Writing & Exam Skills

Formal vs. Informal Letter Conventions

The very first decision in any Schreiben task: is this a formal (Sie) or informal (du) letter/email? Once decided, every pronoun, salutation, possessive, and verb form must stay consistent with that register from the first line to the last — mixing du and Sie markers in the same letter costs marks. In the real telc exam, informal emails are by far the more common task (teacher estimate: ~95% of the time), but the formal conventions can still appear.

Anrede (salutation)

Informal:

• Lieber Paul, (male) / Liebe Paula, (female) — capital L, ending agrees with the recipient's gender.
• Hallo Paul, / Hallo Paula, — a safe, gender-neutral alternative.
• Avoid regional greetings like Servus or Moin in the exam — not universally understood across Germany and not seen in official sample answers. Stick to Lieber/Liebe or Hallo.
• Writing to your own parents: use the affectionate Mutti and Vati rather than the plain nouns Mutter and Vater — warmer and more natural in an informal letter.

Formal:

• Sehr geehrter Herr Meyer, (male) — always Herr/Frau + surname, never the bare surname.
• Sehr geehrte Frau Meyer, (female) — note the adjective ending changes with gender: geehrter (masc.) vs. geehrte (fem.).
• Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren, — when the specific recipient is unknown (e.g. writing to an organization or agency). German equivalent of "Dear Sir or Madam."

Grußformel (closing)

Register	Closing	Notes
Informal	Viele Grüße / Liebe Grüße	write in full in the exam, not as LG/VG
Formal	Mit freundlichen Grüßen	often abbreviated MfG in real life, but spell it out in the exam

Never close a formal letter with Viele/Liebe Grüße, and never close an informal one with Mit freundlichen Grüßen or an overly stiff Beste Grüße. A comma after the closing and before the name is not the ideal convention but will not cost marks if added.

The lowercase-after-greeting rule

This is flagged as the single most commonly missed point in the entire Schreiben section. Whatever word directly follows the opening greeting line — i.e. the first word of the email body — must be written in lowercase, even though a sentence normally starts with a capital letter. This is because the greeting line and the first sentence are treated as grammatically continuous.

• ✅ Lieber Paul, ich hoffe, es geht dir gut.
• ❌ Lieber Paul, Ich hoffe, es geht dir gut.

This rule applies regardless of formal/informal register — graders explicitly check it, since "first impression is the last impression."

du vs. Sie possessives and pronoun consistency

Keep possessives matched to the register throughout:

• Informal: dein/deine/deinen — Vielen Dank für deine Einladung. (Thanks for your invitation.)
• Formal: Ihr/Ihre/Ihren — Vielen Dank für Ihre E-Mail. (Thanks for your email.)

du / ihr / Sie imperatives in letters

Commands and requests inside a letter must use the imperative form matching the letter's register (see the full Imperative Mood section below for formation rules):

• Informal (du): Ruf mich an! (Call me!) / Antworte mir schnell! (Answer me quickly!) / Schreib mir bald! / Gib mir Bescheid! (Let me know!)
• Never mix registers: ❌ Rufen Sie mich an inside an otherwise informal/du letter, or vice versa.

Indirect questions (useful for polite formal requests)

When a statement introduces an embedded question (e.g. "Can you tell me...?"), the embedded question becomes a subordinate clause with the verb pushed to the end:

• Können Sie mir sagen, wann der Kurs beginnt? → Can you tell me when the course begins?
• Ich würde gerne wissen, wie hoch die Kosten sind. → I would like to know how high the costs are.

Other proofreading checks

• Capitalize every noun — basic, but still a frequent mark-loser at B1.
• After connectors like weil/während (subordinating), the verb goes to the end; after und/aber-type connectors (coordinating), normal verb-second order applies. Check this on a final read-through.
• Betreff (subject line) is optional in an email but recommended if included. Salutation, body, and closing are all compulsory.

Worked Sample Email

A model informal email — declining a friend's birthday invitation — demonstrating the conventions above in practice:

Lieber Tom, vielen Dank für deine Einladung. Thank you for your invitation. Ich habe mich sehr darüber gefreut. I was very happy about it. (reflexive + prepositional object: sich freuen über/darüber — a step up from basic A2 phrasing) Leider kann ich nicht kommen, weil ich einen wichtigen Termin mit meiner Mutter habe. Unfortunately I can't come because I have an important appointment with my mother. Wie wäre es, wenn wir uns in der nächsten Woche treffen? How about if we meet next week? (Konjunktiv II suggestion — reusable phrasing for proposing an alternative) Dann könnten wir gemeinsam etwas essen gehen und deinen Geburtstag nachfeiern. Then we could go eat something together and celebrate your birthday belatedly. Ich wünsche dir alles Liebe und feiere schön! Viele Grüße

Key technique: lead with "leider" ("unfortunately") before delivering bad news/a refusal. Stating a refusal bluntly without softening it first reads as rude to a German reader — leider signals regret and softens the tone immediately.

