Grammar Repair — Lektion 4–9 (Round 2)

1. sein & haben — memorise these cold

These two verbs are irregular. Do not regularise them (it is er ist, never *er seid; du hast, never *du habst).

When Sie means she by meaning, it is third-person singular: sie ist, sie hat. German uses haben for states: Hunger haben (to be hungry), Zeit haben (to have time). Fixed phrase: zu Hause = at home.

2. er / sie / es follow the noun's GENDER

To say “it”, pick the pronoun that matches the noun's article — not the English word “it”. der → er, die → sie, das → es.

Die Lampe ist schön. Sie ist neu. — Lampe is feminine, so the pronoun is sie, capitalised at the start of the sentence.

3. Word order — the verb is glued to position 2

V2: in a statement the conjugated verb is always the second element. Position 1 can be the subject, a time word, or a place — but the verb keeps slot 2.

If something other than the subject comes first, the subject jumps to right after the verb (inversion). The subject is either first, or straight after the verb — it does not go to the end.

So Heute ich spiele… is wrong: the verb must be second → Heute spiele ich…

4. nicht vs kein

kein = “no / not a”. Use it to negate a noun that has ein or no article at all. It takes the same endings as ein.

nicht = “not”. Use it with a definite noun (der/die/das), a possessive (mein…), a verb, or an adjective. When it negates a whole sentence, nicht usually goes near the end.

Ich habe keine Zeit. (Zeit is fem) · Er hat keinen Bruder. (Bruder is masc, direct object) · Das ist nicht meine Tasche. (possessive → nicht) · Ich kenne die Frau nicht. (definite → nicht, at the end).

5. Possessive articles — the ending is everything

The stems: mein (my), dein (your), sein (his), ihr (her), unser (our), euer (your all), ihr (their), Ihr (formal your). They take the same endings as ein/kein:

Traps to remember: masculine Akkusativ adds -en → meinen Vater (the only change in the accusative). Feminine is -e in Nom/Akk but -er in the Dativ → meine Mutter but mit meiner Mutter. mit and danken force the Dativ. euer + e → eure (the middle -e drops). unser already ends in -er (that's the stem), so feminine is unsere.