A LINGUISTIC INTRODUCTION TO GERMAN FOR THE NON-LINGUIST: AN ACCOMPANYING GUIDE TO ANY FIRST-YEAR GERMAN COURSE

Transcription

1 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 SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2001

2 For Julia, my soon-to-be wife

3 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 David Young s unpublished introduction to Ancient Greek and Dr.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, iii

4 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS iii LIST OF TABLES vii LIST OF FIGURES ix ABSTRACT xi INTRODUCTION CHAPTERS WORD ORDER AND THE GERMAN CASE SYSTEM Word order Nominative The Accusative The Dative The Genitive Appositions NOUN FORMS Gender Pronoun Agreement Word Formation N-nouns Composita ARTICLES PRONOUNS Personal Pronouns Possessive Pronouns Reflexive Pronouns Demonstrative Pronouns Relative and Interrogative Pronouns iv

5 5 ADJECTIVES Predicative Adjectives Attributive Adjectives Comparative and Superlative Forms Possessive Adjectives Ordinal Numbers ADVERBS VERBS Verb Forms The Infinitive Conjugation Irregular Verb Endings Verb Prefixes Prefix or Preposition? Mood Indicative Imperatives Subjunctive Modal Verbs Conjugation Tenses Present Perfect Imperfect Future Future Perfect Past Perfect Verb Types Full Verbs Auxiliary Verbs Reflexive Verbs Phrasal Verbs Voice Active Passive PREPOSITIONS A Visual Overview of the Prepositions Prepositions of Movement and Motion Prepositions Exhibiting a Static State Prepositions Governing Case Accusative v

6 8.2.2 Dative Dative and Accusative Genitive CONJUNCTIONS Coordinating Conjunctions Subordinating Conjunctions Infinitive Conjunctions Proportionate Conjunctions NEGATION QUESTIONS APPENDICIES A PRONUNCIATION A.1 Guide to German Pronunciation A.2 Book Cover Guide B IRREGULAR VERB LIST REFERENCES BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH vi

7 LIST OF TABLES Table page 1.1 Guidelines for German Word Order The Nominative Case The Nominative dummy-es Man Uses of the Accusative Case The Accusative Case Possessive and Personal Prounouns The Dative Case The Genitive Case The Genitive Declension Endings Which Give Away the Gender Sounds That Join Words in Composita Differences in German and English Articles The German Article Personal Pronouns Pronoun Word Order Guidelines The Possessive Pronouns Reflexive Pronouns Demonstrative Pronouns Primary Adjectival Endings Secondary Adjectival Endings The Ordinal Numbers vii

8 6.1 Adverbs Conjugation of Regular Verbs Conjugation of Some Irregular Verbs Inseparable Prefixes Formation of Imperatives The Main Irregular Verbs The Two Types of Subjunctive in German Conjugation of Modal Verbs and möchten When One Can Leave Out the Infinitive Imperfect Forms of sein and haben Phrasal Verbs An Overview of the Prepositions The Two Way Verbs Some Two-way Prepositions Some Genitive Prepositions The Coordinating Conjunctions Subordinating Conjunctions Uses of the Infinitive Kein Nicht A.1 German Pronunciation Guide A.2 Short Pronunciation Guide for German viii

9 LIST OF FIGURES Figure page 3.1 For an Indefinite Article For a Definite Article A Visual Representation of German Tense an with Accusative auf with Accusative bis durch gegen hinter with Accusative in with Accusative neben with Accusative über with Accusative um unter (i.e. beneath) with Accusative unter (i.e. among) with Accusative vor with Accusative zwischen with Accusative an with Dative auf with Dative in with Dative neben with Dative über with Dative ix

10 8.20 von unter (i.e. beneath) with Dative unter (i.e. among) with Dative vor/hinter with Dative zwischen with Dative A.1 ich A.2 Radfahren x

11 Abstract of Thesis Presented to the Graduate School of 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 Bullivant Major 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 advanced 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

12 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

13 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 fundamentals, but this will not burden an inexperienced student since no attention is drawn to this.

14 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.

15 CHAPTER 1 WORD 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 Fahrradhändler die 15 DM gegeben. (both the default for Jochen gave the bike salesman fifteen marks and a possibility to stress the fact that it was Jochen and not someone else) 2. Dem Fahrradhändler hat Jochen die 15 DM gegeben. (for example in answer to the question: To whom did Jochen give money? ) DM hat Jochen dem Fahrradhändler 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 Fahrradhändler 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

16 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 position words (aber, denn, oder, und = Position ) 3. verb in second position in questions with interrogatives (i.e. wer wen wo etc.) 4. verb in first position in questions without interrogatives 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 München. [Katrin is going to Munich.] Übrigens 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. Oder vielleicht fährt sie in die Schweiz. [But I don t work all that much.] [ Or maybe she ll be going to Switzerland.]

17 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 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 nächste Woche nach München; 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

18 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 (Section 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 also, the strong adjectival endings (Table 5.1): der wer 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 einwords, 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

19 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, hören, fühlen, and spüren. 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 hören. (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 läßt die Studenten früher gehen. (She lets the students go early.)

20 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 Gefühl,.... 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.

