a linguistic introduction to german for the non-linguist: an...
TRANSCRIPT
A LINGUISTIC INTRODUCTION TO GERMAN FOR THE NON-LINGUIST:AN ACCOMPANYING GUIDE TO ANY FIRST-YEAR GERMAN COURSE
By
JONATHAN C. BUSEY
A THESIS PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOLOF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT
OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OFMASTER OF ARTS
UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA
2001
For Julia, my soon-to-be wife
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to thank Chris Overstreet and Prof. Keith Bullivant for patiently
teaching me German and putting up with questions, and Prof. Franz Futterknecht
for the motivation necessary to conceptualize and design yet another introduction to
German.
Motivation came from Prof. David Young’s unpublished introduction to Ancient
Greek and Dr. Robert Underhill’s dissertation, Turkish Grammar. Cambridge,
Mass.: MIT Press, 1976.
iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
page
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iii
LIST OF TABLES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
LIST OF FIGURES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
ABSTRACT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
CHAPTERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1 WORD ORDER AND THE GERMAN CASE SYSTEM . . . . . . 3
1.1 Word order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31.2 Nominative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51.3 The Accusative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61.4 The Dative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81.5 The Genitive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111.6 Appositions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2 NOUN FORMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.1 Gender . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152.2 Pronoun Agreement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162.3 Word Formation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2.3.1 N-nouns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182.3.2 Composita . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
3 ARTICLES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
4 PRONOUNS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
4.1 Personal Pronouns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244.2 Possessive Pronouns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254.3 Reflexive Pronouns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264.4 Demonstrative Pronouns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274.5 Relative and Interrogative Pronouns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
iv
5 ADJECTIVES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
5.1 Predicative Adjectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325.2 Attributive Adjectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
5.2.1 Comparative and Superlative Forms . . . . . . . . . . 335.2.2 Possessive Adjectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355.2.3 Ordinal Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
6 ADVERBS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
7 VERBS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
7.1 Verb Forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397.1.1 The Infinitive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397.1.2 Conjugation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407.1.3 Irregular Verb Endings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 417.1.4 Verb Prefixes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 427.1.5 Prefix or Preposition? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
7.2 Mood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 467.2.1 Indicative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 467.2.2 Imperatives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 467.2.3 Subjunctive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
7.3 Modal Verbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 547.3.1 Conjugation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
7.4 Tenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 587.4.1 Present . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 617.4.2 Perfect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 627.4.3 Imperfect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 657.4.4 Future . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 657.4.5 Future Perfect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 667.4.6 Past Perfect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
7.5 Verb Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 677.5.1 Full Verbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 677.5.2 Auxiliary Verbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 677.5.3 Reflexive Verbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 677.5.4 Phrasal Verbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
7.6 Voice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 727.6.1 Active . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 727.6.2 Passive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
8 PREPOSITIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
8.1 A Visual Overview of the Prepositions . . . . . . . . . . . . . 768.1.1 Prepositions of Movement and Motion . . . . . . . . . 768.1.2 Prepositions Exhibiting a Static State . . . . . . . . . 76
8.2 Prepositions Governing Case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 818.2.1 Accusative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
v
8.2.2 Dative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 818.2.3 Dative and Accusative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 828.2.4 Genitive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
9 CONJUNCTIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
9.1 Coordinating Conjunctions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 879.2 Subordinating Conjunctions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 879.3 Infinitive Conjunctions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 919.4 Proportionate Conjunctions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
10 NEGATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
11 QUESTIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
APPENDICIES
A PRONUNCIATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
A.1 Guide to German Pronunciation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100A.2 Book Cover Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
B IRREGULAR VERB LIST . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
REFERENCES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
vi
LIST OF TABLES
Table page
1.1 Guidelines for German Word Order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.2 The Nominative Case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.3 The Nominative dummy-es . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.4 Man . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1.5 Uses of the Accusative Case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1.6 The Accusative Case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
1.7 Possessive and Personal Prounouns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
1.8 The Dative Case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
1.9 The Genitive Case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
1.10 The Genitive Declension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.1 Endings Which Give Away the Gender . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2.2 Sounds That Join Words in Composita . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
3.1 Differences in German and English Articles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
3.2 The German Article . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
4.1 Personal Pronouns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
4.2 Pronoun Word Order Guidelines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
4.3 The Possessive Pronouns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
4.4 Reflexive Pronouns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
4.5 Demonstrative Pronouns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
5.1 Primary Adjectival Endings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
5.2 Secondary Adjectival Endings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
5.3 The Ordinal Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
vii
6.1 Adverbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
7.1 Conjugation of Regular Verbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
7.2 Conjugation of Some Irregular Verbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
7.3 Inseparable Prefixes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
7.4 Formation of Imperatives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
7.5 The Main Irregular Verbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
7.6 The Two Types of Subjunctive in German . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
7.7 Conjugation of Modal Verbs and mochten . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
7.8 When One Can Leave Out the Infinitive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
7.9 Imperfect Forms of sein and haben . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
7.10 Phrasal Verbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
8.1 An Overview of the Prepositions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
8.2 The ‘Two Way Verbs’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
8.3 Some Two-way Prepositions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
8.4 Some Genitive Prepositions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
9.1 The Coordinating Conjunctions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
9.2 Subordinating Conjunctions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
9.3 Uses of the Infinitive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
10.1 Kein . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
10.2 Nicht . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
A.1 German Pronunciation Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
A.2 Short Pronunciation Guide for German . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
viii
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure page
3.1 For an Indefinite Article . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
3.2 For a Definite Article . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
7.1 A Visual Representation of German Tense . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
8.1 an with Accusative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
8.2 auf with Accusative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
8.3 bis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
8.4 durch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
8.5 gegen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
8.6 hinter with Accusative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
8.7 in with Accusative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
8.8 neben with Accusative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
8.9 uber with Accusative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
8.10 um . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
8.11 unter (i.e. beneath) with Accusative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
8.12 unter (i.e. among) with Accusative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
8.13 vor with Accusative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
8.14 zwischen with Accusative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
8.15 an with Dative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
8.16 auf with Dative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
8.17 in with Dative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
8.18 neben with Dative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
8.19 uber with Dative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
ix
8.20 von . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
8.21 unter (i.e. beneath) with Dative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
8.22 unter (i.e. among) with Dative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
8.23 vor/hinter with Dative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
8.24 zwischen with Dative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
A.1 ich . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
A.2 Radfahren . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
x
Abstract of Thesis Presented to the Graduate Schoolof the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts
A LINGUISTIC INTRODUCTION TO GERMAN FOR THE NON-LINGUIST:AN ACCOMPANYING GUIDE TO ANY FIRST-YEAR GERMAN COURSE
By
Jonathan C. Busey
December 2001
Chair: Keith BullivantMajor Department: Germanic and Slavic Studies
This papers aims to complement other beginning German language courses at
different levels: it is setup both for students searching for easier ways to remember the
basics and successfully complete what is required of them in the initial introductory
sequence and for the curious student who seeks a deeper explanation of grammar,
thereby making a stronger foundation and long-term success possible. The target
students range from beginners with no experience, to those who are at more ad-
vanced levels and search for a reference documenting the basics, to those have had
an introductory course and desire a refresher.
The grammar is organized in a non-cumulative fashion so that it is not necessary
to read from beginning to end. Rather, it is meant to be used to look up the desired
information one wants from each topic. This is enhanced by copious hyperlinks in
the electronic version and cross-references in the printed version.
xi
Reading the thesis through from beginning to end is designed to be beneficial to
the students who have taken German before, but is suggested to the beginning learner
only in conjunction with another course which includes dialogues and exercises.
The main goal of this paper is to provide an additional resource to students
interested in learning German at a deeper level than is required in a college level
introductory sequence.
xii
INTRODUCTION
There is no universal perfect system for learning any language or even any one
language, but by deciding what one wants from the experience, one can be more
successful. Only a few will truly master a new language in their adult life; most want
either to be able to read German, speak enough for travel, or merely pronounce the
words (such as radio announcers or music historians). One goal this paper attempts
to achieve is to enable the student to be more successful learning German by making
her/him define what s/he wants from the knowledge. The flexibility an instructional
text requires for this is achieved in a number of ways: the summary in the table in
each section should meet the needs of most looking for a quick refresher or the general
guidelines for a specific point.
In addition, the list of tables and list of figures are more specific tables of contents
which the student can use to locate information quickly. Within each section, the
information becomes increasingly more specific, so that the general, most relevant
information is presented first, and the more specific comes afterwards. The benefit of
this scheme is twofold: the most important points are stressed as one sees them most
often, and the student is able to stop reading whenever s/he has gone far enough into
detail.
This is written for the curious and thorough student who wishes to start with a
good foundation.
No linguistic knowledge is required. The concepts are based on linguistic fun-
damentals, but this will not burden an inexperienced student since no attention is
drawn to this.
2
As units such as counting, telling time, describing the weather, answering Wie
geht’s? are covered in the first days of every course, they are beyond the scope of this
document. Furthermore, there are no dialogues or exercises, but copious examples.
The somewhat unconventional approach to the basic word categories is an attempt
to make the material as relevant and comprehensible as possible. For example, word
order with dative and accusative pronouns are only referenced with word order and
handled in detail under Section 4.1.
CHAPTER 1WORD ORDER AND THE GERMAN CASE SYSTEM
1.1 Word order
German word order is more flexible than English word order. Since every word
has some sort of identifying marker that identifies its function in a given sentence,
(the case endings reflect the gender, number, and whether the nouns are subjects
or objects), most of the words can be rearranged according to what needs to be
stressed. For example, the following sentences all have the same meaning, but different
connotations :
1. Jochen hat dem Fahrradhandler die 15 DM gegeben.
(both the default for “Jochen gave the bike salesman fifteen marks” and a pos-
sibility to stress the fact that it was Jochen and not someone else)
2. Dem Fahrradhandler hat Jochen die 15 DM gegeben.
(for example in answer to the question: “To whom did Jochen give money?”)
3. 15 DM hat Jochen dem Fahrradhandler gegeben.
(when doubt about the amount exists and is being clarified, for example in
answer to the question: “How much money did he pay for the bike?”)
4. and, in spoken:
Gegeben hat Jochen dem Fahrradhandler die 15 DM.
(gave as opposed to loaned)
Not only does this freedom of placement make it easier to stress certain aspects
of a sentence in written German (where intonation is not possible), it also calls for
a more strict adherence to word endings since they are what carry the grammatical
meaning of each word in the sentence. Word order in German principally conforms
3
4
Table 1.1: Guidelines for German Word Order
For the impatient:
1. the verb is always in second position in declarative
sentences
2. coordinating conjunctions do not count as first po-
sition words (aber, denn, oder, und = Position ∅)
3. verb in second position in questions with interrog-
atives (i.e. wer wen wo etc.)
4. verb in first position in questions without interrog-
atives
5. ‘second’ refers to position and not number–a clause
can count as one position (i.e. in a subordinate
clause), in which case the verb comes next.
to one basic pattern:
In an indicative declarative sentence the verb always takes second position.
The verb is underlined in each sentence below.
Katrin geht nach Munchen. [Katrin is going to Munich.]
Ubrigens besucht sie auch den Thomas. [ By the way, she is also visiting Thomas.]
Note that questions are different (inversion is used–see Chapter 11) and that
second position is different from being the second word in a sentence. Words that
are not placed at the beginning for emphasis, for instance coordinating conjunctions,
do not count – that is, they take position ∅.
Aber ich arbeite gar nicht so viel. [But I don’t work all that much.]
Oder vielleicht fahrt sie in die Schweiz. [ Or maybe she’ll be going to
Switzerland.]
5
Also, a clause can be in position 1 all by itself, in which case the next word
after the clause will be the predicate in the main clause, as is the case in subordinate
clauses. For example:
Wenn du es ihr nicht sagst, muss ich ihr es wohl sagen. [ If you don’t tell her,
I’ll have to.]
There are also guidelines for imperative sentences (see Section 7.2.2), negation
(see Chapter 10), and interrogative sentences (see Chapter 11).
There are tricks for word order when replacing nouns with pronouns in sentences
containing both direct and indirect objects in Section 4.1.
An examination of the cases follows one by one Sections 1.2–1.5.
Another important difference from English that German sentences follow is the
time before place concept. In German one says: Sie geht um 8 nach Hause; Er
fliegt nachste Woche nach Munchen; etc. for the English: She’s going home at eight
and He’s flying to Munich next week.
1.2 Nominative
The nominative is the case one usually learns first because it occurs in nearly
every sentence. The noun in the nominative case is what determines the
declension of the verb, since it is the subject. When one says Ich heiße, the
ending -e matches the first person singular of the nominative case, because ich is the
subject. When the subject changes to sie (singular), the verb ending becomes heißt
to match the person and number of the subject, which is always in the nominative
case. This is exactly the same in German as in English.
Man
Something one sees and hears very often both in spoken and written German is
the pronoun man. It is always the subject of the sentence and is most often translated
6
Table 1.2: The Nominative Case
For the impatient:
The nominative case has 2 uses:
1. as the subject of a sentence
2. as the complement of subject when using the verbs
sein, werden, heißen
Other noteworthy characteristics:
• The form is similar to the accusative case (Sec-
tion 1.3) for the neuter, feminine, and plural forms.
• It is never the object of a preposition.
• A pattern worth noting is the -er ending of the
masculine forms:er
der
wer
also, the strong adjecti-
val endings (Table 5.1):
dieser
welcher
einer
as “one, people, or they. In English when one says things such as They say. . . , People
do that all the time, it would be man in German.
1.3 The Accusative
There are only three different declensions one has to know in order to master
the accusative case in German. One is for der, die, das, a second is for the ein-
words, which includes all the demonstratives (this, that, these, those), interrogatives
(which), negatives (none, not any, no), adjectival endings (there are none in English),
possessives (mine, yours, his, hers, its, theirs, our), and, of course, the indefinite article
a, an. The third set is the set of pronouns (I, you, he, she, it, we, you, they). These
three declensions are in Table 1.6.
Notice that there are no plurals for the indefinite articles, just as in English
(which uses some), and that the same endings are used for all of the word classes
7
Table 1.3: The Nominative dummy-es
Aside from the uses of the nominative as a subject, there is also
the dummy-es just as in English:
Es regnet/schneit/donnert. It is raining/snowing/thundering.
Es gibt . . . . [There are . . . ]
Es ist Zeit, . . . . It is time (to) . . .
listed above. One only needs the word stems to form them, for example, the possessive
pronouns are in Table 1.7.
Accusative with Infinitives
One of the instances in which the infinitive (see Section 7.1.1) occurs without zu
is with the accusative. This occurs only in conjunction with a few verbs and exhibits
the following characteristics:
1. In the first instance, the accusative object is an agent and the sentence describes
how the subject is cognizant of the action of this accusative agent. This is a
common occurrence and is limited to the verbs sehen, horen, fuhlen, and spuren.
This construction is used to describe an instance in which one sees, hears, feels,
or senses someone doing some thing. The someone is in the accusative and
the thing is the infinitive.
Examples:
Das habe ich kommen sehen. (I saw that coming.)
Sie hat ihren Sohn Salat essen sehen. (She saw her son eating salad.)
Man hat mich schnarchen horen. (They/People heard me snoring.)
2. In the second instance the accusative is in its more conventional role, namely
as that of an object, and has the same value as it does in modal sentences (see
Section 7.3) but can be used with other, non-modal verbs:
Sie laßt die Studenten fruher gehen. (She lets the students go early.)
8
Table 1.4: Man
For the impatient:
• man is neither masculine, feminine, or neuter, is
only capitalized at the beginning of a sentence, and
always takes the masculine forms of reference.
Man muss seine Hausaufgaben machen.
• When changing active sentences whose subject is
man into passive sentences, man drops completely
since it cannot become the object of the preposition
von.
• The accusative form of man is einen, the dative is
einem. Man kann einen nicht glauben machen, . . . .
Es gibt einem das Gefuhl, . . . .
Ich heiße dich willkommen. (roughly: I welcome you.)
