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For Dummies is a registered trademark of Wiley Publishing, Inc. in the United States and other countries. Used here by license. You need some basic grammar tools to help you assemble winning sentences. In this article, I explain the roles of the grammar tools — such as your trusty cases, clauses, and cognates — to help you boost your confidence in German. Next, you need to find some parts to build a sentence: parts of speech such as a noun, or better yet, a couple of nouns, a verb, an adjective or two, and a maybe a preposition. These spare parts, er, words, are easy to find in a big dictionary. At the end of this article, I give you pointers on how to navigate your way through a bilingual dictionary. I use these terms to explain grammar, vocabulary, and the idiosyncrasies of building sentences in German. If you’re not familiar with such terms, getting the hang of the exercises in later chapters will take longer. Lingering here before jumping ahead can save you time in the future. At the very least, scan the headings and tables in this section quickly; when you see a term that you’re fuzzy about, stop there and have a look. If English is your native language, chances are you don’t need to bother with deciding whether the words you’re using are verbs, nouns, or adjectives because you know how to fit words together. Along the path to success in German, it’s a different story. You’re prone to roadblocks caused by not knowing which word to use, how to use it, or where to place it in a sentence. This article removes the barriers to your progress with German.
German Grammar TermsTo get a firm grasp on German grammar, you need to make sure you can keep track of the many terms you encounter. This section clears up any fuzzy ideas you may have about the names for tools of German grammar, such as gender, case, and tense.
Conjugating verbs and understanding tensesVerbs are the words of action, and a verb that isn’t yet part of a sentence is an infinitive or is in infinitive form. This is the verb as it’s seen in a dictionary entry, as in wohnen (to live). In English, the to indicates that the word is in infinitive form; the German equivalent is the -en ending on the verb. When you conjugate a verb, you change the verb form so it fits in your sentence to convey information such as which subject is doing the action and when something happens. Conjugation involves breaking the verb down into its usable parts. Look at the conjugation of the verb to work: I work, you work, he/she/it works, we work, you work, they work. English has only two different spellings of work (with and without s). The same conjugation in German — ich arbeite, du arbeitest, er/sie/es arbeitet, wir arbeiten, ihr arbeitet, sie arbeiten, Sie arbeiten — reveals four different verb endings: -e, -est, -et, and -en. Verbs are conjugated in different tenses, which describe time. The three main descriptions of time are past, present, and future. Here’s a briefing on the tenses I cover in this book, with the relevant verbs underlined:
Present tense: This tense describes an action that’s happening now, habitual actions, or general facts. Look at the following sentence, which uses the verb wohnen (to live) in the present tense: Ich wohne in den U.S.A. You can translate it as I live in the U.S.A. or I’m living in the U.S.A.
Present perfect (conversational past): In German, the present perfect describes something that happened in the past, whether finished or unfinished. It’s used in conversational German. Ich habe in den U.S.A. gewohnt can mean I have lived in the U.S.A. or I lived in the U.S.A.
Simple past: The simple past is used in formal language to describe past actions. Ich wohnte in den U.S.A. means I lived in the U.S.A.
Future: The future, obviously, describes events that haven’t yet occurred. Ich werde in den U.S.A. wohnen means I will live in the U.S.A. or I’m going to live in the U.S.A. German makes much less use of the future tense than English, often opting for the simple present instead. English uses continuous (progressive) tenses — verbs with a form of to be and -ing, as in am living or have been living — to describe a temporary or ongoing action. But because German has no continuous forms, you can simply use the basic German tenses you see in the preceding list for the continuous form in English. German also uses other tenses slightly differently from English. The subjunctive is not a tense but rather a mood, something that indicates how you describe an action — for example, as a fact, a possibility, or an uncertainty; but as with tenses, the subjunctive gets its own conjugation. It’s a proven fact that you don’t retain vocabulary, grammar, or what-have-you the first time you’re exposed to it. Or the second or third time. To combat this, use a system of recording important information that works well for you: Try making flashcards, creating an alphabetical word list, writing new expressions in meaningful sentences, and incorporating new grammar points into a short dialogue. You can also copy the questions you need to review, leaving the answers blank, so that you can redo them later. In the following exercise, the verb is indicated in bold. Decide which verb tense it is and write your answer in the space provided (refer to the bold, underlined verbs in this section for help). Then translate the verb. The example shows the English translation of the complete sentence.
Q. Ich kaufte ein neues Auto.
A. Ich kaufte ein neues Auto. (I bought a new car.) Simple past, bought. The -te ending signals the simple past tense.
1. Ich werde ins Restaurant gehen. _________________, _________________.
2. Ich habe den Film gesehen. _________________, _________________.
3. Ich fahre morgen nach Chemnitz. _________________, _________________.
4. Ich arbeite dort an einem Projekt. _________________, _________________.
5. Ich studierte Mathematik an der Universität. _________________, _________________.
Getting gender, number, and case
The trio of gender, number, and case are closely linked to each other to help you make sense out of single words and to connect them into sentences. You need to know how to use gender, number, and case to express your ideas in understandable language. Check out the following explanations:
Gender: People are one of two genders, masculine or feminine, right? Dogs and cats are, too. But do stones and water have a gender? In German, yes indeed! Every noun has a gender; the triumvirate der (masculine), die (feminine), das (neuter) are the choices. All three are the gender-specific versions of the English word the. (If this were a soccer game, the German team would’ve already won by a margin of two.) When looking at German, don’t confuse gender. Gender has to do with the word itself, not the meaning of the word.
Number: Number refers to singular and plural, like one potato, two potatoes, three potatoes. German plurals are more intricate than English plurals. In fact, German offers five major different types of plural endings. Some plurals compare with the irregular English plurals, like man, men (der Mann, die Männer).