21 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 always govern the accusative case see Section 8.2.1, for prepositions that sometimes govern the accusative, sometimes the dative see Section an adverbial phrase, such as with time and durations 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 also, the strong adjectival endings (Table 5.1): den wen diesen welchen einen The principle differences in the English indirect objects and German dative objects 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.

22 10 Table 1.6: The Accusative Case Remember: different persons and numbers are designated in the following way: number singular 1st person plural 1st person person 2nd person 2nd person 3rd person 3rd person masc fem neut pl a nominative der die das die accusative den die das die masc fem neut nominative ein eine ein accusative einen eine ein a all genders! Sie können Ihre Geschichte dem Richter erzählen. 2. The English word order is what determines the function of each sentence element. 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 erzählte mir die Geschichte von seiner Reise. OR Mir erzählte er die Geschichte von seiner Reise. OR Die Geschichte von seiner Reise erzählte er mir.

23 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 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 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 erzählt, dass ich ihn in Juni besuchen würde. Many castles and park facilities were built by Louis the Fourteenth. Viele Schlösser 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.

24 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

25 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 ein-words always govern the dative case see Section 8.2.2, for prepositions that sometimes govern the dative, sometimes the accusative see Section der-words masc fem neut nom ein eine ein acc einen eine ein dative einem einer einem 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 person 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

26 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

27 CHAPTER 2 NOUN 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 Fräulein and das Mädchen, 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 substantives are not marked by their ending. The genders must be learned with each 15

28 16 Table 2.1: Endings Which Give Away the Gender 1. All nouns ending in -tät, -schaft, -heit, -keit, -ion, and -ung a 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, -är, -ast, -eur/ör, -ent, -ier, -iker, -ikus, -or feminine -ei, -a, -ade, -age, -aille, -aise/-äse, -ance, -äne, -anz, -elle, -ette, -euse, -ie, -enz, -ere, -ik, -ille, -ine, -isse, -itis, -ive, -ose, -sis/se, -ur, -üre 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 indefinite 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,

29 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 Nähe. Sie wohnt in der Nähe. 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 müssen einen Computerkurs machen. Sie müssen 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).

30 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 dem Menschen die 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: -(k)at: -ent: -et: -ist: -oge: -nom: Demonstrant-en, Fabrikant-en, Musikant-en, -Praktikant-en Demokrat-en, Kandidat-en, Soldat-en Absolvent-en, Delinquent-en, Student-en Athlet-en, Poet-en, Prophet-en Artist-en, Faschist-en, Jurist-en, Kommunist-en Geolog-en, Pädagog-en 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:

31 19 der Name die Namen den Namen dem Namen die 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 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), Donaudampfschifffahrtskapitän (the captain of a steam ship on the Donau), and the like.

32 20 Table 2.2: Sounds That Join Words in Composita possible word joints a : (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. Blödsinn). When the first member is a substantive: 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, -ität 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: 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, ] b the sound at the end of ach

33 CHAPTER 3 ARTICLES 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

34 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 includes students) or nationalities a. 3. sometimes the article is not present when an English 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 characteristic 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

35 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

36 CHAPTER 4 PRONOUNS 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 context 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 möchte 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 Weisst du noch, als wir dieses Sofa gesehen haben, das so lang war, dass es nicht in meiner Eltern Wohnzimmer gepasst hätte? Meine Tante hat es gekauft! 24

37 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

38 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 dative 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, themselves 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 Zähne. [He is brushing his teeth.] Sie waschen sich die Hände.] [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?

39 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 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, Table 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, das 1 (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, dieses 2 (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 schönsten. Sehen Sie dieses Haus dort...? Diesem Mann konnte ich doch nicht helfen. selbst, selber (not declined) Selbst and selber are used as appositions (see Section 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

40 28 waschen. Der Präsident 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 wäre.... [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 interrogatively. 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 für ein (not declined) Used interchangeably with welch but less formal; note that für is not a preposition here and that ein is therefore not necessarily in the accusative case. Was für ein Vater würde seine Kinder im Einkaufzentrum vergessen! wer, was (not declined) correspond to English who and what.

41 29 Table 4.2: Pronoun Word Order Guidelines For the impatient: 1. In sentences with 2 noun phrases, the dative pronoun comes first. 2. In sentences with one pronoun and one noun phrase, the pronoun comes first. Examples: 3. In sentences with 2 pronouns, the accusative pronoun comes first. a 1. Horst erzählt den Kindern eine Geschichte. 2. Horst erzählt sie den Kindern. / Horst erzählt ihnen die Geschichte. 3. Horst erzählt 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

42 30 Table 4.3: The Possessive Pronouns 1st pers mein, dein, etc. 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 masc fem neut Nom der die das Plural die Acc den die das die Dat dem der dem denen Gen dessen deren dessen deren

43 CHAPTER 5 ADJECTIVES Adjectives are used to describe nouns. They can be used in two ways: predicatively 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 masculine feminine neuter Plural nominative -er -e -es -e accusative -en -e -es -e dative -em -er -em -en genitive -en -er -en -en 31

44 32 Table 5.2: Secondary Adjectival Endings Secondary endings: Singular masculine feminine neuter Plural 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,

45 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 schönes 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 for more information 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