1.4 The Dative
The Dative case answers the question “to whom?” and, just like the accusative
and nominative, has endings that are added to the ein -words, the definite articles,
and personal pronouns. Most of the time, the dative case is just a re-naming of the
indirect object. It is used to convey the idea that something is doing something to
something else, which is the part of the sentence which will appear in the dative case:
Why don’t you buy me a new dictionary?
Janice wanted me to loan her my German book.
Notice that all verbs of giving, telling, showing, and the like can take indirect objects
and, likewise, can have dative objects in German, but not every sentence has to have
one–just as in English: I showed my stuff.
9
Table 1.5: Uses of the Accusative Case
For the impatient:
The accusative has 3 uses:
1. the direct object of a sentence or complement
thereof (apposition–see Section 1.6).
2. the object of preposition. For prepositions that al-
ways govern the accusative case see Section 8.2.1,
for prepositions that sometimes govern the ac-
cusative, sometimes the dative see Section 8.2.3.
3. an adverbial phrase, such as with time and dura-
tions of time and length: heute Morgen, den ganzen
Tag, einen Meter lang
Other noteworthy characteristics:
• A pattern worth noting is the -(e)n ending of the
masculine forms. For this reason the accusative
case is often called the Wen-case:ihn
den
wen
also, the strong adjecti-
val endings (Table 5.1):
diesen
welchen
einen
The principle differences in the English indirect objects and German dative ob-
jects are:
1. English objects do not have endings which reflect their case and must therefore
use prepositions and word order to show their function. German has certain
endings, articles, and pronouns to display this:
I am giving him my homework OR I am giving my homework to him.
Ich gebe ihm meine Hausaufgaben.
You can tell the judge your story OR You can tell your story to the judge.
10
Table 1.6: The Accusative Case
Remember: different persons and numbers are designated in the following way:
number
singular plural
1st person 1st person
person 2nd person 2nd person
3rd person 3rd person
masc fem neut pla
nominative der die das die
accusative den die das die
a all genders!
masc fem neut
nominative ein eine ein
accusative einen eine ein
Sie konnen Ihre Geschichte dem Richter erzahlen.
2. The English word order is what determines the function of each sentence ele-
ment. It is very strict. Since in German nouns can be identified either by their
endings, articles, or context, word order is much freer and can be moved around
at will to change emphasis. Word order of objects and pronouns are discussed
Section 4.1.
The following sentences have the same semantic meaning and differ only in
emphasis:
Er sagt dem Lehrer, wo er sein Buch vergessen hatte. OR
Dem Lehrer sagt er, wo er sein Buch vergessen hatte. AND
Er erzahlte mir die Geschichte von seiner Reise. OR
Mir erzahlte er die Geschichte von seiner Reise. OR
Die Geschichte von seiner Reise erzahlte er mir.
11
3. Since one can usually tell in which case an object is by its form, there is a
differentiation between an accusative, a dative, or a genitive object after a
preposition (see Section 8.2.2 for more information about prepositions with the
dative.) Additionally, there are several prepositions that can take accusative or
dative objects, depending on whether the preposition is stationary (dative) or
expresses motion (accusative). This is explained in Section 8.2.3.
1.5 The Genitive
The genitive case is the possessive case. Its use is becoming less and less frequent
and is often replaced by a preposition and the dative (usually von). Also, there are
many prepositions (listed below) which, strictly speaking, govern the genitive but are
used increasingly often with the dative case. The genitive case is slowly dying out.
1.6 Appositions
Appositions are another example of the efficiency and precision of the German
case system. An apposition is a noun phrase, usually separated from the rest of the
sentence by commas, which serves to modify another noun or phrase. It is in the
same case as the noun it modifies.
I told Tom, my uncle, that I would be visiting him in June.
Ich habe Tom, meinem Onkel erzahlt, dass ich ihn in Juni besuchen wurde.
Many castles and park facilities were built by Louis the Fourteenth.
Viele Schlosser und Parkanlagen wurden von Ludwig dem Vierzehnten gebaut.
Notice in these examples that it is exactly the same as in English. However, since
this is a paradigm which carries over from one sentence to the next, rather than
having to clarify questions by adding prepositions or even repeating entire sentences,
in German one can answer the question with a noun or noun phrase in the correct
case, thus there is a loss of ambiguity in German.
12
Table 1.7: Possessive and Personal Prounouns
1st person 2nd person
masculine feminine neuter masc fem neut
mein meine mein unser unsre unser
dein deine dein Ihr Ihre Ihr
sein, ihr, sein seine, ihre, seine sein, ihr, sein ihr ihre ihr
Add the same endings for singular, plural, nominative, and accusative as with ein.
Note that for all words in all three of these tables the feminine, neuter,
and plural are the same in the nominative as in the accusative, and that
the masculine accusative always ends in ‘n’.
Singular Plural
nominative accusative nominative accusative
ich mich wir uns
du dich ihr euch
Sie Sie
er ihn
sie sie sie sie
es es
13
Table 1.8: The Dative Case
For the impatient:
The dative has 2 uses:
1. the indirect object of a sentence or complement
thereof (apposition–see Section 1.6).
2. the object of preposition. For prepositions that
always govern the dative case see Section 8.2.2,
for prepositions that sometimes govern the dative,
sometimes the accusative see Section 8.2.3.
ein-words
masc fem neut
nom ein eine ein
acc einen eine ein
dative einem einer einem
der -words
masc fem neut plural
nom der die das den
acc den die das die
dative dem der dem den
Personal pronouns
singular plural
mir uns
dir euch/Ihnen
ihm, ihr, ihm ihnen
Patterns worth noting:
• the masculine and neuter forms end in ‘m’ in
the singular–this is why the dative is often
called the Wem-case
• the feminine form is characterized by ending
in ‘r ’
• the accusative forms for the 1st and 2nd per-
son familiar in the plural are identical to the
dative forms (uns, euch)
• the second person formal form is identical
to the third person plural form
14
Table 1.9: The Genitive Case
For the impatient:
The genitive case has 3 uses:
1. for possession-the word or word phrase in the genitive is
the possessor
2. with certain prepositions (see Section 8.2.4)
3. with certain verbs
It is recognizable either by its -s suffix for masculine and neuter
nouns, pronouns, and adjective; or its -er suffix for feminine
(where it looks just like the dative) and nouns, pronouns, and
adjectives in the plural.
Table 1.10: The Genitive Declension
masc. fem. neut. pl.
nominative der die das den
accusative den die das die
dative dem der dem den
genitive des der des der
masc fem neut
nominative ein eine ein
accusative einen eine ein
dative einem einer einem
genitive eines einer eines
CHAPTER 2NOUN FORMS
This chapter covers only the genders and plurals. For information on the case
declensions see the section for the respective case beginning with Chapter 1.1.
It is difficult to stress how important it is to learn the correct gender of every word
one learns. One cannot consider a word to belong to his or her lexicon (vocabulary)
without knowing the gender and plural and should therefore learn every word with
its article. Without the gender one cannot put the word into context. That being
said, the next step is to develop a method for learning the genders and plurals.
2.1 Gender
There are absolutely no concrete rules about which objects have which gender.
There are however a few endings which can give you clues listed in Table 2.1.
All other plurals must be basically learned with the vocabulary entry, although
some other patterns appear.
German has natural and grammatical genders. The natural gender is determined
by what it is, i.e. der Mann or die Tochter, and the grammatical gender is usually
based on historical usage and does not reflect in any way what the natural gender
of the object is. Examples include both die Sonne and der Stuhl–which do not have
any sort of inherent feminine or masculine characteristics in the minds of German
speakers–as well das Fraulein and das Madchen, which are neuter because of the
dimunitive endings (the come from die Frau and the antiquated die Magd).
In contrast to the Romance and Slavic languages, the gender of German sub-
stantives are not marked by their ending. The genders must be learned with each
15
16
Table 2.1: Endings Which Give Away the Gender
1. All nouns ending in -tat, -schaft, -heit, -keit,
-ion, and -unga are feminine and have plurals
formed by adding the prefix -en.
2. All nouns ending in -chen, -lein, and -tum are
neuter. The plural looks and is pronounced exactly
the same as the singular.
3. All nouns ending in -ismus, -ist, -ant and many
ending in -er are masculine. Their plurals are:
-ismen, -isten, -anten, and ∅ respectively.
Additionally, the plurals of many feminine substantives
ending in -e in the singular are formed by adding the
suffix -n.
a except for words which have it as a part of the stem
and not as a suffix, such as Sprung and its derivates
word as a vocabulary entry. This cannot be overemphasized. A more complete list
would include:
masculine -ich, -ig, -ling, -s, -and, -ar, -ast, -eur/or, -ent, -ier, -iker, -ikus, -or
feminine -ei, -a, -ade, -age, -aille, -aise/-ase, -ance, -ane, -anz, -elle, -ette, -euse, -ie,
-enz, -ere, -ik, -ille, -ine, -isse, -itis, -ive, -ose, -sis/se, -ur, -ure
neuter -le, -cht, -tel, -eau, -ett, -ing, -(i)um, -ma, -ment
2.2 Pronoun Agreement
The definite articles (Eng.: the) are der, die, das in the nominative. The indefi-
nite articles are ein, eine, ein in the nominative. The pronouns are er, sie, es in the
nominative. These three groups apply to every substantive and are interchangeable,
17
depending on the intended meaning. This is why it is important to know the gender:
the pronoun will often take the place of the subject:
• Meine Tante wohnt in der Nahe. → Sie wohnt in der Nahe.
• Friederike muss einen Computerkurs machen. → Sie muss einen Computerkurs
machen.
• Das Fenster ist offen. → Es ist offen.
In the same manner, wir, ihr and Sie can replace plural subjects:
Laura und ich = wir, du und Thomas = ihr, Sie und Ihre Frau = Sie
Likewise, direct objects, indirect objects, and the objects of prepositions can be
replaced by pronouns, just as in English:
• Julia und Friederike mussen einen Computerkurs machen. → Sie mussen ihn
machen.
• Du und Thomas sollt mit dem Auto fahren. Ihr seid mit ihm in zwei Stunden
dort.
• Ich habe von diesem Autor noch nichts gelesen. Er soll aber sehr gut sein.
• Kannst du mir mein Deutschbuch morgen mitbringen? Ich brauche es jeden
Tag.
2.3 Word Formation
The main classes of substantives usually defined are
concrete nouns concreta – these words describe objects
abstract nouns abstracta – these words are used to describe concepts, thoughts,
ideas, etc. (everything else)
Since the concept of each is the same as in English nothing more will be said about
these two general categories. The focus will instead lie on the forms of two groups of
words which are composed of members from both categories: the masculine N-nouns
and compound words (composita).
18
2.3.1 N-nouns
There is a group of masculine nouns that ends in ‘-(e)n’ in the plural and every
case but the nominative:
der Mensch die Menschen
den Menschen die Menschen
dem Menschen den Menschen
des Menschen der Menschen
A very simple phenomenon, however many language learners seem to forget it exists,
especially in the genitive (which is described in Section 1.5). Also note that some
books calls these Studenten-nouns.
One can recognize these words as the ones that are followed by -en, -en or -n -n in
any dictionary. There are also certain endings that fall into this category:
-and: Doktorand-en, Habilitand-en, Konfirmand-en
-ant: Demonstrant-en, Fabrikant-en, Musikant-en, -Praktikant-en
-(k)at: Demokrat-en, Kandidat-en, Soldat-en
-ent: Absolvent-en, Delinquent-en, Student-en
-et: Athlet-en, Poet-en, Prophet-en
-ist: Artist-en, Faschist-en, Jurist-en, Kommunist-en
-oge: Geolog-en, Padagog-en
-nom: Agronom-en, Astronom-en
-soph: Anthroposoph-en, Philosoph-en
One that does not fall into the category but appears to except in the genitive
singular is der Name, die Namen:
19
der Name die Namen
den Namen die Namen
dem Namen den Namen
des Namens der Namen
Also note that one word der Herr, die Herren has a different singular and plural:
den Herrn die Herren
dem Herrn den Herren
des Herrn der Herren
2.3.2 Composita
Note that this is above and beyond what any first year course should require
of students. Nonetheless, for the curious, Table 2.2 contains some guidelines for the
patterns. There are so many different instances that one cannot speak of “rules” (the
list of “exceptions” would be much longer than Table 2.2), but the tendencies are
worth noting.
Although it is not a very hard concept to master, many learners do not make
the effort necessary, and it is therefore often an easy way to distinguish a very good
non-native speaker from a true native. There are very few words in German compared
with English, but the word formation is much more active than in English. This is
also what makes German such a production language–speakers have the ability to
be very creative. Sonntagsnachmittagsspazierfahrtstunde (the hour during which one
takes a walk on a Sunday afternoon), Donaudampfschifffahrtskapitan (the captain of a
steam ship on the Donau), and the like.
20
Table 2.2: Sounds That Join Words in Composita
possible word jointsa : –(e)n-, –(e)s-, -e-, -er-, -ens-, ∅
• The first element in the word is the determining element. Do not confuse
this with the element which determines the gender, which is always the
last element.
• Indeclinable words (such as prepositions and adverbs) and adjectives take
-∅-. Adjectives ending in -e drop the -e. (e.g. Blodsinn).
• When the first member is a substantive:
1. -∅- follows the suffixes -bold, -chen, -en, -ei, -ler, -ner, ge-. . . -e, -i,
-ich(t), -ig, -lein, -nis, -rich, and all nouns whose plural end in -s
2. -s- follows -en, -heit, -keit, -ling, -sal, -schaft, -tum, -ung, -ion, -itat
3. -en- follows -in, masculine nouns and most feminine ending in -e
4. -en- follows the nouns with -en- in the genitive singular and plural;
feminine and neuter nouns ending in -a, and the neuter nouns ending
in -it, -on, the plural forms of all three groups of which end in -en.
• When the first member is a verb:
1. -∅- follows verbs that end in a vowel sound and after the sounds [p],
[pf ], [s], [r], [x] b , usually [m], [l], [S], and [ts] consonants + [s]
2. -e- follows almost exclusively the voiced consonants b, d, g and the
sounds [z], [t], but there are many instances in which -∅- follows these
sounds
a this information is condensed exclusively from [Fleischer, 136-145]
b the sound at the end of ach
CHAPTER 3ARTICLES
German articles and their use are very similar to English articles, so this should
not pose American students too much trouble. The main differences are listed in
Table 3.1.
When talking about articles in this section, the two forms definite (der, die,
das) and indefinite (ein, eine, ein) are meant, and not the entire spectrum of words
belonging to or sometime belonging to both this class and others. They are discussed
in Chapter 4 on Pronouns.
The complete forms for the two words in this class are listed in Table 3.2. Note
that most words declined this way–see Chapter 5 on Adjectives for more details.
For negation, see Chapter 10 on page 93. Note that the indefinite forms are the same
but preceded by a k, and that there is a plural.
The uses are generally the same as in English; that is: one uses definite articles to
specify something and distinguish it from others and indefinite articles to point out
one of many (that is why there is no plural). Notice that the negative does has a
plural because one is talking about none or zero, which is plural in German as well
as in English.
Many books introduce the indefinite article as the article to use when something
is introduced for the first time and the definite article hereafter. This may work when
on analyzes children’s stories, but take a look at the example in Figure 3.1.
There is only one viable choice between the commands:
Zeig auf einen/den Kreis! [Point to a/the circle.]
Likewise, there is only one possibility for the same command for the Figure 3.2.
21
22
Table 3.1: Differences in German and English Articles
1. there is no plural indefinite article except when
negated (English: some/any)
2. articles are not mentioned with professions (this in-
cludes students) or nationalitiesa .
3. sometimes the article is not present when an En-
glish speaker would expect it to be or is present
when an English speaker wants to omit it. This is
due to the difference in number and the character-
istic ‘mass’ or ‘count’ in some words.
4. often articles are added to names of people. This
usually has a positive meaning.
a surely by now everyone has heard of the famous
Kennedy blunder: Ich bin ein Berliner.
