Lesson 3: Basic Nouns and Adjectives

This lesson
will give you some basic nouns and adjectives and teach you how to use them as
well as negate them.

These lists
will give you some basic vocabulary, starting with nouns in the first list
followed by adjectives in the second list.

Nouns

der Mann        man

die Frau           woman

das Mädchen  girl

der Junge        boy

die Katze         cat

der Hund         dog

das Buch          book

der Tisch         table

der Stuhl          chair

das Zimmer     room

 

Adjectives

alt                    old

jung                 young

müde               tired

gut                   good

kalt                  cold

heiß                 hot

warm               warm

groß                 tall

klein                short/small

schön               beautiful

hässlich           ugly

dünn                skinny

dick                  fat

freundlich        friendly

It is
important to remember that ALL proper nouns are capitalized in German. This
includes Sie when it is used as a formal pronoun (meaning “you”). All nouns
also carry what is called an “article.” The basic articles in German are der,
die, and das. Keep in mind that “die” in German is pronounced like “dee” and
“das” is pronounced like “dass.” The German “w” is pronounced like a “v” in
English.

Take a look
at the following example sentences to learn how to use the vocabulary above.

Der Mann ist
groß.

The man is
tall.

Die Frau ist
schön.

The woman is
pretty.

Das Mädchen ist sehr
freundlich.

The girl is
very friendly.

Das Zimmer
ist kalt.

The room is
cold.

Der Hund ist
alt.

The dog is
old.

Notice that
the sentence starts with the noun and is followed by the correct conjugation of
the verb (in this case the verb “to be”). The adjectives follow and it is
grammatically correct to have them end the sentence in these examples.

Negating
Sentences

In order to
negate a noun, the correct form of the word “kein” must be used. The form of
the word will depend on the article that appears before the noun.

Der is the
masculine article, die is feminine, and das is neutral. Kein changes to keine
when used before the article die. When used with der and das, kein is
appropriate. When using kein, the article does not need to appear before the
noun.

For example:
Ich bin kein Mann. This sentence uses kein because the article of Mann is der.
Der is replaced by kein. This sentence translates to “I am not a man.”

Another
example: Das ist keine Katze. Keine is used because die is the article that
appears before Katze. This sentence means, “That is not a cat.”

In order to
negate an adjective, you must use the word nicht.

For example:
Die Frau ist nicht alt. Nicht appears before the adjective it is negating. This
sentence means “The woman is not old.”
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5 thoughts on “Lesson 3: Basic Nouns and Adjectives”

  1. Hi I study the Germani for 3 years bout not directly ,
    please guide me to know and can do good and conversation.
    and haw about the 16 lesson?

  2. Hi Mohammad,

    The best way to learn the language is to practice, practice and again practice. Read books in German, watch movies and find a partner to talk to. The more you talk, even if it is just small talk the better your German becomes.

    Good luck!

  3. Oh, I never understood, until today after this lesson, of when to use kein or nicht, I get it! Thank you! You succinctly explained.

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