Table of Contents
Week 1 9
Speaking German
The alphabet and spelling
Pronunciation
Vowels and vowel combinations
Consonants
The hiatus
Word stress
Punctuation
Week 2 25
Word endings and word order
Greetings and everyday phrases
The definite article ("the")
The plural form of "the"
Forming the plural of nouns
Exercises
Week 3 32
Grammatical case and declension
Personal pronouns
Useful verbs: "to be," "to have" and "to make"
Exercises, vocabulary and conversation
Week 4 39
The indefinite article ("a"/"an")
Numbers
Prices
The dative case (indirect object)
Verbs used with indirect objects
Exercises, vocabulary and conversation
Week 5 53
Asking questions
Forming negative sentences
The imperative (command form)
Adjectives and adverbs
Exercises, vocabulary and conversation
Week 6 67
Prepositions
The expression es gibt ("there is" "there are")
Exercises, vocabulary and conversation
Week 7 76
Words with the same declensions as der, die, das
Possessive adjectives
Adjectives before nouns
Ordinal numbers and fractions
Informal address
Word order
Exercises, vocabulary and conversation
Week 8 90
More on word order
Auxiliary verbs: "can" "must," "will," etc.
Using auxiliary verbs
Measurements and quantities
The expressions es ist and es sind ("there is"/"are")
Verbs for "to be" indicating position
Verbs for "to put" indicating position
More about prepositions
Exercises, vocabulary and conversation
Week 9 107
More about der, die, das
Uses of the present tense
Present tense: irregular verbs
The present perfect
Which auxiliary: sein or haben?
Uses of the present perfect
The past participle
Time expressions
Nicht wahr?, etc.
Exercises, vocabulary and conversation
Week 10 133
The genitive case (possession)
Prepositions requiring the genitive
Masculine n-nouns
More on separable-prefix verbs
Zu + infinitive
Expressing purpose
Ohne and statt
The passive voice
The present perfect with modal verbs
The simple past tense
Exercises, vocabulary and conversation
Week 11 155
Terms that express quantity
Using adjectives as nouns
Linking clauses Linking words affecting word order
Reflexive pronouns
Reflexive verbs
Exercises, vocabulary and conversation
Week 12 179
More on the simple past tense
Stem-changing verbs in the past
The past perfect (e.g., "I had been")
The general subjunctive
More on the general subjunctive
Conditional statements ("If… then…")
The passive with zu + infinitive
Idiomatic particles that express mood
Exercises, vocabulary and conversation
Week 13 199
The present participle (the -ing form) and alternatives to using it
More linking words
Addressing a group informally: the plural "you" (ihr)
Subordinate clauses with two infinitives
Impersonal expressions
The special subjunctive
Reported speech
Word order in reported speech
Participle clauses
Exercises, vocabulary and conversation
Reading practice 223
Eine Reise durch Europa
Answer key 225
Mini-dictionary 233
German-English
Index 251
