indicate the
position of the tongue when you actually pronounce that vowel, such that when you tell ‘i’,
your tongue is at the edge of your mouth almost touching your teeth. And, if you didn’t realize
it yet, the vowels mentioned in the graph should be pronounced in German. (for reference see
vowels section in 1st page).
If the vowel in the stem is ‘a’ then it moves a step ahead and changes to ‘ä’ or if the vowel in
the stem is ‘e’ the it moves a step ahead and changes to ‘i’ or ‘ie’.
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As quoted in the example, you could see that geb is replaced with gib.
Some other examples of irregular verb conjugations
schlafen to sleep
Person Singular Plural
1st ich schlafe wir schlafen
2nd du schläfst ihr schlaft
Sie (formal) schlafen Sie (formal) schlafen
3rd er schläft sie schlafen
sie schläft
es schläft

lesen to read
Person Singular Plural
1st ich lese wir lesen
2nd du liest ihr lest
Sie (formal) lesen Sie (formal) lesen
3rd er liest sie lesen
sie liest
es liest
Now you know which vowel replaces which. You might have seen that ‘o’ or ‘u’ does not
change.
One easy clue to identify regular and irregular verbs is to look into the consonants on either
side of the vowel in the stem of the verb. Basically a structure of a word would be this

Onset + Vowel + Coda

The vowel is mandatory part in a word
The onset and coda are always consonant sound and it may or may not exist in a word.
For now, let’s concentrate only on words that have both onset and coda.
Take the above quoted example geben and gehen. Take only the stems of the verbs.
geb and geh

you could see that the two words differ only by one letter in spelling. Well, obviously one is
regular verb (gehen) and the other is irregular (geben).

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When both the consonants on the either side of the vowels are of similar same sound, hard
sounds as in ‘g’ and ‘b’, they are irregular verbs. But you can see unlike ‘g’/’b’, ‘h’ is a soft sound

So the concept is when the consonants of both sides of the vowels has a similar sound, hard/
soft, it is an irregular verb. But when they are different as in gehen, they are regular verb.

3.3 Separable verbs

Separable verbs can either be regular or irregular, following the same hint that I have
mentioned earlier. These verbs are different by the fact that they are preceded by a
preposition.

z.B., auf/stehen to wake up

I hope you could have identified that as a regular verb since ‘t’ and ‘h’ are two different type
of sounds. They conjugate just as every other regular verb except that the preposition part
goes to very end of the statement.

z.B., I wake up at 6 o clock translates to “ich stehe um 6 uhr auf”.

4. Gender and Articles

Grammatical gender indicates whether a noun is masculine/ feminine/ neutral. All German
nouns have a grammatical gender. In German, you often can’t tell from looking at a noun
whether it’s masculine, feminine or neutral. That’s why it’s best to always learn German nouns
together with their articles.

Fowever, there are certain features of some nouns that can help you find their gender. These
distinguished mark are listed here.

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4.1 Gender

4.1.1 Masculine

Feature Example

Male people der Mann the man, der Präsident the president

Seasons of the year der Frühling the spring, der Sommer the summer, der
Herbst the autumn, der Winter the winter

Days/ months der Montag Monday / der Januar january

Types of precipitation der Regnen the rain, der Schnee the snow,

der Hage the hail, der Schauer the showers

Nouns that end with ‘ling’ der Schmitterling the butterfly,

der Lehrling the apperentice

Nouns that end with ‘ich/ig’ der Teppich the carpet, der Honig the honey

Nouns made from verb without en der Sitz the seat (der Sitz from sitzen to sit)

4.1.2 Feminine

Feature Example

female people die Frau the woman, die Präsidentin the president

Numbers used as nouns die Eins the one

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Nouuns ending with ‚ung‘ die Endung the ending

Nouns ending with ‚schaft‘ die Wirtschaft the economics

Nouns ending with ‚ion‘ die Diskussion the discussion

Nouns ending with ‚heit/keit‘ die Freiheit the Freedom

Nouns ending with ‚tät‘ die Identität the identity

Nouns ending with ‚ik‘ die Musik the music

4.1.3 Neutral Nouns

Feature Example

Letters of the alphabet das A

Nouns ending in ‚lein/chen‘ das Fräulein the young lady, das Mädchen the girl

Nouns ending with ,um’ das Museum

Nouns ending with ,ma’ das Thema the theme

Nouns made from verb in their infinitive das Schwimmen

form

Nouns made from English verbs ending in das Timing

‘ing’