Figure 3.1: For an Indefinite Article
Figure 3.2: For a Definite Article
23
Table 3.2: The German Article
Indefinite article:
Singular Plural
masculine feminine neuter
nominative ein eine ein
accusative einen eine ein ∅
dative einem einer einem
genitive eines einer eines
Definite article:
Singular Plural
masculine feminine neuter
nominative der die das die
accusative den die das die
dative dem der dem den
genitive des der des der
CHAPTER 4PRONOUNS
4.1 Personal Pronouns
Pronouns are used in the place of nouns. They conform to the same patterns as
nouns in regards to agreement and case. Table 4.1 is an exhaustive list–notice that
the gentive are in parentheses because they are uncommon.
For more information about pronouns and agreement, see Section 2.2
Strictly speaking, pronouns do not replace nouns since they can of course be used
before the nouns are even mentioned, depending on context. Essentially, pronouns
have the following function:
Since people want to save time whenever possible, they shorten everything con-
text allows. One thing one needs to remember is that pronouns can replace long
noun phrases or even entire clauses since many modifiers need not be repeated. For
example:
1. Ich mochte mit deiner Schwester in die Schweiz fahren. . . Sie weiß, wo man
gut essen kann.
I would like to go to Switzerland with your sister. . . She knows good places to eat.
2. Der Mann mit dem roten Pulli neben der Treppe. . . Er. . .
The man with the red sweater next to the stairs. . . He. . .
3. Weisst du noch, als wir dieses Sofa gesehen haben, das so lang war, dass es
nicht in meiner Eltern Wohnzimmer gepasst hatte? Meine Tante hat es gekauft!
24
25
Table 4.1: Personal Pronouns
1st Person 2nd Person 3rd Person
familiar formal masc. fem. neut.
Singular Nom. ich du Sie er sie es
Acc. mich dich Sie ihn sie es
Dat. mir dir Ihnen ihm ihr ihm
Gen. (meiner) (deiner) (Ihrer) (seiner) (ihrer) (seiner)
Plural Nom. wir ihr Sie sie
Acc. uns euch Sie sie
Dat. uns euch Ihnen ihnen
Gen. (unser) (euer) (Ihrer) (ihrer)
Do you still remember when we saw that couch that was so long that it wouldn’t
have fit in my parents’ living room? My aunt bought it!
Word order in sentences with more than one object
The only inconsistency in Table 4.2 is the third item, in which two noun phrases
appear and the dative comes before the accustive. This sentence illustrates why:
Andreas gibt seiner Schwester einen Teller. [Andreas gives his sister a plate.]
Notice that since the feminine dative and genitive forms are the same, the incorrect
order would be confusing and leave the listener expecting the sentence to continue:
∗Andreas gibt einen Teller seiner Schwester. [Andreas is giving the plate of his
sister. . . ]
4.2 Possessive Pronouns
The possessive adjectives in Table 4.3 are used just like they are in English.
Forgetting about gender and cases for now, think about the actual forms themselves
(i.e. the roots) and how they correspond to the people whose “possessions” they
26
describe:
Tommy told his grandmother that her new car was a lemon. He said its paint was
bubbling up.
Regardless of the gender and case of grandmother, the root of the German possesive
adjective used will be sein , which refers back to the antecedent, Tommy. The same
will be true with ihr and grandmother and sein and car (das Auto).
The difference then lies only in the endings, which English does not have.
4.3 Reflexive Pronouns
Reflexive pronouns are used in a reciprocal fashion, such as with reflexive verbs
(see Section 7.5.3), and illustrate a reference from the subject to the accusative or da-
tive object. The forms are identical to those of the personal pronouns (see Table 4.1)
except for the obviously missing nominative forms. In addition, the 2nd person formal
all 3rd person forms, singular and plural, are sich, as illustrated in Table 4.4.
The English equivalent is myself, yourself, himself, itself, herself, ourselves, them-
selves respectively. The two notable differences from English are:
1. sich is usually used for each other, such as in
They congratulated each other. [Sie haben sich gratuliert.]
2. The dative reflexive pronoun is used to show possession instead of the possessive
pronoun in reflexive sentences.
Examples:
• Er putzt sich die Zahne. [He is brushing his teeth.]
• Sie waschen sich die Hande.] [They are washing their hands.]
Also note that this avoids the confusion that often arises in English with regards
to the possessor:
Justin was playing soccer together with Ian. He pushed Ian and then broke his arm.
Whose arm did Justin break?
27
In German: Er hat sich das Bein gebrochen means he broke his own leg, while
Er hat sein Bein gebrochen means he broke the leg of someone else.
4.4 Demonstrative Pronouns
Demonstratives are the pronouns used to demonstrate, or point out something.
English examples are this, that, these, those. At the beginning of Chapter 3, Ta-
ble 3.2 shows how the definite and indefinite articles are declined. These are also the
declensions for the ein - and der -words respectively. The notation in the parentheses
next to each of the following word groups in this section and the next refers to the
declension as depicted in Table 3.2 concerning indefinite and definite articles.
der, die, das1 (der–see Table 4.5) Similarly to the personal pronouns, these are
used in place of the substantive + article. Das kann man nicht. Das weiss ich
nicht. Das wirst du morgen erfahren. Den brauche ich. Der konnte ich nicht
helfen. etc.
Notice that the demonstrative (and relative–see Section 4.5) pronouns der, die,
das have their own conjugation, as depicted in Table 4.5.
dieser, diese, dieses2 (der) Similar to articles, these are used with and preceeding
the substantive. One might say that dies is used instead of the article in order
to more clearly emphasize that particular substantive’s importance. Diesen
Tisch finde ich am schonsten. Sehen Sie dieses Haus dort. . . ? Diesem Mann
konnte ich doch nicht helfen.
selbst, selber (not declined) Selbst and selber are used as appositions (see Sec-
tion 1.6) in order to exclude any other object which might have come into
question. Ich habe das Buch selbst gelesen. Mein Neffe kann sich jetzt selber
1 also derjenige, diejenige, dasjenige, derselbe, dieselbe, dasselbe
2 also jener, jene, jenes
28
waschen. Der Prasident selbst hat es zugegeben.
Do not confuse this usage selbst with the one used at the beginning of sentences
to mean even such as in: Selbst der Fahrer hat ihn gesehn. Selbst wenn ich nicht
gekommen ware. . . . [Even the driver saw it. Even if I had not come. . . ].
4.5 Relative and Interrogative Pronouns
Relative pronouns are pronouns which introduce relative clauses, such as the
underlined which in this sentence. Because they are pronouns, they must replace a
noun or noun phrase, and because they govern relative clauses, they are found in
dependent clauses only. Interrogative pronouns are question words used to elicit a
specific piece of information. For more information on interrogative pronouns and
questions see Chapter 11.
der, die, das (der–see Table 4.5) These represent the relative counterpart to the
demonstrative pronouns der, die, das above. The conjugation is the same as in
Table 4.5. These are used only relatively and not interrogatively.
welcher, welche, welches (der) These can be used both relatively and inter-
rogatively. As a relative pronoun they are used identically as der, die, das
(above), but are more formal. As interrogative pronouns they correspond to
the English: which.
was fur ein (not declined) Used interchangeably with welch but less formal; note
that fur is not a preposition here and that ein is therefore not necessarily in
the accusative case. Was fur ein Vater wurde seine Kinder im Einkaufzentrum
vergessen!
wer, was (not declined) correspond to English who and what.
29
Table 4.2: Pronoun Word Order Guidelines
For the impatient:
1. In sentences with 2 noun phrases, the dative pro-
noun comes first.
2. In sentences with one pronoun and one noun
phrase, the pronoun comes first.
3. In sentences with 2 pronouns, the accusative pro-
noun comes first.a
Examples:
1. Horst erzahlt den Kindern eine Geschichte.
2. Horst erzahlt sie den Kindern. / Horst erzahlt ih-
nen die Geschichte.
3. Horst erzahlt sie ihnen.
a In shorter terms: Where P is pronoun, N is noun
phrase, A is accusative, D is dative and < means “comes
first in sentence”
(a) 2P < D
(b) 1P < P
(c) 2N < A
30
Table 4.3: The Possessive Pronouns
mein, dein, etc.
1st pers 2nd pers
masc fem neut masc fem neut
mein meine mein unser unsre unser
dein deine dein Ihr Ihre Ihr
sein, ihr, sein seine, ihre, seine sein, ihr, sein ihr ihre ihr
Table 4.4: Reflexive Pronouns
1st Person 2nd Person 3rd Person
familiar formal masc. fem. neut.
Singular Acc. mich dich sich sich
Dat. mir dir sich sich
Plural Acc. uns euch sich sich
Dat. uns euch sich sich
Table 4.5: Demonstrative Pronouns
Singular Plural
masc fem neut
Nom der die dasdie
Acc den die das die
Dat dem der dem denen
Gen dessen deren dessen deren
CHAPTER 5ADJECTIVES
Adjectives are used to describe nouns. They can be used in two ways: pred-
icatively and attributively, as described in Sections 5.1 and 5.2 respectively. The
endings are only for attribute adjectives.
The strong endings are there to signify the gender, number, and case, and the
weak endings are there for all subsequent modifiers.
There are two sets of endings for two different contexts:
1. strong or primary endings-adjectives following indefinite articles (ein , kein )
or no article at all
2. weak or secondary endings-adjectives following definite articles (der, die, das),
demonstrative and interrogative pronouns (dies /jen , welch )
Remember: ein guter Mann, der gute Mann
Table 5.1: Primary Adjectival Endings
Primary endings:
Singular Plural
masculine feminine neuter
nominative -er -e -es -e
accusative -en -e -es -e
dative -em -er -em -en
genitive -en -er -en -en
31
32
Table 5.2: Secondary Adjectival Endings
Secondary endings:
Singular Plural
masculine feminine neuter
nominative -e -e -e -en
accusative -en -e -e -en
dative -en -en -en -en
genitive -en -en -en -en
Note: the primary endings are the same as the definite article except in the
genitive singular masculine and neuter: Juni letzten Jahres (June of last year).
Many books seem to forget this point.
5.1 Predicative Adjectives
These are not the type that usually cause students problems. Used predicatively,
an adjective is not declined (i.e. just as in English) and appears in the form as
one finds it in a dictionary. Predicate adjectives generally come after the verb.
Unlike in English, where most adverbs end in -ly and thus have different forms from
their adjectival counterparts, predicate adjectives in German look exactly as their
adverbial counterparts and can be differentiated only by their context. One basic
difference between adjectives and adverbs is that adjectives can be compared (see
Section 5.2.1).Der Kaffe schmeckt gut.
Deine Hose sieht rot aus.
Der Hund ist braun.
5.2 Attributive Adjectives
Attributive adjectives are declined. They modify nouns and must agree in case,
number, and gender. One can tell to which noun the adjective belongs by its ending,
33
since adjectives are declined. Apart from the case, number, and gender, there are
two different categories of endings an adjective takes, as indicated above: primary
and secondary. The primary endings indicate the case, number, and/or gender of the
noun wherever possible. If the case of the noun is clear through an article or other
modifier (anything which is declined and describes something else), the secondary or
weak endings are used on all subsequent modifiers.
Examples:
ein schones Haus, dieser grosse Mann
Notice that since ein is the same form for both the masculine and neuter in the
nominative, the following adjective must have a strong ending in order to show that
the following noun is neuter.
In other words, if an article is missing or does not clarify what the case and
gender of a noun is, the adjective takes on this responsibility in the form of primary
endings, and whenever the primary endings begin the noun phrase, all other modifiers
take the secondary endings. If an indefinite article introduces the noun phrase (such
as in ein guter Vater), all subsequent adjectives take the primary endings: ein guter,
hilfsbereiter, liebenswerter Vater.
The gender, number, and case of a noun can almost always be ascertained from
its modifiers. Likewise, it is almost always apparent whenever one uses any type of
modifier without knowing the gender or case.
Also note that participles are really just adjectives directly derived from verbs
and follow all of the patterns above. See Section 7.4.2 for more information.
5.2.1 Comparative and Superlative Forms
The basic form of an attributive adjective is called the positive. In comparisons,
one must use the comparative form, which is formed in in English either by adding
-er to the adjective or preceeding it with more, depending on how many syllables it
has. In German, most adjectives take the -er ending and add an umlaut to the first
34
vowel where possible. For the superlative form, which in English is characterized by
most or the ending -est, German takes the umlaut as in the comparative and adds
-st- instead of -er. The endings come after the -er in the comparative and after the
-st in the superlative forms.
Examples:
• lang, langer, langste
• schnell, schneller, schnellste
• weit, weiter, weiteste
• groß, großer, großte
• modern, moderner, modernste
Here are some examples of declined adjectives in context. Notice that with positves
one often uses the expression so wie (English: as as), in comparison the expres-
sion als. . . (English: -er than. . . or more than. . . ), and with superlatives
der -ste (English: the -est or the most ).
• Dieses Auto ist schneller als das andere. Aber das blaue ist das schnellste.
• Euer Haus ist großer als unseres.
• Die langste Stunde meines Lebens war meine mundliche Prufung in Deutsch.
Naja, manchmal ist Klavierunterricht langer.
• Es gibt eine sehr moderne Grundschule neben dem noch modereren Apartmen-
thaus.
• Das haßlichste Haus in unserem Wohnviertel liegt sudlich von dem Stadthaus.
Sometimes one might see a superlative form when no comparison is being drawn.
This is called the elative form and can usually be tranlated as very . E.g.: Besten
Dank, hochst intelligent, großtes Lob etc. Another use of the superlative is with am
-sten, which means the of all : am langsten, am besten, am uberraschendsten
etc.
Some irregularities:
35
1. • hoch, hoher, hochste
• gut, besser, beste
• nahe, naher, nachste
• viel, mehr, meiste
• wenig, minder, mindeste or: wenig, weniger, wenigste
(but regular in the latter form)
2. beide acts as a definite article, so the secondary endings follow:
beide alten Computer
3. viel- and wenig- appear alternately declined and undeclined, depending on
whether the noun is a mass or a count noun
viel Geld - viele Leute
wenig Geduld - wenige Menschen
4. adjectives ending in -en and -er often omit the comparative and superlative
-e- in order to ease pronunciation:
• ungeheuer - ein ungeheurer Zufall
• teuer - ein teures Spiel
• vorhanden - ein vorhand(e)nes Problem
• sauer - eine saure Miene
5. adjectives ending with -el omit the vowel when an ending is added:
dunkel - ein dunkler Wald
5.2.2 Possessive Adjectives
Possessive adjectives is another name for possessive pronouns (see Section 4.2).
They are often called ‘adjectives’ because they are declined as adjectives are.
5.2.3 Ordinal Numbers
Ordinal numbers are attribute adjectives, hence they are declined.
36
Table 5.3: The Ordinal Numbers
erst- first siebt- seventh dreizehnt- thirteenth funfzigst- fiftieth
zweit- second acht- eighth vierzehnt- fourteenth siebzigst- seventieth
dritt- third neunt- ninth funfzehnt- fifteenth sechzigst- sixtieth
viert- fourth zehnt- tenth zwanzigst- twentieth hunderts- hundredth
funft- fifth elft- eleventh dreißigst- thirtieth tausentst- thousandth
sechst- sixth zwolft- twelfth vierzigst- fortieth millionst- millionth
The pattern is fairly simple compared with English. One need only remember:
The root is the cardinal number with -(s)t + the ending, except in the cases of eins,
zwei and drei. This is just as in English (and most Indo-European languages). The
-s is only necessary when the word would otherwise be unpronounceable.
CHAPTER 6ADVERBS
Adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs. They can answer one of
the the questions How? When? How much? In what way? Where? and
often have the ending -ly in English, although this must not always be the case. In
German, many adverbs look exactly like predicate adjectives (see Section 5.1), since
they remain uninflected.
A good examples of the difference between adjectives and adverbs can be illus-
trated with the often misused adjective good and the adverb well.
• *I’m doing good.
This happens in English often:
• *You are driving too slow.
Schon can be an adverb or an adjective, depending on how it is used:
• Das Wetter ist schon.
• Dein Wagen fahrt sich schon.
Adverbs are written in the lower case unless they begin a sentence–the convention
is what differentiates them from many substantives:
Abend/abends, Morgen/morgens, etc.
Aside from the wo-, da- compounds mentioned in Table 6.1, some common end-
ings are: -s, -eise, -warts, -fach, -mal.
