Grammatik

When you're buying a Christmas gift for someone who is studying German, you may not know exactly what they need. With one small piece of information, that is which level of German they are at, you can do some quality gift buying right here.

Be sneaky! Look on your German learner's book for one of these combinations: A1, A2, B1, B2, or C1. There might be a "+" after it or the book might show a range of levels, for example A2-B1. Sometimes the letter/number combination is on a blue square with th…

"Viel" oder "Viele"? Gute Frage!

It depends on whether or not you're speaking about something that can be counted. For example:

viel Zeit - lots of time. Time in general cannot be counted. (You can count hours, but not time itself.)

viele Menschen - many people. People can be counted.

Erfolg (success) is another example of something that cannot be counted. Certain things, yes, like finishing a degree or obtaining your driver's license, can be counted, sure, however they are very specific eve…

"Kennen" is not the same as "wissen" and it can be very confusing trying to tell the two apart.

Here you will learn what "kennen" means, what "wissen" means, and finally how to tell the difference.

There are example sentences, too, and I highly recommend you grab your German notebook and write them down so you can refer back to them later.

kennen

Ich kenne... is for things you can get to know. You might not have always known your German friend Marius, however you got to know him once, which …

The Weil sentence structure is a tough one for English speakers. We say "because I said so," but the Germans say "weil ich es gesagt habe," or (translated directly) "Because I so said!"

It's the exact opposite way in German. The verbs go all the way at the end.

Although Germans are, at least in the media, losing this construction faster than the ice caps are melting, there is one almost-guaranteed compliment you will receive when you can say this properly. A German will hear it and say to you,…