yes/no questions

Questions can be asked by switching the subject and verb. For instance,

Du verstehst das. (You understand this.)

becomes

Verstehst du das? (Do you understand this?).

These kinds of questions will generally just elicit yes/no answers. In English, the main verb "to be" follows the same principle. "You are hungry." becomes "Are you hungry?".

In German, all verbs follow this principle. There's no do-support.

asking a question in german with a W-word

Don't mix up wer and wo, which are "switched" in English :)

Some of these will change according to case.

was ( what )

If you ask was with a preposition, the two normally turn into a new word, according to the following pattern:

If the preposition starts with a vowel, there will be an extra -r- to make it easier to pronounce.

This wo- prefix does not mean "where".

wer (who)

Wer is declinable and needs to adjust to the cases. The adjustment depends on what the question is targeting.

If you ask for the subject of a sentence (i.e. the nominative object), wer (who) remains as is:

Wer ist da? (Who is there?).

If you ask for the direct (accusative) object in a sentence, wer changes to wen (who/whom). As a mnemonic, notice how wen rhymes with den in den Apfel.

Wen siehst du? — Ich sehe den Hund.
(Whom do you see? — I see the dog.)

You will soon learn about the Dative case. You have to use wem then. And there is a forth case in German (Genitive). You would use wessen here. This corresponds to English "whose".

The endings look like the endings of der (but don't change with gender/number):

Welche(r/s) (which)

Welche- words are used to ask about for a specific item out of a group of items, such as "which car is yours?".

This declines not only for case, but also for gender. The endings are the same as for definite articles:

Wo (where)

In German, you can inquire about locations in several ways.

Wo (where) is the general question word, but if you are asking for a direction in which someone or something is moving, you may use wohin (where to).

Consider these examples:

Wo ist mein Schuh? (Where is my shoe?)

Wohin gehst du? (Where are you going (to)?)

Furthermore, wohin is separable into wo + hin:

Wo ist mein Schuh hin? (Where did my shoe go?)

The same goes for woher (where from):

Woher kommst du? (Where are you from)

might become

Wo kommst du her?

Wann (when)

Wann (when) does not change depending on the case. Wann can be used with conjunctions such as seit (since) or bis (till):

Seit wann wartest du? (Since when have you been waiting?)

Bis wann geht der Film? (Till when does the movie last?).

Don't confuse wann with wenn which you learned in Conjunctions. Both translate to "when" in English, but they have different functions in German.

Wann kommst du? (When are you coming?)

Ich schlafe nicht, wenn ich Musik höre. (I don't sleep when I listen to music)

Warum (why)

Warum (why) is also not declinable. It will never change endings. Wieso, Weshalb, and Weswegen can be used instead of Warum. There's no difference in meaning.

Here is an example. All four following sentences mean "Why is the car so old?".

Warum ist das Auto so alt?

Wieso ist das Auto so alt?

Weshalb ist das Auto so alt?

Weswegen ist das Auto so alt?

Wie viel vs. wie viele

Wie viel is used with uncountable or countable nouns (how much/how many), and wie viele is only used with countable nouns (how many). Some people think that "wie viel" can only be used with uncountable nouns, but that is not true.

Wie viel Milch trinkst du? (How much milk do you drink?)

Wie viel(e) Tiere siehst du? (How many animals do you see?)

Generic vs. specific (German is not Spanish or French)

Just like in English, using or dropping the definite article makes the difference between specific and generic.

I like bread = Ich mag Brot (bread in general)

I like the bread = Ich mag das Brot (specific bread)

A good general rule is to use an article when you would use one in English. If there is none in English, don't use one in German.

There are some slight differences when using a few abstract nouns, but we'll see about that later.

Personal Pronouns in the Dative Case

Many words change in the dative case. For the third person pronouns, the following are different from the nominative case: the masculine pronoun is ihm (to him), the feminine is ihr (to her), the neuter is ihm (to it), and the plural is ihnen (to them).

Some observations:

• In dative, mir, dir, ihr (to me / you / her) rhyme.

• In the third person, the endings are the same as for the articles: -m, -r, -n. However, plural dative is "ihnen" (not ihn, as you might expect).

• In the second person plural, accusative and dative pronouns are the same.

Now you can understand why, when thanking a female person, it is only correct to say Ich danke ihr ("I thank her", literally "I give-thank to her") and not Ich danke sie (that sounds like "I thank she" would sound to an English speaker).

dative verbs

Remember that some verbs have a dative object. This is just a quirk of German. There was a reason for it when these words were created, but it's not easy to understand anymore, after a lot of language change.

In short, you just have to learn these :) There aren't very many.

Gehören literally means to "belong to". But don't translate too literally, often a different translation will be more natural.

• Wem gehört das Kleid? ("Whose dress is it?" - Literally, "Whom does the dress belong to?")

You, you and you

Most languages use different words to address one person, or several people.

In German, when addressing a single person, use du:

Du bist mein Kind. (You are my child.)

If you are talking to more than one person, use ihr:

Ihr seid meine Kinder. (You are my children.)

Some English speakers would use "y'all" or "you guys" for this plural form of "you".

Note that these only work for people you are familiar with (friends, family, …). For others, you would use the formal "you", which we teach later in this course. So stay tuned :)

Ihr vs. er

If you're new to German, ihr and er may sound confusingly similar, but there is actually a difference. ihr sounds similar to the English word "ear", and er sounds similar to the English word "air" (imagine a British/RP accent).

ich bin

you (singular informal) are | du bist
he/she/it is | er/sie/es ist
we are | wir sind
you (plural informal) are | ihr seid
they are | sie sind

Combining stuff

German is well known for its long words that can be made up on the go by concatenating existing words. In this skill you will learn one very simple and commonly used way of forming compounds: adding -zeug (="stuff") to existing words.

Remember that the last element determines gender and plural. So all new words in this lesson will be neuter.

OK, because you asked: the longest "real" German word (so far) is:

Rindfleisch-etikettierungs-überwachungs-aufgaben-übertragungs-gesetz

(Without the hyphens. We had to add those in order to be able to show the whole word…)

It's a law on how to transfer tasks about the monitoring of the labeling of beef. At least that's what the word says.

If you enjoyed this, check out "Rhabarberbarbara" on Youtube.

No, words like this don't normally happen in German :)
How much stuff?

In English, you can't count "stuff" -- you can't use the plural "stuffs" or say that "there are three stuffs on the floor". Instead, "stuff" is a collective noun, referring to a group of things but used in the singular: "there is stuff on the floor".

Some German -zeug words can work like this as well -- for example, Spielzeug and Werkzeug in the singular, without an article, mean "toys" and "tools", which are plural in English.

