When you open a German grammar book, you probably want to close it immediately. Tables, exceptions, and technical terms like "Subjunctive" or "Genitive."
Stop!
Don't drive yourself crazy. For your A1 level (and to survive in everyday life), you don't need 90% of that yet. Focus on the "Big 3." If you master these three rules, everyone will understand you.
Rule 1: The Verb is King (Position 2)
This is the most important rule of the German language. No matter what happens: In a normal main sentence, the verb (the action word) is almost always in Position 2.
Examples:
- Ich gehe heute ins Kino. (1. Ich / 2. gehe) -> I am going to the cinema today.
- Heute gehe ich ins Kino. (1. Heute / 2. gehe) -> Today am going I to the cinema.
Do you see? Even if we flip the sentence around to start with "Today," the verb stays firmly in the second spot. If you respect this rule, your German will immediately sound much better.
Rule 2: Respect is Everything (Du vs. Sie)
In English, there is only one word: "You." In Germany, we distinguish strictly between levels of familiarity:
- Du: For friends, family, children, and pets.
- Sie (always capitalized!): For strangers, your boss, the doctor, or authorities.
Tip for the Exam: In the "Writing" section, you often have to decide: Am I writing to a friend (Liebe Maria...) or to a company (Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren...)? If you mix up "Du" and "Sie" here, you lose a lot of points.
Rule 3: Capitalization (The Noun Rule)
This is a German specialty that doesn't exist in English or French in this form. We don't just capitalize the start of sentences, but all nouns (things, people, names).
The Test: Can you put "the" (der, die, or das) in front of it? Then capitalize it!
- der Tisch (the Table)
- die Freude (the Joy)
- das Essen (the Food)
Knowing this helps you enormously when reading and writing in the exam.
Learn Grammar Without the Headache
That wasn't so hard, was it? Grammar doesn't have to be dry. At V-IZ, we don't explain these rules with boring tables, but with logical examples in video format.
Understand the system instead of just memorizing blindly.
Here we explain the rest (A1.1):
➡️ Understand grammar easily (Module A1.1)
Everything from A to Z (A1 Complete):
➡️ Go to A1 Complete Package
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