37
38
Table 6.1: Adverbs
Type Question word Examples
place wo, woher dort, hin, draußen, irgendwo
time wann morgens, gestern, jetzt, manchmal,
heute, fruher
quantity wieviel viel
conjunctional notfalls, dennoch, trotzdem, somit,
deshalb, deswegen
interrogative – wo, woher/wohin/wann, wie,
wieviel, warum, weswegen, we-
shalb, wieso
pronominal or
prepositional
woruber, wonach darin, daruber, danach, hiermit, hi-
erzu
CHAPTER 7VERBS
7.1 Verb Forms
7.1.1 The Infinitive
An Infinitive is the word or group of words which is built from the predicate and
contains the full meaning of the predicate. The present infinitive is the unconjugated
form of the verb as one finds it in a dictionary. This corresponds to the English to .
The particle zu (to) is also used in German in specific instances as illustrated below.
The commonest use of the infinitive in German is with modal verbs (see Section 7.3),
where the particle zu is not used. When zu is used with an infinitive, one will find it
directly in front the infinitive. If it is in front of an adjective it is in adverb (such as
zu teuer) and in front of a noun or pronoun in the dative it is a preposition (zu ihm,
zum Mitnehmen, zu der Frau.
Also, the infinitive has other tenses: future perfect, present perfect. The present
perfect infinitive formed with the present infinitive of the correct helping verb (haben
or sein) with the past participle of the main verb: bezahlt haben for bezahlen, gefahren
sein for fahren. The future perfect infinitive is formed with the present infinitive of
werden + the past participle of the main verb + the present infinitive of the helping
verb (haben or sein): werden gefahren sein for fahren, werden gegessen haben for
essen.
Note that all three forms of infinitives mentioned also have passive forms.
The uses of the infinitive are covered under each appropriate section, such as
Section 9.3 for infinitive conjunctions and Section 7.3 for modal verbs.
39
40
7.1.2 Conjugation
Almost all verbs are conjugated as in Table 7.1.
Where the [e] in the 2nd and 3rd sing, 2nd informal Plural is only present when
the stem ends in a hard consonant (such as d or t, as in the example). One
basically hears about starke/schwache/gemischte Verben (strong/weak/mixed verbs),
besondere Verben (special verbs), and verbs with a stem vowel change (Ablaut).
Additionally, there are prefix verbs, which may have a separable or inseparable prefix.
Here is how one can recognize them:
1. Strong verbs – past participle ends in -en
2. weak verbs – these are the regular verbs; they comprise most of the German
verbs. Their past participles end in -t and they have no stem vowel change
(Ablaut)
3. mixed verbs – neither strong nor weak, their past participles end in -t but they
have a vowel stem change in the past participle.
4. ‘special’ verbs (-eln, -ten, -zen, -s/ßen, -ien, -ern)
They are only special because the endings are not pronounceable without chang-
ing the order or adding/removing an ‘e’
5. Ablaut – This is a change in the vowel of the stem of the verb. It may occur in
the present tense (as in laufen-lauft) or in the past tense (denken-hat gedacht –
see item ‘mixed verbs’ above).
Table 7.1: Conjugation of Regular Verbs
For the impatient:
-e -en
-[e]st -[e]t, -en
-[e]t -en
ich arbeite wir arbeiten
du arbeitest ihr arbeitet, Sie arbeiten
er/sie/es arbeitet sie/Sie arbeiten
41
6. inseparable prefixed verbs (see Section 7.1.4)
7. separable prefixed verbs (see Section 7.1.4)
8. outright irregular (see Appendix B) verbs such as sein, werden, and sometimes
haben, all of which must be examined individually
Note that the only categories which are mutually exclusive are strong, weak, or
mixed verbs and inseparable or separable verbs–i.e. a verb must be strong, weak, or
mixed but cannot be any two of those, and a verb can be inseparable or separable,
but cannot be both and must not be either.
There are, of course, other groups and forms of verbs, such as modal verbs and
imperatives, but these are not conjugations and handled separately in their respective
sections. For mood see Section 7.2; for imperatives see Section 7.2.2.
There are no traditional conjugations (as in Latin, French, or Greek), but one can
define German verbs in terms of one or more of the eight aforementioned categories.
7.1.3 Irregular Verb Endings
As mentioned above, there are two types of verbs in German: weak and strong
(schwach and stark). They both take the same endings–being strong or weak only
has to do with the form of the verb, not with the endings. An irregular or strong verb
takes the same endings as the weak or regular verbs, but either the other verb forms
(i.e. the different tenses–see Section 7.4) are different or the stem has an ablaut.
There are, however, verbs that have special endings because of the stem. The
endings of these verbs differ because otherwise they would not be pronounceable.
• infinitives with stems ending in ‘t’, ‘d’, and ‘ß’
arbeiten, scheiden, heißen
• a few other (much rarer) letters combinations occurring in the infinitive stem
such as ‘z’, ‘gn’, ‘r’, and ‘l’
beizen, regnen, hetzen, tanzen, andern, rudern, sammeln, segeln are examples
• haben and the irregular (strong) verbs sein and werden.
42
7.1.4 Verb Prefixes
The fact that not every verb in German is unique and made of similar parts
that many other words use should not be surprising. In English there are many
prefixes common to dozens of words. One need only think about how many words
are built with prefixes. Notice that the meanings the prefixes denote are relative
and not absolute. Thus teaching a non-native speaker the morpheme -tract would
not ensure that s/he could deduce the meanings of attract, detract, subtract, extract.
Unfortunately, the same is true of German. But luckily, there are not nearly as many
affixes as there are in English (there are just as many suffixes). Just as in English,
there are inseparable prefixes and separable prefixes (cf. English phrasal verbs such
as to go/put/eat/work out, to beat/think/look up, to work/think through etc.).
in-separable prefix verbs
These are the commonest ones.
be- emp- ent- er- ge- ver- zer-
Two important things to know about inseparable prefixes are:
1. the syllable directly after the prefix receives the stress, never the prefix itself
2. in the strictly inseparable prefix category there are no prefixes that are
words in and of themselves
Table 7.3 summarizes the separable prefixes and meanings which beginning learners
need to know.
sep-arable prefix verbs
The other type of prefixes are separable. They have three important character-
istics:
1. they are independent words and have a meaning when they stand by themselves
2. they always come at the end of the clause; sometimes the body of the verb
remains at the head and they are therefore separated, sometimes, as in modal
sentences and subordinate clauses, the rest of the verb also must go to the end
43
Table 7.2: Conjugation of Some Irregular Verbs
For the impatient:
a regular verb:
lieben
ich lieb-e wir lieb-en
du lieb-st ihr lieb-t/Sie lieb-en
er,sie,es lieb-t sie lieb-en
examples of irregular endings:
arbeiten
ich arbeit-e wir arbeit-en
du arbeit-est ihr arbeit-et
er,sie,es arbeit-et sie arbeit-en
beizen
ich reiz-e wir reiz-en
du reiz-t ihr reiz-t
er,sie,es reiz-t sie reiz-en
44
Table 7.3: Inseparable Prefixes
be- transitive marker, it changes a
verbs meaning from to do some-
thing to to do something to X
beschreiben, befahren, befinden,
etc.
emp- internalizes the verb, makes it per-
sonal
empfangen, empfinden, empfehlen
ent- gives the sense of away from entfernen, entleeren, entnehmen,
etc.
er- to do something for the first time erlernen, erdenken, eroffnen,
erfinden, etc.
ge- as inseparable prefix idiomatic; no
pattern
gedenken, gefallen, gebrauchen,
gebuhren, etc.
ver-1. connecting, opposite of ent-
2. to change or use up some-
thing
3. to do something incorrectly
4. a type of intensifier
1. verheiraten, verbinden, etc.
2. verarbeiten, verspeisen,
verspielen, verandern, ver-
brauchen, etc.
3. verschlucken, verfarben, etc.
4. verhelfen, verbleiben, etc.
zer-1. to divide up
2. to harm or destroy
1. zerteilen, zergliedern, etc.
2. zerstoren, zerreden, etc.
45
of the clause and they are reunited again
Example: Ich stehe dir bei. → Ich mochte dir beistehen.
3. the prefix takes the stress
some of the commonest separable prefixes are:
an- ab- auf- uber- weg- and many more!
The concept is so prevalent and the examples so numerous that one should not have
any trouble picking up the flow of sentences with verbs that “break apart”
Geh doch mal weg! Warum willst du denn nicht einfach weggehen?
Ich stehe gewohnlich um 2 Uhr mittags auf, weil ich abends arbeiten muss. Ich muss
doch so fruh aufstehen!
Ich kaufe Ihnen gerne die ganzen Apfel ab. Ich mochte alle Ihre Apfel abkaufen.
7.1.5 Telling the difference between a separable prefix and a preposition
Since the separable prefixes are also words with another grammatical function
whose meanings vary greatly from prepositional uses, it is important to know which
is meant. Luckily, it is not difficult to differentiate and there are not many cases
which pose problems.
The rules of thumb are:
1. Separable verbs are separated in the present and past tense, in indicative and
imperative mood but not in subordinate clauses.
2. They are not separated in the infinitive, such as when an auxiliary verb is
used and the infinitive appears at the end of the sentence (as is the case with
modals–see Section 7.1.1), or when used as participles (Section 7.4.2).
3. Prepositions have objects, and must therefore be followed by a noun in the re-
spective case (see Section 8.2). Separable prefixes are not followed by anything.
Examples:
• Sie sprach mir Mut zu. [prefix]
• Ich habe lange zwischen den Baumen gesessen. [preposition]
46
• Ich mochte das aufschreiben. [prefix]
• Konnten Sie das auf die Karte schreiben? [preposition]
• Legen Sie die Lebensmittel auf den Tisch. [preposition]
• Meine Mutter war heute echt gut aufgelegt. [prefix in adjectival participle]
• BUT: Hor auf mit der Fragerei! [prefix] (Section 7.2.2)
7.2 Mood
Mood is a variant of the word mode and denotes the manner or way in which
a verb expresses its action. As in English, German has three moods: indicative,
imperative, and subjunctive. Each mood is divided into tenses, but most books
present the tenses of the indicative mood, then mention the other moods without
even presenting their tenses.
7.2.1 Indicative
This is the mood of regular speech and writing. Nearly every sentence in this
paper, including this one, is written in the indicative mood. If one is not telling
someone else what to do or supposing what may or might be but is not, chances are
he or she is speaking in the indicative mood.
7.2.2 Imperatives
The imperative, sometimes also called the hortative mood, is used for giving
commands.
For the most part, one encounters only 4 types of imperatives:
1. 1st Person Plural
2. 2nd Person Singular familiar
3. 2nd Person Singular polite
4. 2nd Person Plural
47
In proper written German an imperative sentence is always ended with an excla-
mation point. This is why the instructions in some German tests written by native
speakers seem harsh for American students. Remember that!
Formation
Tables 7.4 and 7.5 explain the formation of imperatives and the forms of the
imperatives for the irregular forms of sein, werden and haben.
Use and history
Argued to be the first appearances of real language, imperatives are verbal
thoughts believed to be the original forms of each verb. Some examples might be:
look out! help! leave!. Since these forms were at one point the commonest and were
undoubtedly the first to originate, it should be no surprise commands both greatly
resemble the verbs which sprang forth from them and are the most “stubborn”–that
is, they do not always correspond to the conjugated indicative forms with respect to
stem changes (Ablaut).
Sage doch, was du wirklich willst!
Lies dein Buch fur Morgen!
Schlaf gut!
The basic verb form in even the most dissimilar of the imperatives, namely the 2nd
person singular, can easily be recognized. In foreign language learning we usually
become familiar with the indicative mood first, as those are the forms used in declar-
ative sentences such as Wie geht es dir? and Mein Name ist Gotz George. Hence the
imperative forms are said to be built from the indicative present. Since these are the
forms one usually learns first and the ones with which you are already most familiar,
we are following this tradition.
While the English imperative has only two forms, the German has four: one for
the 1st person plural (cf. Let’s go swimming)–Gehen wir schwimmen, and one for
each of the 2nd person forms, du, ihr, and Sie. The 2nd person singular imperative
48
Table 7.4: Formation of Imperatives
• In the first person plural and 2nd Person formal forms the pro-
noun is not dropped but the order is changed in comparison with
the indicative form. The imperatives look exactly as questions
do. In the 2nd person familiar forms the pronoun is dropped.
• The first person plural looks exactly as it does in the infinitive:
essen → Wir essen. → Essen wir!
• The 2nd person singular familiar is formed by dropping the ‘t’
from the stem (the 3rd Person singular form) and removing any
umlaut that do not occur in the infinitivea :
lesen → Er liest. → Lies!
• The 2nd person plural familiar form is identical to the indicative
present:
Lest! Esst! Glaubt!
a such as in schlafen or laufen; Er schlaft → Schlaf ! ; Sie lauft →
Lauf!
Table 7.5: The Main Irregular Verbs
sein
sei seien wir
seid
seien Sie
werdena
werde werden wir
werdet
werden Sie
habenb
habe haben wir
habt
haben Sie
a a very uncommon imperative
b Notice that haben follows the regular pattern of verbs.
49
is formed by dropping the ‘t’ from the 3rd person singular form and removing any
umlaut that doesn’t occur in the infinitive:
Trink[e]! Wasch[e]! Geh[e]! Lies! Iss! Sprich! Lern[e]!
Whether or not the ‘e’ is added depends on the last consonant:
1. if the stems ends in ‘d’ or ‘t’ the ‘e’ must be there:
Warte mal! Arbeite fleißiger! Binde deine Schuhe zu!
2. if the stem ends in ‘m’ or ‘n’, the ‘e’ must be there, unless the ‘m’ or ‘n’ is
preceded by m,n,r,l or ‘h’, in which case it is optional:
Atme langsam! Widme mir ein Buch! Rechne es doch mal aus! BUT:
Kamm[e] dich! Qualm[e] nicht so! Lern[e] fleißig! Ruhm[e] dich nicht selbst!
3. verbs whose infinitives end in -eln or -ern do take an ‘e’ on the end but may
lose the one before the l/r, depending on style:
Hand[e]le! Samm[e]le! Ford[e]re!
With the ‘e’ is more formal and almost always used in written German.
4. verbs whose 2nd person singular form changes the central vowel to an ‘i’ do not
have the final ‘e’:
Lies! Wirf ! Stirb! Verdirb! Iss! Miss! Friss! Sprich!Vergiss! Nimm! Hilf !
Quill! Gib! Schilt! Wirb! Sieh!
Word Order
1. when used with a subordinate clause–just as in English:
Pass auf, wenn du etwas uber Radfahren lernen willst!
2. regarding flavoring particles – see next Section
3. negation – nothing unusual here. Follows patterns described in Chapter 10
More comparable to English that French: Passt nicht auf! Schaut nicht her. . . !
Mach keine Ausreden! etc.
50
4. anomaly: aufhoren: hor auf mit. . . ! instead of hor mit . . . auf !
Flavoring particles in imperative sentences
In normal speech there are many words which nearly every native speakers uses
but which students do not usually learn. In most books they are called “flavoring
particles” for lack of a more descriptive term. Examples of a similar English phe-
nomenon are like, sort of, you know, you see. In German they are much more common
and occur not only in speech, but also to some extent in formal writing. One must
remember that people rarely give straight commands, as they are much too harsh
and usually do not result in the speaker obtaining what s/he wants. Take a look at
the following sentences:
Bob, clean your room.
Alice, try harder this time.
Just wait!
Most would agree, these commands would sound a lot gentler if they were a little
less direct. Alice and Bob be more compliant if one said something like:
Bob, why don’t you clean your room?
Alice, try just a little harder this time.
Wait just a second!
Naturally, the intonation also plays a big role here.
One should not be surprised to hear that German has the same tendencies.
Luckily the imperative form does not change at all, rather, two words (the so-called
“flavoring particles”) are added, usually right after the imperative form (i.e. including
the pronoun in the plural forms): doch and mal. This gives a very similar effect to
the Why don’t. . . :
Raume doch dein Zimmer auf!
Bemuhe dich doch!
Warte mal kurz!