Those words can also be used in a countable way: ein Spielzeug, zwei Werkzeuge "one toy, two tools". So "the tools" could be either das Werkzeug or die Werkzeuge -- the former would view the tools as a group, the latter would consider them individually.

Look out for whether there is an indefinite article or number before the singular word to see whether it's used countably or uncountably.

If there's a possessive word or a definite article before such a noun in the singular, it could be either: mein Werkzeug ist neu could mean either "My tool is new" or "My tools are new", for example; similarly with das Werkzeug ist neu which could be either "The tool is new" or "The tools are new".

(An English word that works similarly is "fruit" -- "my fruit" could refer to just one apple, or it could refer to two apples and a banana all together, depending on whether "fruit" is used countably or uncountably.)

Other -zeug words are always regular countable words, such as Flugzeug "airplane" or Feuerzeug "lighter".

Sehenswürdigkeiten?!

The word Sehenswürdigkeit (sight as in sightseeing) is made up of several meaningful parts: sehen + s + würdig + keit.

Let's look at each part and its meaning.

Literally Sehenswürdigkeit means something which is worthy to see.

The connecting element -s- is used to link words together.

The ending -keit turns an adjective into a noun.

Often the ending of a compound noun is a good indicator for the gender of the noun. For example, if a noun ends in -keit, it will always be feminine (die).

Urlaub vs. Ferien

Just like in English there's "holidays" and "vacation", in German there are Ferien and Urlaub. They can be used interchangeably to some extent.

Ferien only exists as a plural noun:

Die Ferien sind im Sommer. (The holidays are in summer.)

Urlaub only exists as a singular noun:

Wann ist der Urlaub? (When is the vacation?)

Visum

In English, you need "a visa". In German, the singular is das Visum, Visa is the plural (as it is in Latin, the source language of this word).
Weg vs. weg

Der Weg (with a long -e-) roughly means "the path".

Der Weg ist lang. (The path is long.)

The word weg (with a short, open -e-) roughly means "away". Here are some examples:

Geh weg! (Go away!)
Ich bin weg! (I'm gone!)

Accusative prepositions

Accusative prepositions always trigger the accusative case.

Here are the most common ones: durch, für, gegen, ohne, um

Dative prepositions

Dative prepositions always trigger the dative case.

Here are the most common ones: aus, außer, bei, gegenüber, mit, nach, seit, von, zu

Two-way prepositions

Two-way prepositions take the dative case or the accusative case, depending on the context.

This is an unusual, but central part of German grammar.

If there's movement from one place to another, use the accusative case.

Die Katze geht in die Küche. (The cat walks into the kitchen.)

If there's no movement, or if there's movement within a certain place, use the dative case.

Die Katze schläft in der Küche. (The cat sleeps in the kitchen.)
Die Katze geht in der Küche. (The cat walks within the kitchen.)

These prepositions can switch case: an, auf, hinter, in, neben, über, unter, vor, zwischen

When not to think about location change

Two-way prepositions are very common in everyday speech, so it's a good idea to practice them to fluency.

However, don't forget that for some prepositions, you don't have to decide:

Durch and um will always be accusative, although they might signify an activity without location change:

Das Kind rennt durch den Wald. (The child is running through the forest.)
Die Stühle stehen um den Tisch. (The chairs are standing around the table.)

Aus, von, zu will always be dative, although they might signify a location change.

Er kommt aus der Küche (He comes out of the kitchen.)
Ich fahre zur Arbeit. (I go to work.)
Ich komme von der Arbeit. (I come from work.)

Other uses for two-way prepositions

Some verbs use one of these prepositions in a way that is not about location. This is part of language change, where things get repurposed all the time.

Über will always trigger the accusative case:

Sie diskutieren über den Krieg. (They discuss the war.)

When used with these verbs, vor will always trigger the Dative:

Er warnt vor dem Hund. (He warns about the dog.)

An, in and auf are more complicated: in some verbs, they trigger the accusative, in others the dative. You'll just have to memorize these.

Er denkt an seinen Bruder. (He thinks of his brother.)

Er arbeitet an einem Film (He's working on a film.)

Ich warte auf den Bus. (I'm waiting for the bus.)
Der Film basiert auf meinem Leben. (The film is based on my life.)

Contractions

Some prepositions and articles can be contracted.

Wir gehen ins Kino (We go to the cinema.)

If you would use "that" in English, you would not use a contraction:

In das Kino gehe ich nicht! (I won't go into that cinema!)

Preposition at the end of a sentence??

An important part of German grammar is that some verbs can split off their prefix. This often ends up at the end of a sentence. Some of these prefixes look exactly like a preposition.

So when you see a "preposition" at the end of a sentence, try to combine it with the verb. You might just have learned a new word :)

Sie macht die Lampe an. (anmachen means "turn on" here)

Ich denke nach. (nachdenken means "to think")

Pass auf dich auf! (aufpassen means "to take care")

Wann fährt der Zug ab? (abfahren means "to depart")

Nimm deinen Hut ab! (abnehmen means "to take off" in this context)

Unfortunately, the way Duolingo is built does not allow to selectively teach German sentence structure. We hope this will change soon :)
Zu Hause vs. nach Hause

Zu Hause means at home, and nach Hause means home (homewards, not at home). The -e at the end of zu Hause and nach Hause is an archaic dative ending, which is no longer used in modern German, but survives in certain fixed expressions.

Ich bin zu Hause. (I am at home.)

Ich gehe nach Hause. (I am walking home.)

Wo vs. wohin

Words like hinter
or zwischen
can tell you where something is. In German, if the thing you’re talking about is moving, you’ll use the accusative
der word
and ein word
endings. Remember the phrase Active Accusative!

If the thing isn’t going anywhere, you’ll use the dative
der
or ein word
endings after those words. Remember the phrase Dative Dormant!

More smooshed words!

An
, auf
and um
get combined with some forms of the.

Flexible words

Words like an
, über
or unter
aren’t always about location! Their meanings can change with certain verbs
.

Ich schreibe über sie.
​
I write about her.

Ist ein Arzt unter uns?
​
Is a doctor among us?

Capitalizing nouns

In German, all nouns are capitalized. For example, "my name" is mein Name, and "the apple" is der Apfel. This helps you identify which words are the nouns in a sentence.

German genders are strange

Nouns in German are either feminine, masculine or neuter. For example, Frau (woman) is feminine, Mann (man) is masculine, and Kind (child) is neuter.

While some nouns (Frau, Mann, …) have natural gender like in English (a woman is female, a man is male), most nouns have grammatical gender (depends on word ending, or seemingly random).

For example, Mädchen (girl) is neuter, because all words ending in -chen are neuter. Wasser (water) is neuter, but Cola is feminine, and Saft (juice) is masculine.

