Chinese (Mandarin)

Spanish

English

Hindi

Arabic (Modern Standard)

Portuguese

Bengali

Russian

Japanese

Punjabi

German

Javanese

Malay

Telugu

Vietnamese

Korean

French

Marathi

Tamil

Urdu

Turkish

Italian

Chinese, Yue / Cantonese

Thai

Gujarati

Chinese, Jin

Chinese, Min Nan

Dari

Farsi

Polish

Pashto

Kannada

Chinese, Xiang

Malayalam

Sundanese

Hausa

Odia

Burmese

Chinese, Hakka

Ukrainian

Bihari, Bhojpuri

Tagalog

Yoruba

Bihari, Maithili

Uzbek

Sindhi

Amharic

Fula

Romanian

Oromo

Igbo

Azerbaijani

Chinese, Gan

Dutch

Kurdish, Central

Kurdish, Northern

Kurdish, Southern

Malagasy

Lahnda, Saraiki

Nepali

Sinhalese

Chittagonian

Zhuang

Khmer

Turkmen

Assamese

Madurese

Somali

Marwari

Bihari, Magahi

Haryanvi

Hungarian

Chhattisgarhi

Greek

Chewa

Dakhini

Akan, Twi

Akan, Fante

Kazakh

Chinese, Min Bei

Sylheti

Zulu

Czech

Kinyarwanda

Marwari, Dhundhari

Haitian Creole

Chinese, Min Dong

Ilocano

Quechua

Kirundi

Swedish

Hmong

Shona

Uyghur

Hiligaynon

Mossi

Xhosa

Belarusian

Balochi

### First and Then

When giving step-by-step instructions or telling a story, sequential adverbs help connect your sentences in a logical order. You will usually start with **zuerst** (first) and follow up with **dann** (then).

Because German is a "Verb-Second" language, starting a sentence with a sequence adverb pushes the subject to the other side of the verb. The conjugated verb must stay firmly in the second position.

{{item:867300}}

{{item:867302}}

### After That

To continue your sequence, use the adverb **danach** (after that). The verb-second rule continues to apply, so the verb immediately follows *danach*.

{{item:867307}}

### Finally and Lastly

To bring your instructions or story to a close, use **schließlich** (finally) or **zuletzt** (lastly). These words are largely interchangeable when wrapping up a sequence of events.

{{item:867309}}

{{item:867311}}

### Telling a Complete Story

These sequence words work perfectly together to describe daily routines, past memories, or any chain of events in order.

{{item:867313}}

{{item:867315}}

{{item:867316}}

### Flexible Word Order

While sequence adverbs often sit at the very beginning of the sentence to emphasize the order of events, they do not have to. When giving a formal command, for example, the verb must be the first word. In this case, the sequence adverb simply moves later in the sentence.

{{item:867319}}

Adverbs of sequence (zuerst, dann, danach)

adjective

adverb

auxiliary verb

conjunction

determiner

interjection

noun

numeral

particle

preposition

pronoun

sentence

verb

Definite articles and gender (der, die, das)

Indefinite articles (ein, eine)

Regular verbs and statement word order (ich -e, er -t)

The second person (du -st, Sie -en)

Yes/No questions

The verb 'to have' (habe, hast, hat)

Plural pronouns and regular verbs (wir, ihr, sie)

Plural 'to be' and 'to have' (sind, haben)

Plural nouns and the plural article (die)

Sentence negation (nicht)

Noun negation (kein, keine)

Question words (wer, was, wo, wie)

Numbers 0 to 12 (null, eins, zwei)

The accusative case (den, die, das)

Indefinite accusative articles (einen, keinen)

Direct object pronouns (mich, dich, ihn)

There is / there are (es gibt)

Vowel changes: e to i/ie (er spricht, sie liest)

Vowel changes: a to ä (er fährt)

Weather and conditions (es regnet)

First- and second-person possessives in the nominative (mein, dein, Ihr)

First- and second-person possessives in the accusative (meinen, deinen, Ihren)

Third-person and plural possessives (sein, ihr, unser, euer)

Possession with names (Annas Auto)

Demonstrative pronouns (dieser, diese, dieses)

Expressing preference (gern, lieber)

Asking about direction and origin (woher, wohin)

Expressing ability (können)

Polite requests (möchten)

Expressing intention (wollen)

Modal verbs of obligation and permission (müssen, dürfen)

Separable prefix verbs

Adverbs of frequency (immer, oft, manchmal, nie)

The Dative case and definite articles (dem, der, den)

Dative indefinite and negative articles (einem, einer, keinem)

Dative personal pronouns (mir, dir, ihm, ihr...)

