Three verbs, sein, haben and werden, carry a large share of every German conversation, and six small helpers, the modal verbs, turn Ich arbeite into Ich muss arbeiten, Ich kann arbeiten, Ich möchte arbeiten. All nine are irregular, and all nine are worth learning as blocks. The first half of this piece gives you the blocks and a trainer for them.
The second half deals with der, die and das. Every noun has a gender, and the article changes with the noun’s job in the sentence. This piece keeps to what you need first: the three genders, the honest rules that predict some of them, and subject versus object, which changes only one article. Take it in two sittings if you like.
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- Who it is for
- Learners who know the regular present tense and the verb-second rule, or who have just finished the previous piece.
- After this piece you can
- Use sein, haben, werden and wissen in the present; build sentences with the six modal verbs and the polite möchte; learn every noun with its article and use the endings that do predict gender; and choose between der and den, ein and einen.
- Comes after
- German 2: The Present Tense and Word Order (37/25), which has the endings and the verb-second rule this piece builds on.
- Leads to
- German 4: Your First 150 Words (37/27), the spaced-repetition deck; then the German reference pieces, with verb tables and words by level (37/28 to 37/30).
- Honest line
- The gender rules here predict some nouns, not most. For the rest there is no shortcut: learn the article with the noun, from the first day.
Sein, haben, werden
| sein (be) | haben (have) | werden (become) | wissen (know) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ich | bin | habe | werde | weiß |
| du | bist | hast | wirst | weißt |
| er, sie, es | ist | hat | wird | weiß |
| wir | sind | haben | werden | wissen |
| ihr | seid | habt | werdet | wisst |
| sie, Sie | sind | haben | werden | wissen |
Sein is fully irregular and the most frequent verb in the language. German uses it for things English does with “be”, including age: Ich bin dreißig (Spanish and French say “have” here; German does not). Haben is regular apart from du hast and er hat, and German uses it where English uses “be” for some feelings: Ich habe Hunger (I’m hungry), Ich habe Durst, Ich habe Angst, Ich habe Zeit. Werden means “become, get” (Es wird kalt, “It’s getting cold”), and it is also the helper for the future (Ich werde kommen). Do not confuse it with bekommen, which means “to get, receive”, not “become”.
Wissen is in the table because it behaves like the modals below. It means knowing a fact: Ich weiß, wo er wohnt. Knowing a person or a place is kennen, a regular verb: Ich kenne Anna. Kennst du Wien?
The modal verbs
A modal verb says how you stand towards an action: whether you can, must, may or want to do it. It takes the second place in the sentence, and the action itself goes to the end, in the infinitive. Germans call this frame the Satzklammer, the sentence bracket.
| können | müssen | dürfen | wollen | sollen | mögen | möchte | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ich | kann | muss | darf | will | soll | mag | möchte |
| du | kannst | musst | darfst | willst | sollst | magst | möchtest |
| er, sie, es | kann | muss | darf | will | soll | mag | möchte |
| wir | können | müssen | dürfen | wollen | sollen | mögen | möchten |
| ihr | könnt | müsst | dürft | wollt | sollt | mögt | möchtet |
| sie, Sie | können | müssen | dürfen | wollen | sollen | mögen | möchten |
The pattern is easier than the table looks. The ich and er forms are identical and have no ending: ich kann, er kann. The singular usually has a different vowel from the plural: kann but können, muss but müssen, will but wollen. Only sollen keeps its vowel throughout. The plural forms are regular.
- können: can, be able to; also “know how” for languages: Ich kann ein bisschen Deutsch.
- müssen: must, have to. Careful with the negative: Du musst nicht kommen means “you don’t have to come”, not “you mustn’t”.
- dürfen: may, be allowed to. Hier darf man nicht rauchen is “you mustn’t smoke here”.
- wollen: want to. A trap for English speakers: Ich will means “I want”, never “I will”.
- sollen: should, be supposed to, usually because someone else says so: Der Arzt sagt, ich soll mehr schlafen.
- mögen: like, mostly with a noun: Ich mag Katzen. For liking to do something, German uses gern: Ich schwimme gern.
- möchte: would like, the polite way to ask for anything. It is a form of mögen and the most useful word in a café: Ich möchte einen Kaffee, bitte.
Verb groups (at least one):
Without JavaScript, use the tables above: say the six forms of one verb aloud, then cover the page and write them.
Der, die, das: every noun has a gender
Every German noun is masculine, feminine or neuter, and the article shows which: der Tisch (the table), die Lampe (the lamp), das Bett (the bed). The indefinite article follows: ein Tisch, eine Lampe, ein Bett. The negative kein works like ein: kein Tisch, keine Lampe. In the plural the gender disappears and every noun takes die: die Tische, die Lampen, die Betten.
Gender belongs to the word, not the thing: a table is not masculine, the word Tisch is. For people it usually follows the person (der Vater, die Mutter), but das Mädchen, the girl, is neuter because every noun in -chen is. Hence the most important advice in this piece: never learn a noun without its article, and learn its plural with it: der Tisch, die Tische.