It is important to learn every noun along with its gender because parts of German sentences change depending on the gender of their nouns.

For now, just remember that the indefinite article (a/an) ein is used for masculine and neuter nouns, and eine is used for feminine nouns.

No continuous aspect

In German, there's no continuous aspect. There are no separate forms for "I drink" and "I am drinking". There's only one form: Ich trinke.

There's no such thing as Ich bin trinke or Ich bin trinken!

When translating into English, how can I tell whether to use the simple (I drink) or the continuous form (I am drinking)?

Unless the context suggests otherwise, either form should be accepted.

german numbers

You might notice that German numbers look very similar to those in English. The two languages are closely related. So any time you encounter a new word, it's worth checking whether you can find a similar-looking word in English.

At some point, you might realize that there are several more or less consistent changes between English and German. Here are some:

Generally, the vowels change faster than the consonants. So go for the consonants when looking for related words.

Zahlen, zahlen, zählen

You learned bezahlen (to pay) earlier. There's also the word zahlen, which also means to pay. In this lesson, you learn zählen, which means "to count". Don't confuse the two.

In addition, you will see Zahlen. The upper-case initial tells you this is a noun. It is the plural of die Zahl (the number).

German plurals

In English, making plurals out of singular nouns is typically as straightforward as adding an -(e)s at the end of the word:

the dog, the dogs

In German, different nouns have different ways of forming the plural.

Generally, you will probably have to memorize the plurals in the beginning. Later on, your brain will notice regular patterns that are not easily explained.

However, there are some major regularities that are very helpful to know. If you apply these, the task of mastering German plurals will become much easier :)

Ending in -(e)n

All nouns ending in -e, and most feminine nouns will add an -(e)n ending in the plural.

die Frau, die Frauen
die Ente, die Enten
der Junge, die Jungen

Ending in -s

Most nouns ending in a full vowel will add an -s in the plural.

das Sofa, die Sofas
das Auto, die Autos
das Baby, die Babys
das Café, die Cafés

Many of these words are of foreign origin. Some other foreign words will also get the -s plural:

der Chef (the boss), die Chefs
die Email, die Emails
der Job, die Jobs

No ending change

There is no change for neuter or masculine nouns that have any of these singular endings:

-chen, -lein, -el, or -er.

das Mädchen, die Mädchen
der Computer, die Computer
der Löffel (the spoon), die Löffel

Some words for close family members will have an umlaut change:

der Bruder (the brother), die Brüder

If words with these endings are feminine, the plural will end in -n:

die Schwester (the sister), die Schwestern
die Gabel (the fork), die Gabeln

Ending in -e/-er

Most German one-syllable nouns will add an -e in their plural form. There might be an umlaut change.

das Brot (the bread), die Brote
der Tisch (the table), die Tische
der Ball (the ball), die Bälle

Many other masculine or neuter nouns will need the -er ending, and there may be umlaut changes.

das Kind (the child), die Kinder
der Mann (the man), die Männer

German feminine plurals - nouns ending in -in

Job descriptions are usually masculine:

der Koch (the male cook)
der Fahrer (the male driver)
der Lehrer (the male teacher)
der Arzt (the male physician)

To refer to a female, German adds -in:

die Köchin (the female cook)
die Fahrerin (the female driver)
die Lehrerin (the female teacher)
die Ärztin (the female physician)

As you can see, some of these get an umlaut change. The same umlaut change will happen in the plural.

The plural of the masculine forms usually refers to mixed, as well as all-male groups:

die Köche (the cooks)
die Fahrer (the drivers)
die Lehrer (the teachers)
die Ärzte (the physicians)

If you want to specify that you are talking about a group consisting of women, use the feminine plural forms. These will add -innen in the plural.

die Köchinnen
die Fahrerinnen
die Lehrerinnen
die Ärztinnen

Die Woche

Except for Mittwoch
(which literally means mid‑week!), each day of the week ends with Tag. In the US, the first day of the week is Sonntag,but in Germany, the calendar starts with Montag!

Morgen ist Montag.
​Tomorrow is Monday.​

Ich mag Freitag!
​I like Friday!​

Like Hump Day in the US, Mittwoch is also known as Bergfest
, to celebrate making it to the midweek mountain top!

A good day wish I you!

To say which day something is happening, use am:

Ich komme am Mittwoch.
I come on Wednesday.

In English, we generally put time phrases like am Dienstag and täglich towards the end of a sentence. In German, they go directly before or after the verb. You might feel like you’re talking like Yoda, but it’s totally normal!

Die Reise beginnt am Dienstag.
​Am Dienstag beginnt die Reise.​
The trip begins on Tuesday.​

Bis Freitag!

Bis can be used in a few different ways! Take a look!​

Ich zähle bis neunzig.
​I count to ninety.

Sie kocht in der Küche, bis alles fertig ist.
She is cooking in the kitchen until everything is done.

Küche vs. Kuchen

Die Küche (the kitchen) and der Kuchen (the cake) are often confused by learners. To German ears, they sound quite different. One reason is that in Küche, the vowel is short, while the vowel in Kuchen is long.

Kochen (to cook) also has a short vowel.

Schmecken

Schmecken is very similar to the English word "to taste":

• Ich schmecke Knoblauch! (I taste garlic!)
• Knoblauch schmeckt super! (Garlic tastes great!)

In addition, schmecken can be used by itself:

• Die Pizza schmeckt nicht! (The pizza does not taste good!)

some popular food

Müsli

Müsli originally refers to "Bircher Müesli", a Swiss breakfast dish, based on rolled oats and fresh or dried fruits.

Nowadays, people will use it for all kinds of cereals or granola, often with high sugar content.
Hähnchen

Hähnchen usually refers to a chicken that has been turned into a dish. While derived from the word for "male chicken" (der Hahn), the only distinction today is that it is a food item.

Remember that words ending in -chen are always neuter: das Hähnchen.
Salat

Salat can refer to the dish, as well as to the green leaves (usually lettuce) that often go into it.

Euro or Euros?

In German, the singular is Euro and the plural is usually Euro as well. As a rule of thumb, use Euro when talking about a specific amount, e.g. 200 Euro.

In some contexts, the form Euros is used as well. For instance, you can say Euros to refer to individual euro coins, an unquantified amount of euros, or euros as opposed to a different currency, e.g.:

Ich habe hundert Schweizer Franken, aber keine Euros (I have a hundred Swiss francs but no euros).

Many native speakers use either plural form regardless of context.

In English, either plural form is perfectly fine. The plural form euro tends to be preferred in the Republic of Ireland, and the plural form euros tends to preferred pretty much anywhere else. Originally, the plural form euro was supposed to be used in official EU documents, but that's no longer the case.