Dative verbs (helfen, danken, gefallen, schmecken)

Dative prepositions (aus, bei, mit, nach...)

Accusative prepositions (für, ohne, gegen)

Two-way prepositions for location (in, an, auf...)

Informal singular imperative (mach, komm)

Plural and formal imperative (macht, machen Sie)

Coordinating conjunctions (und, oder, aber, denn)

Simple past of sein and haben (war, hatte)

The perfect tense: regular verbs (gemacht, gespielt)

Past tense: irregular verbs (ge-...-en)

The perfect tense: mixed verbs (gebracht, gekannt)

The perfect tense with sein (ist gegangen)

The perfect tense: separable verbs (eingekauft)

The perfect tense: inseparable and -ieren verbs (besucht, studiert)

Informal singular commands (mach, lern)

Numbers 13 to 20 (dreizehn to zwanzig)

Counting by tens to 100 (dreißig, vierzig)

Telling time (Uhr, halb, Viertel, vor, nach)

Numbers 21 to 99 (einundzwanzig, zweiunddreißig)

Greetings and farewells

Thank you, sorry and good wishes

Everyday replies

Numbers 100 to 1,000,000 (hundert, tausend...)

Becoming and getting (werden)

The impersonal pronoun (man)

Indefinite pronouns (jemand, niemand...)

Time sequence prepositions (vor, nach, bei)

Time span prepositions (von... bis, seit, für)

Two-way prepositions for direction (in, auf, an...)

Directional adverbs (hin, her)

Placement verbs (setzen, stellen, legen)

Months of the year (Januar, Februar)

The four seasons (Frühling, Sommer)

Time prepositions and indefinite pronouns (an, in, um)

Ordinal numbers 1st to 19th (am ersten)

Ordinals 20th and beyond (-ste, -sten)

Placement vs. location verbs (stellen vs. stehen)

Accusative reflexive pronouns (mich, dich, sich)

Accusative reflexive verbs (sich freuen)

Dative reflexive pronouns (mir, dir, sich)

Dative reflexive verbs (sich etwas merken)

Ordinal numbers 11th to 19th (-te)

Temporal prepositions (an, in, um)

Double objects with nouns

Double objects with pronouns

The modal verb for advice (sollen)

Simple past of modal verbs (musste, wollte...)

Simple past of common irregulars (wurde, wusste, es gab)

Adverbial connectors of consequence (deshalb, darum...)

Subordinate clauses for statements (dass)

Subordinate clauses for reasons (weil)

Question	Answer
to wash	waschen
First I wash the tomato.	Zuerst wasche ich die Tomate.
to cut	schneiden
Then we cut the tomato and the cheese.	Dann schneiden wir die Tomate und den Käse.
after that	danach
to fry	braten
the oil	das Öl
the pan	die Pfanne
After that we fry the egg with oil in the pan.	Danach braten wir das Ei mit Öl in der Pfanne.
finally	schließlich
Finally we eat together.	Schließlich essen wir zusammen.
lastly	zuletzt
Lastly I wash the plate and the cup.	Zuletzt wasche ich den Teller und die Tasse.
to shower	duschen
First the man showers.	Zuerst duscht der Mann.
to put on	anziehen
After that he puts on the shirt and the trousers.	Danach zieht er das Hemd und die Hose an.
Finally he drinks a coffee.	Schließlich trinkt er einen Kaffee.
First she brought the suitcase.	Zuerst hat sie den Koffer gebracht.
Have you already showered today?	Hast du heute schon geduscht?
Please cut the meat first!	Schneiden Sie bitte zuerst das Fleisch!
Then you need a pan and oil.	Dann brauchen Sie eine Pfanne und Öl.
Lastly, you fry the meat in the pan.	Zuletzt braten Sie das Fleisch in der Pfanne.
After that the child puts on the jacket.	Danach zieht das Kind die Jacke an.
Finally I brought the cake.	Schließlich habe ich die Torte gebracht.
now, well then	nun
Now we are going.	Nun gehen wir.
Now everything is ready.	Nun ist alles fertig.
only, not until; first	erst
I am not coming until eight.	Ich komme erst um acht.
First we work, then we eat.	Erst arbeiten wir, dann essen wir.
to finish, to call it a day	Schluss machen
We are calling it a day now.	Wir machen jetzt Schluss.
We finish at five.	Um fünf machen wir Schluss.

Contributors