Imperative Mood

The Imperativ is used for commands, instructions, and requests. Always identify which person (du, ihr, Sie) the command is aimed at before conjugating — look for context clues like euer/eure (signals ihr) or formal phrasing (signals Sie).

Form	Rule	Example (infinitive: trinken)	Example (infinitive: warten)
du	bare verb stem, no pronoun, no -(s)t ending	Trink Wasser!	Warte hier!
ihr	normal ihr-conjugation, but drop the pronoun	Trinkt Wasser!	Wartet hier!
Sie	normal Sie-conjugation, keep Sie right after the verb	Trinken Sie Wasser!	Warten Sie hier!

More worked examples:

• Wasch das Auto selbst! → Wash the car yourself! (du)
• Packt den Koffer selbst! / Parkt das Auto selbst! → Pack the suitcase / park the car yourselves! (ihr)
• Renoviert eure Küche selbst! → Renovate your kitchen yourselves! (ihr)
• Putzen Sie Ihr Fenster selbst! → Clean your window yourself! (Sie)
• Drucken Sie die Dokumente selbst! → Print the documents yourself! (Sie)

Note on du-form stem changes: most umlaut/irregular present-tense stem changes are dropped in the du-imperative at this level (e.g. du trinkst → Trink!, not Trinkst! or Trinkest!).

This matters directly for Schreiben: any letter that asks the reader to do something (call back, reply soon, send information) needs a correctly formed, register-consistent imperative.

Modal Particles

Modal particles add natural color and tone to spoken/written German without changing the literal meaning of a sentence — they are usually untranslatable word-for-word and are best learned through exposure. Five high-frequency particles:

Particle	Function	Example	Gloss
aber	expresses (often pleasant) surprise — not "but" here	Das ist aber schön!	"That's really nice!"
denn	signals genuine interest/curiosity, mostly in questions	Wann ist denn dein Geburtstag?	"So when is your birthday?"
ja	signals shared/common knowledge, "as you know"	Das ist ja bekannt.	"That's [as you know] well-known."
mal	softens a statement or request; can hint at "probably"	Kannst du mal das probieren?	"Could you just try that?"
wohl	expresses assumption/supposition (Vermutung), "probably"	Er ist wohl in der Küche.	"He's probably in the kitchen."

Using one or two of these naturally in a Schreiben answer (especially in dialogue-style or informal letters) makes the writing sound less like a word-for-word translation and more like natural German.

Money & Banking Redemittel

Fixed idiomatic expressions and core banking vocabulary, useful both for reading comprehension and for writing about money-related Leitpunkte (a common topic family in the exam).

Idiomatic expressions (Redemittel):

• knapp bei Kasse sein — to be short of money
• das Geld mit beiden Händen zum Fenster rauswerfen — to throw money out the window (= to spend wastefully)
• richtig Kohle machen — to make a lot of money (Kohle = colloquial "money," lit. "coal")
• das geht schön ins Geld — that really costs/adds up
• das kostet ja nicht die Welt — that doesn't cost the world (= it's affordable)
• sich etwas leisten (können) — to be able to afford something
• viel verzichten müssen — to have to do without a lot / sacrifice a lot

Core banking vocabulary:

German	English
ein Konto eröffnen	to open an account
der Antrag	application
die Einzahlung	deposit
abheben	to withdraw money
überweisen / die Überweisung	to transfer / transfer
die Überziehung / überziehen	overdraft / to overdraw
sperren	to block (a card — not to be confused with sparen, to save!)
die Schulden	debts
die Zinsen	interest
die Mahnung	payment reminder
fristgerecht / pünktlich	on time (synonyms — interchangeable)
einen Kredit aufnehmen	to take out a loan
zurückzahlen	to pay back
die Strafe	fine/penalty

Worked example: Wenn man eine Rechnung nicht fristgerecht bezahlt, bekommt man eine Mahnung und muss eine Strafe zahlen. — "If you don't pay a bill on time, you get a reminder and have to pay a fine." This kind of cause-and-effect sentence is a ready-made template for Leitpunkte about bills, deadlines, or financial responsibility.

