Grammar and Vocabulary
Grammar and Vocabulary tests your control of core structures and topic vocabulary in context: articles, cases, verb conjugation, word order, tense, prepositions, conjunctions, adjective endings and numbers. Questions may be gap-fill, matching, sentence completion or short correction.
Core rules and concepts
- Four cases: nominative, accusative, dative and genitive recognition. Articles change: der/die/das; den/die/das; dem/der/dem; des/der/des.
- Preposition groups: durch, für, gegen, ohne, um take the accusative; aus, bei, mit, nach, seit, von, zu take the dative; in, an, auf, über, unter, vor, hinter, neben, zwischen are two-way.
- Verb position: main clause verb second; yes/no question verb first; subordinate clause verb final; separable prefix at the end.
- Tense choices: present, perfect with haben or sein plus past participle, simple past for sein, haben and modal verbs, future with werden.
- Learn nouns with article and plural, and verbs with their preposition and case.
Worked example
Complete: „Ich sehe ___ alten Mann mit ___ Hund.“ Reasoning: sehen takes the accusative; Mann is masculine, so the ein-word ending is -en: einen alten Mann. mit takes the dative; Hund is masculine, so the dative article is dem. Answer: einen alten Mann mit dem Hund. If an adjective followed dem, it would also take -en: dem alten Hund.
Traps that cost marks
- Using the nominative after für, durch, ohne or gegen.
- Forgetting separable prefixes: Ich stehe um 7 Uhr auf, not Ich aufstehe.
- Mixing haben and sein in the perfect: ich bin gefahren, ich habe gemacht.
- Confusing adjective endings after ein-words and der-words.