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Pronunciation

C + A, O, U	When followed by A, O or U, the letter C is hard, like the English K.
C + E, I	When followed by an E or an I, the letter C is pronounced the same as Z, ie like the English TH in Spain, or, in Latin America, like an S.
CH	The Spanish CH is always pronounced the same as in English, like the CH in CHief.
EI	The Spanish EI diphthong sounds much like AY in the English word sAY.
G + A, O, U N + G	When it precedes an A, O or U, or follows an N, the Spanish G is hard, as in the English word Got.
G + E, I J	When it precedes an E or I, G is pronounced much like the H in the English word Hot, but a little raspier. The letter J always has this sound in Spanish.
H	H is always silent in Spanish.
LL	Double L is sounded much like an English Y.
Q + U	The letter Q is always followed by U in Spanish, and has a hard sound, like an English K.
Y	Pronunciation of this letter varies by region. Often it sounds like an English Y, in other places it will be pronounced like the J in the English word Joy.
Z	In Spain, Z is pronounced like the English TH. In South America, it is pronounced like an English S.

Verb Tenses

In Spanish, infinitives always end in -ar, -er or -ir. In the present tense, -ar verbs use the following endings:

1st	escucho	escuchamos
2nd	escuchas	escucháis
3rd	escucha	escuchan

-er verbs use these endings:

1st	como	comemos
2nd	comes	coméis
3rd	come	comen

The smallest category of regular Spanish verbs is those that end in -ir. Their present-tense endings are:

1st	abro	abrimos
2nd	abres	abrís
3rd	abre	abren

For the preterite, -ar verbs take the endings shown below:

1st	hablé	hablamos
2nd	hablaste	hablasteis
3rd	habló	hablaron

-er and -ir verbs have the exact same endings in the preterite:

1st	comí	comimos
2nd	comiste	comisteis
3rd	comió	comieron

The perfect tense is formed with the present tense of the verb HABER followed by the past participle. For regular AR verbs, the past participle is the infinitive stem + ADO, while for regular ER and IR verbs, it is the stem + IDO:

1st	he estudiado	hemos nadado
2nd	has viajado	habéis buscado
3rd	ha comido	han vivido

Pronunciation

C + E, I	Like CH in the English word CHin.
CH C + any other letter	A hard sound like an English K.
G + E, I	Soft G sound like in the English Gym.
GL	A fluid L sound, like the LL in miLLion.
GN	A nasal N sound, like the NI in oNIon.
GH G + other letter	Hard G sound, like in the English Go.
H	The H is always silent in Italian.
QU	The same sound as in English, e.g. in QUeen.
SC + E, I	When followed by an E or I, SC sounds like an English SH.
SC + other letter	A hard sound, like the SK in SKip.
Z ZZ	Either like the TS in spiTS, or the DS in paDS.

Pronunciation

A	A as in father
ą	Nasal as the ON in the French BON
B	Same as English, except a final B is unvoiced (sounds like P)
C	as English TS (even when it begins a word)
ć	soft English CH sound
D	Same as English (final unvoiced D sounds like T)
E	as in pet
ę	Nasal, almost like EN in TEN, but, same as e in pet when it is the final letter of a word
F	same as English
G	Always a hard G as in get (final G is unvoiced as K)
H	Same as English
I	as the I in machine
J	as English Y as in yellow
K	as in English
L	as in English
ł	as English W
M	as in English
N	as in English
ń	as Spanish N/tilde as in English "NI" in onion
O	as the O in the English word FOR. NEVER pronounced "OH" as in Ohio
ó	as the oo in English FOOT, NOT as as the oo in English BOOT
P	as in English
Q	There is no Q in the Polish alphabet!
R	Roll your R's like Spanish or Scottish
S	as English soft SSSS, never as Z
ś	soft sh sound
T	as in English
U	same as O/acute, as the oo in English FOOT, NOT as as the oo in English BOOT
V	No V in the Polish alphabet!
W	as English V (final V is unvoiced as F)
X	No X! Only found in foreign words
Y	Always used as a vowel, sounds like the i in IT. NEVER as "eeeee", NOT even at the end of a word.
Z	as in English
ź	(z with accute accent) soft zh like Zhivago
ż	(z with a dot over it) harder zh sound
CH	Same as H in English
CZ	Hard CH sound as in CHURCH
DZ	as in English "reD Zone", but....
DZI	DZ followed by an I is pronounced as J in "Jeep", that's why "Dziekuje" is pronounced "JEN koo yeh"
RZ	Same hard zh as Z/dot (do not pronounce the R)(final RZ is unvoiced as SH)
SZ	Hard SH sound
SZCZ	combination of both as the SHCH in "Fresh cheese"

