Time expressions and frequency adverbs help you place actions and habits. "Heute" means today, "gestern" yesterday, "morgen" tomorrow, and "jetzt" now. To describe how often something happens, "immer" (always), "nie" (never), "oft" (often), and "manchmal" (sometimes) form the core frequency set you will use most often.
A bank of common adjectives lets you describe the world around you. Size and age are covered by "groß" (big) and "klein" (small), together with "neu" (new) and "alt" (old). Quality and appearance include "gut" (good), "schlecht" (bad), and "schön" (beautiful). Speed and temperature are expressed by "schnell" (fast), "langsam" (slow), "heiß" (hot), "kalt" (cold), and "warm." Personal states and feelings round out the list with "glücklich" (happy), "müde" (tired), "hungrig" (hungry), and "durstig" (thirsty).
Numbers anchor practical communication, with "eins" (one), "zehn" (ten), "(ein)hundert" (one hundred), and "(ein)tausend" (one thousand) as the building blocks. Ordinals such as "erste" (first) and "letzte" (last) let you describe positions in a sequence. Underpinning all of this is the German article system: the definite articles "der" (masculine), "die" (feminine), and "das" (neuter) translate as "the," while the indefinite "ein" (masculine and neuter) and "eine" (feminine) translate as "a" or "an." To negate, "nicht" cancels verbs and adjectives, while "kein" replaces the indefinite article when negating a noun.
Three essential verbs carry much of beginner conversation. "Sein" (to be) conjugates as "ich bin" for "I am," and you might use it in a self-introduction like "Ich bin Anna." "Haben" (to have) becomes "ich habe," letting you say "Ich habe eine Katze" ("I have a cat"). For movement, "gehen" (to go) conjugates as "ich gehe" for "I go." On top of these, six modal verbs shape what is possible, required, or permitted: "müssen" (must, have to), "können" (can, be able to), "wollen" (want), "mögen" (like), "sollen" (should, be supposed to), and "dürfen" (be allowed to, may). Together with the nouns, adjectives, and phrases from earlier chapters, these foundational verbs and modals give you the building blocks to form a wide range of A1-level sentences.