Copyright: Grammar ®1995-96 Translation Experts


table of contents

 German Grammar Reference Help Contents

©1995-1996 Translation Experts Ltd. All rights reserved.

Pronunciation

Verbs

Nouns

Articles

Adjectives

Adverbs

Pronouns

Prepositions

Conjunctions

Time & Numbers

Sentence Structure

Translation Problems

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 Pronunciation

The relation between spoken and written forms of Standard German (die Hochsprache) is simpler and more systematic than English. It is usually possible to pronounce a word you have not seen before even though a compound word has to be divided into its separate parts. Writing down a newly-heard word is more difficult because there are often alternative ways of writing the same sound.

 Vowels

Vowel	English	German
	Pronunciation	Examples
ei, ai	eye	Wein, Mai
au	how	Trauben
eu, äu	boy	heute, Fräulein
i	hit	bitte
e, ä	bet	Bett, Äpfel
a	but	hat
o	hot	Gott
u	put	Schmuck
i,ie,ih	see	wir, sie, ihn
e,ee,eh	Eton	her, See, geht
ä, äh	air	später, fährt
a, aa, ah	half	da, war, Haar, Bahn
o, oo, oh	hope	so, doof, wohl
u, uh	pool	zu, gut, Uhr
ü,y	Pronounced like the German i, but with the lips strongly rounded and pushed forward	müssen, süß
ö	Pronounced like the German e, but with the lips strongly rounded and pushed forward	möchte, schön

 Consonants

Consonant	English Pronounciation	German Examples
b	brother	Bahn
c	(before a,o,u)
	bake	Computers
	(before i,e)
	ts	Ceylon
ch	(after a,o,u)
	like the Sottish och	ach, Buch, noch
	(after i,e,r,l,n)
	huge	ich, rechts,durch, Milch
d	danger	du
	(at the end of words)
	tractor	Rad
f	five	fünf
g	give	gehen, Tage
h	hand	Hand
j	you	ja, Jahr
k	kettle	Kaffee
l	life	elf, hell
m	mine	mein
n	no	nein
p	plan	Plan
qu	queen	Quelle
r	red	tragen
s	zebra	sehen
sch	shoal	Schule
t	tuna	tun
v	four	vier
w	victory	wir
x	xerox	Cuxhaven
z	ts	Zeit


 Verbs

Types

Tenses

Moods

Voices

Infinitive

Conjugation


verb types

 Types of Verbs

There are two main types of verbs in German: weak and strong. Weak verbs conform to a group pattern with a few standard variations. Strong verbs have a common basic pattern but a much greater degree of variation within it so that the main parts have to be learnt for each individual verb.

The fundamental difference between the two types is in the formation of the imperfect tense and the past participle: the weak verbs add a characteristic t to the verb stem in these forms; strong verbs change the stem vowel of infinitive when forming the imperfect tense and past participle, for example:

		Imperfect	Past Participle
Weak	packen	ich packte	gepackt
Strong	singen	ich sang	gesungen


 Verb Tenses

Present

Imperfect

Perfect

Pluperfect

Future

Future Perfect


 Use of the Present Tense

1 The present tense is used to express:

a) present states or actions, for example: ich fühle mich schlecht = I feel ill

b) general or universal truths, for example: Zeit ist Geld = time is money

2 The present tense is the most common way of expressing the future, for example:

du bekommst einen Brief = you'll be getting a letter


 Use of the Imperfect Tense

1 The imperfect tense is the standard tense for most stories, novels and newspaper reports, for example: er ging die Straße entlang = he went along the road

2 The imperfect tense is most commonly used with sein, haben and the modal verbs when referring to the past, for example: ich konnte es kaum gluaben = I could hardly believe it


 Use of the Perfect Tense

The perfect tense is the standard tense for conversation when talking about the past (with the excception of the use of haben, sein and the modal verbs), for example: wann ist sie angekommen? = when did she arrive?