Ein Baum = a tree
der berg= the mountain
der mond = the moon

Ich bin schöner als du!

In German, you won’t ever hear phrases like more beautiful or more expensive when comparing! You always use the ‑er ending.

Often, if an adjective has only one syllable
, it gets an umlaut added to it. And if the adjective ends in ‑er, ‑el, or ‑en, drop the e before you add ‑er!

More irregular or irregularer?

The bigger one!

You can use comparison words as adjectives

Deine Katze ist die große Katze.
​
Your cat is the big cat.​
​
Meine Katze ist die größere Katze.
​
My cat is the bigger cat.​

the accusative

You already saw that the accusative case can be used in different ways.

It can signify the object of a sentence:

• Der Hund frisst den Vogel. (The dog is eating the bird.)

This is called the direct object (or accusative object).

It can also be used in combination with some prepositions:

• Sie geht ohne den Hund. (She walks without the dog.)
• Er hat einen Mantel ohne Knöpfe. (He has a coat without buttons.)

dative object

The dative case also has a range of different functions.

In this lesson, you learn to use it with the indirect object. This is also called the dative object.

The indirect object in a sentence is the receiver of the direct (accusative) object.

For example, Frau is the indirect (dative) object in

Das Mädchen gibt einer Frau den Apfel. (A girl gives the apple to a woman.)

You can think about it as "the other person involved" in a transaction.

Ich gebe dem Mann einen Apfel. (I give the man an apple.)
Sie zeigt dem Kind den Hund. (She shows the child the dog.)

As a rule the dative object comes before the accusative object, if none of these objects is a pronoun (things are a little more complicated if pronouns come into play):

dative verbs

The dative is also used for certain dative verbs such as danken (to thank) and antworten (to answer), or helfen (to help):

- Ich danke dem Kind. (I thank the child.)
- Ich helfe der Frau. (I help the woman.)
- Ich antworte meinem Bruder. (I answer my brother.)

These verbs don't have an accusative object.

dative articles

For example, die Katze is a feminine noun. However, the article in dative will be der. This might look like the masculine article. But in the context of a sentence, there will never be any confusion between the two, as long as you know your genders. This is one reason why it's so important to know the gender of a word.

Notice how masculine and neuter look the same in Dative (just like they look the same for Nominative indefinite articles).

This also means that if you see a noun in the Dative, and the article ends in -r, it will be a feminine word. Alternatively, if it ends in -m, it won't.

It is very much worth remembering these Dative endings, because they will pop up in different context, and help you a lot to sort out the grammar. In a way, Dative is the "simplest" case :)

plural nouns in dative

Here's a great rule:

Plural Dative: Everything gets an -n

(Insert Oprah Winfrey GIF here)

You just saw that articles (also pronouns etc.) get an -n ending in dative plural.

Later, you will learn that the German ending system for adjectives is a bit complicated. However, in dative plural, you just add an -n.

It goes so far that even plural forms of nouns get an extra -n in the Dative.

• Er hat drei Hunde. Er spielt mit drei Hunden. (He plays with three dogs.)
• Die Computer sind alt. Ich antworte den Computern. (I answer the computers.)

There are two "exceptions":

• If the plural already end in -n, you're set.
• If the plural ends in -s, there's also no change.

even more -n

Some masculine nouns add an -en or -n ending in the dative and in all other cases besides the nominative. For example in the dative, it is dem Jungen (the boy).

If you want to look these up, the term for them is "n-Declension".

Recognizing noun gender

As mentioned before, you can often know the gender of a noun by looking at the word ending.

non-living objects that end in -e: these will almost always be feminine (die Lampe, Schokolade, Erdbeere, Orange, Banane, Suppe, Hose, Jacke, Sonne, Straße, Brücke, Schule, …)
nouns beginning with Ge- are often neuter. This is the only prefix determining gender. (das Gebäude, Gemüse, Gesicht, Gesetz, …)

In addition, rhyming can often help. If you already know a noun that rhymes with the new one, there's a good chance they will have the same gender. Go for it :)

der Fisch, der Tisch
der Raum, der Traum, der Baum
der Kopf, der Knopf

Pronunciation of French loanwords

When English uses a word from French, it usually pronounces it according to English sound rules. German will often sound more close to the original.

An example for this is Restaurant. Like in French, the last syllable will sound roughly like "raw". The -t will be silent. Some people will pronounce the ending similar to English "rung" instead. Of course, the R- will sound like the German r, not the English one.

Dative prepositions

Earlier, you learned that some prepositions always trigger the accusative case.

The most common ones are durch, für, gegen, ohne, um.

In the same way, dative prepositions always trigger the dative case.

Again, here are the common ones: aus, bei, gegenüber, mit, nach, seit, von, zu.

contractions

Some prepositions and articles can be contracted.

seit

Seit roughly means "since". However, it works a bit differently.

First, it always denotes something that is still going on.

Second, it has three different ways of usage.

Consider these examples:

Ich lerne seit sechs Jahren Englisch. (I'm learning English for six years now.)
Ich lerne seit 2012 Englisch (I've been learning English since 2012.)
Ich lerne Englisch, seit ich denken kann. (I've been learning English since I can think.)

In the first example, seit defines a stretch of time, which reaches into the present.

In the second example, it also defines a stretch of time, reaching into the present. But it defines this stretch of time by its starting point.

Seit can also be a subordinating conjunction (check the lesson "Conjunctions"). In these, the verb leaves the second position of the sentence, and ends up at the end. This is why in the last example, ich kann denken (I can think) turns into seit ich denken kann.

zu hause vs nacj hause

Zu Hause means at home, and nach Hause means home (homewards, not at home).

The -e at the end of zu Hause and nach Hause is an archaic dative ending, which is no longer used in modern German, but survived in certain fixed expressions.

Ich bin zu Hause. (I am at home.)

Ich gehe nach Hause. (I am walking home.)

The imperative mood is used to express commands, just like in English.

There are three different forms, according to the three types of "you" in German.

Du imperative

The imperative for du is very similar to English:

Du gehst nach Hause. (You go home.)
Geh nach Hause! (Go home!)

For most verbs, to come up with the correct verb form, just lose the -st ending:

Du arbeitest nachts. (You work at night)

Arbeite nachts! (Work at night!)

Du nimmst das Taxi. (You take the taxi.)
Nimm das Taxi! (Take the taxi!)

You might have noticed that some common verbs have an extra umlaut in the 2nd/3rd person singular:

fahren, du fährst
schlafen, du schläfst

In the imperative, these do not have an umlaut:

Du fährst mit dem Taxi.
Fahr mit dem Taxi!

