The 8 Parts of Speech in German: Definitions and Easy Examples

Parts of speech in German are a labeling system used to help clarify what job a word has within a given sentence. You’ll find it useful to know what label, or part of speech, each term falls under in German grammar because it will assist you in knowing their meaning and what their impact is on your sentence—both grammatically and contextually. Once you know the eight parts of speech in German, you’ll find it easier to form correct German sentences, understand German idioms, and learn more complex sentence structures.

Simple chart for the parts of speech in German

Before you read too deeply, take a look at this table to get a quick overview of the building blocks that make up the German language and learn the basic parts of speech in German. As an English speaker, you’ll find they are almost the same as in English since it’s a Germanic language, too!

German Part of Speech	Role	English Translation
Adjektiv	describes or qualifies nouns	adjective
Adverb	modifies verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs	adverb
Interjektion	expresses sudden feelings, reactions, or commands	interjection
Konjunktionen	connects words, phrases, or clauses	conjunction
Nomen	names people, places, and things	noun
Präposition	links words by showing relationships (location, direction, time, and cause)	preposition
Pronomen	replaces or refers to nouns	pronoun
Verb	expresses actions, states, or processes	verb

Adjektive (adjectives) in German

You can give that extra flair to your descriptions with German adjectives, which are used to modify nouns. Adjectives are how you tell your friend how scary a movie was or how cute your new puppy is. Adjektive (adjectives) are a part of speech in German that answers one of these questions about a noun:

What kind? (Big, blue, old)
Which one? (That, this, a)
How many? (Three, several, few)

When using an adjective in a German sentence, you will need to “decline” its ending based on the grammatical gender and German case of the noun being modified. “Declension” is just a fancy word for “changing the ending” of the adjective to agree with a noun. There are two main systems in place for declining German adjectives, as you’ll read about below.

Tips for adjusting German adjectives with articles

When the noun being modified by your German adjective has an article associated with it, like der (the, masculine), then most of the work has been done for you. You’ll simply need to add either an -e or -en to the end of the stem of your adjective. This is called a weak declension.

See the table below to learn which ending you’ll choose for your adjective when an article is present, based on case and grammatical gender.

Case	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
nominative	-e	-e	-e	-en
accusative	-en	-e	-e	-en
dative	-en	-en	-en	-en
genitive	-en	-en	-en	-en

Here are a few sentence examples of weak declensions of German adjectives:

Das große Hemd ist braun. = The big shirt is brown.
Das blaue Auto ist neben dem roten Auto. = The blue car is beside the red car.

How German adjectives change without articles

On the other hand, if there is no article in sight for your sentence, then your adjective will have to pull a double shift. Not only will your adjective modify a noun, the ending of that adjective will have to communicate what grammatical gender and case the noun is in. This is known as a strong declension.

Have a look at the table below to see what endings an adjective will have for each gender and case in a strong declension.

Case	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
nominative	-er	-e	-es	-e
accusative	-en	-e	-es	-e
dative	-em	-er	-em	-en
genitive	-en	-er	-en	-er

Check out these example sentences to see strong declensions of German adjectives in action:

Das ist ein sehr schneller Mann. = That is a very fast man.
Das ist ein sehr kleines Haus. = That is a very small house.

Adverbien (adverbs) in German

An overhead view of a group of people looking at plot maps on a table.

What if you need to modify a part of speech that isn’t a noun so you can describe a time, place, or degree of something you’re seeing or doing? Reach for your trusty German adverbs. These Adverbien (adverbs) can modify verbs, prepositional phrases, other adverbs, pretty much everything except for nouns. Some German question words, such as wie (how) and warum (why) are also adverbs in the German language.

An adverb will fall under one of these four categories:

Temporaladverbien (adverbs of time)
Lokaladverbien (adverbs of place)
Modaladverbien (adverbs of manner)
Gradadverbien (adverbs of degree)

You’ll typically find German adverbs adjacent to the part of speech they’re modifying, much like an adjective. Look at the sentences here for examples of different adverbs modifying non-noun parts of speech:

Kannst du die Kirche jetzt sehen? = Can you see the church now? (temporal)
Dieses Schwimmbecken ist draußen. = The swimming pool is outside. (locative)
Fahrräder sind leise. = Bicycles are quiet. (modal)
Die Palastgärten sind sehr schön. = The palace gardens are very beautiful. (degree)

Interjektionen (interjections) in German

German Interjektionen (interjections) express a sudden emotion or feeling. This emotive part of speech in German breaks the mold in that they’re very conversational and don’t have much impact on the grammar of a sentence compared to other German parts of speech.

Interjections can appear just about anywhere within a German sentence. All you need to do is place a comma before any word that may precede it and immediately after it, and you’re done! No need to restructure anything around it or alter any spellings of other words. It’s just a way to show what the speaker is feeling with a quick term.

