German Stories - Learn German with Stories

Ask for a favor, express uncertainty, evade questions & imperative with ihr: geht / seid. Paul's parents are in the dance club. They talk to their friend, the head of the university and ask him to help Meili. He says he might be able to help her. Meanwhile, Paul texts Laura: He writes he doesn't like Fritz either. But then he playfully bypasses her inquiries about this topic by getting a date...

Give commands and instructions & imperative with du: sei / iss / sag / antworte / öffne / fahr / geh. Paul writes Anna to ask her for some clothing store recommendations and learns about Meili's problems. Then he visits his parents for coffee and cake. Now they are very friendly to him because they have a guilty conscience: Paul has lost his job which is partly their fault. And Laura writes hi...

Joke about a singing performance, talk about TV and university & dative and prepositions: zu der Frau / zum Glück / von der Hose / vom Mann. Anna and Meili are watching a talent show. Anna needs to break it to Meili that she missed a deadline at the university. She obviously had no clue and is devastated. It means that she can no longer take courses and she won't get a visa anymore. Maybe she...

Analyze your social circle, express solutions for problems & dative and prepositions: mit dem Garagenöffner / nach dem Fußballspiel and n-declension in the dative. Anna and Tim aren't mad at Paul anymore. But Meili still is. And Fritz is gone. Paul has to get Meili to forgive him. Only then can he invite all of his friends to the Oktoberfest, restore the old friendship and help Tim go on a date wi...

Talk about football (soccer), make arrangements & dative and prepositions: aus der Ecke / bei dem Foul. Paul and Tim were at a football (soccer) game - Paul had invited him and paid for the tickets. As a thank you, Tim calls Fritz's landlord and pretends to be Fritz: He wants to get him to arrange for the garage door to be repaired, so that Paul can sniff around inside. But it turns out that the d...

Internet related words & dative with plural and indefinite articles: einem Mann / keiner Frau. Paul is sitting in bed with his laptop, researching surf spots in Germany. Unfortunately, there are far too many of them. He needs more information before he can go on with his search. He finds Laura's e-mail in the spam folder: She saw him yesterday and thinks he has a wife and a child. That’s because h...

Address related words for sending letters & the dative case (dem, der, dem). Paul is near his apartment and opens Fritz's letter. It's two weeks old and it has the cell phone number of Fritz's landlord. Paul wants to call him and have the garage door repaired in Fritz's name. That way, he'll be able to open it afterwards, and sniff around inside. His problem: He doesn't sound like Fritz. He meets...

Use cool words like a teenager & temporal prepositions: im, am, um. Paul is at Fritz's apartment. He finds a letter from his landlord and a garage door opener with a broken sticker. He recognizes that it belongs to Fritz. The opener works, but the garage door won't open. The door may be broken. Suddenly strangers from Fritz's apartment talk to him through the window: They’re renting his apartment...

Tell a story, talk about an accident & perfect tense with separable and reflexive verbs. Anna has to empty her basement by herself. Her landlord puts pressure on her, but doesn't help. She drops a box because her shoulder hurts again. That's when Paul arrives. She reluctantly accepts his help. He gives her painkillers, and together they retell their bike accident story where she injured her should...

Describe your situation in the past & perfect tense: wir sind gewesen / gelandet. Paul is still with Grandpa while Meili is sending a link from Fritz's Facebook page. Fritz was promoted because he caught the Großkauf thieves. That must be the reason why he is now the new head of the theft department. Anna writes that she has to empty her basement. She has a deadline, but a friend who wanted to hel...

Talk about former times and history & perfect tense: er hat gesehen / vergessen. Paul visits Grandpa. And he asks his friends in the group chat about Fritz. But he kept everything as a secret. So they don't know anything. And they are still angry at Paul. It seems it’s Fritz who has the book. Paul cannot confess to Grandpa that it’s gone because he is the last person Paul still has. Grandpa al...

Ask for information about people, talk about smartphones & perfect tense: er hat erzählt / gesagt. Paul wants to visit Fritz at the police station and report the theft, but he is not there. He is the new head of the theft department and is currently on vacation. That seems to be something that Fritz has been hiding. Does he have the book? If so, then he would become aware of the report. Therefore,...