Ihr imperative

The second one is used to address more than one person informally. It uses the same conjugation as the regular ihr form of the present tense. This form of the imperative does not include a personal pronoun.

Ihr fahrt nach Paris. (You go to Paris.)
Fahrt nach Paris! (Go to Paris!)

Sie imperative

The third one is used to address one or more people formally. It uses the same conjugation as the regular Sie form of the present tense. The formal imperative is the only form to include the personal pronoun (Sie). Note that the word order is reversed. The verb always precedes the pronoun. It essentially looks like a question.

Sie lernen Deutsch. (You learn German.)
Lernen Sie Deutsch! (Learn German!)
Lernen Sie Deutsch? (Do you learn German?)

Sie imperative

The third one is used to address one or more people formally. It uses the same conjugation as the regular Sie form of the present tense. The formal imperative is the only form to include the personal pronoun (Sie). Note that the word order is reversed. The verb always precedes the pronoun. It essentially looks like a question.

Sie lernen Deutsch. (You learn German.)
Lernen Sie Deutsch! (Learn German!)
Lernen Sie Deutsch? (Do you learn German?)

Imperative for sein

The verb sein (to be) is highly irregular. It even has its own imperative version:

The following sentences all mean "Please be quiet!":

Sei bitte ruhig! (one friend)
Seid bitte ruhig! (several friends)
Seien Sie bitte ruhig! (some person in the cinema)

Nehmen, du nimmst??

As mentioned before, a small number of common verbs changes the vowel in the second + third person singular.

The change will normally be from a to ä or from e to i(e).

Informal and formal words for family members

Just like in English, there are informal and formal words for "mother", "father", "grandmother", and "grandfather". Note that in German, the difference between formal and informal is a lot more pronounced than in English. The informal terms are pretty much only used within your own family.

Family plurals

You might notice that most members of the close family have their own "system" of plurals:

Schwester has an extra -n, because it can't change its vowel (e has no umlaut).

Eltern

Eltern (parents) has no singular, unlike in English. We normally refer to Mutter or Vater then.

If necessary, there is a word das Elternteil (literally, "the parents part"). But this is only used in formal settings, for example on forms.

Alternative words for family members

There are countless alternative words for certain family members. A lot of them are regionalisms or influenced by your own family's heritage. Some of them are ambiguous as well. For instance, some people call their father "papa", and some people call their grandfather "papa".

We can't accept all these terms, and since translations used in the German course for English speakers may also pop up in the English course for German speakers, we don't want to confuse German speakers with these words. Please understand that we're not going to add more alternatives. In your own interest, stick to the ones suggested by Duolingo (see above).

Some other pronouns

Some other words can function as pronouns.

The following ones change their endings like definite articles:

Dieser Junge isst, dieser (Junge) trinkt.

This boy eats, that (boy/one) drinks.

Jedes Kind mag Pizza. (Every kid likes pizza.)
Manche Kinder mögen Käse. (Some kids like cheese.)

Viel vs. viele

These roughly correspond to English "much/many". Use viel with uncountable nouns, viele with countable ones.

Ich trinke viel Wasser.
Ich habe viele Hunde.

Alles oder nichts

Just like nicht (not) has a look-alike nichts (nothing), alle (all) has alles (everything) as a counterpart.

Ich esse nicht. (I do not eat.)
Ich esse nichts. (I eat nothing.)
Ich esse alles. (I eat everything.)
Ich esse alle (Orangen). (I eat all (oranges).)

Ein paar vs. ein Paar

Ein paar (lowercase p) means "a few", "some" or "a couple (of)" (only in the sense of at least two, not exactly two!).

Ein Paar (uppercase P) means "a pair (of)" and is only used for things that typically come in pairs of two, e.g. ein Paar Schuhe (a pair of shoes).

So this is quite similar to English "a couple" (a pair) vs. "a couple of" (some).

Kleider - dresses or clothes?

Das Kleid means "the dress", and die Kleider means "the dresses", but the plural die Kleider can also mean "clothes" or "clothing". In most cases, "clothing" (or "clothes") translates to Kleidung (usually uncountable), but it's important to be aware that Kleider can be used in that sense as well.

Hose or Hosen?

Both Hose and Hosen translate to "pants" ("trousers" in British English), but they're not interchangeable. The singular Hose refers to one pair of pants, and the plural Hosen refers to multiple pairs of pants.

You learned earlier that the numbers from 1-19 are very similar to those in English.

This mostly continues in German, with one important quirk. Did you ever notice that the digits in numbers 13-19 are kind of "switched" in English? German continues that through to 99.

So 84 would be vier|und|acht|zig (literally, four and eighty).

This might take some getting used to, but at least it's consistent ;)

hundert

For "100", people would usually just say hundert, not einhundert (as in English).

huge numbers

There used to be two different systems for huge numbers, called "short scale" and "long scale". Unfortunately, German and American English ended up with different ones. British English used to use the long scale, but switched to short scale.

Adjective endings

When an adjective comes before a noun, its ending will change according to this noun.

• Die Katze ist alt.

• Das ist eine alte Katze.

Article + Adjective

You can think of the adjective endings as "markers", that kind of mark what part of speech the adjective belongs to.

Nominative

Remember that Nominative is used for the subject of a sentence. These are the nominative adjectives:

While that might look a bit chaotic, there is not so much going on:

1. Masculine: Either the article, or the adjective must have the -r ending. The same goes for neuter and -s.

   Der kleine Hund spielt.
   Ein kleiner Hund spielt.

2. Feminine and Plural end in -e. If you add an article, you also have to add an -n.

   Die alte Katze schläft.
   Alte Katzen schlafen.
   Die alten Katzen schlafen.
   Das sind keine alten Katzen.

Accusative

Do you remember that quite often, the accusative looks like the nominative? Specifically, only the articles for masculine nouns change.

The same goes for the adjectives. The accusative endings are the same as for Nominative; the only exception is for masculine nouns. The changes are marked in bold in the table below.

3. Masculine accusative: adjective ends in -en

   Die alte Katze schläft. Der alte Mann sieht die alte Katze (no change)
   Die alte Katze sieht den alten Mann.

Dative

Dative, as always, is even simpler.

4. Dative: all adjectives get an -en ending

   Der Hund mit der roten Nase schläft. (The dog with the red nose is sleeping.)

Remember that in dative,

masculine/neuter articles end in -m
feminine articles end in -r
plural articles end in -n
and plural nouns (almost) always end in -n.

Yes/No Questions

When asking a yes/no question in English, you would say:

"Is it cold?", but
"Do you have a dog?" or
"Does the man drink water?".

German will not use "do" here. We will switch subject and verb for all verbs.

Ist es kalt?
Hast du einen Hund?
Trinkt der Mann Wasser?