 Use of the Pluperfect Tense

The pluperfect is used for events that happened before a particular time in the past:

nachdem wir den Film gesehen hatten, gingen wir ins Café = after we had seen the film we went to the café


 Use of the Future Tense

1 The future is used to express future events:

ich werde ihn morgen treffen = I'm going to meet him tomorrow

2 The future is used to express suppositions about the present:

er hört mich nicht, er wird das Radio an haben = he can't hear me, he's probably got the radio on


 Use of the Future Perfect Tense

The future perfect is used to refer to an event that will be completed at some stage in the future:

ich werde das Buch bis Montag gelesen haben = I'll have read the book by Monday


verb moods and voices

 Verb Moods & Voices

Moods

 Indicative

 Imperative

 Subjunctive

 Conditional

Voices

 Active

 Pasive


verb infinitive

 Infinitive

The form in which the verbs are usually given in dictionaries is called the infinitive. It consists of the verb stem plus (e)n. (e.g. lesen, stem = les).


conjugation

 Verb Conjugation

Weak Verbs

Strong Verbs


 Conjugation of Weak Verbs

Present

Imperfect

Perfect

Pluperfect

Future

Future Perfect


 Present Tense of Weak Verbs

The present tense is formed by adding the endings -e, -st, -t, -en, -t, or -en to the stem:

Infinitive	Reden	Heizen	Plaudern	Ending
ich	rede	heize	plaud(e)re	e
du	redest	heizt	plauderst	st
er/sie/es	redet	heizt	plaudert	t
wir	reden	heizen	plaudern	en
ihr	redet	heizt	plaudert	t
Sie/sie	reden	heizen	plaudern	en


 Imperfect Tense of Weak Verbs

The imperfect tense is formed by adding the endings -te, -test, -te, -ten, or -tet to the stem:

Infinitive	Fragen	Reden	Atmen	Ending
ich	fragte	redete	atmete	te
du	fagtest	redetest	atmetest	test
er/sie/es	fragte	redete	atmete	te
wir	fragten	redeten	atmeten	ten
ihr	fragtet	redetet	atmetet	tet
Sie/sie	fragten	redeten	atmeten	ten


 Perfect Tense of Weak Verbs

The perfect tense is formed by using the past participle with the present tense of sein or haben:

	Present Tense	Past Participle
	of haben	of fragen
ich	habe	gefragt
du	hast	gefragt
er/sie/es	hat	gefragt
wir	haben	gefragt
ihr	habt	gefragt
Sie/sie	haben	gefragt
The participle normally comes at the end of the sentence or clause.


 Pluperfect Tense of Weak Verbs

The pluperfect is formed by using the past particple together with the imperfect tense of sein or haben:

	Imperfect Tense	Past Participle
	of haben	of fragen
ich	hatte	gefragt
du	hattest	gefragt
er/sie/es	hatte	gefragt
wir	hatten	gefragt
ihr	hattet	gefragt
Sie/sie	hatten	gefragt

The past participle normally comes at the end of the sentence or clause.


 Future Tense of Weak Verbs

The future is formed by using the present tense of werden plus the infinitive:

	Present Tense	Infinitive
	of werden	of fragen
ich	werde	fragen
du	wirst	fragen
er/sie/es	wird	fragen
wir	werden	fragen
ihr	werdet	fragen
Sie/sie	werden	fragen

The infinitive normally comes at the end of the sentence or clause.


future perfect of weak verbs

 Future Perfect Tense of WeakVerbs

The future perfect is formed by using the present tense of werden plus the perfect infinitive:

	Present Tense	Perfect Infinitive
	of werden	of fragen
ich	werde	gefragt haben
du	wirst	gefragt haben
er/sie/es	wird	gefragt haben
wir	werden	gefragt haben
ihr	werdet	gefragt haben
Sie/sie	werden	gefragt haben

The perfect infinitive normally comes at the end of the sentence or clause.


strong verbs

 Conjugation of Strong Verbs

Present

Imperfect

Perfect

Pluperfect

Future

Future Perfect


Present Tense of Strong Verbs

The present tense is formed by adding the endings -e, -(e)st, -(e)t, -en, -(e)t, or -en. In some verbs the vowel of the stem changes in the second and third person singular:

Infinitive	Stoßen	Gehen	Werfen	Ending
ich	stoße	gehe	werfe	e
du	stößt	gehst	wirfst	(e)st
er/sie/es	stößt	geht	wirft	(e)t
wir	stoßen	gehen	werfen	en
ihr	stoßt	geht	werft	(e)t
Sie/sie	stoßen	gehen	werfen	en


Imperfect Tense of Strong Verbs

Most strong verbs change the stem vowel for the imperfect tense; there is no ending added for the ich and er/sie/es forms.