Nouns made from adjective that are not das Neue, das Ganze, das Gleiche
referring to something particular

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4.2 Compounds nouns

When a noun is formed from several other nouns combined into one word, the last word
determines the gender of the entire word.

z.B., der Tisch the table + das Bein the leg = das Tischbein
7.3 Articles

By now, you would have learnt the definite articles corresponding to different gender

Masculine- der

Feminine- die

Neutral- das

Indefinite article

Masculine- ein

Feminine- eine

Neutral- ein

The article for plural nouns in Nominative case is always ,die‘

The article you learnt in the above tables only represent Nominative case and it changes with
different cases.

5. Cases
Cases describe the position that a noun takes in the statement, say subject or object.

Nominative case

Nominative is the basic form of a noun. The subject of a sentence is in Nominative case.

Accusative cae

It is used after certain verbs or preposition. The direct object is in the accusative case.

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Dative case

It is used after a certain verbs or preposition. The indirect object is in the dative case.

Genitive case

It is used to indicate possession, and also after certain prepositions, verbs, and
adjectives. The genitive case is used for the thing being possessed.
Declensions

Change in the structure of the noun to indicate respective case. But in germ the
structure of German remains unchanged but the article does.

Gender\case Nominative Accusative Dative Genitive

Masculine der Mann1/ den Mann/ dem Mann/ des Manns/

einen Mann einem Mann eines Manns
ein Mann

Feminine die Frau2/ die Frau/ der Frau/ der Frau/

eine Frau eine Frau einer Frau einer Frau

Neutral das Kind3/ das Kind/ dem Kind/ des Kinds/

ein Kind ein Kind einem Kind eines Kinds

Plural die Eltern4 die Eltern den Eltern der Eltern

To make it clear for you how the case works in a sentence, here is an example,

‘The man gives a gift to the woman’ will be translated as

,Der Mann gibt der Frau ein Geschenk’.

Frau usually would be die Frau, but since it took the indirect object position it changes
to der Frau.

1
der Mann- the man
2
die Frau- the woman
3
das Kind- the child 4 die Eltern- the Parents
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5.1 Pronouns in Different Cases:

Nominative Accusative Dative Nominative Accusative Dative

ich mich mir wir uns uns

du dich dir ihr euch euch

er ihn ihm Sie Sie Ihnen

es es ihm sie sie ihnen

sie sie ihr

5.2 Possessive Pronouns

Person Singular Plural

1st ich mein wir unser
2nd du dein ihr euer
Sie (formal) Ihr Sie (formal) Ihr
3rd er sein sie ihr
sie ihr
es sein

The possessive pronouns are listed in the above table. However the ending of these
pronouns change depending on the gender and case.
5.2.1 Declension of possessive pronoun

i. Dependent possessive Pronoun

z.B., I’m reading my book

Gender Nominative Accusative Dative Genitive

Masucline - -en -em -es

Feminine - -e -er -er

Neutral - - -em -es

Plural -e -e -en -er

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ii. Independent possessive pronoun

z.B., You are reading yours

Gender Nominative Accusative Dative

Masucline -er -en -em

Feminine -e -e -er

Neutral -(e)s -(e)s -em

Plural -e -e -en

For better understanding I am giving a few examples of these pronouns, in different

cases, used in a sentence.

z.B., Karin sucht ihren Hut

Karin is looking for her hat

Note: since Hut is a male noun and in the position of a direct object, the pronoun ,ihr’
gets the ending -en (ihren)

6. Prepositions
Prepositions are small words ( an, in, zu) that typically come before a noun.

Even advanced learners often have problems with preposition, because you can’t
translate them word by word. Usually thre aren’t any rules for the usage of each
preposition. The only solution is to look them up in a dictionary, read a lot in German,
and learn important prepositional phrases by heart.

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6.1 Prepositions of place

Preposition of place cooresponds

to the questions “where/
where..to/ where.. from?” some
typical prepostion in this group
are included in the table.

