German Grammar Tools: Understanding Parts of Speech, Articles, and Verbs, Study notes of German

Download German Grammar Tools: Understanding Parts of Speech, Articles, and Verbs and more Study notes German in PDF only on Docsity! Chapter 1 Assembling the Basic Tools for German Sentences In This Chapter
Understanding terms used in German grammar
Identifying parts of speech
Using a bilingual dictionary You need some basic grammar tools to help you assemble winning sentences. In this chapter, 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 chapter, I give you pointers on how to navigate your way through a bilingual dictionary. Throughout Intermediate German For Dummies, you encounter the terms I describe in this chapter. 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 chapter 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 chapter removes the barriers to your progress with German. Grasping German Grammar Terms To 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. (I use terms for parts of speech in this section, but I give a fuller explanation of nouns, verbs, adjectives, and so on in a separate section of this chapter.) 05_226247 ch01.qxp 2/25/08 9:21 AM Page 7 CO PYRIG HTED M ATERIA L Conjugating verbs and understanding tenses Verbs are the words of action, and a verb that isn’t yet part of a sentence is an infini- tive 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 end- ings: -e, -est, -et, and -en. Verbs are conjugated in different tenses, which describe time. The three main descrip- tions 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. (See Chapter 5 for details on the present.)  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. (See Chapter 16.)  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. (See Chapter 17.)  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. (Check out Chapter 18.) 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. (See Chapter 8 for the subjunctive.) 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 flash- cards, creating an alphabetical word list, writing new expressions in meaningful sen- tences, 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. 8 Part I: The Basic Building Blocks of German 05_226247 ch01.qxp 2/25/08 9:21 AM Page 8 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 Table 1-1, I explain what these terms mean. Table 1-1 Parts of Speech Name Definition Examples Notes Noun A person, place, animal, Dracula In German, they’re thing, quality, concept, Hotel California always capitalized. (See and so on Känguruh (kangaroo) Chapter 2.) Liebe (love) Pronoun A word that replaces, er (he) German has far more or stands in for a noun sie (she) pronoun variations; the uns (us) four cases influence pronoun endings. (See Chapter 2.) Article A word that indicates der/die/das (the) German has three differ- the gender of a noun ein/eine/ein (a/an) ent genders, so it uses three different articles for the — der/die/das — and a/an — ein/eine/ ein. (See Chapter 2.) (continued) 11Chapter 1: Assembling the Basic Tools for German Sentences 05_226247 ch01.qxp 2/25/08 9:21 AM Page 11 Table 1-1 (continued) Name Definition Examples Notes Verb A word that shows denken (to think) Verbs are conjugated action or a state haben (to have) according to person (I, of being reisen (to travel) you, he, and so on), tense (present, past, and future), and mood (for example, the difference between it is and it would be). Adjective A word that modifies schön (beautiful) Adjectives may or or describes a noun praktisch (practical) may not have case or a pronoun interessant (interesting) endings. (See Chapters 12 and 13.) Adverb A word that modifies schnell (fast, quickly) In German, adjectives or describes a verb, sehr (very) and adverbs can be the an adjective, or another schrecklich (terribly) same word. (See adverb Chapter 13.) Conjunction A word that connects und (and ) In German, some con- other words or sentence aber (but ) junctions affect the parts together weil (because) word order of the sen- tence. (See Chapter 14.) Preposition A word that shows a mit (mir) (with [me]) In German, a preposition relationship between ohne (mich) (without [me]) uses case (dative, its object (a noun or während (des Tages) accusative, or genitive) pronoun) and another (during [the day]) to show the relationship word in a sentence to its object. (See Chapter 15.) 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. _______________________________________________ 12 Part I: The Basic Building Blocks of German 05_226247 ch01.qxp 2/25/08 9:21 AM Page 12 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. The following exercise combines the tools and parts explained in the previous sec- tions of this chapter. 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 13Chapter 1: Assembling the Basic Tools for German Sentences 05_226247 ch01.qxp 2/25/08 9:21 AM Page 13 • Number is indicated with the plural ending form for that noun. There are five main groups of noun endings. A common ending is -en; other nouns add -s. With some nouns, you see the genitive case ending indicated for that noun in addition to the plural ending.  Verbs: Verbs also have vital statistics you need to know. • A verb is transitive or intransitive (symbols like vt and vi). A transitive verb takes a direct object; an intransitive verb doesn’t. • A transitive verb may have a separable prefix (vt sep) or an inseparable prefix (vt insep). If the prefix is separable, it usually gets booted to the end of the sentence when the verb is conjugated. • Some verbs are reflexive (vr), meaning they require a reflexive pronoun. • The simple past form and the past participle are also indicated (in some dictionaries with pret and ptp, respectively).  