Unlike English, the German language has three genders: feminine, masculine and neuter.

For instance, in Ich liebe den Sommer (‘I love summer’), the capitalized noun is ‘summer’. If you have ever studied a German text before, you may have noticed capitalized letters in the middle of the sentence.

German nouns (words that name people, things and places) are always capitalized.

Notice how the verb liebe (‘to love’) takes the second place after the subject (I or Ich). For example, ‘I love you’ in German is Ich liebe dich.

Just like in English, German verbs usually come second in a sentence.

Once you understand the basics, everything else gets easier. Now that you know how easy it is to learn verb conjugations in German, let’s look at some of the most important German grammar rules. Although slightly different, you will agree that the Dutch hond is very similar too. For example, ‘dog’ is Hund in German and hund (no first capital letter) in Danish, Norwegian and Swedish. Already knowing German will help you connect the dots when learning other languages that share similarities with German.

Studying grammar will make it easier to learn new languages.

If you are looking for a job in a German-speaking country, good grammar will make you more competitive in your job market as recruiters are more likely to dislike an application due to poor spelling and grammar. When you are confident you are using the right words, you inspire trust in your audience. Hesitating or not being sure what verb tense to use will affect your discourse.

Mastering grammar will increase your self-confidence.

In fact, studying German grammar will structure your knowledge and help you make further connections on your own.

However, if you want to learn German, you will encounter the grammar sooner or later and discover it’s not as tangled as you think. The countless rules with just as many exceptions can truly be intimidating. Don't forget to bookmark this page.Grammar is the least favorite part of mastering German for many learners. To learn other languages please check our homepage here: Learn Languages. We hope the lessons above helped you learn German. Since English is a Germanic language, it is not surprising to find a high degree of similarity in the vocabulary of the two languages. German is the only language in which all nouns begin with a capital letter. As far as pronunciation is concerned, no generally accepted standard exists and the various groups of native speakers can be readily distinguished by their accent. The revision of the German writing system was agreed on Augby the representatives of 8 German speaking countries of Europe, to be used starting from 1998. In the period following World War II, however, Fraktur was largely superseded by the Roman characters used throughout the rest of Western Europe.ĭifferent standards of spelling were used until the early 20th century in the various parts of Germany and other European countries with a German-speaking community. Traditionally German was written in a Gothic style known as 'Fraktur', which dates from the 14th century. It was not until the mid 18th century, however, that standard literary German, as it is recognisable today, became firmly established.

Standard written German, based on the Upper German dialect, emerged during the early 16th century, as the publication of books in German increased (religious reformer Martin Luther contributed with his translation of the Bible to the standardisation of the language) and many regional differences diminished. Until the mid 14th century Latin was the official written language, as most of the German-speaking regions of Europe were comprised in the Holy Roman Empire. The line dividing the region where Upper German (in the south) and Lower German (in the north) were spoken can be traced from Aachen to Frankfurt an der Oder. It has two main varieties: Upper German (including standard literary German) and Lower German. German belongs to the Indo-European family, Germanic group, West Germanic subgroup and has nearly 100 million speakers.