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Prepositions are used in a sentence so

that you will know when and where to
use the prepositions. As you can see one
preposition may mean differently
depending on the context.

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6.2 Prepositions of Time

Prepositions of time correspond

to the questions “when/ how
long?” Some important
prepositions in this group are:

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Note:
There is no preposition directly before a year in German.
Example: Die Berliner Mauer fiel 1989./ Die Berliner mauer fiel im Jahr 1989
The Berlin wall fell in 1989. / The Berlin wall fell in the year 1989.
However, you often encounter a preposition before the year when you’re listening to or reading
German. This is Anglicism and officially considered incorrect in German

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6.3 Cases in Prepositions:

Each preposition takes a specific case, which we must apply to the accompanying word
( noun, pronoun, article).
6.3.1 Prepositions that take the Dative

 aus
z.B., Er kommt dem haus
He comes out of the House
 außer
z.B., Außer mir ist niemand auf der Straße
Besides me, there is no man in the street.
 bei, zu, bis zu
z.B., Ich fahre zu einer freundin und bleibe bis zum Sonntag bei ihr
I am going to a friend’s house, and I’ll stay with her until Sunday.
 entgegegn, entsprechend, gemäß

z.B., Entgegen der Meinung des Wetterdienstes hat es Heute doch

geregnet.

Contrary to what the weather forecast said,it rained today after all.

 getreu
z.B., Er handelt immer getreu seinem Motto.
He always acts in accordance with his motto.
 gegenüber, nahe
z.B., Das hotel befindet sich gegenüber dem Bahnhof.
The hotel is located opposite to the train station.
 mit, nach
z.B., Nach4 der Arbeit5 fuhr sie mit dem Bus nach6 Hause
After work, she took the bus home.

4
,nach‘ means after
5
you would assume ,Arbeit‘ to be a male noun since ,arbeiten’ is a verb. But the verb is derived from the noun and
not otherwise. The rule stated in the article section is only for the nouns derived from the verbs.
6
,nach‘ means to
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 seit
z.B., Maria lernt seit einem Jahr Deutsch.
Maria has been learning German for a year.
 von, von….. aus
z.B., Von der Kreuzung ist es nicht mehr weit.
From the crossroads, it’s not much further.
6.3.2 Prepositions that take Accusative

 bis
z.B., Kannst du das bis nächsten Montag erledigen.
Can you complete this by next Monday.
 um
z.B., Er geht um das Haus
He walks around the house
 durch, entlang
z.B., Gehen Sie durch den Tunnel und dann die Straße entlang.
Go through the tunnel and then along the street.
 für, gegen, ohne
z.B., Ohne dich haben wir keine Chance gegen die andere Mannschaft.
Also nimm dir für den Sonntag nichts anderes vor!

Without you we don’t stand a chance against the other team. So don’t
make other plans for this Sunday
6.3.3 Prepositions that take the Accusative or Dative

Some prepositions take both the accusative and the dative in different situations. We
use accusative when we want to express motion (where to) and Dative when e are
talking about a position (where).

An example would make it clear.

I am going to the cinema- Ich gehe ins7 Kino ( Accusative)

I am in the cinema- Ich bin im8 Kino (Dative)

7
ins- in das
8
im- in dem
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Going to the cinema refers to a moving action whereas being in a cinema refers to an
action at rest.

Examples of prepostions that take both the cases are listed below

 an
accusative: Ich werfe den Ball an die Wand.
I throw the ball on the wall .
dative: Die Bilder hängen an der Wand.
The pictures are hanging on the wall.
 auf
accusative: Die Katze klettert auf das Sofa.
The cat is climbing onto the Sofa.
dative: Die Katze sitzt auf dem Sofa.
The cat is sitting on the sofa.
 hinter
accusative: Die Katze kriecht hinter das Sofa.
The cat is crawling behind the sofa.
dative: Die Katze ist hinter dem Sofa.
The cat is behind the sofa.
 in
accusative: Die Katze klettert in das Aquarium.
The cat is climbing into the fishtank.
dative: Der Fisch ist in dem Aquarium.
The fish is in the fish tank.
 unter
accusative: Die Maus geht unter den Tisch.
The mouse goes under the table.
dative: Die Hund liegt unter dem Tisch.
The dog lies under the table.
6.3.4 Prepositions that take the Genitive

 wegen, aufgrund
z.B., Aufgrund/ wegen der Hitze fiel der Unterrischt aus9.
Due to the heat, the classes were cancelled.
9
to be cancelled- aus/fallen (separable verb)
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 trotz
z.B., Das Flugzeug startet trotz aller Warnungen.
The flight takes off despite all the warnings.
 während
z.B., Sie trafen sich während der Konfernz.
They met during the conference.