Prepositions: Prepositions in German dictionary entries show which case they have: accusative (prep + acc), dative (prep + dat), or genitive (prep + gen). Some prepositions have more than one case, and most prepositions have more than one meaning.  Pronouns: Pronouns include personal pronouns (pers pron), such as ich (I); demonstrative pronouns (dem pron), such as denen (them); relative pronouns (rel pron), such as das (that); and reflexive pronouns (reflexive pron), such as mich (myself). See Chapter 2 for details on pronoun types. Adjectives and adverbs may be the same word in German. Memorize both, and you have two words for the effort of looking up one. Look at the dictionary entries and answer the questions about the words and abbreviations. Key for abbreviations: m = masculine, (Brit) = British usage, (US) = North American usage, pl = plural, f = feminine, nt = neuter Q. In the entry for Reise-, which word is feminine? Is it one word or two words in German? A. Reiseversicherung is feminine, and it’s one word in German. 26. The headword (first one) has a hyphen at the end of the word like this: Reise-: What does the hyphen mean? __________________________________________________________________________________ 27. What’s the word for destination, and which gender is it? __________________________________________________________________________________ Reise-: ~pafl m passport: ~scheck m travellerís cheque (Brit), traveler’s check (US); ~spesen pl: travelling (Brit) or traveling (US) expenses pl; ~versicherung f travel insurance: ~ziel nt destination. 16 Part I: The Basic Building Blocks of German 05_226247 ch01.qxp 2/25/08 9:21 AM Page 16 Answer Key a Ich werde ins Restaurant gehen. (I’m going to go to the restaurant.) Future, will go/am going to go. Either translation is appropriate; am going to go sounds more natural here because it expresses an intention. Werde plus the verb at the end signals the future tense. b Ich habe den Film gesehen. (I have seen/saw the film.) Present perfect, have seen/saw. Habe plus the participle at the end of the sentence signals present perfect tense. c Ich fahre morgen nach Chemnitz. (Tomorrow I’m driving to Chemnitz.) Present, am driving. The ending -e signals the present tense. d Ich arbeite dort an einem Projekt. (I’m working on a project there.) Present, am working. The infinitive is arbeiten. The simple present is formed by adding -e to the end of the stem arbeit-. The simple past would be ich arbeitete = arbeit- + -ete. e Ich studierte Mathematik an der Universität. (I studied math at the university.) Simple past, stud- ied. The -te ending signals the simple past tense. f der Safe (the safe/vault) cognate g Ich schwimme oft im Sommer. (I often swim in the summer.) sentence h die Vorarbeit (the preliminary work) prefix i sie möchte gehen . . . (she’d like to go . . .) clause j mit meiner Familie (with my family) phrase k wunderbar (wonderful) suffix l pronoun; They’re on the table. Sie is a pronoun. The usual German word order is subject + verb. Here, the subject is a pronoun. m adjective; There are a lot of exotic animals in the zoo. Exotische describes the plural noun Tiere. The suffix ending -isch is often comparable to the suffix -ic or -ical in English. n conjunction; I like the penguins, but the elephants are more interesting. The two sentence parts are joined by the conjunction aber (but). o definite, plural article; In the zoo, the animals aren’t happy. Die is the plural article in nomi- native case, indicating that Tiere is plural. p preposition; I’d like to go for a walk in the park. Im is a preposition. The prepositional phrase is im Park (in the park). q noun; Have you seen my black shoes? Schuhe is a plural noun. r verb; Your shoes are lying under the sofa. Liegen is a verb. It’s in second position in the sen- tence after the subject deine Schuhe. s adverb; Please don’t drive so fast! Schnell is an adverb in this sentence because it describes how the person is driving (fahre), and driving is the verb. 17Chapter 1: Assembling the Basic Tools for German Sentences 05_226247 ch01.qxp 2/25/08 9:21 AM Page 17 t c. zwei; Es gibt noch zwei Bezeichnungen für München. (There are two other names for Munich.) u c. oder; Die Einwohner sagen, München ist “die Weltstadt mit Herz,” oder “das Millionendorf.” (The inhabitants say [that] Munich is the “friendly city” or “the village with a million inhabitants.”) Literally, the Weltstadt mit Herz is the world city with a heart. v b. ist; In der Tat ist die Stadt voller Überraschungen. (Indeed, the city is full of surprises.) Many tourists aren’t aware of another celebration of beer known as das Starkbierfest. The Munich carnival season is also very lively, with people taking to the streets to celebrate Mardi Gras. w d. gefeiert; Jedes Jahr wird das grösste Volksfest der Welt in München gefeiert. (Every year, the largest folk fest in the world is celebrated in Munich.) x a. manche; Millionen Touristen kommen zum Oktoberfest, aber manche Leute kommen zu spät. Warum? (Millions of tourists come to the Oktoberfest, but some people come too late. Why?) y c. das; Leider geht das Oktoberfest am ersten Sonntag im Oktober zu Ende. (Unfortunately, the Oktoberfest ends on the first Sunday in October.) It’s actually better to get there before the Oktoberfest begins if you don’t like crowds and just want to see the enormous venue. You may even be able to drink a beer with the workers constructing the tents. A The hyphen means that all the words in that entry are connected to Reise-, in this case as com- pound words. B Das Reiseziel (destination) is neuter (nt). 18 Part I: The Building Blocks of German 05_226247 ch01.qxp 2/25/08 9:21 AM Page 18