The LEGO Brick Method: How to Build Your First German Sentences from Scratch

You’ve started learning German. You've memorized some nouns, a few verbs, and a handful of greetings. Your collection of digital flashcards is growing. You have a pile of words like Hund (dog), Buch (book), lesen (to read), and kaufen (to buy).

But when you try to express a simple thought, you freeze. It feels like you have a box full of LEGO bricks, but no instruction manual. How do you snap them together? How do you turn individual words into a coherent sentence that someone else can actually understand? 🤔

This is one of the most common and frustrating hurdles for A1 learners. You've moved past the absolute basics, but you're not yet able to communicate. The good news is that building your first German sentences is a skill, not a mystery. It follows a simple, repeatable logic.

In this guide, we'll break down the “LEGO Brick Method”—a step-by-step approach to constructing your first German sentences with confidence. We'll focus on the core mechanics, giving you a framework you can use immediately. This is about moving from passively knowing words to actively using them.

The Foundation: Your First German Sentence Structure (SVO)

Let’s start with the most basic, stable structure in the German language. For simple statements, German often follows a pattern you might recognize from English: Subject - Verb - Object (SVO).

Think of these as your three essential LEGO bricks:

• The Subject (Who or What is doing the action?): This is your main character. It could be ich (I), der Mann (the man), meine Katze (my cat).
• The Verb (The Action): This is what the subject is doing. Crucially, in a simple German sentence, the verb almost always comes in the second position. This is the golden rule. Remember it! Examples: lerne (learn), sieht (sees), spielt (plays).
• The Object (Who or What is receiving the action?): This is the thing the verb is acting upon. Examples: Deutsch (German), einen Film (a movie), Fußball (soccer).

Let's assemble some sentences.

Brick 1 (Subject): Ich (I) Brick 2 (Verb): lerne (learn) Brick 3 (Object): Deutsch (German)

Snap them together:

Ich lerne Deutsch. (I am learning German.)

See how that works? Subject in position 1, Verb in position 2, Object in position 3. It’s clean and clear.

Let's try another one.

Brick 1 (Subject): Der Hund (The dog) Brick 2 (Verb): frisst (eats) Brick 3 (Object): das Futter (the food)

Assemble:

Der Hund frisst das Futter. (The dog eats the food.)

One more, for good measure:

Brick 1 (Subject): Die Frau (The woman) Brick 2 (Verb): kauft (buys) Brick 3 (Object): ein Auto (a car)

Assemble:

Die Frau kauft ein Auto. (The woman buys a car.)

This SVO structure is your home base. Mastering it means you can already form thousands of basic, correct sentences. Don't worry about complex grammar or word order just yet. Start here. Write down five SVO sentences right now using the vocabulary you know.

Step 2: Adding Color with Adjectives and Adverbs

Okay, you’ve built a basic house with your LEGO bricks. It’s functional, but it’s a bit plain. Now it’s time to add some color and detail. We do this with adjectives (describing words) and adverbs (words that describe the action).

Adding Adjectives (Describing Nouns)

In German, adjectives that describe a noun typically come right before the noun they are modifying.

Let's upgrade our previous sentences.

Original: Ich sehe einen Hund. (I see a dog.) Let's add the adjective braun (brown). Upgraded: > Ich sehe einen braunen Hund. (I see a brown dog.)

Original: Der Mann liest ein Buch. (The man reads a book.) Let's add the adjective interessant (interesting). Upgraded: > Der Mann liest ein interessantes Buch. (The man reads an interesting book.)

A quick note on adjective endings: You might have noticed that braun became braunen and interessant became interessantes. This is because of German grammar cases and endings. At the A1 level, our advice is: be aware of this, but don't let it paralyze you. If you say “Ich sehe ein interessant Buch,” every German speaker will understand you perfectly. Getting the sentence structure right is far more important at this stage than perfecting the endings. Communication first, perfection later!

Adding Adverbs (Describing Verbs)

What if you want to describe how the action is happening? That's where adverbs come in. These are often placed after the verb.

Let's modify our SVO structure slightly: Subject - Verb - Adverb - Object

Example:

Ich lerne gern Deutsch. (I learn German gladly / I like learning German.)

Here, gern (gladly) describes how you learn.

Another one:

Der Mann liest langsam das Buch. (The man reads the book slowly.)

Here, langsam (slowly) describes the action of reading.

Step 3: Asking Questions - Flipping the Bricks

What if you want to ask a question instead of making a statement? The LEGO model makes this incredibly simple. For a basic yes/no question, you just swap your first two bricks.

The structure becomes: Verb - Subject - Object?

Statement: Du sprichst Deutsch. (You speak German.) Swap the verb (sprichst) and the subject (du): Question: > Sprichst du Deutsch? (Do you speak German?)

Statement: Der Hund spielt im Garten. (The dog plays in the garden.) Swap the verb (spielt) and the subject (der Hund): Question: > Spielt der Hund im Garten? (Does the dog play in the garden?)

This simple inversion is a powerful tool. You’ve just doubled your communication ability. You can not only state facts but also ask about them. This is the foundation of a real conversation!

The Real-World Challenge: Putting Your Bricks into Action

So now you have the instruction manual. You know the SVO structure, how to add descriptions, and how to ask questions. You have the theory. ✅

But language learning doesn't happen in theory. It happens in practice. And when you try to apply this method, you quickly run into a few real-world problems:

1. The Blank Page Problem: What do you even write about? It's hard to practice building sentences when you're staring at a blank screen, trying to invent scenarios. You need inspiration.
2. The Vocabulary Gap: You decide to write about your morning routine, but you don't know the word for