Learning German from the beginning

This article is a guide for 10 of the most important subjects that you have to tackle to start studying German.

Saying "hello"

lerning German

Saying "hello" in German is as easy as:

hallo
hello

If you want to learn more, you can check out ways of saying hello and typical phrases

7 colors in German

After having learned to say hello, we are going to increase our vocabulary by learning the most important colors:

FarbeColor
gelbyellowyellow
blaublueblue
weißwhitewhite
schwarzblackblack
rotredred
grüngreengreen

Visit this link if you want to learn more colors.

Pronouns

Next, we will show you the most important pronouns (personal pronouns in the nominative).

PronounMeaning
ichI
duyou
erhe
sieshe
esit
wirwe
ihryou
siethey
Sieyou (formal)

Visit this link if you want to learn more about pronouns.

Numbers from 1 - 10

The most important numbers, let's learn 1 - 10.

die ZahlenNumbers
1einsone
2zweitwo
3dreithree
4vierfour
5fünffive
6sechssix
7siebenseven
8achteight
9neunnine
10zehnten

More information about numbers.

The verb "sein" (simple present)

The verb "sein" means "to be" and is the most important verb in German. Unfortunately, it's conjugation is irregular which is why you'll have to memorize it:

ConjugationMeaning
ich binI am
du bistyou are
er isthe is
sie istshe is
es istit is
wir sindwe are
ihr seidyou are
sie sindthey are
Sie sindyou are (formal)

More information in sein verb.

Nouns

First and foremost, an example of a noun:

Lampe
Lamp

Basic notes about nouns:

  • Nouns are written with the first letter capitalized ("Lampe").
  • Nouns can have 3 genders: Masculine, feminine or neutral. "Lampe", for example, is feminine.
  • There are several ways to make the plural. For example, "Lampen" is "lamps".

To know more, visit nouns.

The definite article

There are three definite articles in German ("der", "die" and "das"), one for each gender.

Masculine definite article:

der Käse
the cheese

Feminine definite article:

die Lampe
the lamp

Neuter definite article:

das Auto
the car

To know more, visit articles.

My first sentence in German

What we have learned up to now can help us make our first sentence:

Das Auto ist rot
The car is red

We applied what we have learned in the previous lessons about articles, nouns, the verb "sein" and colors in this first sentence.

To learn more, visit forming sentences.

The verb 'haben' (simple present)

The Verb "haben" means "to have" and is the second most important verb in German after "sein". Its conjugation is also irregular:

ConjugationMeaning
ich habeI have
du hastyou have
er hathe has
sie hatshe has
es hatit has
wir habenwe have
ihr habtyou have
sie habenthey have
Sie habenyou have (formal)

With what we already know, we can form a sentence with the verb "haben":

Du hast eine Lampe
You have a lamp

More information on the verb haben.

Saying "yes" and "no" in German

Saying yes in German is very easy:

Ja
Yes

There are several ways to say "no" in German, one of them is:

Nein
No

More information about saying "yes" and "no" in German.