Rules that do predict gender
Some endings are reliable, and they are worth knowing because they cover thousands of nouns, especially the longer, more abstract ones you will meet later.
| Ending or group | Gender | How safe | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| -ung, -heit, -keit, -schaft, -tät | die | always, when it is the ending (der Sprung, a jump, is not) | die Zeitung, die Gesundheit, die Universität |
| -ion | die | almost always | die Lektion, die Station |
| -chen, -lein (small things) | das | always, when it is the “small” ending (der Kuchen, cake, is not) | das Mädchen, das Brötchen |
| -um, -ment (mostly borrowed) | das | mostly (der Moment is not) | das Museum, das Instrument |
| -ling | der | almost always | der Frühling, der Liebling |
| days, months, seasons | der | almost always (das Frühjahr, spring, follows das Jahr) | der Montag, der Mai, der Winter |
| -e | die | most, with real exceptions | die Lampe, die Schule; but der Junge, das Auge |
| compound nouns | the gender of the last part | die Tür → die Haustür; der Schrank → der Kühlschrank | |
Most short everyday nouns have no reliable rule: der Tisch, die Tür, das Buch. Colour-coding your notes by gender helps some people.
Without JavaScript: die Zeitung (-ung is always feminine), das Mädchen (-chen is always neuter), der Montag (days are masculine), der Tisch (no rule: learn it). In the accusative only masculine changes: Ich brauche den Tisch.
Subject and object: the nominative and the accusative
German marks a noun’s job in the sentence on its article. This is what “case” means. The subject, the one doing the action, is in the nominative, the form you find in the dictionary. The direct object, the one the action is done to, is in the accusative. And the good news: between these two, only the masculine changes.
| Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Plural | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | der / ein / kein | die / eine / keine | das / ein / kein | die / – / keine |
| Accusative | den / einen / keinen | die / eine / keine | das / ein / kein | die / – / keine |
The second line shows why cases exist. Because den marks the object, German can put it first for emphasis and the meaning stays the same. English, which lost most of its cases, has to rely on word order. The pronouns show the same thing: er becomes ihn, as “he” becomes “him”; ich becomes mich, du becomes dich, wir becomes uns.
Verbs like haben, brauchen, sehen, kaufen, möchte and the phrase es gibt (there is, there are) take the accusative: Es gibt einen Park hier. So do five common prepositions: für, ohne, durch, gegen, um: Das ist für den Chef.
A first look at the dative
There is a third case you will meet in almost every sentence, the dative, for the person something is given or said to, and after prepositions such as mit, bei, nach, von, zu, aus, seit. Its articles are dem (masculine and neuter), der (feminine) and den plus an extra -n on the noun in the plural: Ich fahre mit dem Bus. Ich gebe dem Kind ein Buch. Wir wohnen bei den Eltern. A few verbs take the dative for their only object: Ich helfe dir (I help you), Das Buch gefällt mir (I like the book). For now, recognise dem, mir and dir when you hear them; the German reference pieces (37/28 to 37/30) show the full tables and the dative in use.
Common mistakes
- Ich will for “I will”. Ich will is “I want”. The future is Ich werde.
- Müssen nicht for “must not”. Du musst nicht is “you don’t have to”; “you mustn’t” is du darfst nicht.
- The second verb in the middle. Ich kann kommen heute is wrong; the infinitive closes the sentence: Ich kann heute kommen.
- An ending on ich with a modal. Ich kanne and ich muse do not exist: ich kann, ich muss.
- Learning nouns without articles. Guessing the gender later is far harder than learning der, die or das with the word now.
- Forgetting den. Ich habe ein Bruder is wrong: Bruder is masculine and the object, so einen Bruder.
- Haben for age. Ich habe dreißig Jahre is a calque from Spanish or French; German says Ich bin dreißig (Jahre alt).
Your next four days
| Day | Trainer | Outside the page |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | sein, haben, werden, wissen | Say five sentences about yourself with bin and habe. |
| 2 | The modals | Say what you must, can and want to do today, verb at the end. |
| 3 | Both groups; then the gender sorter | Name ten things in your kitchen, each with its article. |
| 4 | The sorter in accusative mode | Say five things you need: Ich brauche einen …, eine …, ein … |
What sticks
- Sein, haben, werden and wissen are learned as blocks; age takes sein, hunger and thirst take haben.
- Modals take second place and send the infinitive to the end; ich and er forms are the same and have no ending.
- Ich will is “I want”; nicht müssen is “not have to”, nicht dürfen is “must not”; möchte is the polite “would like”.
- Every noun is der, die or das; the plural is always die; learn each noun with its article and plural.
- Some endings are safe: -ung, -heit, -keit, -schaft, -tät feminine; -chen, -lein neuter; compounds follow their last part.
- In the accusative only the masculine changes: der to den, ein to einen.
Nine irregular verbs carry a huge share of German, so drill them until they are automatic. For nouns, accept the one non-negotiable habit: the article is part of the word. With that, the cases are a small step: for subject and object, only der changes, to den.
Try this: write six sentences about your week, each with a different modal verb, and check that the infinitive is at the end. Then underline every noun and write its article above it.
Sources. Duden, Die Grammatik (Duden volume 4) on the modal verbs, noun gender and the cases; Martin Durrell, Hammer’s German Grammar and Usage (Routledge), for the gender endings and their exceptions. Every verb form here was generated by rules and checked against published conjugation tables, and the genders against dictionary entries.
- 🌐 DWDS, which gives the gender and plural of every noun
- 🌐 Deutsche Welle: Learn German