Forming yes/no questions
English uses helping verbs like "do" or "does" to ask questions (e.g., "Does the dog drink water?"). German is much simpler: just move the main verb to the front!
This is called verb-first word order. To turn a statement into a question, place the conjugated verb in the very first position, followed immediately by the subject.
| Does the dog drink water? | Trinkt der Hund Wasser? |
| Do you drink tea? | Trinken Sie Tee? |
Answering with ja and nein
To answer a question, start with ja (yes) or nein (no). Place a comma after the yes/no word, and then follow up with a normal statement. In your statement, the verb goes safely back into the second position.
| Do you also drink water? | Trinkst du auch Wasser? |
| No, I drink coffee. | Nein, ich trinke Kaffee. |
Using pronouns in answers
When answering questions, replace nouns with pronouns so you don't repeat yourself. Remember that German pronouns must match the grammatical gender of the noun they replace:
- Replace masculine der nouns with er
- Replace feminine die nouns with sie
- Replace neuter das nouns with es
| Is the coffee good? | Ist der Kaffee gut? |
| Yes, it is very good. | Ja, er ist sehr gut. |
| Does the woman understand the child? | Versteht die Frau das Kind? |
| Yes, she understands it. | Ja, sie versteht es. |
Asking with adjectives
This verb-first rule applies to all verbs, including forms of "to be". You can easily use this structure to ask if things are right (richtig) or wrong (falsch).
| Is it right? | Ist es richtig? |
| No, it is wrong. | Nein, es ist falsch. |