51
Although some instructors tell their students to avoid using such particles in the
beginning stages, one will rarely hear real German commands without them, and it
is therefore the opinion of the author that even beginning learners try to use them.
7.2.3 Subjunctive
The subjunctive mood (Konjuntiv) belongs to the more advanced topics and
may be only briefly mentioned in some first year courses. Nonetheless, it may be in
the first sentence one hears when one arrives in a German-speaking country and is of
utmost importance for an introductory German course.
Uses:
1. when something did not happen or is not going to happen, or is not true (con-
trary to fact):
as if, almost, I wish. . .
2. politeness: mochte (gern), hatte (gern), wurde (also in questions)
3. if, when clauses
4. when reporting something that may or not be true–her the speaker/author is
distancing him/herself from the content of the statement and withholding a
judgment concerning its factuality (indirect speech)
Formation:
1. for weak verbs, it is the same as the imperfect (praeteritum) form
2. for strong verbs, one takes the praeteritum form changes the first vowel to an
umlaut where possible. The first person singular also adds an -e as a suffix.
There are many common verbs that are particularly old and therefore particu-
larly stubborn, such as helfen (hulfe), sterben (sturbe)
3. the auxiliary verb wurden (Eng.: would) is often used with the main verb as an
infinitive instead of forming the subjunctive of the main verb. This is particu-
larly common in polite forms.
52
4. many verbs have two subjunctive forms for the two different types of subjunctive
(see Table 7.6) one is always not built from the praeteritum and must be learned
separately
For the subjunctive forms of modal verbs, see page 57.
53
Table 7.6: The Two Types of Subjunctive in German
There are actually two types of subjunctive in German:
• one for commands and indirect speech
• one for politeness and one for conditions that are contrary to fact or that
could be true but are not
They are usually called Subjunctive or Konjunctive I and II. One can tell them
apart by:
• their usage: see above
• their form: subjunctive II is the form described above or wurden + in-
finitive; subjunctive I is characterized by the fact that the 3rd person
singular form looks like the indicative 1st person singular (habe, verstehe,
sehe, mache, etc.)–if the form cannot be differentiated from the indicative
form (such as with haben), the form for subjunctive II is used or wurden
+ infinitive
• no book should call these rules, as one can, at best, speak of tendencies
in usagea involving the varying forms
a [Duden, 163]
54
Examples:
Indirect speech:
1. Er sagt, ich sei sein Bruder.
2. Er sagt, ich soll sein Bruder sein.
3. In der Zeitung steht es, er habe sie nicht gekannt.
4. Man behauptet, sie hatten sich fruher gekannt.
Commands:
1. Man moge dich herzlich willkommen heissen.
2. Es lebe der Konig.
3. Man nehme 2 Eier. . .
Polite forms:
1. Konnten Sie mir helfen?
2. Wurdet ihr die Tur offen lassen?
3. Durfte ich ein bißchen bleiben?
Conditions contrary to fact:
1. Fast hatte er es geschafft!
2. Wenn ich nur mehr Geld hatte . . .
3. Wenn du nicht so laut warest, konntest du in der Kuche spielen.
4. Am Telefon horst du dich so an, als stundest du im nachsten Zimmer!
7.3 Modal Verbs
A modal verb is a sort of helping verb that expresses a wish, intention, or–on
a more basic level–a relation to the action in the sentence. This action is shown
by another verb in the sentence, which must be in the infinitive. In German, this
infinitive comes at the end of the sentence in main clauses (but not in subordinate
clauses). There are, however, many cases where the intent is so obvious that the
infinitive can be omitted-some examples are below in Table 7.8.
55
7.3.1 Conjugation
The 1st and 3rd singular forms are always the same in modal verbs; there is an
ablaut in the singular in all but sollen (and mochten); and the plural forms of 1st,
2nd formal, and 3rd always identical to the infinitive.
Notice that patterns: all the 1st and 3rd person singular forms are identical and
the infinitive is identical to the 1st, 3rd persons plural and the 2nd person formal. No
vowel changes occur in the plural but in every person in the singular in all verbs but
sollen. There is another verb, mogen, whose subjunctive form is very similar to and
often used as as modal verb. As sollen, it too has no Ablaut (stem vowel change).
Modal verbs are auxiliary verbs which are usually accompanied by an infinitive.
They are sollen, wollen, mochten (special case), durfen, mussen, konnen.
things to look out for.
• verbs or subjunctive forms of verbs that usually act like modals: mochten,
lassen
• verbs that have the meanings similar to modal verbs:
mogen (see mochten above), gern haben, vermogen.
Past tenses of modal verbs. There are two ways to indicate modal actions
in the past:
1. with the present perfect tense–in this case the past participle of the modal verb
is only used when the infinitive can be ellided (see Table 7.8), otherwise the
auxiliary form of haben is used and the modal auxiliary is moved to the end of
the clause, i.e. after the infinitive complement:
Das habe ich nicht machen durfen.
2. with the imperfect–the shorter and more common way is to use the imper-
fect form of the modal auxiliary (sollten, durften, konnten, mussten, wollten,
mochten) and leave the rest of the sentence as it is:
Das durfte ich nicht machen.
56
Table 7.7: Conjugation of Modal Verbs and mochten
For the impatient:
durfen
ich darf wir durfen
du darfst ihr durft/Sie durfen
er,sie,es darf sie durfen
konnen
ich kann wir konnen
du kannst ihr konnt/Sie konnen
er,sie,es kann sie konnen
mussen
ich muss wir mussen
du musst ihr musst/Sie mussen
er,sie,es muss sie mussen
wollen
ich will wir wollen
du willst ihr wollt/Sie wollen
er,sie,es will sie wollen
sollen
ich soll wir sollen
du sollst ihr sollt/Sie sollen
er,sie,es soll sie sollen
mochten
ich mochte wir mochten
du mochtest ihr mochtet/Sie mochten
er,sie,es mochte sie mochten
57
Table 7.8: When One Can Leave Out the Infinitive
direction When the intended infinitive expresses move-
ment, such as is the case with laufen, fahren,
fliegen, etc. it may be omitted:
Ich mochte nach Frankreich. Ich muss in die
Schweiz. Morgen wollen wir zu dir.
ellipses When the intended infinitive is clear enough
without being stated, it is usually omitted:
Ich will das aber nicht [machen]. Er kann gut
Deutsch [sprechen].
Note that the present perfect with main verbs (i.e. when the infinitive cannot be
ellided) is used infrequently with the indicative mood, and that the construction is
mostly used with subjunctive forms. A careful student of German will not mistake
the imperfect use of modals with the irreal use of the subjunctive:
1. Das durfte ich nicht machen.
2. Das hatte ich nicht machen durfen.
In sentence one, the speaker was not allowed to do whatever is being spoken about,
and in sentence two the speaker did do it but should not have. See Section 7.2.3 for
more information.
subjunctive forms. There are two main uses for the subjunctive forms of
modal verbs: contrary to fact and forms of politeness.
1. As mentioned above in the previous section, the present perfect subjunctive is
just the present perfect indicative with the subjunctive form of haben. Thus:
(a) Das habe ich nicht tun sollen.
(b) Das hat sie nicht sagen konnen.
(c) Man hat mir nicht helfen konnen.
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2. In order to make requests more polite, German uses the subjunctive forms of
the modal verbs. This is consistent both with the tendency to use wurden with
other verbs as well as with the English practice: would, can/could, may/might.
Note that, as mentioned above, mochten is not a true modal verb but the
subjunctive form of mogen. It is already a polite form.
7.4 Tenses
The time in which an action takes place is defined by the tense of the verb. Since
tense is within the verb itself, forms using auxiliary verbs put together are not tense.
Thus English does not have a future tense, since the auxiliary verb will rather than
word endings is used to signify actions which take place in the future. Although
German has its own set of tenses and expresses things in a much different way than
English, this is one thing they have in common. When we speak of tense here, as
is done in most books and courses, we will be focusing on the time expressed and
not on the strict rules of form; therefore “future” is handled in its own section just
as the other tenses. This section explains the meanings and uses of the concept of
tense, while some more in depth remarks and the formation of each tense is handled
individually in Sections 7.4.1–7.4.6.
It must also be pointed out that tense is not influenced by nor directly related
to mood or voice, and that each tense has different forms for the different moods and
voices.
The two important pieces of information in regards to analyzing tense are the
spoken time and point of reference. The spoken time is now, or whenever the
sentence is uttered, and the point of reference is the time at which the said event
takes place.
Examples of when to use which tense.
• It is 3:00 pm, and our speaker is going to eat dinner tonight at 6:00 pm.
Ich esse heute Abend um 18 Uhr. or Ich werde (heute Abend) um 18 Uhr essen.
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past perfect imperfect present present/future I future II
present perfect
Figure 7.1: A Visual Representation of German Tense
Without the adverbial phrase heute Abend, the first sentence has a habitual
as opposed to a one-time meaning. The second sentence is in any event more
resolute or unwavering than the first.
Likewise, if one were to be asked When are you going to be finished? two possible
answers are Ich bin um 19 Uhr fertig and Ich werde um 19 Uhr fertig sein, where
the second gives the impression that the speaker wants to dispell any doubts
that s/he might not be finished by then.
• If someone were to invite the speaker to make plans for a time after this sched-
uled dinner, the answer might be: Ich werde um 19 Uhr (schon) gegessen haben.
A sample sentence in which the spoken time is 4:00 pm, the planned time to
eat is 6:00 pm, and the point of reference (underlined in this sentence) is 8:00
pm:
Bis ich dich wiedersehe, werde ich schon gegessen haben.
• Ich stehe (gewohnlich) um 7 Uhr auf. displays habitual behavior which is
strengthened by gewohnlich, whereas the sentence:
Ich bin um 7 Uhr aufgestanden means the speaker got up one time at 7:00 am.
Without a point of reference, it will be assumed that this morning is meant.
• The following sentence illustrates how the time was longer in the past:
Ich mußte um 10 Uhr nach Wien, also bin ich um 7 aufgestanden.
• The sentence: Ich stand um 7 Uhr auf most likely refers to a general action in
the past, such as While in college, I got up at 10:00, [but after I began working. . . ]
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• At 3:00 pm, one describes what he did this morning–he will use the present
perfect, except with the few verbs which almost always are used in the imperfect
form (see Section 7.4.3).
• Ich bin um 7 Uhr aufgestanden und habe mir die Zahne geputzt. Dann habe ich
gefruhstuckt und Nachrichten gehort. . .
Using imperfect is more appropriate when telling a story (the historical past)
which took place this morning but is told as a story with a removed point of reference:
• Ich sah den Polizisten, und er sah mich. Er konnte nicht glauben, dass ich vor
der gebrochenen Fensterscheibe stand, und er sagte “Halt!”. . .
Note that the imperfect is not used with a concrete point of reference in the
future–it must always be a completed action or a habitual action in the past which
no longer takes place. However, the present perfect tense is used to describe completed
actions, even if they have not taken place yet:
• Bis. . . [By the time. . . ] and nach. . . [after. . . ]
• Bis wir uns wieder sehen, habe ich die Karten schon gekauft.
• Nach 19 Uhr habe ich schon gegessen.
In these sentences, the point of reference is in the future (Bis wir uns wieder
sehen, Nach 19 Uhr), but the action will be completed by then.
Note that both of these sentences are impossible with the imperfect:
• *Bis wir uns wieder sehen, kaufte ich die Karten schon.
• *Nach 19 Uhr aß ich schon.
This is what the past perfect (or plusquamperfect) is used for. For example:
• Nachdem du aus dem Kino gekommen warst, sah ich dich gleich.
For simultaneous actions in the past, als is used.
• Als du aus dem Kino kamst, sah ich dich gleich.
61
Note that this sentence would be impossible with the present perfect because
it does not refer to an exact point in time, but rather to the fact that the action is
completed:
• *Als du aus dem Kino gekommen bist, habe ich dich gleich gesehen.
On the order of tenses in German:
• in present - present the events take place at the same time
• in imperfect - imperfect the events take place at the same time
• in past perfect - past perfect the events take place at the same time
• in past perfect - imperfect the imperfect event took place after the past perfect
event, and both are in the past
Ich sah dich erst, nachdem du schon gewunken hattest. (winken=to wave)
• in present perfect - present the present event took place after the present perfect
event, and the present perfect event is completed
• in present - future the event in the future has not yet happened
• in present perfect - future perfect the event in future perfect will be completed
after the event in the present perfect has been completed, but exactly when
that is in reference to the spoken time depends up the context or the point of
reference.
7.4.1 Present
The present tense is the tense used in this sentence and any sentence in which
the verb is in the present tense form and the point of reference is the same as the
spoken time. Examples are below:
English German
I am eating, I eat, I do eat Ich esse
I sleep, I do sleep, I am sleeping Ich schlafe
Notice that in addition to tense,
English verbs also have aspect, which is used to determine if something is habitual,
62
a one time action, or is happening at this moment right now. German uses adverbs
and context to achieve this. For example,
The English sentences: I am sleeping, I do sleep, and I sleep would all be translated
into German as Ich schlafe without context, but within a conversation an effort should
be made to make sure that every nuance possible is translated as well. In order to
illustrate that the event is happening right now, such as the case is with the English
present progressive (I am sleeping), German uses the adverb gerade: Ich schlafe gerade.
In order to convey that an action is habitual, the present tense often uses the adverb
gewohnlich:
• I get up at six. → Ich stehe (gewohnlich) um sechs auf.
Because German does not have aspect, the “present tense” refers to a broader
possible time span than the English “present tense” does (which is broken down into
aspect). In German, the present tense is the tense used most often to refer to actions
in the future. See Section 7.4.4.
7.4.2 Perfect
Formation of the Perfect
The present perfect tense in German looks a lot like the English present perfect
but usually has a different meaning. It is formed with an auxiliary (either haben
or sein, depending on the verb–see page 64) and the past participle of the verb.
Just as with modal verbs (which are also auxiliaries), the conjugated form of haben
or sein appears in its expected position in the sentence, and the participle appears
at the end, just like the infinitive in a modal predicate. For example:
Ich habe meine Hausaufgaben schon gemacht.
Notice the prefix on the past participle and ‘t’ ending of this regular (German
schwach or ‘weak’) verb. This is the default form, but there are several reasons why
many of the verbs you encounter do not match this pattern:
1. the verb has a prefix, either separable or inseparable
63
2. the verb is stark (‘strong’), i.e. it just does not follow the pattern
Also, combinations of the two possibilities above are not uncommon. The reason why
most of the first verbs one learns in a foreign language are irregular is because they
are usually the oldest and most stubborn. Instead of resembling the patterns words
fell into when the language originated (i.e. became different enough to be called a
language and no longer just a dialect), the common words were so deep-rooted in the
speakers’ minds that a replacement would have been impossible. Compare the past
participle of English words such as sleep, drink, think, see, go, etc. to newer and more
common ones such as transpire, type, configure, etc.
Learning past participles
There are two keys guidelines for learning all the past participles of all the verbs:
For weak verbs take the infinitive of the verb, drop the ‘-en’ ending and add a ‘-t’;
add a ‘ge-’ to the beginning of the non-prefixed verbs or between the prefix and
the root to the verbs with sep-arable prefixes. Verbs with insep-arable prefixes
as well as those ending in -ieren take no prefix whatsoever.
stellen → gestellt
aufstellen → aufgestellt
verstellen → verstellt
For strong verbs and the so-called mixed verbs there are several patterns which
can help you remember the forms but to make ‘rules’ of these would be sim-
ply too abstract at this point. For now it is best to simply memorize them.
Note that the rules for the absence of ‘ge-’ still apply. What makes them
strong/mixed is the fact that the vowel changes (Ablaut). The final ‘-en’ is not
dropped and replaced by a ‘-t’ in the strong verbs but is in the mixed.
ausziehen → ausgezogen [stark]
versehen → versehen [stark]
64
denken → gedacht [gemischt]
bringen → gebracht [gemischt]
sein or haben?
