What's the difference between der, die, and das?
Der, die, and das are the three German definite articles, equivalent to "the" in English. They indicate grammatical gender: der is masculine, die is feminine, and das is neuter. Every German noun belongs to one of these three genders, which you need to memorise alongside the word itself. Gender also affects how adjectives and pronouns change in a sentence.
How do I know when to use haben or sein in the Perfekt?
The general rule: use hat (haben) for most verbs, especially transitive ones that take a direct object. Use ist (sein) for verbs expressing movement from one place to another (gehen, fahren, laufen, fliegen, reisen) and verbs expressing a change of state (werden, sterben, wachsen, einschlafen, aufwachen). A handful of verbs always use sein regardless: bleiben, passieren, gelingen, scheitern. When in doubt, haben is the safer guess — it covers the majority of verbs.
How do I form the Partizip II?
For regular verbs: add ge- before the stem and -t at the end (machen → gemacht, kaufen → gekauft). For irregular verbs: the stem often changes and the ending is -en (gehen → gegangen, schreiben → geschrieben — these must be memorised). For verbs ending in -ieren: no ge-, ends in -t (telefonieren → telefoniert). For separable verbs: ge- goes between prefix and stem (aufmachen → aufgemacht). For verbs with inseparable prefixes (be-, er-, ver-): no ge- added (bezahlen → bezahlt).
Do I need to create an account?
No. All apps on Deutsch Üben work without any login or account. Your progress — including which words you've seen and your accuracy per word — is saved automatically in your browser's local storage on your device. It persists between sessions as long as you don't clear your browser data.
Are the apps really free?
Yes, completely free. No paywall, no premium version, no hidden cost. All content across A1 to C2 is accessible to everyone. The apps are supported by non-intrusive advertising. If you find them helpful and want to support the project, a donation option will be available in the future.
Which app should I start with?
Work roughly in this order, though the apps overlap and you can dip between them.
A1 — start with
German Articles; knowing der/die/das underpins everything else. Learn the plural at the same time in
Plural, which uses the same nouns at the same levels.
Deutsche Konjugation gives you the present tense, and
Zeit Master is a practical skill you will need in week one. In
Satzbau, A1 covers the connectors that change nothing — und, oder, aber, denn.
A2 —
Deutsches Partizip for the Perfekt, which is how Germans actually talk about the past.
Satzbau now introduces weil, dass and wenn, where the verb jumps to the end.
Pronomen covers mich/mir and the reflexives, which appear in almost every sentence.
Fälle and
Adjektivendungen both start here, and
Steigerung covers comparison.
B1–B2 —
Fälle deepens into the dative verbs and the Genitiv,
Adjektivendungen into the no-article pattern,
Pronomen into relative pronouns and da-Wörter, and
Satzbau into the wider conjunctions and clause-first word order.
C1 —
Satzbau covers extended participial attributes and Nominalstil;
Plural,
Konjugation and
Partizip keep going on vocabulary breadth.
Sitting the exam? Each level also has a printable
Spickzettel — the traps, tables and writing templates for that Goethe paper on one A4 PDF.
Is it "Ich gebe es ihm" or "Ich gebe ihm es"?
Ich gebe es ihm. When both objects are pronouns the accusative comes first, and ihm es is simply wrong. This reverses the pattern you learn with nouns, which is why it catches people out: with two nouns the dative leads — Ich gebe dem Mann das Buch. And if only one object is a pronoun, that pronoun jumps to the front whichever case it is: Ich gebe ihm das Buch, Ich gebe es dem Mann. One rule covers all three: a pronoun always moves forward, and when both are pronouns the accusative wins.
Why does the verb go to the end after "weil"?
Because weil is a subordinating conjunction, and those send the conjugated verb to the end of their clause: Ich bleibe zu Hause, weil ich krank bin. The same happens after dass, wenn, ob, obwohl, damit, als, bevor, nachdem, während, bis and falls. If there is a verb group, the whole group moves and the conjugated part comes last: …, weil er schlecht geschlafen hat. Compare und, oder, aber, denn and sondern, which join two main clauses and change nothing. And when the subordinate clause comes first, it fills position one, so the main clause then starts with its own verb: Weil ich krank war, bin ich zu Hause geblieben.
How do I form the German passive?
A form of werden plus the Partizip II — the same participle you already use for the Perfekt. Only the auxiliary changes: Das Buch wird gelesen in the present, Die Briefe wurden gelesen in the past. The werden form agrees with the new subject, which is the object of the active sentence: singular takes wird and wurde, plural takes werden and wurden. Only transitive verbs — the ones taking haben — can form a passive at all, because a passive needs an object to promote.
Why is it "der gute Mann" but "ein guter Mann"?
Because German only marks the case once. In der gute Mann the article already carries the masculine nominative -er, so the adjective can relax and take the weak ending -e. In ein guter Mann the article ein has no ending at all, so the marking moves onto the adjective instead: -er. It looks like two different rules, but it is one rule seen twice — the -er has to appear somewhere. This happens in exactly three places, where ein is bare: masculine nominative, and neuter nominative and accusative. Everywhere else the two patterns are identical, and most of the table is simply -en.
How do I know which plural ending a German noun takes?
Gender is your best predictor. Feminine nouns take -n or -en almost without exception and never take an umlaut — and since endings like -ung, -heit, -keit and -ion are always feminine, those plurals are fully predictable: die Wohnung → die Wohnungen. Masculine and neuter nouns ending in -er, -en or -el usually add nothing at all, so only the article changes: der Lehrer → die Lehrer. -s marks borrowed words: das Auto → die Autos. Whatever the ending, the plural article is always die in the nominative and accusative.
What's the difference between Fälle and Pronomen?
Both cover the German case system, but they drill different halves of it. Fälle is about the article: which case a preposition forces, whether a two-way preposition means movement or position, and which case a noun takes in a sentence — you produce den, dem, des. Pronomen is about the pronoun that replaces the noun — you produce mich, mir, meinen, dem in a relative clause. If you know the case but keep picking the wrong article, use Fälle. If you know the case but keep saying mich where it should be mir, use Pronomen.
When do I use mich and when mir?
With reflexive verbs the pronoun is accusative by default: ich wasche mich, ich freue mich, ich setze mich. It switches to dative as soon as the sentence already contains a direct object, because that slot is taken: ich wasche mir die Hände, ich putze mir die Zähne, ich kaufe mir ein Buch. The distinction only shows in the first and second person — in the third person sich covers both, which is exactly why it is easy to miss.
Do the apps follow the Goethe levels?
The level tags follow the Goethe-Institut word lists and exam scope where those exist. Vocabulary and verb levels were cross-checked against the official Goethe A1, A2 and B1 word lists and the Aspekte B2 and C1 lists. Grammar topics are placed by the same standard: the genitive case, for example, starts at B1 in Fälle because it is not part of the A2 syllabus, and genitive relative pronouns (dessen, deren) only appear at B2 because they are not in the B1 list.
Do you have printable cheat sheets for the Goethe exam?
Yes — there is a free
Spickzettel for every level from A1 to C2, as an A4 PDF you can print. Page one of each is a Watch Out checklist: the ten mistakes that cost marks at that level, with a one-line reason for each. After that every exam module gets its own page, so you can print only the parts you need — the listening traps, the grammar tables, or the fill-in templates for the writing paper. Each sheet also links to the Goethe-Institut's own free practice materials and audio for that level.