Note: The definite article in the plural (nominative case) is the, regardless of the gender of the noun. The verbs sein (to be) and haben (to have) are two of the most common verbs in German, so you need to memorize their forms.
The Accusative Case of Nouns
Furthermore, in a German present tense sentence, time information may be provided that requires a different English verb tense in your translation. Note that in the second example above, which evokes the English present-perfect tense, the child still has a fever in the present moment.
The Indefinite Article ein
Word Order
The dog has the ball', and that English word order rule is necessary to understand that 'the dog' is the subject and 'the ball' is what is being hit. Take another example: "Erst die Frau, dann den Mann beißt der böse Hund." If you ignore the case cues given to you by the definite articles and rely on standard English word order, you come up with the amusingly ridiculous meaning: "First the woman, then the man bites the bad dog." In fact, the phrase "The bad dog bites the woman first, then the man." means.
Question Words
Practice the skill of marking the German sentences you come across to recognize 1) the part before the verb, which must be a single unit of meaning, 2) the verb, which - also useful for you - will always be a verb form of properly conjugated to match the subject of the sentence and 3) the part after the verb, which may include several meaning units. Direct German "Haben Sie keine Schuhe?" is expressed in English as "Don't you have any shoes?" or "Don't you have shoes?" or "You don't have shoes?".
Common Abbreviations
Objectives
Genitive and Dative Cases
An example is: "The woman (subject) gives the man (indirect object) the book (direct object)". Dative plural always adds an –n to the plural form of the noun if one does not already exist, e.g. den Männern (dative n) but den Frauen.
Definite and Indefinite Article (All Cases)
So it is up to you to interpret whether a statement is universal or not from the context and meaning of the sentence. If the inclusion of a definite article in German makes sense to translate into English, you should do so.
Pronouns (All Cases)
Suppose the German sentence had omitted the definite article: if that would give you a different meaning, then you clearly have to respect the fact that the German sentence chose to include the definite article. Therefore, all third person singular pronouns can mean "it" as well as "him" and "her".
Present Tense of Regular Verbs
Note: Most verbs in German form their present tense in the way shown for our example spielen. Remember that the German present tense can be translated in different ways: "he plays," "he played," "he plays," or even—depending on time information given in context—"he will play," "he played ,” or “he played.” Note that all these translations still share the meaning that the action at the.
Present Tense of Irregular Verbs
The only differences then are in the singular, second and third person, where an -e is added so that we can add the personal endings -st and -t. The present tense singular, both second and third person, of these verbs still has the endings described above for weak verbs, ending in -st or -t.
More Question Words
There is one notable exception: the modal verbs, covered in Unit 10, and the verb wissen (to know a fact).
8. “es gibt” and “man“
Adjectival Nouns
These adjectival nouns are modified by adverbs rather than adjectives, in accordance with the normal relationship of adverbs to adjectives, including the adverbial use of words such as viel (much) and nichts (nothing). By Unit 4, you will have learned to recognize the other endings these adjective nouns will take when used in the genitive and dative.
Der– words
The original adjectives, "gut," "interesting," "schön," and "neu," are capitalized and appear (for our present purposes) with an -es ending. Just remember that adjectives are spelled – and take their own modifiers – as if they modify some (absent) neuter noun, but otherwise function as that neuter noun.
Ein– words (including possessive pronouns)
The ending -em in both the words ein- and in the words der- is unique to the dative singular. The -es ending with a noun that adds an -s or -es is unique to the gender singular.
Simple Past Tense of Verbs
German verbs do take person/number suffixes: They are simply added to the past tense suffix. Note: Both the first and third person singular past tense forms of irregular verbs have no endings.
Verbal Prefixes and Compound Nouns
For example, when you come across a verb form like spend, you won't find it in your dictionary. As shown in the introduction, German tends to form compound nouns such as Unterseeboot (submarine) and Arbeitsmethode (work method).
Number Formats
Verbs with Inseparable Prefixes
And often the addition be– turns an intransitive verb into a transitive one, e.g. bewohnen = inhabit (something). These prefixed verbs are found in dictionaries as separate entries, not under the root verb.