As mentioned above, the auxiliary verb for the present perfect can be either
haben or sein, depending on the verb in question–or better: depending on whether
the verb indicates a change in motion or condition or does not. If the verb is a
motion verb–such as to run, to go–or a verb indicating a change in condition–such as
to become, to die, to happen, to break–the auxiliary is the form of sein that agrees
with the subject (i.e. bin, bist, etc., depending on number and person of the subject).
If not, it is conjugated with the correct form of haben. There are almost no verbs that
do not conform to this pattern (other than sein itself. Note also that all transitive
verbs are conjugated with haben.
Meaning
As mentioned above, there is a difference in meaning between the English and
German present perfect tenses. There are several uses in German for this tense, but
all but one are relatively obscure and unimportant for beginners:
Its commonest use is to signify that the action has taken place and has already been
completed at the time the sentence is uttered. The time the act was completed can
be given by adverbs:
Ich habe gestern ein Fahrrad gekauft
Ich habe schon gegessen.
Notice that in English this meaning can represented by several different forms (as-
pects) of the past tense:
• I have bought a bike.
• I was buying a bike [when. . . ].
• I bought a bike.
• I did buy a bike.
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7.4.3 Imperfect
Often referred to as the ‘simple past,’ the ‘praeteritum,’ or the ‘historic past,’
the imperfect tense consists either of a different verb form (strong and mixed verbs)
or an inserted -t- and refers to events that took place in the past tense. It is used
both for habitual and one time actions in the past, but not for actions which began in
the past and are still continuing. It is more often used in written than spoken except
with the verbs in Table 7.9, for which it is also used in spoken German because the
verbs occur so often and are shorter than the present perfect forms.
In addition the the verbs sein and haben, the following verbs are used in the
imperfect more often than the present perfect in spoken German because of their
short forms: denken, finden, einsehen
7.4.4 Future
As mentioned in Sections 7.4 and 7.4.1, there is no “future tense” in German
just as there is none in English, and the present tense with adverbs of time is often
used to express the sense of future actions.
Examples:
I’ll meet you at 8 tonight. Ich treffe dich um 8 heute Abend.
I think I’ll go to the concert with you
next week.
Ich glaube, ich gehe nachste Woche mit
dir aufs Konzert.
Table 7.9: Imperfect Forms of sein and haben
sein
singular plural
ich war wir waren
du warst ihr wart/Sie waren
er,sie,es waren sie waren
haben
singular plural
ich hatte wir hatten
du hattest ihr hattet/Sie hatten
er,sie,es hatte sie hatten
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In addition to the present tense with adverbs of time, the verb werden + infinitive
is used to express events in the future. It is not used interchangeably with the present
tense to express the future tense because it is less dependent on context or time
adverbs to exhibit its futurity. In addition, it has a more resolute tone than the
present tense + a time adverb.
In addition to the futurity werden + infinitive, it can also exhibit an assumption
on the part of the speaker. In this case, the said even may still be happening or not
have even happened yet.
Der Thomas wird krank sein. Thomas is probably sick.
Often, adverbs such as wohl, vermutlich, wahrscheinlich, vielleicht are used to
enhance the fact that the speaker sees this only as a possibility and not as fact or
that the speaker casts doubt on the statement:
• Das wirst du wohl am besten konnen, nicht wahr?
• Mein Vater wird vermutlich das Essen bezahlen.
7.4.5 Future Perfect
The future perfect, also known as ‘future II,’ is the future counterpart to the
present perfect. It not only exhibits all the characteristics of the present perfect in
relation to when it takes place, it also has the possibility aspect the future tense has
as explained above. In this case, the event is complete, and the speaker is speculating
about the outcome or another aspect of the event:
• Mein Vater wird fur das Auto bezahlt haben.
• Ich werde dich wohl gewarnt haben?!
It is formed with werden + present perfect infinitive (see Section 7.1.1).
7.4.6 Past Perfect
The past perfect, or ‘plusquamperfect,’ is used to refer to events that were com-
pleted before an event in the past took place. For example, if it is now 3:00 pm and
67
Herr Schmidt called his wife at 11:30 am and then ate lunch at 12:00 pm, one might
say:
Er hatte seine Frau schon angerufen, bevor er Mittag gegessen hat.
Notice that it looks exactly as the present perfect, but the auxiliary verb haben,
which would be sein if the verb exhibited motion or a change of condition, is in the
perfect. The same is true for all verbs:
1. Man war schon gegangen, als Sie gekommen sind.
2. Wir hatten ihn schon sehen konnen, ehe er die Fahne trug.
3. Ihr seid erst zu Hause gewesen, nachdem wir angerufen hatten.
7.5 Verb Types
7.5.1 Full Verbs
A full verb is a verb that can stand on its own as a predicate in a sentence and
has a lexical (as opposed to just a grammatical) worth. These are the normal main
verbs one means most of the time when referring the predicate of a sentence. If it is
not an auxiliary verb, a reflexive verb, a function verb, a modal verb, or an infinitive,
it is a full verb.
7.5.2 Auxiliary Verbs
Auxiliary verbs, also known as helping verbs, are the verbs haben, sein, and
werden when they are used in conjunction with main verbs to perform a grammatical
function in a sentence. The functions include building the passive, modal construc-
tions, and perfect constructions.
7.5.3 Reflexive Verbs
Reflexive verbs are verbs that have reflexive pronouns as their objects (see Sec-
tion 4.3). There are few verbs which are truly reflexive, that is, verbs that must be
used with reflexive pronouns, although this number is much higher than in English.
68
Usually when one speaks of reflexive verbs in German, one means any predicate that
has a reflexive pronoun as an object. The three most important characteristics of
reflexive verbs are:
1. they are transitive, which means they form their perfect tenses with haben
2. they are all active, since the object acted upon is acted upon by the subject
(itself)
3. as mentioned in Section 4.3, reflexive verbs are often used in German when
English would use possessive pronouns to show possession:
• Ich putze mir die Zahne.
• Er hat sich das Bein gebrochen.
• Hast du dir den Finger geschnitten?
7.5.4 Phrasal Verbs
There are many verbs in German which take on a different meaning when they
are used together with certain prepositional phrases. These are analogous to the
phrasal verbs in English, and although they are not a separate grammatical category,
they should be handled as a class of their own. Table 7.10 contains several examples
of the commonest and most important function verbs. It is important that one know
not only the verb and its conjugation but also the preposition and the case which it
governs (see Chapter 8).
Table 7.10: Phrasal Verbs
verb preposition + case
[perfect infinitive]
English meaning sample sentence
abhangen von + dat
[abgehangen haben]
to depend on someone or
something
Es hangt alles von deiner
Einstellung ab.
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Table 7.10–Continued
verb preposition + case
[perfect infinitive]
English meaning sample sentence
anfangen mit + dat
[angefangen haben]
to start, to beginn with
someone or something
Der Arzt hat mit der
Prozedur noch nicht ange-
fangen.
aufhoren mit + dat
[aufgehort haben]
to stop with someone or
something
Horen Sie mit der Fragerei
auf!
beginnen mit + dat
[begonnen haben]
to start, to begin with
someone or something
Mein Bruder hat letztes
Jahr mit der Schule be-
gonnen.
jemanden bitten um + acc
[gebeten haben]
to ask someone for some-
thing
Man hat mich um
Verstandnis gebeten.
denken an + acc
[gedacht haben]
to think about someone or
something
Man muss oft an seine
Kinder denken.
nachdenken uber + acc
[nachgedacht haben]
to think about someone or
something
Ich habe lange uber deine
Erklarung nachgedacht.
jemandem danken fur +
acc
[gedankt haben]
to thank someone for some-
thing
Ich mochte Ihnen ganz her-
zlich fur Ihre Hilfe.
jemanden fragen nach +
dat
[gefragt haben]
to ask someone about
someone or something
Habt ihr sie nach einer
zweiten Serviette gefragt?
glauben an + acc
[geglaubt haben]
to believe in someone or
something
Ich glaube an Gott.
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Table 7.10–Continued
verb preposition + case
[perfect infinitive]
English meaning sample sentence
jemanden halten fur + acc
[gehalten haben]
to take someone for some-
thing
Ich habe ihn fur einen
Lugner gehalten.
hoffen auf + acc
[gehofft haben]
to hope for something Sie hoffen auf gutes Wet-
ter.
lachen uber + acc
[gelacht haben]
to laugh about someone or
something
Sie lachten alle uber mich.
leiden an + acc
[gelitten haben]
to suffer from something Sie leidet oft an dem Larm
der Flugzeuge.
geraten in + acc
[geraten sein]
to get into something Er geriet oft in Wut, wenn
ich meine wahre Meinung
dazu außere.
sich entschuldigen bei +
dat fur + acc
[sich entschuldigt haben]
to apologize to someone for
something
to tell someone to be sorry
for something
Ich habe mich bei ihnen fur
die Unangenehmlichkeiten
entschuldigt.
sich furchten vor + dat
[sich gefurchtet haben]
to be afraid of someone or
something
Ich furchte mich vor Spin-
nen.
sich freuen uber + acc
[sich gefreut haben]
to be pleased with someone
or something
Ich habe mich sehr uber
Ihren Anruf gefreut.
sich freuen auf + acc
[sich gefreut haben]
to look forward to
(+ gerund)
Sie freut sich auf ein
baldiges Wiedersehen.
sich interessieren fur + acc
[sich interessiert haben]
to be interested in someone
or something
Er interessiert sich nur fur
Autos.
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Table 7.10–Continued
verb preposition + case
[perfect infinitive]
English meaning sample sentence
sich kummern um + acc
[sich gekummert haben]
to take care of someone or
something
Sie kummert sich um ihn
nicht.
sich konzentrieren auf +
acc
[sich konzentriert haben]
to focus on someone or
something
Sie konzentriert sich auf
ihre Hausaufgaben.
sich sorgen um + acc
[sich gesorgt haben]
to worry about someone or
something
Wir sorgen uns um seine
Finanzschwierigkeiten.
sich verlieben in + acc
[sich verliebt haben]
to fall in love with someone Sie hat sich in ihn verliebt.
sich vorbereiten auf + acc
[sich vorbereitet haben]
to prepare for something Ich bereite mich auf die
Deutschprufung vor.
sorgen fur + acc
[gesorgt haben]
to take care someone or
something
Wir sorgen fur ihn.
sprechen mit + dat uber +
acc
[gesprochen haben]
to talk with someone about
someone or something
Ich habe mit ihm uber den
Plan gesprochen.
sterben an + acc
[gestorben sein]
to die from something Er ist an einem gebroch-
enen Herzen gestorben.
teilnehmen an + dat
[teilgenommen haben]
to take part, to participate
in something
Ich mochte am Som-
merkurs in Mannheim
teilnehmen.
vertrauen auf + acc
[vertraut haben]
to have trust in someone or
something
Ich vertraue auf meine Fre-
unde und Familie.
72
Table 7.10–Continued
verb preposition + case
[perfect infinitive]
English meaning sample sentence
verzichten auf + acc.
[verzichtet haben]
to do without something Ich habe auf den Preis
verzichtet.
warten auf + acc to wait for someone or
something
Er wartet auf euch.
7.6 Voice
7.6.1 Active
A sentence is in the active voice when the subject of that sentence is the agent.
In other words, if the noun in the nominative is committing the action or if the
predicate has sein as its main verb, it is an active sentence.
7.6.2 Passive
In passive sentences, the agent is not the subject of the sentence. Sometimes it
is the object of the preposition von or durch, but often it is not even mentioned. The
subject is acted upon by some named or unnamed force, and the verb werden builds
the predicate as an auxiliary verb.
To convert from active to passive. One takes the direct object and makes
it the subject, paying attention to the new word order and remembering to conjugate
the verb accordingly. The indirect object does not change. If there is an active
agent (i.e. not man), it becomes the object of von and declined for the dative case
accordingly; if man is the subject of the active sentence, it is simply left out as it is
implied.
Examples:
• Man besucht diesen Tempel oft. → Dieser Tempel wird von Leuten oft besucht.
• Man schreit. → Es wird geschrieen. (no agent can be named here)
73
• Andreas schenkt Angelika das Buch. → Buch wird (von Andreas) Angelika
geschenkt.
To convert from passive to active. For changing passive sentences into
active ones, one need only reverse the process described above: Objects of the prepo-
sitions von and durch will usually be the subject unless there is not subject named, in
which case it will usually be man. Special attention must be given to tense, number,
and mood.
Telling the difference between passive and future. In passive, the par-
ticiple is in the past tense (for future in the infinitive), cf.
Er wird es machen – Es wird gemacht. Sie wird essen – Sie wird gegessen.
Often the passive has the von + agent (in dative).
Telling the difference between passive and future perfect. In future
perfect the past participle is present but the infinitive haben must also be present.
cf.:
Es wird gegessen – Er wird bis dann gegessen haben.
The future perfect is a relatively seldom occurrence, so one should not really
have much trouble with it.
CHAPTER 8PREPOSITIONS
Table 8.1 is an overview of the most commonly used prepositions.
Table 8.1: An Overview of the Prepositions
Prep. Cases Definitions
(nom) acc dat gen most often: special:
an + + - dat.: at, next to (on)
acc.: towards, at
see below
auf + + - dat.: on (top of), at
acc.: towards
in place of zu, in:
e.g. auf die Bank
aus - + - out of, from “made of X”
außer -1 + - besides, apart from with exception to
bei - + - at the house of X
while + gerund
bis + -2 - temporal: until, by
spatial: as far as
durch + - - through passive: from, by +
agent
1 see Section 8.2.2
2 see Section 8.2.1
74
75
Table 8.1–Continued
Prep. Cases Definitions
fur + - - for time limit, compari-
son, or substitution
gegen + - - against, towards both spatial and
comparative
hinter + + - behind
in + + - (dat/acc:) in, (acc:)
into
mit - + - with
nach - + - to, after according to (person)
neben + + -
ohne + - - without
seit - + - since (temporal)
uber + + - over, above
um + - - around, at temporal: at
spatial: around
unter + + - under, beneath
von - + - of, from passive + agent: by
vor + + - temporal: before, in
front of
can be used tempo-
rally and spatially
wegen - +3 + because/on account of
zu - + - to see Section 8.2.2
zwischen + + - between
3 see Section 8.2.4
76
Prepositions are very difficult to translate and therefore cause many students
problems, mainly because there is never a one to one correspondence in meaning.
So many contexts make wrote memorization impossible. The main difficulties arise
when the student:
1. does not know which case follows the preposition and therefore has trouble
locating the object
2. is not aware of the difference in meaning arising from the difference cases some
prepositions can govern
3. forgets the common meaning or encounters a usage new for him/her and cannot
surmise the meaning from the context
4. mistakes a separable prefix for a preposition or vice versa
The first two problems are easily resolved by studying the sections 8.2.1, 8.2.2, and
8.2.3 and learning the meanings with the proper cases. The third and fourth problems
are also resolvable but take a little more effort. Grappling with section 8.1 will help
a great deal in conceptualizing the spatial qualities of the prepositions, and with the
sections 7.5.4 on function verbs and 7.1.5 on separable verb prefixes one should be
well on the way to dealing with most prepositional problems one may encounter.
8.1 A Visual Overview of the Prepositions
A picture is worth a thousand words. The pictures of prepositions on the next
five pages are meant to display the spatial meaning of each preposition and and draw
attention to what it means rather than how to translate it.
8.1.1 Prepositions of Movement and Motion
See Figures 8.1–8.14.
8.1.2 Prepositions Exhibiting a Static State
See Figures 8.15–8.24.
77
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Figure 8.1: an with Accusative
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Figure 8.2: auf with Accusative
Figure 8.3: bis Figure 8.4: durch
78
Figure 8.5: gegen
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���������
���������
Figure 8.6: hinter with Accusative
(movement towards or into)
Figure 8.7: in with Accusative Figure 8.8: neben with Accusative
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������������������������������������
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(over, above, across)
Figure 8.9: uber with Accusative Figure 8.10: um
79
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Figure 8.11: unter (i.e. beneath) withAccusative
Figure 8.12: unter (i.e. among) withAccusative
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Figure 8.13: vor with Accusative
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Figure 8.14: zwischen with Accusative
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���
���
Figure 8.15: an with Dative
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������������������������������������������������������������������������������
Figure 8.16: auf with Dative
(within a space)(in a place)
Figure 8.17: in with Dative Figure 8.18: neben with Dative
80
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���������������������������������������������(over, above)
Figure 8.19: uber with Dative Figure 8.20: von
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���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������
(auf)
unter
Figure 8.21: unter (i.e. beneath) withDative
(among)
Figure 8.22: unter (i.e. among) withDative
81
8.2 Prepositions Governing Case
Because English does not have a case system, one normally does not take note of
the differences in the nouns in prepositional phrases. But in sentences with predicates
such as to give and to tell, the difference becomes obvious:
I gave him the book.