B2-Level Vocabulary Upgrades

These fixed verb + noun/preposition phrases are technically B2 material, but deploying even a few correctly in a B1 Schreiben answer noticeably raises the score above a flat, repetitive A2/B1 style. Use them to replace plain verbs like haben, machen, sagen, reden, fragen.

Upgrade phrase	Meaning	Example
Angst haben vor (+ Dat.)	to be afraid of	Ich habe Angst vor der Dunkelheit. — I am afraid of the dark.
einen Fehler machen/begehen	to make a mistake	Ich habe einen Fehler gemacht.
Bescheid geben/sagen	to inform, let know	Bitte geben Sie mir Bescheid. — Please let me know.
Folgen haben	to have consequences	Luftverschmutzung hat Folgen. — Air pollution has consequences.
Beachtung finden	to get/find attention	(often passive: "this topic should find more attention")
etwas in Betracht ziehen	to consider something	Ich ziehe in Betracht, den Job zu kündigen.
ein Gespräch führen (mit)	to have a conversation (with)	upgrade for plain reden
eine Frage stellen	to ask/pose a question	upgrade for ich frage dich
Interesse zeigen (an)	to show interest (in)	Ich zeige Interesse an Kunst.
etwas zum Ausdruck bringen	to express something	Es ist schwierig, die Gefühle zum Ausdruck zu bringen.
eine Entscheidung treffen	to make a decision	Ich habe eine Entscheidung getroffen, diesen Job zu kündigen.
einen Beitrag leisten	to make a contribution	Die Regierung muss einen Beitrag leisten, um die Umwelt zu schützen.
die Kosten tragen für	to bear the costs for	Ich trage die Kosten für den Kauf des Laptops.
eine (wichtige/wesentliche/bedeutsame) Rolle spielen	to play a(n) (important) role	Das spielt eine wesentliche Rolle in unserem Leben. — prefer wesentlich/bedeutsam over the overused wichtig
zur Verfügung stehen	to be available	recap phrase
die Möglichkeit haben	to have the possibility (formal alternative to können in the possibility sense)	Ich habe die Möglichkeit, heute zu kommen.
Kontakt aufnehmen (mit)	to make contact (with)	e.g. with someone online

können — two senses, worth distinguishing in writing:

1. Ability: Ich kann schwimmen. (I am able to swim.)
2. Possibility: Sie kann heute kommen. (She may come today.) — if kann feels overused for this sense, upgrade to die Möglichkeit haben / es besteht die Möglichkeit, dass...

Additional high-value verbs for Schreiben/Lesen: auffallen (to stand out), gelten für (to apply to), sich beruhigen (to calm down), unterstützen (to support), sich anstrengen (to make an effort), beweisen/nachweisen (to prove), loben (to praise), erwähnen (to mention), durchführen (to carry out), feststellen (to determine/establish), darstellen (to depict/represent), belasten (to burden), erweitern (to expand), verlangen (to demand).

Connector & Filler Upgrades

A list of adverbial connectors that replace overused basic words (especially aber and ich denke) and instantly raise the register of a Schreiben text. All of these share one grammar rule: when placed at the start of a clause, the finite verb comes directly after them (they occupy position 1, triggering normal verb-second/inverted word order) — a common mistake is putting the subject before the verb.

Connector	Meaning	Example
allerdings	however (softer than aber)	Das Handy ist praktisch, allerdings ist es teuer.
dennoch	nevertheless	Dennoch hat es auch Nachteile.
jedoch	however	alternative to aber/allerdings
übrigens	by the way	Übrigens komme ich heute.
schließlich	finally	closing/summarizing a list of points
außerdem	moreover, furthermore	also a safe alternative to und in formal letters
anscheinend	apparently
offensichtlich	obviously, evidently
vermutlich / wahrscheinlich	presumably / probably
definitiv	definitely
natürlich	naturally, of course
danach	then, afterwards

Upgrading "ich denke, ich denke...": repeating ich denke throughout an essay is a common weakness. Use instead:

• meiner Meinung nach ("in my opinion") — verb comes directly after: Meiner Meinung nach ist das teuer. (In my opinion, that is expensive.)
• ich bin der Ansicht, dass... ("I am of the opinion that...") — more advanced (C1-level but usable at B1 for variety).
• ich bin der Meinung, dass... / ich bin überzeugt, dass... ("I am convinced that...")