Verbs with Separable Prefixes
From now on, you will have to read to the end of each sentence or clause before you can be sure about the meaning of any conjugated verb. If you find a prefix there, you should associate it with the conjugated verb and consider the meaning of, for example, aufgehen, not of gehen.
Adjective Endings
To help you distinguish adjectives from other types of modifiers within the noun phrase which of course don't appear with "adjectives". We will come back to this in the next section. In the case of some end-word sentences, the endings immediately give you more information about the noun than just the ending word.
Recognizing Adverbs vs. Adjectives
In the example above, the presence of the endings on gut and dick reveals that they are both adjectives modifying the noun Kuchen. It can't possibly be an adjective modifying the noun Kuchen, because it doesn't have the required ending.
Adjectives as Nouns
In the above example, the lack of any ending in the colon and its position in relation to the words around it reveal that it is an adverb modifying the adjective kar. Also keep in mind that such nouns would be modified by adverbs and not by other adjectives, in line with what you learned in the previous section and like the adjective nouns you learned about in Unit 2.
Place Names as Adjectives
Verbs as Nouns
To practice some key skills covered in this unit, play the Unit 4 Syntax Untgler activity.
Prepositions
It is advisable to learn the above list of prepositions and their common meanings because, like in English, they occur frequently, and in German many of them are used in the formation of other words (for example, as verb prefixes). Therefore, when consulting your dictionary for verbs and nouns in general, be aware of how particular word + preposition combinations can determine very different directions for the meaning of the main word.
Prepositional Phrases
The above rule still applies: all the genitive-case nouns bound to the actual prepositional object are still only modifiers of that object, so they also belong in the prepositional phrase. Notable exceptions to the "prepositional placement" of prepositions are – in certain situations – the prepositions entlang (along), gegenüber (opposite), gemäß. according to), and in even rarer cases nach (according to), and wegen (due to / due to).
Prepositional Cases
Reflexive Pronouns
Let's look at a third person example first, because in this case the singular word sich would be the reflexive pronoun. If there is also a direct object in the sentence, the reflexive pronoun will appear in the dative form instead of the accusative form.
Reflexive Verbs
Position of nicht and other adverbs
Literally: "especially not for cyclists", a phrase that would be awkward in English in the context of this entire sentence.). Adverbs change their next word or phrase, if there is one and if possible.
Noun Formation
Like all adverbs, and as with English adverbs, niece modifies the main verb of the sentence unless it occurs within a specific phrase, such as within a prepositional phrase, a noun, etc. Check your guess in the dictionary and list related words together for purposes of learning them faster.
Conjunctions
Note the locations of the verb wohnte and the subject sie (the second occurrence in this sentence) in the following example, which simply follows the basic rule that the main verb of a German pronunciation always comes second. You can see that this is done, because then the word order of the subordinate clause appears in the normal German statement order.
Als, Wenn, and Wann in Expressing Time
Comparison of Adjectives
Whereas in German you will always see the suffix –est or –st on the adjective as the only way to indicate superlative meaning. This form is always am (contraction of a + dem, see your dictionary) followed by the superlative form of the adjective plus the grammatically appropriate adjective ending –en.
Adjectives as Adverbs
You will often see superlative constructions where am is used in an adverbial sense, especially based on the adverbial meaning of the superlative adjectives best–.
Verb Formation
The construction so + (adjective or adverb) + who expresses a comparison of comparison, equivalent to the English expression "as". While, for example, Vergrößerung (feminine) refers to a photographic enlargement as an object - so as the final product of the act - , Vergrößern (neuter) refers to enlarging a photograph.
Present Perfect Tense
In German, unlike in English, the meaning of the present-perfect tense is not different from the simple past tense. Whereas if the action still continues from the past to the present, then use the present tense of English:.
Past Perfect Tense
Again, pay attention to the additional tense information provided in the sentence when deciding how to translate the German present and perfect tenses. And in the absence of additional time information, understand the German present tense as the English past tense.