This skill contains both questions and statements.

tief = deep
wichtig = important
langsam = slow
teuer = expensive

zimmer vs raum

The word Zimmer
means room, but so does the word Raum
! So what’s the difference? Well, Zimmer
is used for rooms in a house.

Raum
refers to a larger space or area (including outer space, aka Weltraum
)!

Reinigung

​r comes from the back of the throat

Batterie

​er rhymes with "air"

Kühlschrank

​pucker your lips for ü

Wasser
in Germany costs a lot! For this reason, and because short showers are better for the environment, many Germans duschen
quickly and less often.​

hals

Der Hals refers to the whole connection between head and shoulders. German does have more specialized words for "neck" and "throat", but we normally use Hals for both.

haare

Das Haar normally refers to a single hair. It can be used to refer to all the hair on someone's head, but is considered slightly outdated or poetic.

• Seine Haare sind lang. (ok)
• Sein Haar ist lang. (sounds a bit old)

bein

Das Bein refers to the leg. It used to mean "bone" a long time ago. This meaning survives in some word combinations:

• Elfenbein (ivory, literally "elephant bone")
• Eisbein (pork knuckle, literally "ischias bone", because it referred to hip meat before)
• Beinhaus (bone house)
• Gebein(e) (a collection of bones)

magen

Der Magen is the stomach, the part of your body that starts digestion. It is not commonly used to refer to the belly (der Bauch).

brust

Die Brust can have several meanings, depending on context.

• Komm an meine Brust! - This means the chest area. It will always be used in the singular.
• Vögel haben keine Brüste. (Birds don't have breasts) - This refers to female breasts. It can be used in the singular.

Wie geht's?

There are many ways to ask someone how they are doing. Take "How are you?," "How do you do?" and "How is it going?" as examples. In German, the common phrase or idiom uses the verb gehen (go): Wie geht es dir? (How are you?).

This can be shortened to Wie geht's?.

Willkommen can be a false friend

In German, Willkommen means welcome as in "Welcome to our home", but it does not mean welcome as in "Thank you - You're welcome". The German for the latter is Gern geschehen (or just Gern!) or Keine Ursache.

So, Entschuldigung literally means something like "deguiltification": "Take the guilt away from me" :)

In ordnung = all right
leider = unfortunately
genau = exactly
Tschüss = bye
Guten Abend = good evening
bis bald = see you soon
Bis später = see you later
bis morgen = see you tommorow
Mir geht's gut = i am doing well
alles klar = alright
keine Ahnung = no idea

In German, most words other than verbs (such as nouns, pronouns, determiners, adjectives, etc.) have cases.

The subject of a sentence (the one doing the action) is in the nominative case. So when we say Die Frau spielt. (The woman plays.), "die Frau" is in the nominative.

The accusative object is the thing or person that is directly receiving the action. For example, in Der Mann sieht den Ball. (The man sees the ball.), der Mann is the (nominative) subject and den Ball is the (accusative) object.

However, take note that in German, the verb always has to be in position 2. If something other than the subject takes up position 1, the subject will then move after the verb.

Normally, I drink water.
Normalerweise trinke ich Wasser

Isst vs. ist

Isst and ist sound exactly the same. So do Es ist ein Apfel. and Es isst ein Apfel. sound the same?

Yes, but you can tell it's Es ist ein Apfel: Es isst ein Apfel is ungrammatical. The accusative of ein Apfel is einen Apfel. Hence, It is eating an apple translates as Es isst einen Apfel.

Of course, this only works for masculine nouns. Other forms will look the same in nominative and accusative:

Er isst eine Banane.
Er ist eine Banane.

Only context will tell you here :)

A conjunction like wenn (when) or und (and) connects two parts of a sentence together.

Coordinating conjunctions form a group of coordinators (like und (and), aber (but)), which combine two items of equal importance; here, each clause can stand on its own and the word order does not change.

Ich mag Schokolade. Sie mag Pizza.
Ich mag Schokolade und sie mag Pizza.

Examples: und, oder, aber, denn

Subordinating conjunctions

Subordinating conjunctions combine an independent clause with a dependent clause; the dependent clause cannot stand on its own and its word order will be different than if it did. In these subordinate clauses, the verb switches from the second position to the last.

Ich bin gesund. Ich laufe oft.

Ich bin gesund, weil ich oft laufe.

Ich spreche gut Deutsch. Ich lerne oft Deutsch.
Ich spreche gut Deutsch, weil ich oft Deutsch lerne.

Correlative conjunctions

Correlative conjunctions work in pairs to join sentence parts of equal importance. For instance, entweder...oder (either...or) is such a pair and can be used like this: Der Schuh ist entweder blau oder rot. (This shoe is either blue or red.).

In German, conjunctions do not change with the case (i.e. they are not declinable).

Du trägst einen Rock. Du trägst eine Hose.

Du trägst entweder einen Rock oder eine Hose.

Du wäschst den Rock. Du trägst eine Hose.
Entweder du wäschst den Rock, oder du trägst eine Hose.
Du wäschst entweder den Rock oder (du) trägst eine Hose.

Examples: entweder … oder, nicht nur … sondern auch, weder … noch

Sondern

Sondern works like "but … instead" in English. It only takes the element that is different:

Ich trage kein Kleid. Ich trage eine Hose.

Ich trage kein Kleid, sondern eine Hose.

Sie kommt nicht aus Deutschland. Sie kommt aus China.
Sie kommt nicht aus Deutschland, sondern aus China.

German Negatives - nicht

There are different ways to negate expressions in German (much like in English you can use "no" in some cases, and "does not" in others). The German adverb nicht (not) is used very often, but sometimes you need to use kein (not a). Kein will be taught in a later lesson.

Use nicht in the following situations:
Nicht + definite article

Nicht negates a noun that has a definite article:

Das ist nicht der Junge. (That is not the boy.)

Nicht + possessive pronoun

Nicht negates a noun that has a possessive pronoun:

Das ist nicht mein Glas. (That is not my glass.)

Nicht negates a verb

When negating a verb, use nicht.

Ich trinke nicht. (I do not drink.)

Why does the nicht appear at the end here?

Refer to the section "Position of nicht" below to find the answer.
Nicht negates an adverb

Nicht appears before an adverb or adverbial phrase:

Ich tanze nicht oft. (I don't dance often.)

Nicht negates an adjective at the end of a sentence

When an adjective is part of a verb, also use nicht.

Du bist nicht hungrig. (You are not hungry.)

The infinitive here is hungrig sein (to be hungry).
Position of Nicht

Adverbs end up in different places in different languages. You cannot simply place the German adverb nicht where you would put "not" in English.

The general rule is:

Nicht appears before the item it negates.

