By now, students should be familiar with all the articles and their various forms in the nominative, accusative and dative cases. Here, the student begins learning about endings for attributive adjectives. When used in the predicate form (e.g., “Der Hund ist freundlich.”), adjectives take no ending at all. But when preceding a noun directly, German adjectives require an ending (e.g., “Das ist ein freundlicher Hund.”). There are three sets of endings for attributive adjectives in German that have to be learned. This lesson focuses on endings for adjectives following so-called ‘ein’-words. The ‘ein’-words include the indefinite and negative articles and all possessive articles. Example sentences with adjectives in the nominative, accusative and dative cases are provided.

This handout breaks down some of the most commonly encountered stem-changing verbs by vowel change type. For example, verbs with ‘a’ to ‘ä’ vowel changes are grouped together and studied as a unit. There are always exceptions to some of these patterns, and these are noted in the handout. Twenty-one verbs are looked at in total. At the end of the lesson are 8 different stem-changing verbs used in sample sentences (three examples are provided for each verb).

This short, two-page story about Jana and her vegetable garden can be used to test students’ knowledge of various coordinating and subordinating conjunctions. Students reading the story will fill in the blanks with the appropriate conjunction. Included is a small glossary, an answer key and an English translation of the text. Appropriate for 2nd or 3rd-year students of German, or for adult learners at around the A2.2 level.

This handout shows how two-way prepositions are used with the verbs ‘stellen’, ‘stehen’, ‘legen’, ‘liegen’, ‘stecken’ and ‘hängen’. Students learn how transitive verbs are used with two-way prepositions in the accusative case, while intransitive verbs are used with prepositions in the dative. Phrases beginning with “Es…” are also discussed (‘Es steht…’, ‘Es hängt…’, etc.). A number of example sentences are provided for each verb along with annotations.

This 3-page handout introduces students to the separable verb — first by comparing it to the English ‘phrasal verb’ and then providing examples in German. Many people learning English have initial success with the language, but are unable to get a handle on the large number of phrasal verbs, and the rich subtleties of the language remain impenetrable to them. A similar thing can happen in German with separable verbs, therefore it’s important to become familiar with them early. In this handout, nine common separable verbs have been chosen as examples — conjugated and used in sample sentences.

Two-page set of printables on the major human body parts in landscape layout.

This two-page handout includes a color printable of assorted public clocks with the times written out, mostly in colloquial time (“Zeit im Umgangssprache” / “inoffizielle Zeit”). The second page shows the same clocks in greyscale, but with a blank line underneath instead of text. This page can be used as a homework assignment or for a test.

Geared towards advanced A1 students, this handout includes a single-page printable with twelve pictures taken at different times of the year. The names of the German months and captions are provided for each picture. (A glossary of vocabulary words used in the captions is included on page 2 of the handout.)

This 5-page color printable is an introduction to plurals in German. Common German nouns that students are likely to encounter early on are shown in their plural forms. This lesson does not contain any rules or guidelines for forming the plural, but instead introduces new learners to the different types of plural endings for nouns and to plural articles in the nominative case (die, keine). Plural forms of compound nouns are also touched on. Before using this lesson, students should already be familiar with gender and how to use articles in the nominative singular. Pages are in ‘layout’ view and can be used as slides.

This is a reference list of some of the most commonly used reflexive verbs in the German language. A total of 30 verbs is included, with English translations. Paired prepositions follow the verbs that require them, together with grammatical case. The reflexive pronouns are listed at the end (accusative case only). A few example sentences are given.

The subjunctive mood (Konjunktiv II) is often first introduced to students when learning how to make polite requests. Here, we show how the verbs ‘können’ and ‘werden’ are converted into their subjunctive forms. The relationship between ‘mögen’ and ‘möchten’ is also discussed.

This short, two-page story about a small Bavarian village in northern Georgia tests students on adjective endings in all four cases. Empty blanks appear after each adjective to be filled in with the appropriate ending. Included is a small glossary, an answer key (color-coded and annotated) and an English translation of the text. Appropriate for 2nd or 3rd-year students of German, or for adult learners at around the A2.2 level.

This handout explains how to differentiate between things that are similar, the same, or one-in-the-same using the words ‘ähnlich’, ‘gleich’ and ‘derselbe’. More than 25 sample sentences are provided along with parallel English translations. (As a prerequisite, students should already be comfortable with article and adjective declensions in the accusative and dative cases.)

Three-page printable on landscapes and bodies of water in landscape layout (includes glossary and some commentary).

Three-page set of printables covering basic articles of clothing and accessories in landscape layout (includes glossaries).

This four-page set includes: 1-page printable of elementary colors in German, including black, white and grey. 3-page printable displaying objects in various colors. The pictures are captioned with easy-to-understand German sentences requiring little translation. Additional examples using ‘hell’ (light) and ‘dunkel’ (dark) are shown along with the primary colors.

This set includes five color printables in landscape view on German family vocabulary. It is geared towards brand-new students at the early A1 level and introduces them to both nuclear family and extended family names. Brief stories and example sentences in German are provided together with helpful glossaries.

Reflexive verbs are special verbs used in situations where the subject and the object are one in the same. Reflexive verbs are used frequently in German, often on occasions where the reflexive wouldn’t normally be used in English. This handout dissects the basic elements of the reflexive verb and explains how it’s used. The differences between reflexive pronouns and accusative personal pronouns are illustrated. (Dative reflexive pronouns are discussed in a different handout.) Six verbs are chosen as examples for this lesson: ‘sich waschen’, ‘sich interessieren’, ‘sich erinnern’, ‘sich fühlen’, ‘sich kümmern’ and ‘sich ängstigen’. Nearly 40 example sentences are provided, color coded for clarity. Some sentences are broken down in schematic form to make the sentence structure easier to understand. A summary of the lesson is provided on page 6.

Second in a series on sentence structure (Satzbau), this 7-page handout describes how adverbs and prepositional phrases are ordered in a typical sentence or clause using the ‘TeKaMoLo’ rule. Certain exceptions to this rule are also discussed. Twenty German example sentences are provided in large font, most with parallel English translations. All example sentences are diagrammed, some color-coded for clarity. Annotations are included in the margins to supplement the lesson text. A short summary is included on the final page, along with a space for writing notes. (This lesson is a follow-up to the “Basic Sentence Structure” handout and is geared towards students at the high A1 level.)

A2.2-level grammar review test covering: subjunctive forms of ‘werden’, ‘sein’ & ‘haben’ (würden, wären, hätten), comparative & superlative (predicate adjectives & adverbs), ‘trotzdem’ vs. ‘deshalb’, adjective endings. The test consists entirely of fill-in-the-blank questions and tables. It’s suitable as an end-of-course assessment for informal adult courses, but can also be used for 2nd or 3rd-year students of German at the high school or college level. An answer key is provided. Some annotations explaining grammar are also shown.