I told her not to eat any more of my dandelion stems.
The him and the her clearly have different functions than the book and the phrasal
object not to eat any more of my dandelion stems. We can test this by asking the
questions:
What did you give him? To whom did you give the book?
What did you tell her? Whom did you tell not to eat any more of your dandelion stems?
Since German does have four distinct cases and prepositions that are always
followed by certain ones, one has to know which ones to use for which preposition.
8.2.1 Prepositions governing the Accusative
The prepositions whose objects are always in the accusative are:
bis durch fur gegen ohne um
8.2.2 Prepositions governing the Dative
The following prepositions are followed by dative objects:
aus außer bei mit nach seit von zu
(nehmen Dativ, das weißt Du! )
außer is a special case. Occasionally it fulfills the function of a conjunction, and
in rare instances, it can also govern the accusative or genitive case. For now, the
author recommends that beginner learners treat it as a dative preposition since the
other instances are so rare.
82
8.2.3 Two-way prepositions
Apart from the two groups of prepositions which govern the accusative and
dative, there is another group of prepositions which take objects in the accusative or
dative depending on the meaning of the sentence. This meaning is described below.
Semantics
The second major function of the dative and accusative cases, next to distin-
guishing the direct objects from the indirect objects, is to distinguish between ob-
jects showing motion (accusative) and those which are stationary (dative). English
does not have anything even similar to this, but it is a necessary part of German.
In English this motion is expressed simply by using different verbs, as illustrated in
Table 8.2. Note that the past participles are different for stationary verbs and verbs
of motion–verbs of motion have weak past participles, while stationary verbs have
strong past participles. Fortunately, there is not a large number of prepositions that
can govern either the dative or accusative in this fashion, so memorizing them should
be quite easy:
an auf hinter in neben uber unter vor zwischen
To learn how to correctly use them, one need only to think of the two different types
of contexts they could appear in, as illustrated in Table 8.3.
Table 8.2: The ‘Two Way Verbs’
English German
stationary with motion stationary with motion
to stand to put/place stehen stellen
to lie to lay liegen legen
to sit (be sitting) to sit down sitzen sich (hin)setzen
to sit to set sitzen setzen
to hang to hang up hangen hangen
83
Table 8.3: Some Two-way Prepositions
Prep. with accusative–wohin? with dative–wo?
an Er geht an die Tafel. Er steht an der Tafel.
auf Leg es auf den Tisch. Es liegt auf dem Tisch.
hinter Stellen Sie die Stuhle hinter das
Haus.
Er schlaft hinter dem Haus.
in Schaut in das Fenster hinein. Ich habe ihn in dem Bahnhof
gesehen.
neben Hange das Bild neben den
Spiegel.
Georg sitzt neben dem Fernse-
her.
uber Er hat uber das Buch und aus
dem Fenster gesehen.
Uber jedem Haus ist ein Dach.
unter Ich habe die Zeitung unter den
Tisch gelegt.
Ich habe sie schon unter einem
Baum gelesen.
vor Man geht nicht vor ein Auto, das
gerade fahrt.
Vor der Mauer waren auch viele
Leute unglucklich.
zwischen Laufen wir zwischen die Baume
und uber den Hugel.
Deine Milch steht zwischen den
Flaschen auf dem Tisch.
84
Note that the prepositions retain this property whether they are used with time
(zeitlich) or place (ortlich).
8.2.4 Prepositions governing the Genitive
None of the prepositions governing the genitive case belong to the group of
twenty commonest preposition. Nonetheless, Table 8.4 illustrates several of the most
important ones one may encounter. For written purposes, one should nearly always
see them with the genitive case, also the the dative is slowly replacing the genitive.
In the feminine and plural one cannot tell whether the genitive or dative case is being
used, but it is evident with masculine and neuter singular nouns. For learners of
German as a foreign language it is best to still stick to the genitive, as using a dative
form will only draw a correction from a native speaker.
85
Table 8.4: Some Genitive Prepositions
Preposition English
equivalent
Characteristics
wegen because of, on ac-
count of
also built with possessive pronouns seinetwegen,
ihretwegen
wahrend during also as a subordinating conjunction, see Table 9.2
trotz despite, in spite of also trotzdem
anstelle instead of not to be confused with verb anstellen, to hire
aufgrund due to from Grund, reason
kraft by virtue of, in
virtue of
pretty seldomly used
laut according to, as
per
also: laut=loud (adj.), lauter=many (adj)
angesichts in view of, in the
face of
from Gesicht, face
dank thanks to
zufolge as a result of from Folge, result
zwecks for the purpose of from Zweck, purpose, intention
86
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(hinter)
vor
Figure 8.23: vor/hinter with Dative
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Figure 8.24: zwischen with Dative
CHAPTER 9CONJUNCTIONS
Conjunctions are the words that connect two word groups or clauses. Grammar-
ians divide conjunctions into four different groups according to their function, but
one usually learns about two groups for beginning purposes and then discovers that
two other constructions he is familiar with and uses are actually also conjunctions.
In this paper all four groups will be presented together:
1. coordinating conjunctions
2. subordinating conjunctions
3. infinitive conjunctions
4. proportional conjunctions
Although each group can be further broken down into many sub groups, each group is
presented by itself over the next four sections and, with the exception of subordinating
conjunctions, no attempt is made to categorize its members.
9.1 Coordinating Conjunctions
There is a limited number of coordinating conjunctions. They are und, aber,
oder, denn, nur, sowohl . . . als auch, entweder . . . oder, sondern, allein, doch, jedoch.
Their meanings are elucidated in Table 9.1.
9.2 Subordinating Conjunctions
The number of subordinating conjunctions is much larger than the number of
coordinating conjunctions and they will not all be listed here. The two characteristics
that subordinating conjunctions exhibit which differentiate them from coordinating
conjunctions are
87
88
Table 9.1: The Coordinating Conjunctions
• The coordination conjunctions do not change the order of the sentences and
do count as position words when determining the location of the verb (see
Section 1.1).
Conjunction English
equivalent
Characteristics
und and no comma before is subject is the same in both
clauses
aber but equivalent to Eng. ‘however’
sondern but (rather) requires a substitute–Eng.: not X but (rather) X
oder or
denn because cf. denn in Section 9.4–that one means than
nur only
sowohl . . .
als auch
both . . . and sometimes translated as not only . . . but also al-
though nicht nur . . . sondern auch is more accurate
in that case
entweder . . .
oder
either . . . or not used for negatives–that requires weder . . . noch–
see Chapter 10
allein alone, only more strengthening/alienating nur–do not confuse
with the adjective allein–here it has no object and
does not influence the case of the following words
doch but, however contradicts whatever was just said or believed to be
thought; can stand on its own as a contradictory
sentence–then it is an interjection
jedoch however infrequently used as the first word in a sentence
89
1. they introduce subordinate clauses, and subordinate clauses are characterized
by verb-last
2. subordinate clauses are dependent clauses, which means they cannot stand on
their own as sentences and their content is subordinated to the main clause on
which they are dependent.
A comparison of the two conjunctions denn and weil is a good way to demonstrate
the difference between coordinating and subordinating conjunctions, the former being
a coordinating, the latter a subordinating conjunction, both meaning because.
1. Ich muss zum Bahnhof, denn mein Zug fahrt um funf.
2. Ich muss zum Bahnhof, weil ich den Zug um funf bekommen mochte.
Sentence one illustrates that denn does not influence the word order of the clause.
The two independent clauses Ich muss zum Bahnhof and mein Zug fahrt um funf are
connected at an equivalent level–in other words coordinated–by denn, but neither is
dependent the other; one could just have used other coordinating conjunctions such
as aber, und, or another with only a slight meaning in difference.
Sentence two illustrates that a clause introduced by weil subordinates to the
main clause, causing the verb to move to the end of the clause. The reasoning for
the main clause is explained in this dependent clause: Why do I have to go the train
station? Because I would like to catch the 5 o’clock train. The clause weil ich den Zug
um funf bekommen mochte is not a complete thought and can therefore not exist on
its own.
All of the subordinating conjunctions in Table 9.2 exhibit these characteristics.
Groups:
1. wahrend, indem, solange, sobald, sooft, als, wenn
2. nachdem, seit, als, wenn, sobald, sowie
3. bis, bevor, ehe
4. dass
90
5. wie, als (ob), als/wie wenn
6. weil, zumal, da
7. je . . . desto, je . . . um so
8. obwohl (also obgleich, obschon, obzwar), wenn auch
9. damit
Table 9.2: Commonest Subordinating Conjunctions
Conjunction English
equivalent
Characteristics
Temporal
wahrend while, whilst also a preposition usually used with the
genitive, see Table 8.4
indem as, while
solange1 as long as often followed by als
sobald as soon as, once
sooft whenever
als when used for one time actions in the past
wenn when used for habitual actions in the past
nachdem after
seit since German Ich X seit Y is I have been Xing
for Y
X is verb and Y is time
bis by (the time), until
bevor; ehe before
Comparative
wie as
91
Table 9.2–Continued
Conjunction English
equivalent
Characteristics
als (ob) as if
als wenn
wie wenn
as if
Causal
weil because for a comparison of weil and denn, see
page 89
(zumal) da since
Showing correlation
je . . . desto
je . . . um so
the more X the more Y or
The Xer the Yer
Concessive
obwohl2 although, even though
wenn auch even though
Finite
damit so that, therewith
dass that
a also sofern
b also obgleich, obschon, obzwar
9.3 Infinitive Conjunctions
Strictly speaking, um zu should be translated into English as in order to, but in
speech one usually simplifies this construction to to. Example:
92
Table 9.3: Uses of the Infinitive
1. um zu . . . in order to . . . I lese die Zeitung jeden Tag
um die Welt besser zu verstehen.
2. ohne zu . . . without . . . -ing Ohne gesunder zu essen
wirst du nicht richtig gesund.
• Ich kaufe die teuersten Boxen, um Musik laut spielen zu konnen. I am buying
the most expensive speakers (in order) to be able to play music loud.
Note that um zu is most often used in conjunction with modals, whereas sen-
tences such as: I want to work late today so that I can leave early tomorrow. do not
use the infinitive in English or German. cf. I want to work late today in order that I
might be able to leave early tomorrow.
Ohne zu is rendered as a gerund and not as an infinitive in English, i.e. Ohne
dich zu kennen . . . is Without knowing you . . . .
9.4 Proportionate Conjunctions
A fourth set of conjunctions are the proportionate conjunctions. They are rarely
taught as such and for that reason alone cause beginning students trouble. Their
name describes their function: they describe relations. In English, as and than are
sometimes used to unite two parts of a sentence when making comparisons. These
are proportionate conjunctions in German.
They are umso, desto, als, als, wie, denn, denn, als
CHAPTER 10NEGATION
There are three basic things one might want to negate in a sentence: a noun, an
adjective/adverb, or the whole sentence–i.e. the verb.
Notice that English basically only has “no” and its forms (“none, not any, no
one, nobody” etc.) for nouns and “not” for verbs and adjectives. This is exactly the
same in German. It uses “kein ”, which is declined just like “ein ”, for the nouns
and “nicht” for the adjectives, adverbs, and verbs. Without even understanding a
sentence, one can easily pick out the negated part of sentence. The forms of “kein ”
come directly before the nouns they negate, and “nicht” is found:
• directly before the predicate adjectives and predicate nominatives:
Das ist nicht mein Hund. Der Hund ist nicht grun.
• before adverbs of indefinite time, place, and manner:
Ich kann nicht oft Fußball spielen.
Ich darf nicht bald wieder in die Schweiz.
Herr Reinhold ist nicht zu Hause.
Er fahrt nicht mit dem Bus von Amerika nach Europa.
• before prepositions that express a direction or position:
Er fliegt nicht in die Schweiz.
Frau Hedewig mochte nicht nach Mainz.
Jacek ist nicht zu Hause.
Jurek wohnt nicht in Polen.
• before the infinitives in modal sentences:
Man darf sie nicht sehen.
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Ihr sollt ihn nicht anschreien.
• after adverbs of definite time:
Er joggt am Samstag nicht.
Wir sehen euch um 18:00 heute Abend nicht.
It becomes more difficult when several elements appear in a sentence at once. This
might lead to confusion regarding the position of nicht. There are two additional
rules of thumb to keep in mind:
if nicht refers to a specific element in the sentence and is meant to negate just it,
then it comes directly before this element, as in: Ich liebe nicht dich. (i.e. I
love someone, but not you)
if nicht is negating an entire sentence or clause, it tends to come toward the end of
the sentence: Ich fliege am Mittwoch nach Berlin nicht. (i.e. I’m not going to
say when I am flying to Berlin or where I’m flying on Wednesday)
This the way most sentences in German and English are, sometimes one may want
to negate one noun and then suggest another in its place:
Not the green ones, but rather the. . . ; Not your bike, mine.
German has this same feature. For instance:
. . . der zwar nicht mein Vater war, der mich jedoch [however]. . .
The difference between these two English sentences:
“I don’t want any money”, “I don’t want that [your/his/etc.] money”
is paralleled by the German:
“Ich will kein Geld”, “Ich will das Geld nicht”
is that the first states the speaker does not want any Geld of any kind, whereas the
second means that only the Geld in question is being referred to.
The negation can also be strengthened by using uberhaupt or gar. They essen-
tially have the same meaning, but uberhaupt is slightly stronger.
Instead of nicht, the negating particle nie, meaning “never” may appear.
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Table 10.1: Kein
kein comes before indefinites.
indefinite articles are preceeded by a k :
• Ich will eine Wurst essen → Ich will keine Wurst essen.
• Er mochte einen neuen Stuhl besitzen. → Er mochte keinen neuen Stuhl
besitzen.
plurals with no articles take keine:
• Ihr seht Stuhle vor euch. → Ihr seht keine Stuhle vor euch.
• Ich brauche Bucher. → Ich brauche keine Bucher.
zero article indefinites (mass nouns, e.g.: Geld, Milch, Gemuse, etc.) are
preceded by kein with the appropriate endings which match in case, number,
and gender:
• Ich habe Geld. → Ich habe kein Geld.
• Ich trinke morgens Milch. → Ich trinke morgens keine Milch.
Negating schon, noch
Some sentences will not be able to be directly negated because of their unusual
structure. For example, in English one says:
• I already know what he’s going to say and I still claim he’s the murderer.
but not:
• *I already don’t know what he’s going to say.
or
• *I don’t still claim he’s the murderer.
rather:
• I don’t know what he’s going to say yet. and I no longer claim he’s the murderer.
These are irregularities. German has the same thing for schon and noch:
• Ich weiß ja schon, was sie glaubt. → Ich weiß noch nicht, was sie glaubt.
• Ich esse noch Karotten. → Ich esse keine Karotten mehr.
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Table 10.2: Nicht
nicht negates everything else: verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositional phrases,
predicate nominatives nicht comes before: adjectives Der Berg ist steil → Der
Berg ist nicht steil. predicate nominatives Das ist Herr Schwarz → Das ist
nicht Herr Schwarz. adverbs of manner, indefinite time and place:
• Margit geht zu Fuß. → Margit geht nicht zu Fuß.
• Er besucht mich oft. → Er besucht mich nicht oft.
• Er wohnt hier. → Er wohnt nicht hier.
prepositional phrases expressing destination or location:
• Sie geht nach Hause. → Sie geht nicht nach Hause.
• Er arbeitet in Berlin. → Er arbeitet nicht in Berlin.
infinitives of modal verbs Er kann mich sehen. → Er kann mich nicht sehen.
nicht comes after:
verbs, personal pronouns, and definite subjects and direct objects:
• Ich esse. → Ich esse nicht.
