German grammar

This page will attempt to outline the grammar of German.

Cases

German has sixteen total cases for nouns, which are created from four types in each of two aspects. The first aspect is gender. There are three grammatical genders (male, female, and neuter), and there is also plural, which, while isn't technically a gender, functions like one. The other aspect is context. There are four possible contexts, nominative, accusative, dative, and genitive. When choosing the article for a noun in German, the following chart may be used (in this chart, the definite article ('the' in English) will be followed by a | which will be followed by the indefinite article ('a' or 'an' in English):

	male	female	neuter	plural
nominative	der|ein	die|eine	das|ein	die|einige
accusative	den|einen	die|eine	das|ein	die|einigen
dative	dem|einem	der|einer	dem|einem	den|einigen
genitive	des|eines	der|einer	des|eines	der|einiger

Adjectives also change, depending on the case or context used, and the article used (or not used.) For example, a dative adjective following "the" has a different ending than a nominative adjective following "a". There are also different endings for unpreceeded adjectives--those that do not have any articles before them. In the following table, the order of endings will be those following "der" words ("der", "dieser", "jeder", etc.), those following "ein" words ("ein", "mein", "kein", etc.) and those that are unpreceeded. To use the table, just add the ending indicated (for example, -e) and add it to the adjective.

	male	female	neuter	plural
nominative	-e|-er|-er	-e| -e| -e	-e|-es|-es	-en|-en| -e
accusative	-en|-en|-en	-e| -e| -e	-e|-es|-es	-en|-en| -e
dative	-en (all)	-en (all)	-en (all)	-en (all)
genitive	-en (all)	-en (all)	-en (all)	-en (all)

There is also a semi-case called reflexive. The reflexive case only shows up when using pronouns, so it does not have articles for it. The reflexive case is used when the subject is the same as the object (direct or indirect). (table to be filled in)

	nominative	accusative	dative	accusative reflexive	dative reflexive
I	ich	mich	mir	mich	mir
we	wir	uns	uns	uns	uns
you (s.)	du	dich	dir	dich	dir
you (pl.)	ihr	euch	euch	euch	euch
you (formal)	Sie	Sie	Ihnen	sich	sich
he	er	ihn	ihm	sich	sich
she	sie	sie	ihr	sich	sich
it	es	es	ihm	sich	sich
they	sie	sie	ihnen	sich	sich

Word Order

Word order in German seems complicated to many German students, but it is actually quite simple. Below are some rules about where to place the words in a German sentence:

• Adjectives always come before the noun they modify.
• In statements, the subject always comes first or third and the auxiliary verb comes second. If there is no auxiliary verb, the main verb comes second. If there is a separable prefix, the prefix goes on the end of the sentence, as does the main verb (with separable prefix on the beginning of the verb) if there is an auxiliary verb.
• In yes/no questions, the verb usually comes first and the subject comes second. If there is an auxiliary verb or separable prefix, it follows the same rules as the previous one outlined for putting parts on the end. If the subject comes before the verb, this often implies disbelief, like in English: "The prisoner escaped?" vs. "Did the prisoner escape?".
• In a command, the verb comes first, followed by the pronoun 'Sie' if talking formally or 'wir' if taking to a group with the speaker included, followed by the modifiers and the rest of the sentence.
• Declaritives are treated like statements.
• The time aspect usually comes before the place aspect.