Word Formation from Past Participles
German present tense is actually closer to the meaning of English present perfect tense, because English present perfect tense expresses that the action continues from the past to the present, very specifically including the present. Keep in mind that the verb schließen uses haben as an auxiliary verb, not sein, to form the present perfect tense.
Present Participles
You won't usually find these adjectives listed separately in your dictionary; you are responsible for identifying them as participles that function as adjectives and for using the dictionary entry for the indefinite form of the verb to find their meaning. Present participles are easily recognized by adding -d to the infinitive form of the verb.
Translating Participial Adjectives and Adverbs
Remember that the English present tense, "he runs", "she swims", etc., is expressed in German with the present tense: er läuft, sie schwimmt. Remember, you can easily tell which are adverbs and which are adjectives by simply noting which ones have adjective endings and which ones don't.
Participial Phrases
The various verb tenses covered in this module all require you to look for a participle to mark the end of a sentence, then work backwards from that participle to find the direct object or predicate of the sentence. In the two examples above, see the pattern of word order shifts between the German and English renditions of the participles.
Irregularities in the Comparative and Superlative
Das Handy in der linken Hand ans Ohr haltend, reicht Thomas mir seine rechte Hand.
The Verb Werden
Future and Future Perfect Tenses
Werden in Probability Statements
Try to translate the sentence using both the verb form (future or future perfect) and wohl/doch/schon in their "normal" sense. Understand the verb form as present instead of what looks like future, or as past instead of what looks like future perfectly.
Relative Pronouns and Relative Clauses
The relative pronoun agrees in both gender and number with the word it refers to. The case of the relative pronoun agrees with the role it plays within the relative clause, not with the role of the word in the main clause to which it refers.
Question Words as Relative Pronouns
So, in example #1 it is nominative as it is the subject, in #2 accusative as it is the direct object, in #3 the genitive, in #4, #5 and #6 the dative as it is the indirect object or is governed by a dative preposition or verb. Paying attention to the agreement of gender and number can be crucial for reading comprehension.
Passive Voice
The past participle of were only appears in the passive voice (instead of the normal become). In the passive voice, were and its parts correspond to the English "to be" and its parts.
Demonstrative Pronouns
Here the demonstrative pronoun (bold) is used to refer back to the masculine singular subject (der Porsche) of the previous sentence. Biographies can describe both the life and environment of their subjects. literally: biographies can describe both the life and the environment of the person about whom the biography reports.).
Selbst and Selber
Latein zeichnete sich durch deutliche Unterschiede zwischen den Varianten der ungebildeten Bevölkerung und denen der „High Society“ aus. Latein war durch deutliche Unterschiede zwischen den von der ungebildeten Bevölkerung gesprochenen Sprachen und denen der „High Society“ gekennzeichnet.
Compound Nouns with Shared Parts
In this sense, you must again pay close attention to the position in the German sentence. When it immediately follows an object, it emphasizes that object, just as in English when you place a.
Pronoun es Referring to Clauses
More Prefixes and Suffixes
A large number of adjectives/adverbs can be quickly recognized as adding a specific suffix to a noun or verb root, as in English.
Modal Verbs
In the formation of both present and past perfect of the modal verbs we are introduced to a variety of. Note that the modal perfects affect the position of the auxiliary verb when it is in a subordinate clause.
Modal Verb Usages
Thus, it would be a common mistake by English speakers to misunderstand this example as "We shouldn't go home". An English speaker might misunderstand this sentence as: "We are allowed not to go home."
Subordinate Clause as Sentence Subject
Verbs that Function Like Modals
In this case, the dependent infinitive is used and in the perfect tenses the double infinitive, just like with modal verbs. More specifically, this usage is exactly equivalent to (and preferred over) a combination of the modal verb können with the passive voice.
Infinitive Phrases
Like English, German allows indefinite phrases that refer to completed actions by using the present perfect tense. The first sentence could be arbitrarily translated as "This book is a must read" or the second as "Many lakes can be seen in Minnesota.".
