Learn Hardcore German: Meine Oma backt Plätzchen, und mein Opa erzählt Geschichten aus seiner Kindheit. - My grandma bakes cookies, and my grandpa tells stories from his childhood.

According to current rules, between two main clauses joined by und or oder, you may leave the comma out if the clauses are closely connected:

Meine Oma backt Plätzchen(,) und mein Opa erzählt Geschichten aus seiner Kindheit.

Both versions are correct. Many people omit the comma in simple sentences, but some writers like to keep it to show a clearer separation between the two actions.

Why are Oma and Opa capitalized?

Because all nouns are capitalized in German, and Oma and Opa are nouns here.

Oma = grandma / granny
Opa = grandpa / grandad

Even if you feel they are “names” in English, in German they are treated as common nouns (like mother, father) and therefore written with a capital letter:

meine Mutter, mein Vater, meine Oma, mein Opa

Why is it meine Oma but mein Opa? Why different endings on the possessive?

Because the endings of mein- change with gender and case.

Both Oma and Opa are in the nominative case here (they are the subjects of their clauses):

(Wer?) Meine Oma backt Plätzchen.
(Wer?) Mein Opa erzählt Geschichten.

In the nominative singular:

Feminine: meine Oma
Masculine: mein Opa

So:

meine = nominative feminine singular
mein = nominative masculine singular

Why is it backt? Isn’t the verb backen irregular with bäckt?

The infinitive is backen (to bake). For er/sie/es in the present tense, both forms are accepted:

er backt
er bäckt

So Meine Oma backt and Meine Oma bäckt are both correct in standard German.

In everyday speech and writing, backt is now more common, and many textbooks prefer it because it looks more regular (like machen → er macht). But you will definitely still see bäckt.

What exactly is Plätzchen here? Is it singular or plural? Why no article?

Plätzchen can be:

singular: das Plätzchen = the (little) cookie / biscuit
plural: die Plätzchen = the cookies / biscuits

In Meine Oma backt Plätzchen, there is no article, so it is read as an indefinite plural:

backt Plätzchen ≈ bakes cookies (in general, some cookies)

German often leaves out the article in the plural when we mean “some” or “(usually) does this thing”:

Er kauft Bücher. – He buys books.
Sie schreibt Briefe. – She writes letters.

Also, -chen is a diminutive ending. Platz → Plätzchen literally means “little things (originally: little flat things)”, but in modern use it just means cookies, often especially Christmas cookies in many regions.

What’s the difference between Plätzchen and Kekse?

Both normally translate as cookies / biscuits, but there are nuances:

Plätzchen
- Often associated with homemade, small, mostly sweet cookies, especially around Christmas.
- Feels a bit more “traditional / homely”.
Kekse
- More general, often used for store-bought biscuits or cookies.
- Also used generically: Kekse on a packet in the supermarket.

In many contexts they overlap. Your sentence would also be fine as:

Meine Oma backt Kekse …

Why are the verbs in second position: Meine Oma backt … and mein Opa erzählt …?

German main clauses follow the V2 rule (verb-second):

The conjugated verb is always in second position in a normal statement.
“Second position” means: after the first element (which can be one word or a whole phrase).

In the first clause:

Meine Oma (first element)
backt (verb in 2nd position)
Plätzchen (rest)

In the second clause:

mein Opa
erzählt
Geschichten aus seiner Kindheit

You could move other elements to the front, but the verb would still stay in second position:

Plätzchen backt meine Oma.
Geschichten aus seiner Kindheit erzählt mein Opa.

Why is it just backt and erzählt and not something like “is baking” or “is telling”? Does German have a progressive tense?

German mostly uses one present tense (das Präsens) where English has simple present and present continuous:

Meine Oma backt Plätzchen.
- can mean My grandma bakes cookies (generally)
- or My grandma is baking cookies (right now)
Mein Opa erzählt Geschichten.
- can mean My grandpa tells stories (in general)
- or My grandpa is telling stories (right now)

Context usually makes it clear whether we mean a general habit or an action happening now.

A special progressive form (ist am Backen, ist dabei zu backen) exists in spoken German, but it’s less common and not needed here.

Why do we say erzählt Geschichten and not sagt Geschichten or spricht Geschichten?

Because erzählen is the natural verb that goes with Geschichten:

eine Geschichte erzählen = to tell / narrate a story

sagen means to say, usually followed either by what is said as a short phrase or by that-clauses:

Er sagt „Guten Tag“. – He says “Good day.”
Sie sagt, dass sie müde ist. – She says that she is tired.

sprechen means to speak, focusing more on the act of speaking or the language:

Er spricht Deutsch. – He speaks German.
Sie spricht mit ihrer Oma. – She is speaking with her grandma.

For telling stories, Germans basically always use Geschichten erzählen, not sagen or sprechen.

Why is it aus seiner Kindheit and not von seiner Kindheit?

Both are possible, but they have slightly different nuances:

Geschichten aus seiner Kindheit
- Literally: stories from his childhood
- Focuses on origin in time / life period.
- The stories come out of that period; they are episodes that happened then.
Geschichten von seiner Kindheit
- Literally: stories about his childhood
- Focuses more on topic / aboutness.
- Could be more general commentary or description about that period.

In practice, Germans very often say Geschichten aus seiner Kindheit, because we imagine those stories as coming from that time in his life.

Why is it seiner Kindheit and not seine Kindheit or seinem Kindheit?

This is about the case required by the preposition aus and the gender of Kindheit.

aus always takes the dative case.
Kindheit (childhood) is feminine: die Kindheit.
Feminine dative singular of the definite article die is der.

So:

aus der Kindheit = from the childhood

Now add a possessive pronoun instead of der:

Feminine dative singular of sein- (his) is seiner.

Therefore:

aus seiner Kindheit = from his childhood

That’s why it’s seiner, not seine (nominative/accusative) or seinem (dative masculine/neuter).

Who does seiner refer to? Could it be the grandma’s childhood instead of the grandpa’s?

Grammatically, seiner could, in theory, refer to any masculine or neuter noun mentioned in the larger context, but in this sentence the natural interpretation is:

seiner = mein Opas (his = my grandpa’s)

Reasons:

seiner Kindheit is inside the clause with mein Opa as the subject.
By default, a possessive like sein- refers to the subject of its clause, unless context clearly shows otherwise.
Contextually, it’s most logical: Grandpa tells stories from his own childhood.

If we wanted to clearly say “from my grandma’s childhood,” we’d normally use:

aus ihrer Kindheit (her childhood) – referring back to meine Oma.

What case are Plätzchen and Geschichten in?

Both are direct objects of their verbs, so they are in the accusative plural:

Meine Oma backt (was?) Plätzchen.
Mein Opa erzählt (was?) Geschichten aus seiner Kindheit.

In the plural, many nouns don’t change form between nominative and accusative, and there is no indefinite article to show case, so you mostly recognize the accusative by the role in the sentence (it answers “what?” or “whom?” after the verb).

Could I say Meine Großmutter backt Kekse, und mein Großvater erzählt Geschichten aus seiner Kindheit instead? Is that the same?

Yes, that is grammatically correct and means essentially the same thing.

Differences in tone:

Oma / Opa
- Very common, informal, and affectionate, especially when talking about your own grandparents or in family settings.
Großmutter / Großvater
- More formal, neutral, or a bit “bookish”.
- Often used in official contexts, written texts, or when speaking more distantly about someone else’s grandparents.

Similarly, Plätzchen vs. Kekse has the nuance we discussed earlier, but your alternative sentence is entirely natural.