It is interesting to note that when you google “grammar exceptions in German” and the like, almost nothing comes up. German is a surprisingly exception-free grammar, which is refreshing for English-speakers for whom most rules are followed by: “except for…” Yet here are 10 exceptions to watch out for when learning German.
1. “Weak” Masculines in German Grammar or the Second Declension
Though in German grammar the articles are declined, most nouns are not, except for the genitive “s”. Yet there is an odd group of nouns called “weak masculines” or, in German, the “second declination” (”Zweite Deklination”). These take an “-en” at the end in certain cases. In German grammar, the masculine is the weaker sex. Also, bowties are cool. Photo via VisualHunt This group includes all masculines ending in: -e -ist -ent -ant -and Also a few ending in a consonant, but with no further distinguishing characteristics, such as “Bär”, “Mensch”, “Held” and “Rebell”.
These masculines are declined as following:
Singular
Nominative: der Mensch
Accusative: den Menschen
Dative: dem Menschen
Genitive: des Menschen
Plural
Nominative: Die Menschen
Accusative: Die Menschen
Dative: Den Menschen
Genitive: Der Menschen
2. Learn the Exceptions to the Weak Masculines
Because it wasn’t complicated enough, there are exceptions to the exceptions. "Der Käse" und "der See", though both ending in “e”, are declined normally.
Some masculines ending in -e or -en take the genitive “s” in addition to the second declension.
This includes “Name”, “Wille”, “Frieden”, “Samen”, and a few others. Thus, it would be “des Namens” and “des Friedens” instead of “des Namen” and “des Frieden”.
A few masculines ending in a consonant take an “-n” instead of an “-en”:
“Nachbar,” (neighbour), “Bauer” (farmer) and Ungar (the Hungarian national): Der Nachbar Den Nachbarn Dem Nachbarn Des Nachbarn Die Nachbarn Die Nachbarn Den Nachbarn Der Nachbarn “Herr” has its own version of everything - it takes only an “-n” in singular, but “-en” in plural: Der Herr Den Herrn Dem Herrn Des Herrn BUT: Die Herren Die Herren Den Herren Der Herren There is also one neutral noun that uses the second declination but in its own peculiar iteration, namely only in the genitive: Das Herz Den Herz Dem Herz Des Herzens Die Herzen Die Herzen Den Herzen Der Herzen Learn German online for some extra practice.
3. Conjugating German Verbs in “-ieren”
“Ich mache” / “Ich habe gemacht.” “Ich stehe.” / “Ich habe gestanden.” “Ich dekoriere.” / “Ich - habe gedekoriert?” Nope. Learning the participle of German words is hard enough - some also change the stem of the word, some don’t. Most end in “-en”. But all add “ge-” at the beginning, right? Wrong. One group of verbs does not form a participle beginning with “ge-”: verbs ending in “-ieren”. And since they already end in “-en”, their past participle ends in “-t”. So the correct form for the present perfect of “Ich dekoriere” would be “ich habe dekoriert.” German lessons are a good way to learn all the particularities of the language.
4. The Meaning of the German Phrase “Zu Hause”
You think you have learned German well enought to state your intention of going places. If you say you are going to the chemist’s, you say: “Ich gehe zur Apotheke.” Once you are there, you say: “Ich gehe in die Apotheke rein.” and "Ich bin in der Apotheke." But once you start talking about home sweet home, you say: “Ich gehe nach Hause” and “Ich bin zu Hause.” Unless, of course, you’re talking about any sort of house, and not your own, in which case you can say: “Ich gehe zu das Haus” and “Ich bin im Haus.” Get a competent German tutor here. "Ich gehe nach Hause", BUT "Ich bin zu Hause." German uses different locational conjunctions when speaking of home. If this is too confusing, practice saying : “Ich gehe heim.” and “Ich bin daheim.” instead. That way you can just focus on going “zu” shops and being “in” them, and don’t have to worry about “nach” or “zu” as meaning any else. Learn how to master the spoken German word and eradicate German mispronunciations here.
5. Why Germans Say “zu Hause” and Not “Zum Haus” When They Mean “At Home”
And what’s this about “zu Hause” anyway? Shouldn’t it be “zum Haus”, as “zu” definitely takes the dative form, right? After all, that's what they teach you in German lessons. And what’s that extra “e” at the end? Welcome to natural language evolution. The extra “e” comes from an older form of German, where some words got an “-e” ending in the dative singular. This use has passed from the language, but remains in the colloquial form “zu Hause”. So the dative is still there, but when the article disappeared, the ending didn’t get tacked on to “zu”, but remained attached to the noun. Search for German classes near you.
6. German Prepositions That Are Used With the Genitive
Generally, prepositions are followed by either the accusative (durch, für, gegen, ohne, um, and locational prepositions indicating movement) or the dative (aus, bei, mit, nach, seit, von, zu, or locational prepositions without indication of movement). But, just for fun, some of them use the genitive. This is not, per se, an exception, as a good grammar book will tell you about them. In fact, in terms of numbers they are by far the biggest group. But they are often ignored when learning German because: 1. A lot of these are seldom used in everyday speech, so that you may only encounter them in texts using a more formal or academic language. 2. For those that are commonly used, the dative is replacing the genitive in common usage. You can do this, too, but just so you can show off, here are a few of the most common ones:
Wegen: "Wegen des Regens bin ich zu spät gekommen." (Because of the rain, I came in late.)