Infinitive	Pfeifen	Bleiben	Helfen	Ending
ich	pfiff	blieb	half	--
du	pfiffst	bliebst	halfst	(e)st
er/sie/es	pfiff	blieb	half	--
wir	pfiffen	blieben	halfen	en
ihr	pfifft	bliebt	halft	(e)t
Sie/sie	pfiffen	blieben	halfen	en


Perfect Tense of Strong Verbs

The perfect tense is formed by using the past participle  with the present tense of sein or haben:

	Present Tense	Past Participle
	of haben	of finden
ich	habe	gefunden
du	hast	gefunden
er/sie/es	hat	gefunden
wir	haben	gefunden
ihr	habt	gefunden
Sie/sie	gaben	gefunden

The past participle normally comes at the end of the sentence or clause.


pluperfect of strong verbs

Pluperfect Tense of Strong Verbs

The pluperfect tense is formed by using the past participle with the imperfect tense of sein or haben:

	Imperfect Tense	Past Participle
	of haben	of finden
ich	hate	gefunden
du	hasttest	gefunden
er/sie/es	hatte	gefunden
wir	hatten	gefunden
ihr	hattet	gefunden
Sie/sie	hatten	gefunden

The past participle normally comes at the end of the sentence or clause.


Future Tense of Strong Verbs

The future tense is formed by using the infinite with the present tense of werden:

	Present Tense	Infinitive
	of werden	of fahren
ich	werde	fahren
du	wirst	fahren
er/sie/es	wird	fahren
wir	werden	fahren
ihr	hattet	fahren
Sie/sie	hatten	fahren

The infinitive normally comes at the end of the sentence or clause.


Future Perfect Tense of Strong Verbs

The future perfect is formed by using  the perfect infinitive  with the present tense of werden:

	Present Tense	Perfect Infinitive
	of werden	of fahren
ich	werde	gefahren sein
du	wirst	gefahren sein
er/sie/es	wird	gefahren sein
wir	werden	gefahren sein
ihr	hattet	gefahren sein
Sie/sie	hatten	gefahren sein

The perfect infinitive normally comes at the end of the sentence or clause.


 Nouns

Nouns are words, which refer to persons, animals, things or abstract ideas. In German, all nouns -- not just proper names -- are capitalized:

German	English
Haus	house
Ball	ball

German nouns are either masculine, feminine or neuter. The nouns themselves normally do not provide any indication, but any preceding adjective or article "agrees" with the noun by having the appropriate ending showing its gender plus number and case.

The gender of a noun must be learned but often the meaning or ending of the noun will help you determine if it it is:

 Masculine

 Feminine

 Neuter


Masculine Nouns

You can determine if a noun is masculine either by its meaning or by its ending.


Masculine Nouns Determined By Meaning

1 Names for male humans and animals:

German	der Sohn	der Student	der Hahn
English	son	student	cock

2 Names of days, months and seasons:

German	nächsten Mittwoch	letzten Mai	der Herbst
English	next Wednesday	last May	Autumn/Fall

3 Points of the compass, wind, et cetera:

German	der Süden	der Monsum	der Hagel
English	south	monsoon	hail

4 Makes of cars:

German	ein BMW	ein Opel	ein Cadillac
English	BMW	Opel	Cadillac

5 Names of rock and soil types:

German	der Quartz	der Basalt	der Lehm
English	quartz	basalt	clay


Masculine Nouns Determined By Ending

Ending	German	English
-en	der Hafen	harbor
-er	der Kopfhörer	headphones
-ich	der Teppich	carpet
-ig	der König	king
-ing	der Frühling	spring
-ismus	der Terrosismus	terrorism
-ist	der Optimist	optimist
-or	der Motor	motor
consonant+s	der Lachs	salmon


Feminine Nouns

You can determine if a noun is feminine either by its meaning or by its ending.


Feminine Nouns Determined By Meaning

1 Names for female humans and animals:

German	die Mutter	meine Frau	eine Kuh
English	the mother	my wife	a cow

2 Names of female occupations derived by adding -in to the masculine form:

German	die Arztin	die Journalistin	die Geologin
English	doctor	journalist	geologist

3 Names of most common trees, fruits and flowers:

German	die Kirsche	die Rose	die Nelke
English	cherry	rose	carnation

4 Makes of airplanes and names of ships:

German	die Boeing
English	Boeing

5 Numbers:

German	eine Null	die Sieben
English	zero	seven


Feminine Nouns Determined By Ending

Ending	German	English
-a	die Kamera	camera
-ei	die Kartei	card index
-enz	die Frequenz	frequency
-heit	die Freiheit	freedom
-ie	die Chemie	chemistry
-ik	die Technik	technology
-keit	die Süßigkeit	sweet
-schaft	die Mannschaft	team
-ung	die Eroberung	conquest
-tät	die Pubertät	puberty
-tion	die Reaktion	reaktion
-ur	die Natur	nature


Neuter Nouns

You can determine if a noun is neuter either by its meaning or by its ending.