7. Sentence Structure
7.1 Main Clause

Main clauses are clauses that can stand alone as a complete sentence. Usually they
include a subject, a verb and an object.

With the help of cases, we can generally tell if a noun or pronoun is being used as a
subject or an object in a sentence. That is why we can put the object of the sentence in
the beginning of the sentence and the meaning of the sentence remains unchanged.

Example: The dog catches the ball.

subject object

The order of the above sentence cannot be changed in English. But in German the same
sentence can be written in two ways.

Der Hund fängt den Ball. starts with the subject

Den Ball fängt der Hund. starts with the object

Basic rules

The basic rules we should remember are:

 The finite verb (conjugated verb) is always in the second position in a sentence.
 Infinite verb (with ‘-en’ ending) and past participle verb forms are placed at the
end of the sentence.
 In many cases, the subject is at the beginning of the sentence. However, in
German, other parts of speech (e.g., the object, the place, or the time) can be at

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the beginning of the sentence. If this is the case, the subject comes after the
finite verb.

In most cases, the following format is correct for sentence construction.

Subject - finite verb - indirect object – time – place - direct object – infinite verb.

The first position can be replaced by any other parts of speech except for infinite
and finite verb. In all cases the subject comes after the finite verb.

z.B.,

i. Der Lehrer hat dem Schüler gestern in der Schule den Test
zurückgegeben.

The teacher gave the test back to the students yesterday at school.

Usually in German, when constructing a sentence with time, the definite comes
first.

z.B.,

ii. Gestern hat der Lehrer dem Schüler in der Schule den Test
zurückgegeben.

Other posible ways of writing the same sentence are:

iii. Dem Schüler hat der Lehrer gestern in der Schule den Test
zurückgegeben.
iv. Den Test hat der Lehrer dem Schüler gestern in der Schule
zurückgegeben.
v. In der Schule hat der Lehrer dem Schüler gestern den Test
zurückgegeben.

In all the cases, but the first, the subject always comes after the finite verb.

Note: If the direct object is a pronoun, it comes before the indirect object.

Der Lehrer hat ihn dem Schüler gestern in der Schule zurückgegeben.

The teacher gave it back to the students yesterday in the school.

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Emphasis at the end of the Sentence:

The indirect object, time, and place are interchangeable. If we want to particularly
emphasize one of these parts of speech, we can place it after the direct object.

z.B., In der Schule hat der Lehrer gestern den Test einem Schüler zurückgegeben.

At school yesterday, the teacher gave the test back to one student.

or

Der Lehrer hat dem Schüler den test gestern in der Schule zurückgegeben

The teacher gave the test back to the students yesterday at school.

Do not Forget

As a pronoun, the indirect speech can’t change positions.

example: Der Lehrer hat ihm (einem Schüler) gestern in der Schule den Test zurückgegeben
and not
Der Lehrer hat gestern in der Schule den Test ihm zurückgegeben.

7.2 Negation

We form negative sentence in German with the help of the words nicht and kein.
Using nicht
We use nicht for the negation of-
 verbs
(nicht comes at the end of the sentence with simple tense, but with
compound tenses it comes before the infinite verb at the end of the
sentence.)
z.B., Er schläft nicht.
He’s not sleeping.
Er hat gestern Nacht nicht geschlafen.
He didn’t sleep last night.
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Using kein
We use kein:
with nouns that don’t have an article
z.B., Ich habe Hunger- Ich habe keinen Hunger
I am hungry- I am not hungry.
before an object
z.B., Das ist eine Katze- Das ist keine katze
It is a cat- It is not a cat.
The ending for kein chenages depending on the case and gender.

