Mixed Grammar Topic

Comma Rules in German – Part 1

Hello everyone, And welcome back to a new episode of The Grammar Files. We’ve declassified Word Order. We’ve declassified Conditional. We’ve declassified Passive Voice and much more. And if you want to speak proper German, the topic of this mini series is absolutely and utterly useless! Boooh! You do need it, if you want to write properly though, because today (and in part 2), we’ll look Comma rules in German Overall, I find German comma rules to be pretty easy and logical and the exception density is fairly low. But there are some tricky instances, and there are also two fundamentally different paradigms in German and English that show up as mistakes in pretty much every learner’s writing at some point. Still, compared to other topics, this will be a short and sweet two part series. The shortbread of German grammar basically, with real butter. So get yourself a coffee or tea and let’s dip in.

rauf, herauf, drauf, hinauf – A Deeper Look at Versions

rauf, herauf, hinauf, drauf - These types of words are very common. Today, we'll find out where they come from and how they're ACTUALLY used with German verbs.

What are r-versions

Many separable verbs in german have a "version" with an r or dr. Like aufmachen - raufmachen for example. Understanding these r-versions is one key to fluency.

‘gehen’ without ‘zu’ – Why some Verbs don’t need it

Today, we'll look at one of the big exceptions to the rules for "zu" and "um zu" and see why it actually makes sense that "zu" is missing in "einkaufen gehen".

Non-Separable Prefixes – Not a German Invention

We'll take a nerdy look at the origin of German non-separable prefixes and compare them to prefix verbs across other languages like English or Russian.

German Separable Prefixes – What Are They, Actually

In this article, we'll explore where German separable prefix verbs come from and meet their English cousin that has been hidden in plain sight.

Verb Prefixes – What they actually do

German is famous for its prefix verbs, but many languages have them, and English is full of them. We'll find out what they all have in common across languages.

Separating da-compounds – A Grammar Quirk

The da-compounds sure take a while to master. But it doesn't stop there. Because in spoken German, da-words often get split up. Today, we'll learn all about it.

Wozu, wofür, wobei – German Wo-Compounds Explained

A deep dive about the German wo-compounds. Worauf, woran, womit... . We'll learn how to use them and how they're different to da-words.

Vocab: woran, worauf, wofür, womit, wobei,

Reflexive Verbs in German

Reflexive verbs in German seem confusing. But that's partially because many explanations get things a little mixed up Today, we'll see what's actually going on.

Vocab: mich, mir, dich, dir, sich, selbst, ihn,

German Gym – Work your “zu… um… zu”

    ** disclaimer: This is an exercise from way back in the day and it’s in form of a … pdf. I’ll eventually put it into a more modern web 3, AI modern as hell 2024 form, but please give it a shot now, too. It’s really helpful once you’re used to it.  *** Hello everyone, and welcome to … well to… to our newly opened gym. Pumpin’ German till your grammar-abs are rock solid. Over the years, I have developed a fair amount of exercises of different kinds to train the most important issues of German Grammar. And then, today, I thought, well I do have all these pdf-files sitting on my hard drive slowly collecting dust… why not share them? So share them I will. And the first one is going to be the one for “zu vs. um zu”  

German Da-Words Explained

Da-words (or da-compounds) are an essential part of German. Today, we'll learn what they are, how to use them and why they're actually pretty cool.

When to use “zu” or “um zu”

A thorough look at the difference between "zu" and "um zu" and a quick test to find out which one to use. All as funny video, and as a more detailed text :)