Neuter Nouns Determined By Meaning

1 Names for young humans and animals:

German	das Kind	das Baby	das Junge	des Elefanten
English	child	baby	calf	the elephant

2 Names of continents, towns and most countries:

German	das Europa	das Berlin
English	Europe	Berlin

3 Nouns formed from other parts of speech -- especially infinitives:

German	das Vergnügen	sein Ja geben	das Hin und Her
English	pleasure	to say yes	long deliberation

4 Diminutives with the endings -chen and -lein:

German	das Mädchen	das Fräulein	das Städtchen
English	girl	young woman	small town

5 Fractions:

German	ein Sechstei
English	a sixth

6 Collectives beginning with the prefix Ge-:

German	das Gebirge	das Gerede	das Geräusch
English	the mountains	talk/gossip	noise

7 Names of metals, chemical elements and medications:

German	das Messing	das Uran	das Aspirin
English	brass	uranium	aspirin


Neuter Nouns Determined By Ending

Ending	German	English
-ma	das Thema	subject
-ment	das Appartment	apartment
-tum	das Eigentum	property
-um	das Zentrum	center


 Articles

The Definite Article

The Indefinite Article

Kein

Demonstratives

Possesives


definite article

The Definite Article

In English, the definite article has only one form -- the. In German, the definitive arcticle changes its ending according to the gender and case of the noun, and whether it is singular or plural:

Singular	Plural
Case	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	All Genders
Nominative	der	die	das	die
Accusative	den	die	das	die
Genitive	des	der	des	der
Dative	dem	der	dem	den


indefinite article

The Indefinite Article

In English, the indefinite article has only one form -- a/an. In German, the indefinite article changes its ending according to the gender and case of the noun after it:

Singular

Case	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter
Nominative	ein	eine	ein
Accusative	einen	eine	ein
Genitive	eines	einer	eines
Dative	einem	einer	einem


kein

Kein (no, not a, not any)

Kein has the same endings as the indefinite article ein, but also has a plural form:

Singular	Plural
Case	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	All Genders
Nominative	kein	keine	kein	keine
Accusative	keinen	keine	kein	keine
Genitive	keines	keiner	keines	keiner
Dative	keinem	keiner	keinem	keinen


Demonstratives

dieser	jener	jeder	mancher	solcher	aller	welcher
this	that	each/every	some/many a	such	all	which

These are generally called demonstrative adjectives (or pronouns). Adjectives that follow them have the same endings as after the definitive article.

Case	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	All Genders
Nominative	dieser	diese	dieses	diese
Accusative	diesen	diese	dieses	diese
Genitive	dieses	dieser	dieses	dieser
Dative	diesem	dieser	diesem	diesen

The others have the same endings, except that jeder does not have a plural form.


Possessives

Pronoun	Possesive
English	German	English	German
I	ich	mine	mein
you	du	yours	dein
he	er	his	sein
she	sie	hers	ihr
it	es	its	sein
we	wir	ours	unser
you	ihr	yours	euer
you (polite)	Sie	----	Ihr
they	sie	theirs	ihr

The same endings apply for all the possessives, e.g.: mein, dein, sein, et cetera:

Singular	Plural
Case	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	All Genders
Nominative	mein	meine	mein	meine
Accusative	meinen	meine	mein	meine
Genitive	meines	meiner	meines	meiner
Dative	meinem	meiner	meinem	meinen


 Adjectives

There is a major difference between English and German in the predicative use of adjectives (e.g. after is, are, were) and their attributive use (before nouns and pronouns).

	Predicative	Attributive
German	mein Wagen ist alt	ich fahre einen alten Wagen
English	my car is old	I drive an old car

Notice how alt apears in both sentences but in its attributive use it contains the extra ending -en.

