Before any tense or clever structure, German rests on a few foundations: every noun has a gender (der / die / das), the article changes when the noun becomes the object (the accusative), plurals nearly all take die, the verb sits in second position, and es gibt means "there is/are". Master these and every later lesson clicks.
Work through each screen and answer the questions as you go — some ask you to recognise the right form, some ask you to produce it by typing. Collect ⭐ stars and press Start.
German nouns are always written with a capital letter and belong to one of three genders. The word for "the" tells you which:
| gender | "the" (nominative) | example |
|---|---|---|
| masculine | der | der Bruder — the brother |
| feminine | die | die Schwester — the sister |
| neuter | das | das Kind — the child |
Learn the gender WITH the word. There is no reliable way to guess it from meaning — das Mädchen ("the girl") is neuter, not feminine. Always store a noun as der/die/das + noun, never the noun alone.
"A / an" is ein for masculine and neuter, and eine for feminine. This ein- family also covers kein ("not a / no") and the possessives (mein, dein…) — they all take the same endings.
| gender | "a" (nominative) | example |
|---|---|---|
| masculine | ein | ein Hund — a dog |
| feminine | eine | eine Katze — a cat |
| neuter | ein | ein Haus — a house |
Notice: masculine and neuter look identical in the nominative (ein). That changes in the accusative — coming up in a moment.
In the plural, every gender uses die. The tricky part is the noun ending, which varies — often with an umlaut (ä/ö/ü). Learn each plural with its noun:
| singular | plural | pattern |
|---|---|---|
| der Hund | die Hunde | add -e |
| die Schwester | die Schwestern | add -n |
| das Kind | die Kinder | add -er |
| der Bruder | die Brüder | umlaut |
| das Auto | die Autos | add -s |
Umlaut alert: keep the two dots exactly — Bruder → Brüder, Apfel → Äpfel, Stadt → Städte. Never write Brueder or Aepfel: the umlaut ü/ä is a different letter from ue/ae.
German marks the job of a noun with its case. The subject (doer) is nominative; the direct object (thing the action lands on) is accusative:
Word order does NOT decide the meaning the way it does in English — the case does. That is why the article endings matter so much.
Here is the good news about the accusative: only the masculine article changes. Feminine, neuter and plural look exactly the same as the nominative.
| gender | nominative | accusative |
|---|---|---|
| masculine | der / ein | den / einen |
| feminine | die / eine | die / eine |
| neuter | das / ein | das / ein |
| plural | die | die |
The classic mistake: Ich habe ein Bruder. After haben the brother is the object, so masculine ein must become einen.
Decide whether the highlighted noun is the subject (nominative) or the object (accusative).
In a normal German main clause the finite verb is the second idea — not necessarily the second word, but the second "slot". Whatever you put first, the verb still follows it:
Inversion: when a time phrase or other element starts the sentence, the subject jumps to just after the verb. English keeps "I play"; German flips to "spiele ich". You'll drill this fully in cluster 4.
One handy phrase covers both "there is" and "there are": es gibt. It literally means "it gives", and — importantly — it is always followed by the accusative:
Remember the accusative: because a park is the object of es gibt, masculine ein Park becomes einen Park.
Tap a noun on the left, then tap the der/die/das form on the right.
To say "not a / no / not any", use kein. It takes the same endings as ein, so it also changes to keinen for a masculine object:
ein has no plural, but kein does: Ich habe keine Geschwister — "I have no siblings". Use kein to negate a noun, and nicht to negate a verb or the rest of a sentence.
Genders: every noun is der (m), die (f) or das (n) — learn the article with the word; nouns are always capitalised.
"a": ein (m/n), eine (f); kein = "not a" and takes the same endings.
Plurals: all take die; endings vary (-e, -n, -er, -s) and often add an umlaut (Bruder → Brüder).
Cases: subject = nominative, object = accusative. Only the masculine changes: der → den, ein → einen.
Word order: the finite verb is the second element; a fronted phrase pushes the subject after the verb.
es gibt = "there is/are" and always takes the accusative.
Every later cluster stands on these. Press Finish to see your score.
You've built the foundations for Edexcel International GCSE German. 🎉
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Next in the spine: The present-tense system — regular verbs, vowel-change verbs, sein & haben and separable verbs. Then lock this in with the Evaluate confidence quiz.