Case Endings

A rough rule of thumb is that when the article is not present or not declined, then the adjective has the ending that the article would have (but 'es' rather than 'as' for neuter). In other cases, the adjective ending is +e except when the article's ending has changed, in which case the adjective takes an additional 'n'. The exceptions to this rule are highlighted in red in the table below.

	Masc	Fem	Neu	Plur
Nom	der rote Stuhl	die neue Lampe	das alte Buch	die roten Stühle
	kein roter Stuhl	keine neue Lampe	kein altes Buch	keine neuen Lampen
	roter Stuhl	neue Lampe	altes Buch	alte Bücher
Acc	den roten Stuhl	die neue Lampe	das alte Buch	die roten Stühle
	keinen roten Stuhl	keine neue Lampe	kein altes Buch	keine neuen Lampen
	roten Stuhl	neue Lampe	altes Buch	alte Bücher
Dat	dem roten Stuhl	der neuen Lampe	dem alten Buch	den roten Stühlen
	rotem Stuhl	neuer Lampe	altem Buch	alten Büchern
Gen	des roten Stuhles	der neuen Lampe	des alten Buches	der roten Stühle
	roten Stuhles	neuer Lampe	alten Buches	alter Bücher

Präpositionen

The cases in German are Nominative (the subject of a sentence), Accusative (the direct object), Dative (an indirect object) and Genitive (indicating possession). Once though, there were three others: the Locative (which indicated a fixed location), the Ablative (which indicated movement away from something) and the Instrumental (expressing the means by which an action is done). Over the course of time, these other cases became merged into the Dative. That's why the Dative is used in modern German even in instances that have nothing to do with an indirect object.

The following prepositions always take the accusative:

bis	durch	für	gegen
ohne	um	entlang

The next table shows prepositions which always take the dative. Some of these do indicate an indirect object, but others, such as ab, aus and von, indicate motion away i.e. what used to be the ablative, and mit would've once taken the instrumental.

ab	aus	bei	mit
nach	seit	von	zu

These prepositions take the accusative when they indicate physical movement, and the dative when they indicate fixed location (i.e. what once was the locative):

an	auf	hinter
in	neben	über
unter	vor	zwischen

A few prepositions always take the genitive:

außerhalb

innerhalb

während

Konnektoren

The connecting words in the following table (the first five are referred to as ADUSO for some reason) do not alter the position of the verb:

aber	denn	und
sondern	oder
außer	doch	wie

Those in the next group flip the subject and verb:

also	dann	darum
dennoch	danach	davor
deshalb	deswegen	sonst
trotzdem

Finally, these send the verb to the end:

dass	da	damit
als	bevor	bis
falls	insofern	nachdem
ob	obwohl	seit
während	wenn	weil

als vs wenn

Use als when referring to a past event that just happened once.
Use wenn when referring to a repeated past event.

als vs wie

Use als when the property you are comparing is different
Ich bin älter als mein Bruder
Use wie to indicate that two things are the same in some regard
Du riechst wie eine tote Qualle

Weak Verbs

Most German verbs are weak, or regular. Conjugating them is fairly easy, as they follow a predictable pattern where the stem does not change.

Present Tense
1st person singular	ich mache	1st person plural	wir machen
2nd person singular	du machst	2nd person plural	ihr macht
3rd person singular	er, sie, es macht	3rd person plural	sie, Sie machen

The preterite is similar but with an additional "t" (and possible "e") before each ending.

Preterite
1st person singular	ich machte	1st person plural	wir machten
2nd person singular	du machtest	2nd person plural	ihr machtet
3rd person singular	er, sie, es machtet	3rd person plural	sie, Sie machten

Note that when the stem ends in a "d" or a "t", an extra "e" is added before some of the above endings.

