​PRIVATE GERMAN

TUTOR in BERLIN​

LEARN GERMAN with YOUR PRIVATE TEACHER | INDIVIDUAL GERMAN LESSONS | STUDY GERMAN in BERLIN or ONLINE

"SEIN" - TENSES OF "TO BE"

This is the most important tense you need to master in order to reach a good German “street level”. Most narrations and pretty much every conversation is based on past tense. Here you will learn how to use Present-Perfect as well as some important forms of Simple-Past.

While most verbs in a conversation are used in Present Perfect there are some verbs which can also be used in Simple Past. One of the most important verbs you can use in Present Perfect as well as Simple Past is the word "SEIN". This is what this exercises is all about.

​HINTS 

While Simple Past is mostly used if you write a story, there are some verbs you can use in Simple Past as well as in Present Perfect. "SEIN" is one of these verbs. For example: "Der Film war interessant." Or: "Der Film ist interessant gewesen." 

EXAMPLES

Ich bin. (Present Tense) 

Ich war. (Simple Past)

Ich bin gewesen. (Present Perfect)

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​​PAGE 3)

The third page contains the solution for the second page. Use this page to check your answers and to listen to the audio file. It is more easy to read and to listen the same time first. Tip: After reading the first page start with this page if the exercises is difficult for you. 

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WHAT IS DIFFERENT ABOUT THESE EXERCISES?​

1) Compare to regular text books I designed these text-exercises and worksheets with the purpose of improving your passive and your active vocabulary as well as your comprehension (listening and reading capabilities) at the same time. The main difference to regular school books is that you need to formulate full German sentences. Every grammatical topic is fully contextualized with practical example sentences.

2) All the pdf-exercises are bilingual. This makes sure that you will easily understand the purpose of each exercises. It also helps you to understand the vocabulary of the text without using dictionaries. You will mostly be able to run these exercises without using external sources. That saves you a lot of time and keeps you motivated. 

3) Listening to the audio is part of every exercises. This is important to fully internalize the vocabulary on different levels. It also helps you to learn the correct pronunciation.

4) Another positive side effect is that you will also learn how to write German correctly.  While this might not so important when you start learning a language, it will become more and more important later on. 

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​​​​​LESSON A1.2

TENSES OF "TO BE" (SEIN)

​A1|A2 EXERCISES

This is a short overview of some topics we will cover in our A1 | A2 lessons.​ The examples illustrate how the lessons are structured. You can check how the pdf- and audio exercises are organized. These full bilingual textbook exercises are available for each of lessons.

​​​​​LESSON A1.1

NOMINATIVE & ACCUSATIVE

​​​​​LESSON A1.2

INDIRECT OBJECTS (DATIV)

PAGE 1)

The first page contains a table to visualize the grammatical. The text under knees give you some short examples in German. You can find hints for the vocabulary in the yellow boxes on the right side of the page. 

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​​​​​LESSON A1.1

STRONG VERBS

​STRONG VERBS 

These verbs conjugate irregular in the second and in the third person. There are typical patterns for vowel changes you can find in this exercise.

​HINTS 

If you learn how to change the conjugation form the first to the second person you basically know how to use these verbs. Watch out for the "ihr (you pl.). Many students switch back to the irregular form.

EXAMPLES

essen | ich esse | du isst | ihr esst

nehmen | ich nehme | du nimmst | ihr nehmt 

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​​FUTURE TENSE

For future tense you need the helping word "werden" (will). Here you will learn how to change sentences form present tense to future tense.

​HINTS 

This verb conjugates irregular: (ich werde, du wirst, er wird, wir werden, ihr werdet, sie werden). But it also changes the sentence structure: While you have to conjugate "werden" the second verb moves to the end of the sentence and is not conjugated! 

Examples

Ich  schlafe. 

Ich werde  schlafen. 

Ich  werde  heute lange  schlafen. 

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LESSON A1.1

HOW DO WE START?

This is no the first but one of the first exercises of my German A1.1 course level. It shows you how to conjugate basic regular verbs which you will need in every day situations. 

​LERAN HOW TO CONJUGATE 

Verb endings in German change dependent on the subject they are connected to. Learn how to conjugate verbs regular verbs in present tense: The typical verb endings are: 
I = ("e") | you = ("st") | he, she, it = ("t") | we = ("en") | you guys ("t") | they = ("en")

WRITE GERMAN SENTENCES

Learn how to formulate whole sentences right form the beginning | avoid wired textbook exercises where you simply fill out gaps. 

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Download free German grammar worksheets. All text exercises come with an audio. Learn how to pronounce German words right form the start. Practice  your comprehension skills.  

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​​PAGE 2)

The second page contains English sentences. Here you are asked to write full German sentences. The yellow box on the left give you some hints for the vocabulary needed. I suggest to move to the third page first of the exercises is too difficult. read the German text first and study the audio!​​​

​​​​​LESSON A2.1

REFELXIVE VERBS

LESSONS AND EXERCISES

​HOW DO THESE WORKSHEETS WORK?

Here I want to show you how my German lessons actually work. A big part of every lesson are text-exercises. PDF-exercises are key to teach vocabulary and grammar.  In order to get a more interactive and practical approach I developed my own exercises over many years.  ​

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​​​​​LESSON A1.1

FUTURE TENSE

REFLEXIVE VERBS

Reflexive verbs are a bit pain in the ass, so to speak :) Many of you might suffer to master these verbs. For the German language reflexive verbs are extremely important though. 

The appearance of reflexive pronouns is du the fact that most German verbs need a direct object. If there non the verb is missing an object. The reflexive pronouns fill up this gape. This is very short and incomplete explanation.

​HINTS 

This exercises is one of the more difficult worksheet about reflexive verbs. There reflexive verbs also have a proposition attached to the verb.  

EXAMPLES

Wofür interessierst du dich?

Ich interessiere mich für Musik.

Ich interessiere mich dafür.  

Wer interessiert sich für Musik?

Für wen internierst du dich? 

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VERBS WITH INDIRECT OBJECTS These are verbs whose direct objects can be directed towards another (indirect) object. These are mostly verbs indicating that one object (or an action) is passed form one person to another person. In contrast to real Dative verbs, here you always have a Subject, an Accusative object and an indirect object (mostly a person). The exercises focusses on Dativ articles as well as Dativ personal pronouns.

​HINTS 

In contrast to Accusative objects (direct objects), Dative personal pronouns indicate a direction towards a third party the action and the accusative abject is directed towards to. You can translate it to English if you add the "to" to the object or the subject connected to it.

EXAMPLES

Ich gebe. (Nominative subject) 

Ich gebe das Buch. (Nominative subject plus Accusative object)

Ich gebe dir  das Buch. (Nominative subject plus indirect object (Dative) plus Accusative object)

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​PERSONAL PRONOUNS  

The usage of Personal Pronouns in Nominative and  Accusative is key to communicate with people. While the proper use of articles in Accusative and Dative is not so important at the beginning, you need to distinguish personal pronounces of these both cases (Nominative & Accusative) right form the start. Otherwise you will mostly confuse who is doing what to whom.

​HINTS 

The Nominative is representing the active party (the subject) in a sentence. The Nominative (subject) is also conjugating the verb. The Accusative object on the contrary is receiving the action of the nominative party.

EXAMPLES

Ich besuche dich. (I am visiting you.)

Du besuchst mich. (You are visiting me.)

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