Here are a few common examples of German Interjektionen along with their English translations.

German Interjection	English Translation
ach	oh
genau	great, exactly
also	so
mist	darn, crap
ups	oops
aua	ouch
hä	huh

See these German Interjektionen sprinkled throughout sentences and how they impact the tone of the sentence in the examples below:

Aua, das tut weh! = Ouch, that hurt!
Ich, ups, habe meinen Stift fallen lassen. = I, oops, dropped my pen.

Konjunktionen (conjunctions) in German

Should you need more than one clause to get your point across, German conjunctions will be the glue you need to hold them together. Conjunctions bind phrases and clauses together and describe the relationship between those clauses. See the two main groups of Konjunktionen (conjunctions) and their differences below.

Subordinating vs. coordinating Konjunktionen

There are two groupings of German conjunctions to know.

koordinierende Konjunktionen = coordinating conjunctions
subordinierende Konjunktionen = subordinating conjunctions

While the terms for these groupings are long, their differences are simple. Koordinierende Konjunktionen connect two independent clauses, while subordinierende Konjunktionen link dependent clauses to independent clauses. You’ll recognize this to be the same as in English.

German Coordinating Conjunction	English Translation
aber	but
denn	because
oder	or
sondern	but rather
und	and

Read the sentence examples below that include German koordinierende Konjunktionen connecting two independent clauses.

Mein Auge ist geschwollen, und es tut weh. = My eye is swollen, and it hurts.
Er trägt Schuhe, aber keine Socken. = He wears shoes, but not any socks.

In contrast, here is a chart showing five subordinierende Konjunktionen you’re most likely to encounter:

German Subordinating Conjunction	English Translation
damit	so that
dass	that
obwohl	although
weil	because
wenn	if/when

Now see examples of how German subordinierende Konjunktionen link an independent clause to a dependent clause.

Er weiß nicht, dass sie im Haus sind. = He does not know that they are in the house.
Die Frau ist traurig, weil sie geht. = The woman is sad because she is leaving.

Nomen (nouns) in German

All people, every place, and each thing you can think of are all German nouns. In the German language, all nouns are capitalized regardless of their place in a sentence. For example, in the sentence Das ist ein Auto (This is a car), Auto (car) is capitalized even though it’s at the end of the sentence.

Nouns can also stack in German! The infamously long German words you might have encountered, like Verkehrsinfrastrukturfinanzierungsgesellschaft (transport infrastructure financing company), are Frankenstein’s monsters of several smaller nouns that have been shoved together in the name of classically German efficiency.

Präpositionen (prepositions) in German

Präpositionen (prepositions) are a part of speech in German used before a noun or noun phrase to explain the relationship between it and the rest of your sentence. They’re generally grouped by what German case they indicate for the noun that follows them.

In total, there are four groupings of German prepositions.

accusative prepositions: set the nouns that follow them into the accusative case
- bis (as far as, up to), durch (through), gegen (against), etc.
dative prepositions: indicate that a dative noun will follow
- aus (out of), mit (with), zu (to), etc.
two-way prepositions: show movement or location, depending on context
- entlang (along), hinter (behind), zwischen (between), etc.
genitive prepositions: indicates a relationship between a noun and the rest of the sentence
- trozt (despite), wegen (because of), während (during)

See the effect of German prepositions on the case of the nouns that follow them here:

Wie weit ist es bis zu den Ruinen? = How far is it up to the ruins?
Ich möchte gern die Pizza mit Pilzen bestellen. = I would like to order pizza with mushrooms.
Wegen der Dürre sind alle Bäume gestorben. = Because of the drought, all of the trees have died.

Pronomen (pronouns) in German

Pronomen (pronouns) are a handy way to replace a noun and avoid repetition. For instance, if you were telling a wild story about a party with your friend Stephanie, you can quickly switch to calling Stephanie “she” once everyone knows about whom you’re speaking. There are nine German pronouns in total:

ich = I
du = you, informal
er/sie/es = he/she/it
Sie = you, formal (always capitalized)
wir = we
ihr = you, plural
sie = they

Each German pronoun will cause the main verb of your sentence to conjugate differently, meaning each pronoun gives the main verb a unique ending. If the subject of your sentence is a proper noun like mom, the supermarket, or Rodger, you’ll simply treat them as though they were er, sie, or es while conjugating.

To conjugate a German verb according to the subject of your sentence, remove the ending of your verb, usually -e or -en, and add one of the endings below. See what endings each pronoun uses along with the conjugation example of lernen (to learn) below:

German Pronoun	Verb Ending	*Lernen* Conjugation
ich I	-e	lerne
du you, informal	-st	lernst
er/sie/es he/she/it	-t	lernt
wir we	-en	lernen
ihr you, informal plural	-t	lernt
sie/Sie they, informal/you, formal	-en	lernen

Here are a few simple sentences showing how pronouns affect the main verb of a sentence in German conjugation.