Du bist nicht hungrig. (not hungry)
Ich tanze nicht oft. (not often)
Das ist nicht mein Glas. (not my glass)
Das ist nicht der Junge. (not the boy)

So, what about Ich trinke nicht?
♫ The German Sentence Bracket ♫

Consider this English sentence:

I wake up in China.

The verb would be "wake up", the infinitive "to wake up". English keeps its verb elements close together. German, on the other hand, has a peculiar sentence structure:

Ich wache in China auf.

The infinitive here is auf|wachen. German will normally put the last element of the infinitive (the part that changes with the person) in position 2 of the sentence. Everything else will end up at the very end. The rest of the sentence (for example, adverbs), will appear between this "sentence bracket".

Here's a longer example:

Infinitive: mit Freunden ins Restaurant gehen (to go to the restaurant with friends)

Ich gehe mit Freunden ins Restaurant.

If you're confused now, don't worry :) This will become clearer as you get lots of practice throughout this course.

Why are we telling you this here? This bracket is the reason nicht might end up at the end of a sentence.

Consider these examples:

Ich lerne Deutsch. (I learn German.) — Deutsch lernen (to learn German)
Ich trinke Bier. (I drink beer.) — Bier trinken (to drink beer)
Ich trinke nicht. — nicht trinken ("to not drink")

This skill contains both negative and positive statements.

You can use aus
to say what an object is made of!

Die Mauer ist aus Stein.
​
The wall is made of stone.

By the way, there are two words for wall in German! Mauer
is an outside wall and Wand
is an inside wall.

These words may look like English ones, but they have their own German pronunciation!
Papier
​
as in "ear"
Kupfer
​
as in "cupful"
Silber
, Halb
​
“as in “bulb”

Many people associate Leder
and Holz
with German‑speaking countries. A Lederhose
is part of traditional clothing. Authentic cuckoo clocks made of wood and handmade wooden Christmas decorations from Germany are world‑famous!

washchen = wasing
brauche = need

Recognizing noun gender

While noun genders might seem random for many words, there are quite a few ways to at least land a likely hit.

For example, many German nouns have some kind of ending, which will always or often come with a particular gender.

Non-living objects that end in -e: these will almost always be feminine (Schokolade, Erdbeere, Orange, Banane, Suppe, …). One of the very few exceptions is der Käse. This also works for many, but not all animals (die Katze, Ente, Spinne, Biene, Fliege, …).

Nouns beginning with Ge- are often neuter. This is the only prefix determining gender. (das Gemüse, …)

There are many more endings like these. You will learn more about them throughout this course.

Fressen vs. essen

Unlike English, German has two similar but different verbs for "to eat": essen and fressen. The latter is the standard way of expressing that an animal is eating something. Be careful not to use fressen to refer to humans – this would be a serious insult. Assuming you care about politeness, we will not accept your solutions if you use fressen with human subjects.

The most common way to express that a human being is eating something is the verb essen. It is not wrong to use it for animals as well, so we will accept both solutions. But we strongly recommend you accustom yourself to the distinction between essen and fressen.

die maus = the mouse
die fliege = the fly
Der Käfer = the beetle

How do you like things in German?

Use the verb mögen to express that you like something or someone, and use the adverb gern(e) to express that you like doing something.
Mögen is used for things, animals, and people:

Ich mag Bier. (I like beer.)

Sie mag Katzen. (She likes cats.)

Wir mögen dich. (We like you.)

Ihr mögt Bücher. (You like books.)

Please refer to lesson "Present 1" for more details on mögen.
Gern(e) is used for verbs/activities:

Ich trinke gern(e) Bier. (I like to drink beer/I like drinking beer.)

Er spielt gern(e) Fußball. (He likes to play soccer/He likes playing soccer.)

Wir lesen gern(e) Bücher. (We like to read books/We like reading books.)

Sie schreibt gern(e) Briefe. (She likes to write letters/She likes writing letters.)

Position of gerne

If you're not sure where to put gern(e): It goes to the same position as oft (often).

Ich trinke oft Bier. (I drink beer often.)
Ich trinke gern Bier. (I like to drink beer.)

Gern/gerne, allein/alleine

What's the difference between gern and gerne? They're just variations of the same word. There's no difference in terms of meaning or style. You can use whichever you like best.

The same goes for allein(e).
Position of auch

Auch corresponds to English "also, too".

The positioning follows different rules in both languages. Soon you will learn more about the peculiarities of German sentence structure. For now, remember that auch takes roughly the same position as nicht. When both occur together, auch will come before nicht.

Consider these two examples to get a first idea about this:

Ich laufe. Du läufst auch. Er läuft nicht. Sie läuft auch nicht.

Ich komme aus China. Du kommst auch aus China. Er kommt nicht aus China. Sie kommt auch nicht aus China.

Here's one more adverb, to see how they work together:

Ich trinke oft Bier. Du trinkst auch oft Bier. Er trinkt nicht oft Bier. Sie trinkt auch nicht oft Bier.

For reasons that will become clearer soon, Sie kommt aus China auch. is not a valid sentence in German.

German uses haben in some instances where English uses "to be":

Ich habe Hunger. (I am hungry.)

Ich habe Durst. (I am thirsty.)

Sie hat Recht. (She is right.)

Er hat Angst. (He is afraid.)

Compound words

A compound word is a word that consists of two or more words. These are written as one word (no spaces).

The gender of a compound noun is always determined by its last element. This shouldn't be too difficult to remember, because the last element is always the most important one. All the previous elements merely describe the last element.

die Autobahn (das Auto + die Bahn)

der Orangensaft (die Orange + der Saft)

das Hundefutter (der Hund + das Futter)

Sometimes, there's a connecting sound (Fugenlaut) between two elements.

die Orange + der Saft = der Orangensaft

der Hund + das Futter = das Hundefutter (the dog food)

die Liebe + das Lied = das Liebeslied (the love song)

der Tag + das Gericht = das Tagesgericht (dish of the day)

Mittagessen — lunch or dinner?

We're aware that "dinner" is sometimes used synonymously with "lunch", but for the purpose of this course, we're defining Frühstück as "breakfast", Mittagessen as "lunch", and "dinner/supper" as Abendessen / Abendbrot.

Cute like sugar!

The word süß means "sweet" when referring to food, and "cute" when referring to living beings.

Der Zucker ist süß. (The sugar is sweet.)
Die Katze ist süß. (The cat is cute.)

Does Gemüse mean "vegetable" or "vegetables"?