Gender Nominative Accusative Dative Genitive

Masucline - -en -em -es

Feminine -e -e -er -er

Neutral - - -em -es

Plural -e -e -en -er

7.3 Negation

7.3.1 Yes/ No questions

These are the questions without a question word. in these questions, the finite verb is
in the first position. The subject follows, in the second position. The rest of the sentence
come in the same order as they would in a main clause.
z.B., Habe ich dir das Buch gegeben?
Have I given you the book?
Kommst du am morgen?
Are you coming tomorrow?

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7.3.2 Questions with Question

words

The question word usually

comes at the beginning of the
sentence. After that comes the
finite verb, and then the rest of
the sentence. The part of the
sentence that we’re asking
about is left out ( it is replaced
by the question word).
z.B., Wann habe ich dir das
Buch gegeben.
When did I give you the
book.
If we’re asking about an object
with a preposition, the
preposition comes before the
question word.
z.B., Mit wem gehst du ins Kino.
With whom are you going
to the Cinema.
If we’re asking about the
subject, the finite verb takes
the third person singular form.
z.B., Wer hat dir das Buch
gegeben.
Who gave you the book.

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7.3.3 Questions with “what” + preposition

If in English we use what + preposition, in standard German wo + preposition as a single

word or we can use preposition + was.
z.B., What can I help you with? can be translated as
Mit was kann ich dir helfen?
or
Womit kann ich dir helfen?

8. Sentence structure with present perfect tense/ modal verbs/

two verbs.
8.1 present perfect tense

With present perfect, we show that an action in the past has been completed. We mostly
use the present perfect when we want to focus on the result of the action.
In colloquial language, we often use the present perfect tense instead of the simple
past.
Construction

The finite verb is the present form of the verb ,haben’ or, in some cases, ,sein’.
haben to have
Person Singular Plural
1st ich habe wir haben
2nd du hast ihr habt
Sie (formal) haben Sie (formal) haben
3rd er hat sie haben
sie hat
es hat
The sentence structure is the same as mentioned in the chapter 7.1
,haben’ is used only if the verb denotes the action in rest.
z.B., lessen, schreiben
if the verb denotes an action in motion then the finite takes ,sein’ conjugation.

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example for both the cases.

Ich habe gelernt- I have learned.
Ich bin gegangen- I have gone.
Construction of past participle verb- (V3 form of the verb).
usually the pas participle are constructed by starting with ,ge-’ and ends with ,-en’ or
,t’.
the weak-mixed verbs end with ,-t’ and strong verbs ends with ,-en’
z.B., lessen- gelesen.
warten to wait- gewartet.
for separable verbs, the ,ge‘ comes after the prefix
z.B., ankommen- angekommen
verbs that end in ,ieren‘ form their past participle without ,ge’.
z.B., studieren- studiert
many strong and mixed verbs change their stem in the past participle
z.B., gehen- gegangen.
treffen- getroffen.
bringen- gebracht.
click here for list of strong and weak/ mixed verbs
8.2 Modal verbs

Modal verbs in English are can, will, shall, should, may etc.,
There are six modal verbs in German
 können - can
 sollen - shall
 wollen - want to
 dürfen - may
 müssen - must
 mögen - would like to
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Sentences including a modal verb will also have another verb in it.
Example: I can do it – verbs: can and do.
therefore, in German, a sentence with modal verb will have finite verb (conjugated
verb) as the modal verb and the other verb as the infinite verb at the end of the
sentence.
z.B., Ich kann das machen
*kann- conjugated form of können

Conjugation of modal verbs differ from other forms of verb.

pronoun wollen sollen können müssen dürfen mögen möchten*
ich will soll kann muß darf mag möchte
du willst sollst kannst mußt darfst magst möchtest
er/es/sie will soll kann muß darf mag möchte
Wir wollen sollen können müßen dürfen mögen möchten
ihr wollt sollt könnt müßt dürft mögt möchtet
Sie/sie wollen sollen können müßen dürfen mögen möchten
*möchten is in fact the subjunctive of mögen, but nowadays it is used in the present tense as a separate
modal verb.

i
pronunciation of umlaut

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