Yes/no questions (verb first)

Asking a question that gets a simple yes or no in return needs no question word at all in German — just one small word-order change.

Quick shortcut: verb first — in a simple subject-first statement, the conjugated verb moves to position 1, and the subject follows right after it.

Moving the verb to the front

Here's a statement next to the yes/no question built from it:

The conjugated verb, which normally sits in second position in a subject-first statement, simply moves to first position. The subject that used to come before it now follows right after it, and the rest of the sentence keeps its order:

• Du wohnst in Berlin. → Wohnst du in Berlin? (Do you live in Berlin?)
• Er kommt heute. → Kommt er heute? (Is he coming today?)
• Die Kinder lernen Deutsch. → Lernen die Kinder Deutsch? (Are the children learning German?)

If a statement starts with something other than the subject (Heute kommt er — Today he's coming), don't shift every word mechanically — the yes/no question is built the same way regardless: conjugated verb first, then subject, then the rest (Kommt er heute?, not Kommt heute er?).

There's no extra helper word involved — ✅ Wohnst du in Berlin?, never ❌ Machst du in Berlin wohnen? German doesn't have an equivalent of English "do/does" for building questions; the main verb itself simply moves to the front.

Answering: ja, nein, or doch

The two basic answers are straightforward:

• Wohnst du in Berlin? — Ja, ich wohne in Berlin. (Yes, I live in Berlin.)
• Wohnst du in Berlin? — Nein, ich wohne in Hamburg. (No, I live in Hamburg.)

German has a third answer word worth knowing early: doch. It's used specifically to contradict a negative question — answering "yes, actually I do" to a question phrased with nicht or kein:

• Wohnst du nicht in Berlin? (Don't you live in Berlin?) — Doch, ich wohne in Berlin. (Yes, I do. / On the contrary, I do.)
• Wohnst du nicht in Berlin? — Nein, ich wohne nicht in Berlin. (No, I don't live in Berlin.) — agreeing with the negative uses nein, same as always.

A plain ja would sound confusing after a negative question like this, since it could be misread as agreeing with the negative ("yes, that's right, I don't"). Doch clearly signals "actually, the opposite is true" — it exists specifically to answer "yes" without that ambiguity.

Yes/no questions with modal verbs and separable verbs

The same front-position rule applies no matter what kind of verb is conjugated — only the conjugated part moves, and anything that stays behind (an infinitive, a separable prefix) stays at the end exactly like it would in a statement:

• Du kannst gut Deutsch sprechen. → Kannst du gut Deutsch sprechen? (Can you speak German well?)
• Du stehst früh auf. → Stehst du früh auf? (Do you get up early?)

Common mistakes

• ⚠️ Du wohnst in Berlin? is possible in casual speech, said with rising intonation as a quick confirmation question, but the neutral standard yes/no question moves the verb to the front: ✅ Wohnst du in Berlin?
• ❌ Machst du in Berlin wohnen? → ✅ Wohnst du in Berlin? (there's no "do/does" helper verb in German — the main verb itself moves to first position, exactly like machen would if it were the actual verb being asked about)
• ❌ Ja, ich wohne in Berlin. answering Wohnst du nicht in Berlin? when the true answer is "yes, I do live there" → ✅ Doch, ich wohne in Berlin. (a plain ja here reads as confusingly agreeing with the negative — doch is the word built for contradicting it)

Quick check

Can you turn these statements into yes/no questions?

1. Du kommst heute.
2. Er ist müde.
3. Die Kinder spielen Fußball.
4. Du kannst schwimmen.

Key takeaways

• A yes/no question moves the conjugated verb to the very first position — no question word, no extra helper verb like English "do/does."
• The subject that came before the verb in a statement now comes right after it; everything else keeps its order.
• Answer with ja (yes), nein (no), or doch (yes — specifically to contradict a negative question).
• The front-position rule applies to every verb type: modal verbs and separable verbs move only their conjugated part, exactly as they would in a statement.