In German, Gemüse is used as a mass noun. That means it's grammatically singular and takes a singular verb.

eine kartoffel = a potato

ein Ei = and egg

Das Fleisch = the meat
der wein = the wine
die Schokolade = the chocolate
eis = ice cream
ein fisch = a fish
der Kaffee = the coffee

Predicate adjectives

Predicate adjectives, i.e. adjectives that don't precede a noun, are not inflected.

Der Mann ist groß.
Die Männer sind groß.
Die Frau ist groß.
Die Frauen sind groß.
Das Haus ist groß.
Die Häuser sind groß.

As you can see, the adjective remains in the base form, regardless of number and gender.

"D'uh", you say? Keep digging into the German skills tree, and you will soon find the deeper reality of German adjectives :)

Personal Pronouns in the Nominative Case

A pronoun is a word that represents a noun, like er does for der Mann. In the nominative case, the personal pronouns are simply the grammatical persons you already know: ich, du, er/sie/es, wir, ihr, and sie.

Demonstrative Pronouns

The demonstrative pronouns in English are: this, that, these, and those. In German, in Nominative and Accusative, the demonstrative pronouns are the same as the definite articles.

That means, der, die and das can also mean "that (one)" or "this (one)" depending on the gender of the respective noun, and "die" (plural) can mean "these" or "those."

Der ist komisch! (That one is strange!)
Meine Kinder? Die sind in England. (My kids? They/Those are in England.)

When spoken, the definite articles can serve a similar function:

Der Junge liest eine Zeitung, der Junge liest ein Buch.
This boy is reading a newspaper, that boy is reading a book.

The articles would be stressed in that case

prepositions

Prepositions take a noun (or a noun phrase):

• I talk with a friend from school.

In German, prepositions will change this noun into one of the cases (but never into nominative).

Here, you learn those that always trigger the accusative case.

Remember that as long as the noun is not masculine singular, the nominative and the accusative will look the same.

• Der Hund trinkt den Saft. (both are masculine)
• Die Katze trinkt die Milch. (both are feminine)

accusative prepositions

Accusative prepositions always trigger the accusative case.

• Nicht ohne meinen Hund! (Not without my dog!)
• Die Suppe ist für den Mann ohne Zähne. (The soup is for the man without teeth.)

German has these common accusative prepositions: durch, für, gegen, ohne, um

entlang

Entlang is a strange word :) It is commonly used with the accusative case. But then it has to appear after the noun.

• Ich gehe den Fluss entlang. (I walk along the river.)

It can be used before the noun, but then triggers a different case. This sounds a bit old-fashioned or stilted today. So better use it after the noun.

Kaufen vs. einkaufen

Kaufen is normally used in the meaning of "to buy":

Ich kaufe einen Hut.

Einkaufen is normally used without an object, and often refers to shopping. It can be used in conjunction with gehen:

Ich kaufe im Supermarkt ein. (I shop in the supermarket)
Wann gehst du einkaufen? (When do you go shopping?)

Verkaufen means "to sell". The prefix ver- is often associated with an "away" notion.

Laden, Geschäft

A variety of words exist for "shop". These are two common ones, with roughly exchangeable usage.

Getting Specific

To really get specific about what you want to say, you can use words like sehr, ziemlich, or ganz, to name a few.
Du bist eine sehr gute Lehrerin!
​You are a very good teacher!​

German Sounds

Having any trouble with these words? Take a close listen right now!
sehr
​rhymes with "air"

eher
​like a y is between syllables

German Negatives

There are different ways to negate expressions in German (much like in English you can use "no" in some cases, and "does not" in others). The German adverb nicht (not) is used very often, but sometimes you need to use kein (not a).

Nicht

As mentioned in the lesson "Not", you should use nicht in the following situations:

Negating a noun that has a definite article like der Junge (the boy) in Das ist nicht der Junge. (That is not the boy).
Negating a noun that has a possessive pronoun like mein Glas (my glass) in Das ist nicht mein Glas. (That is not my glass).
Negating the verb: Ich trinke nicht. (I do not drink.).
Negating an adverb or adverbial phrase. For instance, Ich tanze nicht oft. (I do not dance often)
Negating an adjective that is used with sein (to be): Ich bin nicht hungrig. (I am not hungry).

For details, and to learn where to put nicht in a sentence, refer to the "Not" lesson.

Kein is also used for negating nouns that have no article: Er hat Brot. (He has bread.) versus Er hat kein Brot. (He has no bread.).

As a general rule:

If you can use "not a/no" in English, use kein.
If you need to use "not", use nicht.

Nicht vs. Nichts

Nicht is an adverb and is useful for negations. On the other hand, nichts (nothing/anything) is a pronoun and its meaning is different from that of nicht.

Ich esse nicht. (I do not eat.)
Ich esse nichts. (I eat nothing.)

Using nicht simply negates a fact, and is less overarching than nichts. For example, Der Schüler lernt nicht. (The student does not learn.) is less extreme than Der Schüler lernt nichts. (The student does not learn anything.).

video tutorial

nicht negates adjectives and verbs
kein negates nouns

sometimes you can use both when there is a noun and a verb
exanple :
ich spreche nicht deutsch
ich spreche kein deutsch

Student or Schüler?

Ein Student is a university student and a Schüler is a pupil/student at a primary, secondary or high school. Students attending other types of schools such as language or dancing schools may also be called Schüler.

dropping articles

When talking about your or someone else's profession in sentences such as I'm a teacher or She's a judge, German speakers usually drop the indefinite article (ein/eine).

Ich bin Lehrer. (I am a teacher.)

It sounds more natural to say Ich bin Lehrer and Sie ist Richterin than Ich bin ein Lehrer and Sie ist eine Richterin. This rule also applies to students.

If you add an adjective, you can't drop the article. Er ist ein schlechter Arzt (He's a bad doctor) is correct, but Er ist schlechter Arzt is not.

Also note that you can't drop the definite article (der/die/das).

male and female variants

The grammatical gender usually matches the biological sex of the person you're referring to.

So the word that refers to a male baker is grammatically masculine, and the word that refers to a female baker is grammatically feminine.

In the vast majority of cases, the female variant is formed by simply adding the suffix -in to the male variant, e.g. der Bäcker becomes die Bäckerin and der Schüler (the pupil) becomes die Schülerin.

The plural of the female variant is formed by adding the ending -innen to the singular of the male variant, e.g. die Bäckerinnen and die Schülerinnen.

Keep in mind that, in some cases, the plural comes with an umlauted stem vowel. This applies to the female variant as well.

You learn one more word like this in this lesson:

der Arzt, die Ärztin (the doctor)

Sie ist der Boss!

There are a few words for people where the grammatical and the natural gender differ. One of them is der Boss. There is no feminine version for it, although there are certainly female bosses.

Mein Boss heißt Linda Ackermann.
Meine Chefin heißt Linda Ackermann.