Learn German B2: stories with nuance

A student, a retired teacher and a nurse share a flat, and a cleaning rota on the fridge decides more than just who cleans the bathroom.

Passiv (passive voice) · Relativsatz (relative clause) · 7 new words

A Serbian engineer moves to Graz for his dream job and gets stuck in a bureaucratic loop, until an unexpected landlady steps in.

Konjunktiv II (would, could) · Relativsatz (relative clause) · 6 new words

A teenager boards the slowest express train in the world, determined to spend eight hours on her phone, while her grandmother quietly looks out of the window.

Passiv (passive voice) · Genitiv (genitive case) · 6 new words

A family sells their car for one year as an experiment, and their relatives are sure they won't last two weeks.

Passiv (passive voice) · Konjunktiv II (would, could) · 6 new words

Mr Pfeiffer only wants to put a garden gnome next to his tomatoes, but the allotment association has rules, and every rule comes with a form.

Passiv (passive voice) · Genitiv (genitive case) · 7 new words

Harvest time at a family winery on the steep terraces above the Danube, where every grape is still picked by hand. Then a storm is forecast.

Passiv (passive voice) · Genitiv (genitive case) · 8 new words

A window manufacturer tries out the four-day week for six months, and its loudest critic is a foreman who has no idea what to do with his Fridays.

Passiv (passive voice) · Genitiv (genitive case) · 7 new words

A retired bridge engineer from Porto spends a month at a language school in Freiburg and battles with the German subjunctive. The eight-year-old daughter of his host family turns out to be a strict teacher too.

Genitiv (genitive case) · Konjunktiv II (would, could) · 6 new words

A small town fills its streets and bins with sensors. The mayor promises that everything is anonymous, but the data soon shows something nobody planned for.

Passiv (passive voice) · Konjunktiv I (indirect speech) · 7 new words

A conservator is restoring a damaged altarpiece in a village church when a strange green shimmers through beneath the Madonna's cloak.

Passiv (passive voice) · Genitiv (genitive case) · 7 new words

Two families move into one house: three teenagers who refuse to share a room, and two dogs who fall in love on the first evening. Then comes their first Christmas together.

Konjunktiv II (would, could) · Relativsatz (relative clause) · 7 new words

A letter announces a big rent increase, and the property management gives every tenant a different excuse. Only the oldest tenant in the building says nothing and quietly heads to the city archive.

Konjunktiv I (indirect speech) · Genitiv (genitive case) · 6 new words

A local paper reports on an author's sold-out reading from her new novel, and on a question from the third row that nobody had expected.

Konjunktiv I (indirect speech) · 7 new words

A renowned gallery is preparing a new art exhibition when an unpleasant discovery is made. The team's solution surprises everyone.

Passiv (passive voice) · 8 new words

At a staff meeting the boss promises that nobody has to worry. Dana, who knows the figures, goes home and starts kneading dough.

Konjunktiv I (indirect speech) · 7 new words

After her company installs new monitoring software, Anna feels watched at work. Is she right to worry?

Passiv (passive voice) · 8 new words

For sixty years two rival bakeries in a small town ignored each other. Now they have to become one, and the founders' grandchildren have to share a bakehouse.

Passiv (passive voice) · Genitiv (genitive case) · 7 new words

Three siblings inherit their parents' house and cannot agree on what to do with it, until one of them escapes the argument and climbs up to the attic.

Genitiv (genitive case) · Konjunktiv II (would, could) · 8 new words

An owners' meeting in a bicycle cellar has to decide the fate of the old chestnut tree in the courtyard, and almost everyone has a reason to cut it down.

Konjunktiv I (indirect speech) · Genitiv (genitive case) · 6 new words

For weeks the canteen has been buzzing with rumours that production is moving abroad. Then the managing director calls everyone to a staff meeting.

Konjunktiv I (indirect speech) · Passiv (passive voice) · 7 new words

Two siblings are only two hundred metres below the summit they have dreamed of for years, when a dark wall of cloud appears in the west.

Präteritum (simple past) · Genitiv (genitive case) · 7 new words

Three empty halls, a bucket and a ladder: a modern art exhibition is torn apart by the critics, and then the cleaner comes in on a Monday morning.

Passiv (passive voice) · Konjunktiv I (indirect speech) · 7 new words

A bike courier crashes on a street corner, and three witnesses give a detective three completely different versions of what happened.

Konjunktiv I (indirect speech) · 7 new words

Late at night, at a small station, a connecting train is cancelled and seven strangers are stranded on an empty platform. Then the signalman comes out of his signal box with a key.

Passiv (passive voice) · Konjunktiv II (would, could) · 7 new words

After six defeats in a row, a football club sacks its coach, the fans are furious, and the new man promises very little.

Konjunktiv I (indirect speech) · Passiv (passive voice) · 8 new words

A small town discovers an uncomfortable truth about the factory owner whose statue stands on its market square, and suddenly everyone has an opinion.

Konjunktiv I (indirect speech) · Genitiv (genitive case) · 8 new words

The drivers of a rural bus company go on strike, and the union and the management trade statements through the press. Then, on the third day, the managing director's car won't start.

Passiv (passive voice) · Konjunktiv I (indirect speech) · 7 new words

Munich's most feared critic tears apart a small Balkan grill. The owner doesn't argue: he simply invites him back.

Konjunktiv I (indirect speech) · 8 new words

Almost a million people follow Leon's perfect mornings on the beach, but his neighbours have never seen him before ten. Then a windy Tuesday blows a piece of beach off his balcony.

Konjunktiv II (would, could) · Relativsatz (relative clause) · 7 new words

Three days after her first big win, a young cyclist is suspended for doping. She swears she has never taken anything, and her coach goes through every detail of her last few weeks.

Konjunktiv I (indirect speech) · Passiv (passive voice) · 7 new words

A small town votes online for its honorary citizen for the first time, and one typo on the website changes everything. The mayor does his best to fix it.

Passiv (passive voice) · Genitiv (genitive case) · 7 new words

For a whole year, an envelope full of money turns up at a children's hospital every month. Then one note mentions something hardly anyone could know.

Konjunktiv I (indirect speech) · Passiv (passive voice) · 7 new words

A publishing house lets software decide which manuscripts are worth reading. One editor doesn't trust it, and finds a novel at the very bottom of the reject pile.

Passiv (passive voice) · Konjunktiv I (indirect speech) · 8 new words

A manager who is never offline travels to his brother's wedding in a mountain village, where his phone finds no signal at all.

Konjunktiv II (would, could) · Relativsatz (relative clause) · 6 new words

A priceless medieval book of herbs vanishes from a small town's library, and every witness tells a different story.

Passiv (passive voice) · Konjunktiv I (indirect speech) · 7 new words

A vegan restaurant opens in a Bavarian village, and the regulars at the local inn already know it won't last three months. Especially the village butcher.

Konjunktiv I (indirect speech) · Genitiv (genitive case) · 7 new words

A small town prepares for its annual festival, and the woman who has run it for thirty years notices that her committee is suddenly keeping secrets.

Passiv (passive voice) · Genitiv (genitive case) · 8 new words

A nervous intern interviews a beekeeper from a safe distance, and the local paper turns his words into something he never said.

Konjunktiv I (indirect speech) · 8 new words

A journalist investigates an abandoned villa where strange noises are heard and lights are seen at night. What secret will she uncover?

Passiv (passive voice) · 8 new words

An online retailer announces that no customer data was affected by a security problem. A journalist receives an anonymous email and starts making phone calls.

Konjunktiv I (indirect speech) · Genitiv (genitive case) · 7 new words