Asking with question words
GoalI can form questions with wer, was, wo and wie.
An open question in German opens with a question word, and nearly all of them begin with w: wer asks about a person, was about a thing, wo about a place, wie about the manner or state of something. What feels foreign here is not the vocabulary but the seating plan. The conjugated verb takes the second seat, directly behind the question word, and the subject follows only after it — Wo wohnst du? English speakers must additionally drop the helper do, because German has nothing that corresponds to it. So the lesson gives you four question words worth having ready on day one, shows how the verb slides into that second seat behind each of them, and then puts a small group of everyday verbs — living somewhere, arriving, being called something, travelling, walking — through exactly the same frame.
German W-Questions: wer, was, wo, wann, wie, warum + Word Order
Learn the German question words wer, was, wo, wann, wie, warum, welch- and wie viel, and the fixed word order where the verb comes second.
Read the full grammar pageWords in this lesson
Practice
___ wohnst du?
Wann ___ der Zug ab?
Warum ___ du so früh nach Hause?
Finished the lesson?