Language in Use: Grammar and Vocabulary
What is tested
This section checks control of German grammar and everyday vocabulary through gap-fill, transformation, and multiple-choice items. Accuracy matters more than ambition: use structures you can form correctly.
Grammar concepts to master
Cases and articles. Learn the definite and indefinite article tables cold, then practise prepositions that fix case: mit, nach, aus, zu, von, bei, seit (dative); für, ohne, gegen, um, durch (accusative); wegen, trotz, während, statt (genitive). Two-way prepositions (in, auf, an, über, unter, vor, hinter, neben, zwischen) take accusative for motion with a change of location and dative for position.
Verb forms. Master the perfect tense with haben versus sein (motion and change of state: ich bin gefahren, ich bin eingeschlafen), the simple past of sein, haben, and modal verbs, and the passive (Das Haus wird gebaut).
Word order. Main clause: verb second. Subordinate clause with weil, dass, wenn, obwohl: verb final. After deshalb, dann, trotzdem: inversion (Deshalb gehe ich).
Adjective endings depend on article type - practise the three patterns separately.
Typical traps
- Dative plural -n on the noun (mit den Kindern).
- seit plus present tense, not perfect, for ongoing states.
- wenn versus wann versus als: als for a single past event.
- False friends: bekommen (to receive), Gift (poison), eventuell (possibly).
- Separable verbs in subordinate clauses stay together: weil ich früh aufstehe.
Rule of thumb
Before choosing, identify the grammatical slot: what case does the preposition or verb demand? Then check agreement in number and person.
Worked example
Ich fahre ____ dem Bus zur Arbeit. The preposition mit governs the dative, so the article becomes dem: mit dem Bus.