Pronoun reference tip: when referring back to a previously mentioned noun, prefer a proper pronoun (er/sie/es) over a bare demonstrative article (das/es as a stand-in): Das Handy ist praktisch, allerdings ist es teuer (✅ es referring back to das Handy) reads better than leaning on das as a generic placeholder.

Advantage/disadvantage transition phrases:

• sowohl ... als auch or zum einen ... zum anderen — to open a list of advantages.
• man darf nicht außer Acht lassen, dass... — "one shouldn't overlook that..." — a smooth way to pivot into a disadvantage after listing advantages.

Essay Templates & Exam Checklist

Essay opener template

Retire the old A2-style opener that simply announces the essay's structure ("First I will talk about this, then advantages, then disadvantages") — that phrasing should not appear at B1/B2. Instead, open with a topic-relevance line:

Heutzutage spielt [Thema] eine bedeutsame Rolle in unserem Alltag. "Nowadays, [topic] plays a significant role in our everyday life."

Essay closer template

Abschließend lässt sich sagen, dass... "In conclusion, it can be said that..." (lässt sich sagen — fixed impersonal construction from lassen, B2/C1-register but usable at B1 for a strong finish.)

Word limit & Leitpunkte

• Aim for roughly 120–150 words. If in doubt, slightly exceeding the limit is safer than falling short.
• Address every Leitpunkt (guiding/bullet point) in the task prompt. Skipping even one point loses significant marks regardless of how well-written the rest of the answer is. If unsure what to say about a point, write something relevant rather than omitting it — examiners need to see an attempt at every point.
• Subject line (Betreff) is optional but recommended; salutation, body, and closing are compulsory.
• Use double connectors (nicht nur...sondern auch, sowohl...als auch, weder...noch, einerseits...andererseits, zwar...aber, entweder...oder) freely in essays/Ausdruck-style writing, but prefer außerdem over a literal "not only...but also" inside a formal letter, where double connectors can sound unnaturally heavy.

Exam-ready grammar checklist

A practical checklist of B1 grammar to actively deploy in every Schreiben answer — using a mix of these (not just correct basic sentences) is what separates a high-scoring answer from an adequate one:

• ☐ Infinitiv mit zu
• ☐ Genitiv (e.g. die Kosten des Geräts)
• ☐ Doppelkonnektoren (at least one, e.g. einerseits...andererseits or zwar...aber)
• ☐ Relativsätze
• ☐ deshalb / deswegen / darum (or sodass) for cause-and-effect
• ☐ Konjunktiv II (polite requests, suggestions: Wie wäre es, wenn...?, Ich würde...)
• ☐ Correct du/Sie register consistency throughout
• ☐ Correct imperative forms if the letter asks the reader to do something
• ☐ At least one B2 vocabulary upgrade phrase (e.g. eine Rolle spielen, Bescheid geben)
• ☐ At least one connector upgrade (allerdings, übrigens, meiner Meinung nach) in place of plain aber/ich denke
• ☐ Lowercase first word right after the opening greeting
• ☐ Every noun capitalized

Without double connectors and B2-style upgrades, a technically correct Schreiben answer can be capped around 60–80/100; deploying them well can push scores to 85–90+.

Source Videos

• video-09-notes.md — formal/informal Anrede and Grußformel conventions; the lowercase-after-greeting rule; fixed-preposition verb schreiben an; melden.
• video-11-notes.md — imperative mood formation (du/ihr/Sie forms and worked command examples); modal particle ja as filler.
• video-32-notes.md — modal particles aber, denn, ja, mal, wohl; opinion phrases (ich bin der Meinung, dass..., meiner Meinung nach); diplomatic vs. undiplomatic register and Ich-Aussagen as a writing tip.
• video-34-notes.md — Doppelkonnektoren for Schreiben; full formal/informal letter conventions (Anrede, Grußformel, du/Sie possessives, imperatives, indirect questions); the worked sample informal email; word-limit and Leitpunkte exam tips; the exam-ready grammar checklist.
• video-47-notes.md — money Redemittel and banking/finance vocabulary; synonym pair fristgerecht/pünktlich.
• video-49-notes.md — B2-level vocabulary upgrades for Schreiben (Angst haben vor, Beitrag leisten, eine Entscheidung treffen, eine Rolle spielen, Kosten tragen für, etc.); connector/ filler upgrades (allerdings, dennoch, übrigens, schließlich, meiner Meinung nach) and their verb-position rule; essay opener/closer templates.