Common Infinitive Constructions
Da– Compounds
Some Common Da– Words
Hier– Words
Da– Clauses
By the way, in general, when the word da refers to an idea in which the subject is different from the subject of the main clause, the word da will indicate a dependent clause (a complete statement with a subject, verb, predicate). When the two subjects are the same, an indefinite phrase with zu is used, as in the second example above.
Wo– Words
Wo– Clauses
Dieser Satz hat die gleiche Bedeutung wie der Satz: Das Haus, in dem ich wohne, ist neu. Dieser Satz hat die gleiche Bedeutung wie: Der Stuhl, auf dem sie sitzt, ist unsicher.
Extended Adjective Constructions Using Participles
Note also that the initial word is immediately followed by a preposition, which is a common indicator of an extended adjective construction. Extended adjective constructions using a participial phrase, such as the examples above that use the past participles gekocht and gegessen, are the most common type.
More Examples of Extended Adjective Constructions
Translating Extended Adjective Constructions
Further Advice Regarding Extended Adjective Constructions
And when these constructs are nested within each other, we read from the outermost to the innermost. Although these constructions may seem frustrating at first, as you gain comfort through practice, you'll come to understand how efficiently they allow for complex.
Subjunctive Mood
Subjunctive I
You can see that we translate the forms of haben and sein into the past subjunctive according to the way the reported statement is presented. In general, if the context is in the future tense or the present tense (man sagt), then we translate the reported statement into the simple past or present perfect; if the context is already in the past tense (es wurde berichtet), then the reported statement is best translated in the past perfect tense.
Challenges of Translation
As in the indicative mood, we can recognize the future tense by using were with an infinitive. In the first example, the meaning of the subjunctive I is successfully conveyed by the clarity in the English sentence that the statement "to be" is only according to the magazine.
Other Uses of Subjunctive I
In fact, once it is established that someone said, reported, thought, or felt something about a subject, then the subjunctive I will be the only signal whether the statement was reported or presented by the author of the text as true. .
Subjunctive II Meaning
Subjunctive II Forms
Like the subjunctive I, the subjunctive II past tense follows the model of the German present tense. Can you make up what the above examples would look like if they were indicative (normal) statements instead of subjunctive II.
Würde Construction
Like the subjunctive I, the subjunctive II past tense follows the model of the German present tense. So there are no "past simple" subjunctive forms at all.) So when you come across a present-perfect construction that uses the above. The above examples could also be expressed with subjunctive forms of II main verbs.
Challenges of Translation
Usually this translates pretty directly into English, but sometimes it will help you spot this particular intent when translating. In "if - then" sentences, the verb is in final position in the "if" clause, the clauses are separated by a comma, and the "then" clause is the main clause.
6. “As If” Clauses
- Subjunctive II Forms of Modal Verbs
- False Friends
- Some Common Idioms and Idiomatic Expressions
- Particles
- Imperative Mood
- Reflexive Constructions as Substitutes for the Passive Voice
- Cardinal Numbers
- Ordinal Numbers
- Fractions
- Calculations
- Weights and Measurements
- Times
- Dates
- Syntax Terminology
For example, in the following sentence für is best translated as "into" to suit our English idiom. Likewise, in the next sentence, auf is best translated as "for." You will first learn this when you consult your dictionary entry for warten.
Review Units 1-4
Everyone in the room knew such facts, but many did not admit it. Her/their) neighbors (lived/inhabited) their apartment for three years, and then they lost everything in the great flood.
Review Units 5-8
In the production (making) of this computer, they spared no expense and took advantage of the latest research. Communication, including political communication, is tied to language and language-mediated experience and interpretation of the world.
Review Units 9-12
If the director's two films are compared, it is almost unbelievable that the first film was made by the same director as the second. Contrary to sports association rules, cash prizes have been awarded in some tournaments in recent years.
Review Units 13-16
According to ordering data, a key indicator of the future employment situation, the recession could get worse. On the basis of an impressive photo and text documentation, which was exhibited in Cologne (title: "The slow death of the forest") and for which forester Möhring regularly photographed the tops of dying trees with his half-meter long.
