Suggestions for Improvement / Common Mistakes
German
Herr Marshall
 Punctuation
The beginning of every sentence is capitalized and every sentence has to have
punctuation. There is a period at the end of each sentence or statement. If the statement is
a question you must have a question mark.
Wrong: ich zeichne gern
Right: Ich zeichne gern.
Wrong: Zeichne ich gern.
Right: Zeichne ich gern?
You have to distinguish between a statement and a question. If there is no question word
such as wie, was, wann, wer, warum, etc. you form a question by inverting the position of
the verb and the subject.
Example:
Wrong: Du findest Schach interessant, Heiko.
Right: Findest du Schach interessant, Heiko?

The pronoun “ich” in German is only capitalized when it is in the beginning of the
sentence. “ich” is never capitalized in the middle of a sentence.
Wrong: Wie komme Ich zur Schule?
Right: Wie komme ich zur Schule?

In English, we capitalize proper nouns; in German, all nouns have to be
capitalized. Such as Maria, der Apfel, das Fahrrad, der Computer, das Schach, der
Fussball, etc.
Any letter that starts a sentence has also to be capitalized no matter what it is.
Right:
Yesterday, I played basketball.
Wrong:
yesterday, I played basketball.
 Subject and verb Agreement
Subject and verb in a sentence have to agree with each other. (It is called Subject-VerbAgreement)
Example: Maria eats an apple. In this sentence “Maria” is the subject and singular. That
means just one person and therefore the verb has to be in singular form “eats”! = When
Subject is singular, the verb is singular.
Right:
Herr Marshall
Maria eats an apple.
Page 1
Wrong:
Maria eat an apple.
In the sentence “Maria and Brian eat an apple.”, the subjects are Maria and Brian
meaning it is plural. The verb has also to be in plural form “eat = they eat”. In German,
we have the same concept. As soon as you see the word “and” = “und” you should
know that the verb is supposed to be in plural form.
Du wanderst gern. = subject (du) is singular or one person and therefore the verb
(wanderst) is singular.
Anja und Gabi sammeln Briefmarken. Subject (Anja und Gabi) is plural and therefore
the verb (sammeln) is in plural form. Notice that in German, verb is always in second
position. Not only you have two names, Anja, Gabi, which shows you plurality but
also you have the word “and”. Therefore the verb is in plural form.

Asking Questions:
There are two ways of asking questions. Either you use a W-word (or a question-word, or
an Interrogative) such as wie, wer, was, wann, warum, etc. or you bring the verb first.
Statement: Du besuchst Freunde. = You visit (are visiting) friends.
Question: Besuchst du Freunde? = Are you visiting friends? (Do you visit friends?)
Question: Wann besuchst du Freunde? = When are you visiting friends? (When do you
visit friends?)
All you need to do in order to form a question is bringing the verb first and the pronoun
(or the subject) right after it. Remember that in translation, German does not have the
helping verb (do, does) in order to form a question.

Recognizing what pronoun and what verb ending to use!
When you see a comma in a sentence right before or after a name, you are usually talking
directly to that person. The person is standing right in front of you and you are making a
statement.
Example: Michael, sammelst du Briefmarken? OR Sammelst du Briefmarken, Michael?
(Michael, are you collecting stamps?) = (Do you collect stamps, Michael?)
Because you are using the first name of the addressed person, you are familiar with that
person; therefore you use the pronoun “du”
If you had two names, after or before the comma, the pronoun used would be then “ihr”.
Example:
Sammelt ihr gern Briefmarken, Michael und Dirk?
Or
Michael und Dirk, sammelt ihr gern Briefmarken?
Herr Marshall
Page 2
= Are you guys, Michael and Dirk, collecting stamps?
What pronoun and what verb form would you use here?
(wandern) ………………………… nicht gern, Herr Schmitt?
You are given the verb “wandern: because the word “Herr” is mentioned and you are
addressing a person with the last name “Schmitt” you know automatically that this would
be the polite form of addressing and you have to use “Sie” which has a capitalized “S”.
Therefore: Wandern Sie nicht gern, Herr Schmitt? Don’t you hike, Mr. Schmitt?
[Remember that you are talking directly to Mr. Schmitt.]
Herr Marshall
Page 3