The rules governing the endings that are added to adjectives in the attributive use are:

1 After the definite article (der, die or das):

Singular	Plural
Case	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	All Genders
Nominative	-e	-e	-e	-en
Accusative	-en	-e	-e	-en
Genitive	-en	-en	-en	-en
Dative	-en	-en	-en	-en

2 After the indefinitive article:

Singular

Case	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter
Nominative	-er	-e	-es
Accusative	-en	-e	-es
Genitive	-en	-en	-en
Dative	-en	-en	-en

3 Without any preceding article:

Singular	Plural
Case	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	All Genders
Nominative	-er	-e	-es	-e
Accusative	-en	-e	-es	-e
Genitive	-en	-er	-en	-er
Dative	-em	-er	-em	-en


Adverbs

 Formation of Adverbs

 Use of Adverbs

 Adverbs -- Word Order

There are two main differences between German and English adverbs:

1 Many German adverbs have the same form as the corresponding adjective:

die Wohnung is bilig (adjective) = the apartment is cheap

er lebt bilig (adverb) = he lives cheaply

2 The word order with adverbs often differs from English:

sie übt oft Klavier = she often practices the piano


Formation of Adverbs

1 Words which are exclusively adverbs:

German	English
da	there
sehr	very
geradeaus	straight on
da sind sie!	there they are!
sehr nett	very nice
nur geradeaus!	keep straight on!

2 Adverbs identical in form with adjectives:

	Adjective	Adverb	Adjective	Adverb
German	schön	schön	furchtbar	furchtbar
English	beautiful	beautifully	terrible	terribly

3 Adverbs formed from participles:

German	English
übertrieben	exaggeratedly
groß	large

4 Adverbs formed from other parts of speech plus suffix:

(A)

Suffix	Adjective	Adverb
	German	English	German	English
-lich	neu	new/recent	neulich	recently
	kurz	short	kürzlich	recently
(B)

Suffix	Adjective or Numeral	Adverb
	German	English	German	English
-mal(s)	jed-	every	jedesmal	every time
	manch-	many a	manchmal	sometimes
	ein	one	einmal	once
(C)

Suffix	Adjective	Adverb
	German	English	German	English
-maßen	einig	some	einigermaßen	somewhat
	folgend	following	folgendermaßen	as follows
(D)

Suffix	Adjective	Adverb
	German	English	German	English
-s	(der) Mittag	midday	mittags	at midday
	(der) Freitag	Friday	freitags	on Fridays
(E)

Suffix	Adjective	Adverb
	German	English	German	English
-(er)weise	(der) Teil	part	teilweise	partly/in parts


Use of Adverbs

Adverbs are often used to quantify a verb but as adverbial intensifiers they can also quantify adjectives and other adverbs:

 With a Verb

 With an Adjective

 With Another Adverb

With a Verb

German	morgen schreibt er	verlassen Sie uns hier?
English	he will write tomorrow	are you leaving us here?

German usage makes a consistent distinction between position and movement in relation to adverb:

German	wir wohnen hier	sie saß da
English	we live here	she was sitting there
German	wo arbeiten Sie?	wo wartet er?
English	where do you work?	where is he waiting?

With An Adjective

German	das ist fast einmalig	ein sehr langweiliges Buch
English	that is almost unique	a very boring book
German	es war unglublich kalt
English	it was unbelievably cold

With Another Adverb

German	ich koche ebenso gut	atme schön tief!
English	I cook just as well	breathe nice and deeply!
German	er schreibt erstaunlich schnell
English	he writes amazingly quickly


adverbs: word order

Adverbs -- Word Order

Qualifying an Adjective or Another Adverb

Adverbs come immediately before the adjective or adverb they qualify:

German	sehr gut	ganz hoch	weiter rechts
English	very good/well	quite tall/high	further (along) on the right
German	immer länger	äußerst dünn	viel lieber
English	longer and longer	extremely thin(ly)	much rather

Qualifying a Verb

1 In statements, the normal position of the adverb is at the end of the clause but before a past participle, infinitive, separable prefix and, in a subordinate clause, before the finite verb:

German	Herr Braun liest nicht oft	sie hat neulich geschrieben
English	Mr Braun doesn't read much	she wrote recently
German	Sie können mich direkt anrufen	ich gebe es sofort auf
English	you can dial me direct	I am giving it up immediately
2 In direct questions the order of the subject and finite verb is reversed, but the normal position of the adverb otherwise remains as in 1 above:

German	liest Herr Braun nicht oft?	hat sie neulich geschrieben?
English	does Mr Braun not often read?	has she written recently?
3 In a simple command the normal position of the adverb is after Sie and wir or after the finite verb (in the case of the du and ihr form of the imperative):

German	bleiben Sie da!	gehen wir morgen baden!
English	stay here!	let us go swimming tomorrow!
German	fahr langsamer!	eßt schnell euer Frühstück!
English	drive more slowly!	eat your breakfast quickly!