Case: There are four cases in German: nominative, accusative, dative, and genitive. But what does that actually mean? Cases help tell you what role the word plays in the sentence. They have to do with the difference between I and me or she and her. Cases deal with the significance of the to in give it to me or the apostrophe s in dog’s Frisbee. German case endings are numerous, and they show the relationship between the words having those cases. English uses case far less often.
Understanding word order
In many respects, German word order is more flexible than English word order because case plays a key role in clarifying the meaning of a sentence, something that’s not nearly as powerful of a tool in English. When positioning words in a German sentence, however, there are a few major points to keep in mind. _ The simplest word order looks like English word order:
1. Subject in first position: Meine Wohnung (My apartment)
2. Verb in second position: hat (has)
3. Other information follows: einen großen Balkon (a large balcony)
Yes/no type questions have inverted word order; flip the conjugated verb with the subject: Hat deine Wohnung einen Balkon? (Does your apartment have a balcony?)
More complex sentences — for example, a sentence with two verb parts — require more understanding of where to position the verbs in a sentence. In various sections of this book, you find out more about correct word order.
Grammar Terms
You need to know several terms that are used to describe words that you put together to convey meaning — sentence, clause, phrase, and so on.
Phrase: A group of words without a subject or a verb; most often used to describe a prepositional phrase, such as ohne Zweifel (without a doubt)
Clause: A group of related words that has subject and a verb, such as wir arbeiten . . . (we’re working . . .)
Sentence: A group of words that represents a complete thought and has a complete sentence structure: subject, verb, and punctuation, such as Gehen wir! (Let’s go!)
Prefix: A “word beginning” attached to the front of a word that alters the word’s meaning, such as un (un-) + freundlich (friendly) = unfreundlich (unfriendly)
Suffix: A “word ending” attached to the back of a word that alters the word’s meaning, such as (der) Kapital + ismus = Kapitalismus (capital + ism = capitalism)
Cognates: Words that have the same meaning and the same (or nearly the same) spelling in two languages, such as der Hammer (the hammer) or die Melodie (the melody) Note: Technically, cognates are simply two words that come from a common ancestor. Write the name of the term that describes the word(s) in the exercises.
Q. in der Nacht _________________
A. in der Nacht (in the night) phrase
6. der Safe _________________
7. Ich schwimme oft im Sommer. _________________
8. die Vorarbeit _________________
9. sie möchte gehen . . . _________________
10. mit meiner Familie _________________
11. wunderbar _________________
Identifying Parts of Speech
In order to build a sentence, you need to figure out which words to use and how to put them together. To do this, you figure out what you want to say, identify the parts of speech you need to express your ideas, and then decide which words you want to use. Word order in a German sentence can depend on the parts of speech that you’re using. In the sentences that follow, identify the part of speech in boldface and write it next to the sentence. Then try your hand at writing the sentence in English.
Q. Wo sind meine Schlüssel?
A.Wo sind meine Schlüssel? verb. A clue is that the verb is in second position, as is typical in German word order. Where are my keys?
12. Sie sind auf dem Tisch. ____________________________________________________________
13. Im Zoo gibt es viele exotische Tiere. ________________________________________________
14. Ich mag die Pinguine, aber die Elefanten sind noch interessanter.
______________________________________________________________________________________
15. Im Zoo sind die Tiere nicht glücklich. _______________________________________________
16. Ich möchte im Park spazierengehen. ________________________________________________
17. Hast du meine schwarzen Schuhe gesehen? __________________________________________
18. Deine Schuhe liegen unter dem Sofa. ________________________________________________
19. Fahre bitte nicht so schnell! ________________________________________________________
Finding Meaning through Context
One essential tool for making sense of a foreign language is to consciously look for meaning through the context of the words. You probably do the same thing in your own language. Imagine you’re reading a text that’s not in your field of expertise. You instinctively look at any headings, scan the text rapidly, and get more clues from any illustrations, charts, or tables. When you’re looking at a text in German, you can meet the challenge by employing the techniques you already use in your native language. To understand what a whole sentence means, see how the words fit together. Identify the verb or verbs and a noun or pronoun, and that’s the meat of your sentence. Check out how the other words are related to the subject and verb — for example, look for a prepositional phrase or a conjunction. (See the preceding section for the parts of speech.) In short, use all the tools at your disposal to understand German sentences. Each sentence has one word missing. Decide which word of the four choices is the correct one, and write your answer in the space.
Q. Viele Leute _____, dass München “die heimliche Hauptstadt Deutschlands” ist. a) behaupten b) Sonne c) der d) vorwärts
A. Viele Leute a) behaupten, dass München die heimliche Hauptstadt Deutschlands ist. (Many people claim that Munich is “the secret capital of Germany.”) The verb behaupten is in second position in the clause; next comes a second clause that is set apart by a comma.
20. Es gibt noch _____ Bezeichnungen für München.
a) der b) Personen c) zwei d) das
21. Die Einwohner sagen, München ist “die Weltstadt mit Herz,” _____ “das Millionendorf.”
a) in b) arbeiten c) oder d) interessant
22. In der Tat _____ die Stadt voller Überraschungen.
a) von b) ist c) in d) können
23. Jedes Jahr wird das grösste Volksfest der Welt in München _____.
a) gehabt b) Stein c) geworden d) gefeiert
24. Millionen Touristen kommen zum Oktoberfest, aber _____ Leute kommen zu spät. Warum?
a) manche b) haben c) die d) grün
25. Leider geht _____ Oktoberfest am ersten Sonntag im Oktober zu Ende.
a) nur b) in c) das d) von
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For Dummies is a registered trademark of Wiley Publishing, Inc. in the United States and other countries. Used here by license.