Sie kochen. = They are cooking.
Hast du eine Frage? = Do you have a question?
Ich koche gern. = I like to cook.

Understanding possessive pronouns in German

Should something belong to something else, you can show to whom it belongs with German possessive pronouns. Similar to regular pronouns, possessive pronouns replace a noun to avoid repetition, but they also show ownership.

The list of German possessive pronouns includes:

mein = mine
dein = yours (singular informal)
sein = his, its
ihr = hers, theirs
unser = ours
euer = yours (plural informal)
Ihr = yours (formal)

Need an example? Look no further than the sentences below to see how possessive pronouns fit into German sentences:

Mein Lieblingsplatz war die Burg. = My favorite place was the castle.
Das war unsere Idee. = It was our idea.
Auf seinem Kopf trägt er eine Lampe. = He is wearing a flashlight on his head.

A quick look at German reflexive pronouns

German reflexive pronouns are a type of pronoun you use when the person performing the action and the object of that action are the same thing. Think of it like giving “yourself” five minutes to get ready for work.

German Subject Pronoun	Reflexive Pronoun	English Translation
ich I	mich	myself
du you, informal	dich	yourself
er/sie/es he/she/it	sich	himself/herself/itself
wir we	uns	ourselves
ihr you, informal plural	euch	yourselves
sie/Sie they, informal/you, formal	sich	themselves/yourself (formal)

Take a look at the sentences below to have a concrete example of German reflexive pronouns where the subject and object refer to the same person, place, or thing:

Zuerst muss ich mich rasieren. = First, I have to shave myself.
Für was interessierst du dich? = What do you interest yourself in?

Verben (verbs) in German

A woman hiking on a paved path with a dog showing parts of speech in german

Describe what actions are taking place or what states of being exist with German verbs. Words like laufen (to run) and sein (to be) fall under the umbrella of this part of speech in German. Verbs have several different forms in German depending on what role they’re fulfilling in the expression, what the subject of your sentence is, and what German tenses you’re communicating in: past, present, future, and so on.

Regular, irregular, and mixed German verbs

Generally speaking, there are certain rules one must follow when conjugating different German verbs. When a given verb follows every one of these rules without exception, it’s considered a “regular” verb. These are the best to start out with as you learn German, as they’re examples of standard grammar rules you’ll need as you build fluency.

Not every verb in the German language is as cut and dry, however. There are plenty of German verbs that don’t follow any of the standard conjugation rules, and these are known as irregular German verbs. Finally, there are some tricky verbs in the German language that only follow some of the rules that govern verbs. These are known as mixed German verbs.

Learning what commonly used verbs are regular, irregular, and mixed will greatly assist you in forming grammatically accurate German sentences and knowing when to apply a grammar rule.

Separable German verbs

Separable verbs in German are verbs with a prefix that can, in some cases, be moved to the end of a clause and separated from the main part of the verb entirely—thus the name “separable verb.” Once a prefix is separated, it will typically be moved to the very end of the clause. While you won’t always separate the prefix of a separable verb from the main part of the verb, you can feel confident doing so when:

making a simple declarative statement
asking a yes or no question

Here are a few examples to give you an idea of how these separable verbs work in German:

(absagen) Der Mann sagt seine Verabredung für heute Abend ab. = The man is cancelling his date tonight.
(vorstellen) Die Architektin stellt ihre Idee für ein Hotel vor. = The architect is presenting her idea for the hotel.

German modal verbs are a part of speech in German used to support other verbs by expressing conditions like possibility and necessity. There is a total of six modal verbs in German, including:

dürfen = may, to be allowed to
mögen = to like
können = can, to be able to
wollen = to want
sollen = should, supposed to
müssen = must, to have to

When a modal verb is introduced into a sentence, you’ll typically move your main verb to the end of your sentence in its infinitive form. The infinitive form is a verb’s base form, usually ending in -e or -en.

See the sentence examples below for a chance to see how modal verbs in German communicate conditions in regards to the main verb of the expression:

Ich muss den Akku meines Handys aufladen. = I must charge my cell phone battery.
Du kannst entweder Eier oder Obst essen. = You can either eat eggs or fruit.

Key takeaways for parts of speech in German

There are overlaps between the parts of speech in German and English, making this part of German easy to learn. See the three key takeaways for the parts of speech in German below:

Parts of speech in German are a labeling system for words that help clarify what role a word plays within a sentence and what rules apply to it.
There are a total of eight parts of speech in German, including adjectives, adverbs, interjections, conjunctions, nouns, prepositions, pronouns, and verbs.
Many parts of speech in German have subsections, such as verbs including modal verbs and separable verbs, but you should focus on the main categories as you start your language-learning journey.

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