Facilities and locations in the city & reflexive pronouns and reflexive verbs. Paul is sad and on his way to the police station to file a report. His parents call him. They want to stress him again. Paul counters: They don't help, and they didn't even try to warn him of his mistake. Accidentally sending the message for his boss to his dad has cost Paul his job. His mother becomes remorseful. She s...

Restructure the workforce & separable verbs & sentence structure. Paul is getting fired. He wasn’t aware that he didn’t report his illness to his boss. Instead, he accidentally sent the message to his dad - who didn't warn him of his mistake. So he was absent without notice. He clears his desk and calls Grandpa who says there is something Paul doesn't know yet about the book. He should bring it wi...

Grocery shopping, measurements, weight & sentence structure, subordinate clause. Paul is sick. He’s doing his grocery shopping in the supermarket. After that, he wants to go home, take sleeping pills, and write a message to his boss about his sick leave. Things are not going well at work at the moment. He should work more and play less detective. So he wants to give up trying to find his lost book...

Name body parts, describe your illness to the doctor & personal pronouns in the accusative: mich / dich / ihn / uns / euch & introduction to the n-declension. Paul is at the doctor’s because he got sick. The caretaker replies to his message: There are no cameras on the outside of Paul’s apartment building. So it is unknown if the book was thrown down from the balcony. Paul's friends are all angry,...

Describe how things played out, and reasons for it & adjective declensions in the accusative: den großen Busch / einen großen Busch / großen Busch. Paul celebrates his birthday alone at home. He has no more friends. Now Fritz is mad at him, too, because he told Anna that he knows about her criminal record. He could have only got that information from a police officer like Fritz. He has an idea: Ma...

German dinner foods, bring up and disarm arguments & adjective declensions: eine internationale Stadt / ein grüner Tee / ein leckeres Bier / schöne Ecken. Scandal at the dinner buffet! Paul confronts Anna. He followed her and thinks he saw her trying to sell his book. And she was seen on the surveillance video with her bag. He also mentions her criminal record for theft. Anna is outraged. She was...

Evaluate options, negotiate, make a decision & adjective declensions: das wertvolle Buch / der alte Verkäufer / die kleine Frau. Paul is just about to walk into the bookstore and confront Anna there. But then he sees that the shopkeeper can't help her and she walks out. He gets a phone call from his parents: They say the book was a present from Grandpa. And that it would break his heart if he ever...

Express astonishment and disbelief, describe people’s actions & accusative with prepositions. Paul is following Anna. He thinks what's covered by a carrier bag inside her handbag is his book. He watches her walk into a bookstore. She takes the book out and negotiates with the shopkeeper. Paul gets angry and wants to run in to catch her red-handed. What will happen when Paul confronts Anna in the b...

Talk about points of interest, locations, means of transport & the accusative case (den, einen, keinen). In Berlin, Anna, Fritz and Paul want to go to the Brandenburg Gate. Fritz warns them about pickpockets because Anna's handbag won't close. Something square, wrapped in a carrier bag is sticking out. Fritz's mobile phone rings again, and he walks away so that they can’t hear what he’s talking. T...

Talk about a trip, directions using a map & simple past forms for modal & mixed verbs. Anna arrives on the train at the last second. She couldn’t answer her phone because the battery is dead. Also, her bicycle is broken. That’s why she is late. The train departs and they talk about sights in Berlin. Fritz gets a phone call and talks like he is in love. Paul catches Anna lying: her phone battery is...

Understand announcements in a train station & plural: nouns that get an -er / -¨er ending, simple past forms for irregular and auxiliary verbs. Paul and Fritz are at the train station and want to go to Berlin. While they are buying tickets, they wonder why Anna hasn’t arrived yet. She’s running late. Strangely she’s also not answering phone calls. Paul thinks she’ll come, and buys a third ticket f...

Text: e-mail, use simple past tense for written language & plural: nouns that get no ending but sometimes change to an ä/ö/ü, simple past forms for regular verbs. Fritz reads Paul's invitation email. He cleverly used the information about Anna's criminal record without giving away that he knows about it. He described his own theft as a child and the feelings of guilt that went with it. In doing so...

Discuss travel plans and options & plural: nouns that get an -s ending. Paul and Fritz take a look at some nice cars in a showroom. He talks about the trip to Berlin. Fritz is excited and wants to come along. But he doubts Anna would join them. So Paul shows him Anna's answer. It says "Paul, I didn't even know that! I’ll come with you." Fritz is totally puzzled: How on earth did Paul manage to do...