Welcome to your guide to core German grammar. In this deck, we'll focus on two essential building blocks: the present tense and basic word order. You'll learn how to talk about what's happening now, and how to structure your sentences correctly for simple statements and questions. Let's begin.

Most German verbs follow a predictable pattern in the present tense. We start with the infinitive, which is the 'to' form of the verb. In German, most infinitives end in 'e n', for example, 'lernen', which means 'to learn'. To conjugate the verb, you first remove this 'e n' ending to find the verb stem. For 'lernen', the stem is 'lern'.

Once you have the verb stem, you add a specific ending depending on who is doing the action. For 'ich', meaning 'I', you add an 'e'. So, 'I learn' is 'ich lerne'. For 'du', the informal 'you', you add 's t'. 'You learn' is 'du lernst'. For 'er', 'sie', or 'es', meaning 'he', 'she', or 'it', the ending is 't'. So, 'he learns' is 'er lernt'.

The pattern continues for the plural forms. For 'wir', meaning 'we', and 'sie' meaning 'they', the ending is 'e n', the same as the infinitive. So, 'wir lernen' and 'sie lernen'. For 'ihr', meaning 'you all', the ending is 't', just like for 'er, sie, es'. So, 'you all learn' is 'ihr lernt'. The formal 'you', which is 'Sie', also uses the 'e n' ending: 'Sie lernen'.