sein (present)         sein(past)

ich               bin                     war

du                bist                    warst

er/es/sie    ist                       war

Wir              sind                   waren

ihr                seid                    wart

Sie                sind                    waren

Let us see the following sentences which often mislead those who are beginners in german. The answers to these sentences really depends on a clue which will say whether the sentence context is  present or past. Depending on that you have to use the sein verb.

Wo _____ du gestern?
Wo _____ du heute?
Ich _____ in Berlin.

_____ Sie schon mal in Berlin?
Ja, ich ___ schon mal in Berlin.

You can omit articles in the following cases..

Before nationality

Before personal name

Before most countries (except countries like die Schweiz, Die Tuerkei, Die USA)

Before a profession.

Before nouns which give `some`/`many` meanings

Definite Article

Der/Die/Das always omitted for the following cases..

a musical instrument, especially when its played.

Before musical instruments.

Er spielt  __x__ Violin.

The answer marked x which means article is omitted.

Indefinite Article

Indefinite articles (ein/kein…etc) are always omitted in the following cases…

Grammar Rule : Eine is omitted or will disappear before plural nouns, whereas keine will not.

Masculine – ein/kein
Neuter – ein/kein
Feminin – eine/keine
Plural – x/keine

Das sind _____ Lampen.

You will be tempted to put `eine` as the answer but the correct answer is there will be article omission. You can mark it as ‘x’ which means Null Artikel.

lernen (to learn)
studieren (to study)

Lernen is often used context which is school related, language learning, personal or work experience.

Studieren is used only in the context of  University related coursework.

Examples:

Ich lerne Deutsch (learn language)
Ich studiere Biologie (university degree)

You can also write instead of lerne, but the whole meaning changes.

Ich studiere Deutsch.

which means that you are studying German as major degree in a university.

I am listing the contact information below places to learn german.

(i) Goethe Insitut

Goethe-Institut/ Goethe Zentrum
President Hall
734 Avinashi Road
Coimbatore 641018

Tel: 91 422 2221643

(ii) Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan

Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan is a school and they do conduct foreign language courses including german once or twice a year. You can call them for more information below.

Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan

582, DB Road, RS Puram

Coimbatore, India, 641002

Tel: +91 422 2542481 /  2556351

(iii)  Prof. Vishwanathan

You can directly take up classes in beginner/advanced german and i know he lives near CIT and recently lost his contact information.  Will soon update his profile.

Prof. Vishwanathan usually takes german classes at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan school. So better contact BVB school about him.

The following 4 simple german verbs will do wonders and can come into use in any situation…

möchen (to want)

finden (to find)

gehen (to go)

helfen (to help)

Das ist _______ Auto von Bernard.

The answer is `das`. why? if you observe closely the gender for Auto is `das` and ein is indefinite article. Since the auto (car) clearly belongs to Bernard, it becomes definite.

Das ist das Auto von Bernard

Keep in mind that the moment you see `von` and the Persons Name the answer will be definite article.

Sometimes properly identifying feminin or plural nouns could be really confusing. Here are the easy ways to isolate the differences.

1. Most plurals are notorious for -e, -en, -n, -er.
2. If not, look for umlauts. (most umlauts occur with plurals. This works however not always.)

Tip:

Masculine and Neutral nouns in most cases add -e -en -er to form plurals.

Feminine nouns in most cases add -n or -en to their nouns form plurals.

Some other nouns just add umlaut to make plurals, while others dont make change at all

die Väter = Fathers
die Zimmer = Room

Look at these peculiar plural nouns.

die Leute = People (It exists ONLY in plural )

das Geld = Money (It has no plural at all)

die Geschwister = Siblings or brothers and sisters ( It remains as plural always.)

For example. “die Karte” learn as a whole.

Tips to Isolate Feminine Nouns

There are some tips available to remember feminine gender which is described below…

1. Persons or Relationships

Persons or the relationships that are females, are indeed feminine in nature. Sometimes the gender is given depending on work or profession of female people. (for example female doctor)

2. -e endings

In german, most people had succeeded in isolating most nouns end with -e are feminine. There are indeed exceptions and yet some can be plural as well. Plural nouns start with “die” as well.

3. -ion endings

Most nouns that has -ion endings generally fall into feminine gender. However this applies for most not all.

4. -ung endings

Most german nouns that end in -ung also most probably should fall into category of feminine gender.

5. -ur endings

Nouns ending in -ur (not all) fall into feminine gender

6. -ik / -ek endings

-ik ending nouns are also considered to fall into feminine gender. Most nouns fall into this trick but not all.

7. -tät endings

German nouns that end in -tät most probably will be of feminine gender.

8. -keit or -heit endings

Look for -keit / -heit endings on any noun. This should be of feminine gender.

I have tried my level best to collect all these tips for german learners. There is no definite rule for gender classification in german. Thus these tips should definitely aid you in learning german nouns.

Notice that ‘s’ which is an indicative of neutral noun in german.

Some of fine examples of neutral nouns are…

Tips to Isolate Neutral Nouns

Here are some of the tips, so that you can best remember neutral german
nouns.

Learn this 1000 times in German!

Money (das Geld)and Water (das Wasser) always belong to neutral gender. In short they have no gender.

1. Child and Girl

Did you notice !

Surprisingly the gender for a child (das Kind) and unmarried girl (das Mädchen )
has no gender or das neutral gender? Surprised?

yes, in german they are very special. Both has no gender. This is a true peculiar difference with german language than compared to other languages.

2. -o endings

Watch out for some of the german nouns with
-o endings. These mostly should be of neutral gender. Please
note that not all nouns strictly obey rules, and this is just mere tip
to learn german at faster rate.

3. Noun Formation from Verbs

Look for any nouns that are derived or formed from the main verbs. They
most probably should be of neutral gender. Just make the verb change to
noun by capitalising the first beginning letter.

Note! Not all verbs can be easily converted to noun,
most undergo many changes before being transformed to noun.

4. -ot endings

Nouns that end in -ot are mostly neutral category.

5. -um endings

Another best way to isolate or identify neutral german nouns is by noticing
-um ending of nouns.

6. – tut endings

Tips to Isolate Masculine Nouns

In this learning, i will give you several tips and tricks that would help you to point a particular german noun as masculine gender.

1. Persons or Relationships:

If you are describing a person or relationships who is a male, then obviously the gender cannot be none other than masculine.

2. Time Related (Long or Lengthy time)

Watch out for weekdays, months, seasons, morning, evening. They all have masculine gender.

3. Map Directions

The directions used in the map namely east, west, north, south has masculine gender

3. Look for Noun Ending in -hof.

A relative number of nouns ending with -hof has masculine gender.

4. Coffee and Tea:

Coffee and tea are always given masculine.

Drinking Beverages

der Kaffee = Coffee
der Tee = Tea