Introduction 1 Part 1: The Basic Building Blocks of German 7 Chapter 1: Laying the Foundations of German 9 Chapter 2: Assembling the Basic Tools for German Sentences 29 Chapter 3: Sorting Out Word Gender and Case 45 Chapter 4: Building Your Word Power 61 Part 2: Focusing on the Present 77 Chapter 5: Grasping the Present Tense 79 Chapter 6: Asking and Answering Intelligently; Giving Orders 97 Chapter 7: In the Mood: Combining Verbs with Modal Auxiliaries 121 Chapter 8: Sorting Out Separable- and Inseparable-Prefix Verbs 141 Part 3: Adding Flair to Your Conversations 159 Chapter 9: Sounding More Like a Native with Verb Combinations 161 Chapter 10: Adding Adjectives for Description 175 Chapter 11: Comparing with Adjectives and Adverbs 197 Chapter 12: Connecting with Conjunctions 217 Chapter 13: Your Preposition Primer 231 Part 4: Looking Back and Ahead: Talking about the Past and the Future 247 Chapter 14: Conversing about the Past: Perfecting the Present Perfect 249 Chapter 15: Narrating the (Simple) Past: Fact and Fiction 263 Chapter 16: Looking to the Future (And Avoiding It) 281 Part 5: The Part of Tens 293 Chapter 17: Ten Tips for Optimizing Your German 295 Chapter 18: Ten Pitfalls to Avoid in German 301 Part 6: Appendixes 307 Appendix A: Verb Charts 309 Appendix B: English-German Dictionary 319 Appendix C: German-English Dictionary 323 Index 327.