German has four cases, and Nominativ is the one you'll already be using without realizing it — it's simply the subject of the sentence. In this lesson, we explain what a German case actually is, what Nominativ specifically means, and give you the full set of definite and indefinite articles in the...

German plural has many rules and many exceptions, but six simple tips get it right in most cases. This lesson gives you one rule for each type of noun, a short summary you can memorise, and a bonus tip about the umlaut.

The Six Tips

If you can ask questions in German, you can start real conversations from day one. In this lesson Luzi explains the 12 most important German question words, called Fragewörter, with several example questions for each one. At the end there is a bonus tip about the question word welch-.

The 12 Most ...

In German you say the small number first: 24 is “four and twenty”. This lesson shows you the German tens from 20 to 100, the rule for all the numbers in between, and the one small trap with the number one.

The Tens (Zehnerzahlen)

German makes a distinction English lost long ago: a separate pronoun and verb form for talking to people formally versus informally. In this lesson, we look at why German has a formal and an informal "you", which pronoun and conjugation to use in each case, and a few real situations that show how ...

In just ten minutes you can learn how to greet people, ask how they are and introduce yourself in German. This lesson covers greetings, goodbyes, the five answers to Wie geht es dir?, and the questions about name, origin and place of living. It ends with a complete example conversation. Everything...

Imagine you are in a bar in Germany and you want to order two beers: how do you do that? You need the German numbers, called Zahlen. This lesson teaches you the numbers from 0 to 20, so you can order up to twenty beers, and then you practise them with four small calculation exercises.

German Numbe...

The most important German verbs are irregular, and you need to know them in your sleep. In this lesson Luzi conjugates five irregular verbs in the present tense, sein, haben, sehen, lesen and sprechen, and shows you exactly where they are irregular.

sein (to be)

Sein is the most important verb in ...

To use a German verb in a sentence, you only need two things: the personal pronoun and the right ending. In this lesson you learn the German personal pronouns and the one simple rule for regular verbs in the present tense, with kommen (to come) and wohnen (to live) as examples.

German Personal Pro...

The German alphabet has 26 letters you already know, plus four special ones, and the good news is that German spells words very much the way it says them. In this lesson Luzi goes through the whole alphabet letter by letter, gives you an example word for every letter, and finishes with the special...