Während: "Während des Unterrichts sollte man nicht mit dem Handy spielen." (You shouldn't play with your mobile during class.)
(An)statt: "Ich gehe auf die Konferenz statt der Sekretärin." (I am going to the conference instead of the secretary.)
Dank: "Dank meines Online-Sprachkurses habe ich mein Deutsch erheblich verbessert." (Thanks to my online language course, I was able to improve my German greatly.)
You can find more here.
7. Exceptions on How To Decline German Adjectives
Adjectives take an “e” in the nominative and an “-en” everywhere else, right? And stays in its pure form in phrases with “sein” or “werden”: ”Er ist schon.” (He is handsome.) “Sie wird berühmt.” (She will become famous.) Well, sort of. For one, if you are using the indefinite article “ein”, the adjective will take on the missing “-er” in the masculine nominative and the “-es” of neuter nominative and accusative:
Der kleine Hund - > Ein kleiner Hund
The small dog -> A small dog This cute little dog illustrates the use of adjective endings with indefinite articles. Photo credit: practicalowl via Visual Hunt / CC BY-NC
Das kleine Kind -> Ein kleines Kind
The small child - > A small child.
"Ich habe ein schönes Kleid gekauft."
I have bought a nice dress.
Some German adjectives also get slightly modified when they are declined.
For one, you don’t add an extra “e” if the adjective already ends in one, such as “leise”, quiet:
“Die Katze ist leise” (the cat is quiet)-> “Eine leise Katze” (a quiet cat).
Adjectives ending in “-el” usually lose the “e” before the last consonant:
“Das Zimmer ist dunkel” (the room is dark) -> “ein dunkles Zimmer” (a dark room)
Adjectives ending in “-er” lose the “e” IF the preceding vowel sound is a diphtongue:
“Die Schraube ist locker” (the screw is loose) -> “eine lockere Schraube” (a loose screw) = no diphtongue, the “o” in “locker” is a pure vowel.
“Das Essen war teuer” (the meal was expensive) -> “ein teures Essen” (an expensive meal) = “eu” is a diphtongue, so the “e” before the “r” is dropped.
The German adjective “hoch”
“Hoch” has its very own rules: the “c” gets dropped when declining. “Der Berg ist hoch” (the mountain is high) “Ein hoher Berg” (a high mountain) declines as: Ein hoher Berg Einen hohen Berg Dem hohen Berg Des hohen Berges
8. German Verbs Where You Cannot Separate the Prefix
All right, you’ve been learning German for years, took ten online languages course, now you have finally got it. If the verb has a prefix, the prefix likes to take off and go to the end of the sentence. Search for online German class here on Superprof. Verbs with prefixes are usually separated, with verb stem and prefix going their separate ways. Photo credit: AndGeorgeMakes4 Studios via Visual Hunt / CC BY-NC-SA So it’s:
“Ich komme gleich nach.” (nachkommen, not to be confused with the noun “Nachkommen”, which means descendants.)
“Du schaust zu.” (zuschauen)
“Er bereitet sich vor.” (vorbereiten)
“Wir brechen es zer.” (zerbrechen)
Wait, what? Obviously, “zerbrechen” is built upon the verb “brechen”, to break, and it means “to break apart”. “Zer” is a prefix, and yet, the correct form is: ”Wir zerbrechen es.” There is a certain amount of prefix verbs where the prefix cannot be separated. These are verbs starting with:
Be- (besprechen, begegnen, bekommen)
Emp- (empfangen, empfinden)
Ent- (Entstehen, entfernen)
Er- (erfinden, erklären)
Ge- (gebrauchen, gelangen)
Miss- (missbrauchen, misstrauen)
Ver- (verlassen, verbieten, versprechen)
Voll- (Vollenden, vollziehen)
Zer- (zerbrechen, zerstören)
If you are using flash cards in some form (digital or analog) to learn German vocabulary, you can mark separable prefix verbs with a little dot or a hyphen. This will help you learn them as you go instead of having to learn an extra list of inseparable prefixes like the one above.
9. When the Verb Doesn’t Come at the End in a Subordinate Clause
Generally, when dealing with subordinate clauses, the conjugated verb comes at the end; in other words, if you are using a tense that has an auxiliary verb, the auxiliary verb comes after the main verb:
"Ich sagte ihm, dass ich gestern einkaufen war." - I told him I went shopping yesterday.
However, if the verb is modal or is used with another verb in the infinitive (verbs such as “lassen”, for example), for the sake of sanity the auxiliary comes before the others:
"Ich sagte ihm, dass ich gestern habe einkaufen müssen." (NOT “dass ich gestern einkaufen müssen habe.”) - I told him that I had to go shopping yesterday.
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