German A1 — Phrases & Core Grammar flashcards
10 of 70 cards free to study here · 11 topics · the whole deck is built into Willys
Seventy prompts on the A1 essentials: du vs Sie, greetings and polite requests, questions, verb-second and verb-final order, articles with nominative, accusative and dative, kein vs nicht, modal and separable verbs, stem changes, Perfekt, numbers and time.
Learn deck · part of German A1–A2 · written against: CEFR A1–A2; every word of the Goethe-Institut word lists for the Goethe-Zertifikat A1 and A2, with Austrian/Swiss variants noted; gender, plurals and spelling per Duden. Updated 2026-10-10.
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When do you say du and when Sie?du to friends, family, children, fellow students and often colleagues; Sie (capital S) to adults you don't know, in shops and offices, and to superiors.Greetings & courtesy
The informal plural you is ihr; Sie serves for one person or many. Switching to du is often offered out loud: Wollen wir uns duzen? -
Where does the verb go in a W-question such as Wo wohnst du?Second, right after the question word or phrase: Wo wohnst du? Was machen Sie beruflich? Wann kommt der Zug? Wie viele Kinder hast du?Questions
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What is the verb-second (V2) rule in a German main clause?In statements and W-questions, the conjugated verb is always the second element, whatever comes first: Ich fahre morgen nach Wien. Morgen fahre ich nach Wien.Word order
If a time or place phrase comes first, the subject moves behind the verb; yes/no questions and commands put the verb first instead. -
What are the nominative definite and indefinite articles?der / ein (m.), die / eine (f.), das / ein (n.), die / no article (plural)Articles & cases
There is no plural indefinite article: Kinder spielen im Park. -
When do you negate with kein rather than nicht?kein replaces ein or no article before a noun: Ich habe kein Auto. Er trinkt keinen Kaffee.kein vs nicht
nicht negates verbs, adjectives, adverbs and nouns with a definite article or possessive: Ich komme nicht. Das ist nicht teuer. Das ist nicht mein Fahrrad. -
What are the regular present-tense endings, as in wohnen?-e, -st, -t, -en, -t, -enPresent tense
ich wohne, du wohnst, er wohnt, wir wohnen, ihr wohnt, sie/Sie wohnen. Stems ending in -t or -d, and some in -m or -n (öffnen), add an e before -st and -t (du arbeitest, er öffnet); stems ending in s, ß or z add only -t for du (du tanzt); verbs in -eln or -ern add only -n for wir and sie/Sie (wir wandern). -
How is the Perfekt built?haben or sein, conjugated in position two, + past participle at the end: Ich habe Pizza gegessen. Wir sind nach Rom gefahren.Perfekt
In speech it is the normal way to talk about the past, but sein, haben and the modals usually use the Präteritum instead (ich war, ich hatte, ich konnte). In Switzerland and parts of Austria and Bavaria, ich bin gewesen is common in speech. -
What are the possessives for my, your (du), his, her, our, your (ihr), their and your (Sie)?mein, dein, sein, ihr, unser, euer, ihr, IhrPossessives
ihr means both her and their; capitalised Ihr is the polite your. -
How do you say 21, 35 and 99?einundzwanzig, fünfunddreißig, neunundneunzigNumbers
The ones come first, joined by und (one-and-twenty), all written as one word. -
What time is halb drei?2:30Time & dates
Watch out: halb counts towards the next hour (half way to three), so halb acht is 7:30, not 8:30.
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About these cards
Review status: Second-reader reviewed, with corrections applied.
Checked against:
- Checked against the Duden online dictionary, conjugation tables and Sprachwissen pages (duden.de), the DWDS dictionary (dwds.de), the Rat für deutsche Rechtschreibung's Amtliches Regelwerk (2024), the IDS Variantengrammatik des Standarddeutschen and the Atlas zur deutschen Alltagssprache for Austrian, Swiss and regional usage, the Swiss Federal Chancellery's Schreibweisungen for Swiss number writing, the PONS and Langenscheidt German–English dictionaries for glosses, and the Council of Europe CEFR A1 descriptors for level placement (reference only; no text copied). All example sentences are original.
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