• Man besucht mich. → Man besucht mich nicht.
• Wer geht mit ins Kino? Ich nicht.
• Ich kenne deinen Freund. → Ich kenne deinen Freund nicht.
expressions of definite time:
• Wir sehen uns heute Abend. → Wir sehen uns heute Abend nicht.
• Ich lese jetzt. → Ich lese jetzt nicht.
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• Sebastian spielt noch Golf. → Sebastian spielt Golf nicht mehr.
Note that the use of kein or nicht is determined by the element which is being
negated in the sentence, as described above.
CHAPTER 11QUESTIONS
German is a verb-second-language. This means that, as stated in Table 1.1,
the verb is always in the second position in declarative sentences. In interrogative
sentences (questions), that is not always the case. There are two basic types of
interrogative sentence:
1. yes/no questions
2. questions using interrogative adverbs
Yes/no questions use inversion; in the first person plural and second person formal
forms look like imperatives, otherwise they are identical to declarative sentences.
Questions of the first type are essentially looking for one-element answers and
often elicit one-word responses:
• Wer hat das getan?
• Was hast du gesagt?
• Wann bist du zuruckgekommen?
• Mit wem warst du gestern?
• Wo habt ihr geparkt?
This is no different from English, e.g.:
• How far did you travel?
• Whom did you meet along the way?
Additionally, German has wo- compounds in which wo- combines with a prepo-
sition to form a question particle:
• Worauf wartet ihr? (What are you waiting on?)
• Womit schreibst du? (What are you writing with?)
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Note that this is only for objects–people and forms of wer are formed as in the
previous sentences.
Some interrogatives:
wer, was, wann, wo, wie, warum, wieso, wieviel, wessen, wenn, wo- (such as
worauf, womit, wozu, etc.)
APPENDIX APRONUNCIATION
A.1 Guide to German Pronunciation
These are the basic sounds of German. One should be able to use these general
guidelines to correctly pronounce most German words one encounters. Notice that
the third column contains examples of the sound occuring in initial, middle, and final
position where available.
Table A.1: German Pronunciation Guide
Vowels1
a a as in Am. Eng.: father Achtung, Ventilator, da
e similar to the e in English: bet eng, Hexe, Baume
i short: similar to the vowel in English: if ich, wolkig, Zwirn
‘ie’ long: similar to the initial vowel in Eng.:
even
Mikroskop, studieren, Utopie
1 Two primary differences to be noticed in the German vowel system are1. In English, we tend to slur or glide vowels at the beginnings of words, while all
vowels beginning syllables begin with glottal stops (the ‘-’ in English ‘uh-oh’)in German.
2. Most of the vowels in American English are not pure, but rather diphthongs;we move our mouths to change from one vowel sound to a related one (feel thisby saying the word “ape” or “idle” slowly), while the vowels in this section arepure and therefore involve no lip or jaw movement for their duration.
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o a very pure o sound-no lip movement! oberflachlich, obwohl, Situation
also, Bote, Boot
u a very pure, comparatively long u sound unglaublich, Abrundung, du
a very similar to the vowel sound in American
English bet, but the jaw is opened a little
wider and the tongue is down just a bit
affisch, Schlage, –
o the tongue and jaw are in the same position
as in e, but the lips are rounded
Okonomie, obszon, (Friseur)
u the tongue is in the same position as in the
long i, but the lips are very rounded; same
as French ‘u’
short: y (uppsilon), Hutte, –
long: uber, Besitztumer, –
y same as long u, but some pronounce it
(dialectically) like the short i
–, Syntax, –
Diphthongs
ei composed of the two vowels a and i. Similar
to the Eng. diphthong (the long i in in prize),
but the first vowel is formed a little further
back in the mouth in German.
Eisberg, schmeicheln, Prahlerei
au/
eu
the German version of the Am. Eng. ‘oi’
sound as in boy
außerst, Teufel, Efeu
au like the Am. Eng. ouch without nasality auch, unglaublich, genau
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Consonants
b just as in English2 bringen, [But!:]absagen, Staub
c3 usually a ‘k’ sound when found at the begin-
ning of words otherwise found in the combi-
nation ‘ch’
Clou/Clique, –, –
ch either:
1. the ending sound in ‘ich’ [see Figure A.1]
after front vowels (i, e, o, a, u)
2. as in Loch after back vowels (u, o, a)
3. the ‘sh’ sound we have in English
4. ‘k’4
1: Chemie 2: acht 3: Chance
4: Chor
d just as in English dahin [But!:] radfahren, Bad
f just as in English fahren, Affe, Graf
g just as in English grau, [But!:] Wegweiser, Tag
h5 just as in English + lengthens vowel before
it in combinations with a o o u u
helfen, –, – ; Mal → Mahl
Wolle → wohl; Muller → Muhle
2 but note that all consonants lose their voicing at the end of words and syllables
3 the rules for this consonant are not as difficult to deal with as they at firstappear. In a dictionary of 16,000 words, only about 60 begin with ‘c’ or ‘ch’, andthe meanings of more than half of them can be guessed because they are spelledexactly as in English. This is because nearly all German words beginning with ‘c’ areloanwords
4 the deciding factor of which of these last two variants is used is based on theword’s origin: the French words are often pronounced ‘sh’ and the Greek ones ‘k’
5 in the middle and at end of words ‘h’ lengthens the immediately preceding vowel
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k just as in English kaufen, abkriegen, stark
j almost always pronounced just like the En-
glish ‘y’, except in: Jargon, Job, Jazz
Julia/jemand, –, –
l very similar to American English ‘l’ but with
the tongue contacting a bit closer to the
front of the mouth (teeth)
Linguistik, unglaublich/Tollwut,
jawohl
m just as in English Mutter, kommen, am
n just as in English Nuance, Tante, Ton
p just as in English Privileg, Knorpel, Typ
q followed by ‘u’, together they make a sound
like English: ‘kv’
quietschen/qualmen, –, –
r there are three German rs:• one produced with the tip of the
tongue–usually in song, on stage, andas a variant in certain regions–notethat it is only rarely used in normalspeech except in certain dialects
Frau/rechts, fahren, Tor
• the “high German” uvular ‘r ’, whichis like the sound you make when yougargle–it is not very common otherthan in very formal speeches
• the most widespread and what is con-sidered “standard” in Germany, thevelar ‘r ’ is formed just a hair closerto the back of the mouth than the ‘k ’and ‘g ’; see Figure A.2; this is the onemost foreign language learners want toemulate
s between Eng. ‘s’ and ‘z’; semi-voiced begin-
ning a syllable and unvoiced after unvoiced
consonants and at syllable-end
Sonne, [But!:] tagsuber, nachts
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t just as in English, except in -tion, where it
is pronounced ‘�ts’–see following section
tausend/trinken/stinken,
achtzehn, spat
v except for a few exceptions (Vase, Vulkan)
pronounced like English ‘f’
verfahren, –, –
w just like English ‘v’ Wasser, –, –
x like the English ‘ks’ Xenophobie, Xerxes, –
z almost always like English ‘�ts’ Zeit, entnazifizieren/Pizza, Kreuz
More Troublemakers
-er this halbvokal (semi-vowel) is pronounced
halfway between the e and a vowels. At a
normal speech rate the r is not heard!
er, –, Traumer
-ion sounds like how Germans would pronounce
‘Jon’, ie with a ‘y’ initial consonant and a
pure vowel ‘o’
–, national, Inflation
-ung there are about 30,000 (feminine!) German
substantives that carry this ending. Just
remember that the ‘g’ is pronounced as a
soft ‘k’ (i.e. voiceless!)
–, –, Regierung
-ig this is not pronounced as a normal final
g (which is [k]) as one would expect, but
rather the ch variant which follows front
vowels ([c], Figure A.1), which means it is
pronounced just as ich
–, –, wolkig/Konig
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Figure A.1: ich Figure A.2: Radfahren
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A.2 Book Cover Guide
Table A.2: Short Pronunciation Guide for German
Vowels
a a as in American Eng.: father Achtung, Ventilator, da
e similar to the e in Eng.: bet eng, Hexe, Baume
i short: similar to the vowel in: if ich, wolkig, Zwirn
‘ie’ long: similar to the 1st vowel in: even Mikroskop, studieren, Utopie
o pure o sound-no lip movement! oberflachlich, obwohl, Situation
u pure, relatively long u sound unglaublich, Abrundung, du
a similar to -e in: bet–jaw wider affisch, Schlage, –
o like e with rounded lips Okonomie, obszon, (Friseur)
u long i with rounded lips
(French ‘u’)
short: y (uppsilon), Hutte, –
long: uber, Besitztumer, –
y same as long u –, Syntax, –
Diphthongs
ei a + i ; (long i in prize) Eisberg, schmeicheln, Prahlerei
au/eu the German version of the American Eng. ‘oi’
sound as in boy
außerst, Teufel, Efeu
au like the American Eng. ouch auch, unglaublich, genau
Consonants
b just as in Eng.‘p’ at syllable end bringen, [But!:]absagen, Staub
c ‘k’ sound at the beginning of words; otherwise
in ‘ch’
Clou/Clique, –, –
continued on back cover
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ch 1: as in ‘ich’ after i, e, o, a, u
2: as in Loch after (u, o, a)
3: the ‘sh’ sound in Eng. 4: ‘k’
1: Chemie 2: acht 3: Chance
4: Chor
d just as in Eng.‘t’ at syllable end dahin [But!:] radfahren, Bad
f just as in Eng. fahren, Affe, Graf
g just as in Eng.‘k’ at syllable end grau, [But!:] Wegweiser, Tag
h just as in Eng.lengthens preceding vowel with
a o o u u
helfen, –, – ; Mal → Mahl;
Wolle → wohl; Muller → Muhle
k just as in Eng. kaufen, abkriegen, stark
j usually like Eng. ‘y’ (but: loan words) Julia/jemand, –, – (Job, Jazz)
l very similar to American Eng. ‘l’ Linguistik, unglaublich/Tollwut
m just as in Eng. Mutter, kommen, am
n just as in Eng. Nuance, Tante, Ton
p just as in Eng. Privileg, Knorpel, Typ
q followed by ‘u’, sounds like Eng.: ‘kv’ quietschen/qualmen, –, –
r usually: velar – formed a bit closer to the back
of the mouth than the ‘k’/‘g’
Frau/rechts, fahren, Tor
s usually ‘z’ ; ‘s’ at end of syllables Sonne, [But!:] tagsuber, nachts
t just as in Eng. (but: -tion=‘�ts) tausend/trinken/stinken, achtzehn
v usually like Eng. ‘f’ (but: loan words) verfahren, –, – (Vase, Vulkan)
w just like Eng. ‘v’ Wasser, –, –
x just like Eng. ‘ks’ Xenophobie, Xerxes, –
z almost always like Eng. ‘�ts’ Zeit, Pizza, Kreuz
continued on back cover
APPENDIX BIRREGULAR VERB LIST
Table B.1: Irregular verbs arranged according to patterns
English German 3rd singular Praeterite Perfect
to pull ziehen er zieht zog er hat gezogento smell riechen er riecht roch er hat gerochento lie (tell a lie) lugen er lugt log er hat gelogento speak sprechen er spricht sprach er hat gesprochento close schließen er schließt schloß er hat geschlossento take nehmen er nimmt nahm er hat genommento begin, start beginnen er beginnt begann er hat begonnento begin, start anfangen er fangt an fing an er hat angefangento call (up) anrufen er ruft an rief an er hat angerufento give geben er gibt gab er hat gegebento wash waschen er wascht wusch er hat gewaschento read lesen er liest las er hat gelesento sleep schlafen er schlaft schlief er hat geschlafento see sehen er sieht sah er hat gesehento carry tragen er tragt trug er hat getragento stay, remain bleiben er bleibt blieb er ist gebliebento decide entscheiden er entscheidet entschied er hat entschiedento be called heißen er heißt hieß er hat geheißento seem; to shine scheinen es scheint schien es hat geschienento write schreiben er schreibt schrieb er hat geschrieben
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Table B.1–ContinuedEnglish German 3rd singular Praeterite Perfect
to be sein er ist war er ist gewesento die sterben er stirbt starb er ist gestorbento become werden er wird ward er ist gewordento swim schwimmen er schwimmt schwamm er ist geschwommento come kommen er kommt kam er ist gekommento go gehen er geht ging er ist gegangento walk/run laufen er lauft lief er ist gelaufento fly fliegen er fliegt flog er ist geflogento flow fließen er fließt floß er ist geflossento drive fahren er fahrt fuhr er ist gefahrento drink trinken er trinkt trank er hat getrunkento stink stinken er stinkt stank er hat gestunkento force zwingen er zwingt zwang er hat gezwungento sing singen er singt sang er hat gesungento find finden er findet fand er hat gefundento leave verlassen er verlaßt verließ er hat verlassento forget vergessen er vergißt vergaß er hat vergessento own besitzen er besitzt besaß er hat besessento eat essen er isst aß er hat gegessento do tun er tut tat er hat getanto stand stehen er steht stand er hat gestandento lie (past=lay) liegen er liegt lag er hat gelegento stop (trans.) halten er halt hielt er hat gehalten
REFERENCES
[Dreyer] Dreyer, Hilke and Richard Schmidt. A Practice Grammar of German.Leipzig: Verlag fur Deutsch. 1999.
[Wahrig] dtv-Worterbuch der deutschen Sprache. Hrsg. v. Gerhard Wahrig.Munchen: Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag. 14. Auflage 1994.
[Duden] Duden Grammatik der deutschen Gegenwartssprache. Hrsg. v.Gunther Drosdowski. Der Duden; Bd. 4. Mannheim: Dudenverlag, 1995.
[Fleischer] Fleischer, Wolfgang and Irnhild Barz. Wortbildung der deutschenGegenwartssprache. 2. Aufl. Tubingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag, 1995.
[Helbig] Gerhard Helbig, and Joachim Buscha Deutsche Grammatik. Ein Hand-buch fur den Auslanderunterricht. Leipzig: Verlag Enzyklopadie. 10. Auflage1987.
[Rausch] Rausch, Rudolf and Ilka: Deutsche Phonetik fur Auslander. Leipzig:Verlag Enzyklopadie. 4. Auflage 1995.
[Quirk] Quirk, Randolph and Sidney Greenbaum: A Concise Grammar of Contem-porary English. New York: Harcourt Brace Javanovich, 1973.
[Zorach] Zorach, Cecile and Charlotte Melin. English Grammar for Students ofGerman, 3rd ed. Ann Arbor, Michigan: The Olivia and Hill Press, 1994.
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[Dreyer] is something everyone should have by the end of the first semester. It
is 360 pages long, has lots of exercises (with key). Audio cassettes/cds also available.
[Wahrig] is a German/German dictionary. The author strongly recommends
everyone who ever plans to learn German to buy a copy. There are many examples
of different usages given, which makes it indispensable for any student of German.
[Duden] is indispensable for anyone who speaks or writes German. It is the 4th
of 12 volumes of books describing many aspects of German. Roughly 850 pages in
German is difficult for most students, but after a short period abroad it is certainly
worth it.
[Helbig] is international standard for advance learners of German. In conjunction
with or after [Dreyer], it is very useful.
[Rausch] is a pronunciation and phonology/phonetics book. It is too difficult for
most beginners as it is in German and of a technical nature, but it is good for serious
students further along in their studies.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
After his first year as a student of German at the University of Florida in 1995,
Jon Busey spent a year abroad at the Universitat Mannheim studying German Litera-
ture and Linguistics. The Department of Germanic and Slavic studies was then gener-
ous enough to help him acquire full financial support for a second year in Mannheim,
during which time he also studied Classics at the Universitat Heidelberg. He earned
a B.A. in German Studies and Linguistics from the University of Florida in 1999. He
then taught two semesters solo of Beginning German at the University of Florida and
helped the department develop an online introductory German course which began
in Fall 2001.
After finishing an M.A. in German Literature in 2001 he will begin working on a
degree in Applied Mathematics at Florida State University. His hobbies include com-
puter assisted learning technologies, chess, home supercomputing, and cryptography.
His permanent E-mail address is: [email protected]
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