Present Tense
1st person singular	ich arbeite	1st person plural	wir arbeiten
2nd person singular	du arbeitest	2nd person plural	ihr arbeitet
3rd person singular	er, sie, es arbeitet	3rd person plural	sie, Sie arbeiten

Preterite
1st person singular	ich arbeitete	1st person plural	wir arbeiteten
2nd person singular	du arbeitetest	2nd person plural	ihr arbeitetet
3rd person singular	er, sie, es arbeitete*	3rd person plural	sie, Sie arbeiteten

* do note the last "t" is dropped for preterite 3rd person singular.

Strong Verbs

With strong verbs, the vowel in the stem changes in the preterite and past participle, and sometimes also in the 1st, 2nd or 3rd person singular. Present-tense endings are similar to the weak verbs, and the present-tense regular endings are also used in the preterite, with the exception that there is no ending for the first and third person and just the bare modified stem is used.

haben vs sein

The perfect tense is formed with a past participle and an auxiliary verb. Whether the auxiliary verb is haben or sein is generally decided by these rules:

Transitive verbs (verbs which take an accusative object) use haben.
Intransitive verbs which describe a change of location or change of state use sein.
Other intransitive verbs use haben.

Weak Nouns (The N-Declension)

Several hundred masculine nouns are "weak", meaning that they end with an "n" in all cases except nominative. They either end in "e" and usually refer to people or animals:

der Kunde	customer	der Kollege	colleague
der Junge	boy	der Neffe	nephew
der Russe	the Russian	der Schwede	the Swede
der Soziologe	sociologist	der Löwe	lion
der Rabe	raven	der Schimpanse	chimpanzee
der Wille	will	der Gedanke	thought

or they have certain Latin or Greek endings (-ant, -ent, -at, -ist):

der Elefant	der Emigrant	der Diamant	der Lieferant
der Präsident	der Student	der Patient
der Diplomat	der Astronaut	der Kandidat	der Automat
der Journalist	der Pianist	der Kommunist	der Kapitalist
der Planet	der Kamerad	der Pilot	der Idiot

Plus a few which don't fit either group:

der Herr	gentleman	der Name	name
der Bauer	farmer	der Bär	bear
der Nachbar	neighbour	der Held	hero
der Mensch	person	der Architekt	architect
das Herz	heart - the only non-masculine weak noun

Also be aware that some of the first group - usually the ones that do not refer to a person or animal - keep the genitive "s" after the "n" e.g. der Wille => des Willens, der Gedanke => des Gedankens. The only non-masculine weak noun also behaves this way: das Herz => des Herzens.

Separable Verb Prefixes

ab	"away", "down" or "off" as in finishing or completing an action.
an	"at", "on", starting an action or doing something partially.
auf	"up", a sudden start.
aus	"out" as in completing an action.
bei
ein	"in", becoming habitual, getting used to something.
los	"away", beginning something.
mit	"along", "away", accompanying or cooperating.
nach
hin
her
vor	demonstrating, going forward, or preceding.
weg	"away"
zurück	"back", returning.
zu
zusammen	"up" or "together", reducing to a focal point.

Non-separable Verb Prefixes

be	Providing something. Often "ig" is added before the "en".
ent	Escaping or moving away. Often corresponds to English un-, de- or dis-.
emp	A variation of "ent" sometimes used when the verb root begins with f.
er	Completing or achieving something; an action taking place at a single point of time (rather than ongoing). This prefix often turns an intransitive verb transitive.
ge
miss	Indicates failure. Comparable to the English prefix "mis".
ver	Completion, waning, or going away.
zer	Indicates destruction, usually "into pieces".

Could be either Separable or Non-separable

durch	"through", "without interruption", the conquering of obstacles or denotes completion.
hinter
über	"over", "up", or movement over a boundary.
um	"around", movement in a different/opposite direction or to a different side, or a change of some kind.
unter	"under", "among" and can imply "at the bottom of a text".
wider	"against", "toward", or "back".

The Intergalactic Language Quiz

Test and expand your vocab in one of five languages!

Pronunciation

Verb Tenses

Pronunciation

Pronunciation

Case Endings

Präpositionen

Konnektoren

als vs wenn

als vs wie

Weak Verbs

Strong Verbs

haben vs sein

Weak Nouns (The N-Declension)

Separable Verb Prefixes

Non-separable Verb Prefixes

Could be either Separable or Non-separable