What you’ll be able to do
By the end of this lesson, you will be able to hold a complete self-introduction in German. You will say your name, where you are from, how old you are, and what you do for work. You will use only grammar and vocabulary covered in lessons 1 to 10. This is your first real milestone.
The idea
German introductions follow a predictable pattern. Someone asks your name, your origin, your age, or your job. Each question has a standard answer. You already know the building blocks: the pronouns from lesson 10, the verb forms from earlier lessons, and the sentence patterns you have practised.
In German, you say Ich bin (I am) for name, origin, and age. For your job, you also use Ich bin plus the profession without an article. That is the key rule. You do not say “Ich bin ein Lehrer.” You say “Ich bin Lehrer.” This is one of the first patterns that makes German feel different from English.
For origin, you use Ich komme aus (I come from) followed by the country. Most country names stand alone without an article at this level. For age, you use Ich bin … Jahre alt (I am … years old). These three patterns cover almost every introduction you will need in daily life.
See it in German
Below are full self-introduction sentences. Read each one aloud. The German comes first, then the English in brackets.
- Hallo, ich bin Maria. (Hello, I am Maria.)
- Ich heiße Thomas. (My name is Thomas. / I am called Thomas.)
- Ich komme aus Indien. (I come from India.)
- Ich bin aus Berlin. (I am from Berlin.)
- Ich bin 34 Jahre alt. (I am 34 years old.)
- Ich bin Lehrerin. (I am a teacher. — female)
- Mein Name ist Ahmed und ich komme aus Ägypten. (My name is Ahmed and I come from Egypt.)
- Ich bin 28 Jahre alt und ich bin Ingenieur. (I am 28 years old and I am an engineer.)
- Guten Tag, ich heiße Yuki. Ich komme aus Japan und ich bin Designerin. (Good day, I am called Yuki. I come from Japan and I am a designer. — female)
- Ich bin 45, ich bin aus Kanada und ich arbeite als Koch. (I am 45, I am from Canada and I work as a cook.)
Notice the pattern. Name first, then origin, then age, then job. This is the natural order Germans use. You do not need to say everything at once. A short version with just name and origin is perfectly fine.
Read it in the wild
Now read a real German text that uses these exact patterns. On this site, every news article has an A1-A2 German version with a vocabulary box. Go to any article in the Living in Germany or Daily Life & Culture section and open the A1 version.
Your task: find three sentences where a person introduces themselves or someone else. Look for Ich bin, Ich heiße, Ich komme aus, and … Jahre alt. Copy those sentences into your notebook. Then write your own version, replacing the name, origin, age, and job with your real information.
Why this works: research on language acquisition shows that learners need to know 95 to 98 percent of the words in a text to understand it and absorb new vocabulary from context. The A1-A2 versions on this site are written to hit that range. You will recognise the patterns from this lesson and fill in the rest from the vocabulary box. That is how reading becomes your main learning tool.
Common mistakes
These are the errors learners make most often at this stage. Read them before you practise, so you avoid building bad habits.
Adding an article before your job. Wrong: Ich bin ein Lehrer. Right: Ich bin Lehrer. German drops the article after sein (to be) when stating a profession, nationality, or religion. You will learn the full rule in lesson 12, which covers nouns and genders.
Using “habe” for age. Wrong: Ich habe 30 Jahre. Right: Ich bin 30 Jahre alt. English uses “have” for age. German uses “sein” (to be). This feels unnatural at first, but it is fixed.
Forgetting the verb in the second clause. Wrong: Ich bin aus Spanien und 25 Jahre alt. Right: Ich bin aus Spanien und ich bin 25 Jahre alt. Or better: Ich bin aus Spanien und bin 25 Jahre alt. German does not drop the verb the way English sometimes does. Keep the structure parallel.
Saying “Ich bin von” instead of “Ich komme aus”. Wrong: Ich bin von Frankreich. Right: Ich komme aus Frankreich. For origin, use kommen aus. For location right now, you can use sein: Ich bin in Berlin (I am in Berlin).
Confusing “heißen” and “sein”. Both work for names, but ich heiße means “I am called” and ich bin means “I am.” Use either. Ich heiße Petra and Ich bin Petra are both correct. Heißen is slightly more common in spoken introductions.
Where you are now
You have just completed lesson 11 of 49. In lesson 10, you learned the personal pronouns: ich, du, wir, and the rest. Now you have used them to build full sentences that introduce yourself. That is real progress.
Next, in lesson 12, you will learn Der, Die, Das: German Nouns and Genders Explained Simply. That lesson will explain why you drop the article before a job and when you must put it back. It unlocks the next layer of sentence building.
For now, practise your introduction out loud five times today. Say it to yourself, write it down, and use it the next time you meet someone German-speaking. You have earned this milestone.
