Grammar

German Grammar Topics: the Whole Syllabus, A1 to C2

Every structure German asks of you, in teaching order, from the present tense at number one to extended participle attributes at 56. Each has the rule, the table, example sentences, the typical mistake and practice questions.

56 structures51 explanations6 CEFR levels

The syllabus

All 56 structures, in order

Present tense One tense doing the work of three English ones, plus the vowel changes nobody warns you about. A1 Präsens Read Personal pronouns Nine pronouns in three cases, and the verbs that insist on the dative. A1 Personalpronomen Read Word order Verb second, verb final, the bracket, and how to order everything in between. A1 Wortstellung Guide Questions Two question shapes, the full list of question words, and the wo / wohin / woher split. A1 Fragesätze Read nicht and kein Which negator to reach for, and the one position rule that decides where nicht sits. A1 Negation Read Noun gender Which endings really predict der, die or das, measured against the whole word list. A1 Genus Guide Plurals The five plural patterns and how much of the vocabulary each one actually accounts for. A1 Plural Guide Possessives Whose it is comes from the owner; the ending comes from the thing owned. A1 Possessivartikel Read Time and place prepositions The fixed pairs that cover most of what a beginner needs to say about when and where. A1 Präpositionen (Zeit und Ort) Read Modal verbs Six verbs that rewrite the sentence around them, and the müssen/dürfen trap. A1 Modalverben Read Separable verbs Which prefixes detach, where they land, and how to tell them from the ones that never move. A1 Trennbare Verben Read Imperative Three forms for three audiences, and the vowel change that survives into the command. A1 Imperativ Read Perfect tense The past tense Germans actually speak in, and the rule that decides its auxiliary. A1 Perfekt Read The four cases Nominative, accusative, dative and genitive: what each one marks and how to tell which you need. A2 Die vier Fälle Guide der-words and ein-words Two declension patterns that between them cover every determiner in the language. A2 Artikelwörter Read Adjective endings Three tables, one principle: the ending shows the case only when nothing in front of it already did. A2 Adjektivdeklination Read Prepositions with a fixed case Nine prepositions that always take the accusative, nine that always take the dative, and nothing to work out. A2 Präpositionen mit Akkusativ und Dativ Read Two-way prepositions Nine prepositions that take either case, and the one question that decides which. A2 Wechselpräpositionen Read Preterite The written past tense, plus the handful of verbs that use it in speech too. A2 Präteritum Read Strong verbs The principal parts of the irregular verbs, in frequency order. A2 Starke Verben Guide Reflexive verbs When the object is the subject, and the one case distinction that changes the meaning. A2 Reflexive Verben Read Subordinate clauses The conjunctions that send the verb to the end, and the ones that leave it alone. A2 Nebensätze Read Comparative and superlative One ending for the comparative, two shapes for the superlative, and the six irregulars. A2 Komparativ und Superlativ Read würde, hätte, wäre The four subjunctive forms you need long before you need the whole subjunctive. A2 Konjunktiv II (Grundformen) Read Numbers, dates and time Ordinals, dates, years, and the half-past that runs an hour early. A2 Zahlen, Datum und Uhrzeit Read Relative clauses The pronoun's gender comes from outside the clause and its case from inside it. B1 Relativsätze Read Infinitive with zu The construction English calls the to-infinitive, plus the short list of verbs that refuse it. B1 Infinitiv mit zu Read um … zu and damit Saying what something is for, and the subject test that picks the construction. B1 Finalsätze Read Time clauses Eight conjunctions of time, and the als/wenn split that trips up every learner. B1 Temporalsätze Read Indirect questions Embedding a question inside a statement, and where the verb goes when you do. B1 Indirekte Fragen Read Past perfect The tense for the earlier of two past events, and the one conjunction that demands it. B1 Plusquamperfekt Read The passive The process passive, the state passive, and how to name the agent when you need to. B1 Passiv Read Future tense How to build the future, and the more interesting question of when Germans bother. B1 Futur I und II Read Konjunktiv II The full subjunctive: what German would have done, and how to say it about the past. B1 Konjunktiv II Read Genitive The case of possession, its noun endings, and the von-alternative that is replacing it. B1 Genitiv Read Weak nouns A group of masculine nouns that take -n in every case but the nominative singular. B1 N-Deklination Read Verbs with prepositions warten auf, sich freuen über, denken an, plus the pronoun forms that go with them. B1 Verben mit Präpositionen Read Connectors Three classes of linking word, three different effects on word order. B1 Konnektoren Read Konjunktiv I The form journalists use to say what was said while staying out of it. B2 Konjunktiv I Read Modal verbs for assumptions The same six verbs used to grade how certain you are, or to attribute a claim. B2 Subjektiver Gebrauch der Modalverben Read Modal particles The little words that carry the tone, and cannot be translated one at a time. B2 Modalpartikeln Read Conditional clauses Real conditions, unreal ones, and the inverted form that drops the conjunction entirely. B2 Konditionalsätze Read Concessive clauses Four ways to say although, each with its own grammar. B2 Konzessivsätze Read als ob Unreal comparisons, and the bare als that puts its verb second. B2 Irreale Vergleichssätze Read Paired connectors Two-part links, and the comparative pair that inverts its own word order. B2 Zweiteilige Konnektoren Read Passive alternatives Four ways to avoid naming the agent without using werden at all. B2 Passiversatzformen Read Participles as adjectives Partizip I is active and ongoing, Partizip II is passive and finished. B2 Partizip I und II als Adjektiv Read Nominal and verbal style The transformation German exams test directly, and how to run it in both directions. B2 Nominalisierung Read Extended attributes The construction that puts a whole relative clause between the article and the noun. C1 Erweiterte Partizipialattribute Read Participial clauses A whole subordinate clause reduced to a participle and a comma. C1 Partizipialkonstruktionen Read Word formation The verb prefixes that change everything, and the suffixes that give away gender. C1 Wortbildung Read Funktionsverbgefüge Noun-plus-verb units where the noun carries the meaning and the verb carries almost nothing. C1 Funktionsverbgefüge Read Advanced connectors The linking words that argue rather than list. C1 Konnektoren (C1) Read Word order for emphasis What goes first, what gets pushed out of the bracket, and what each choice signals. C1 Vorfeldbesetzung und Ausklammerung Read Register The same content in speech, in a letter and in a statute, and what gives each away. C2 Register und Stilebenen Read Rare and literary forms Constructions you will read and never need to write. C2 Seltene und literarische Formen Read

Common questions

Should I use this page or the level pages?

This one to see the whole path at once: where a structure sits, what comes before it and how far in you are. The level pages to work: /grammar/b1/ has B1's structures plus B1's conjugation and declension tables and the mistakes learners make at B1, and nothing from any other level. Both link to the same explanations.

Is this the whole German grammar syllabus?

It is the whole structural syllabus for A1 to C1: every construction the Goethe and telc exams test at those levels, in the order they are normally taught. C2 adds almost no new structures: it is the same grammar used with more range and more precision, so it has two pages rather than a dozen.

Why do some topics link to a guide instead?

Because there is already a page on it. Noun gender, the four cases, plurals, strong verbs and word order have long-form guides of their own, and splitting each into two competing pages would help nobody. The syllabus lists them so the map stays complete, and links across.

Where do the practice questions come from?

The same set the practice section publishes. Each item records what it tests, and a topic page shows the ones that match it, so the questions under an explanation really are about that structure, not a generic set.