Sequence of Adverbs

1 When two or more adverbs (or adverbial phrases) appear in the same sentence, they usually do so in the following sequence: Time > Manner > Place

German	ich bleibe oft alleine zu Hause
English	I often stay at home by myself
German	wer fährt diesen Sommer per Anhalter ins Ausland?
English	who is going hitching abroad this summer?
2 If several adverbial items are used, it is common for one to be placed at the beginning of the sentence. This may be for special emphasis or for stylistic reasons, since a long string of items can be cumbersome.


 Pronouns

Pronouns are words which can substitute for nouns. They are divided into personal, reflexive, indefinite, relative and interrogative pronouns:

Personal Pronouns

Reflexive Pronouns

Indefinite Pronouns

Uninflected Indefinite Pronouns

Relative Pronouns

Interrogative Pronouns


Personal Pronouns

	Nominative	Accusative	Genitive	Dative
I	ich	mich	meiner	mir
you	du	dich	deiner	dir
he	er	ihn	seiner	ihm
she	sie	sie	ihrer	ihr
it	es	es	seiner	ihm
we	wir	uns	unser	uns
you	ihr	euch	euer	euch
you	Sie	Sie	Ihrer	Ihnen
they	sie	sie	ihrer	ihnen


use of the nominative case

Use of the Nominative

The nominative is used for the subjects of verbs and following the verb sein:

German	ich sehe	kannst du kommen?	ich bin es
English	I see	can you come?	it's me
German	das sind wir	morgen gehen wir
English	that's us	we are going tomorrow


use of the accusative case

Use of the Accusative

The accusative is used for the direct object of verbs and after certain prepositions:

German	ich mag ihn	nimm uns mit!	ein Brief an dich
English	I like him	take us too	a letter to you


use of the genitive case

Use of the Genitive

The genitive of the pronouns is rare and is only used with a small number of verbs, prepositions and adjectives which are followed by the genitive:

German	erinnerst du dich meiner?
English	do you remember me?
German	er war ihrer satt	trotz seiner
English	he was tired of her	in spite of him


use of the dative case

Use of the Dative

The dative is used for the indirect object of verbs and after certain prepositions:

German	ich gebe es dir	folgen Sie Ihr
English	I'm giving it to you	follow her
German	nach Ihnen	bei uns
English	after you	at our house


Reflexive Pronouns

Person	English	German
English	German		Accusative	Dative
I	ich	myself	mich	mir
you	du	yourself	dich	dir
he/she/it	er/sie/es	him-/her-/itself	sich	sich
we	wir	ourselves	uns	uns
you	ihr	yourself	euch	euch
you (polite)	Sie	yourself	sich	sich
they	sie	themselves	sich	sich


Indefinite Pronouns

German	man	jemand	niemand	unsereiner
English	one, you	anyone,	no-one,	people of our sort,
	people,	someone,	nobody	class
	they, we	somebody
Nominative	man	jemand	niemand	----
Accusative	einen	jemand(en)	niemand(en)	unsereinen
Genitive	----	jemand(e)s	niemand(e)s	----
Dative	einem	jemand(em)	niemand(em)	unsereinem
Reflexive	sich	sich	sich	----
Possessive	sein	sein	sein	----


uninflected indefinate pronouns

Uninflected Indefinite Pronouns

There is a group of indefinite pronouns which remain the same whatever case they are in:

German	English
etwas	something
nichts	nothing
jederman	everyone
ein bißchen	a little
ein paar	a few
ein wenig	a little


Relative Pronouns

German generally uses the definite article for the relative pronoun:

Singular	Plural
Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	All Genders
Nominative	der	die	das	die
Accusative	den	die	das	die
Genitive	densen	deren	dessen	deren
Dative	dem	der	dem	denen


Interrogative Pronouns

	Personal	Impersonal
	(for persons)	(for things)
Nominative	wer	was
Accusative	wen	was
Genitive	wessen	wessen
Dative	wem	----


 Prepositions

Prepositions are words such as from, in and with. They are followed by nouns or pronouns, which, in German, must be in the case determined by the preposition.

Prepositions with:

Dative Only

Accusative Only

Dative or Accusative

Genitive

Genitive or Dative


Prepositions With Dative Only

German Preposition	English Meaning(s)	Example of Use
aus	out of/from/made of	er lief aus dem Haus
		he ran out of the house
ausser	apart from/out of/out	außer Kontrolle
		out of control
bei	near/at/on/with/in/by	bei Woolworth
		at Woolworth's
gegenüber	opposite/facing/towards/ compared with	er ist mir gegenüber sehr freundlich
		he's very friendly towards me
gemäss	in accordance with	unseren Wünschen gemäß
		in accordance with our wishes
mit	with/by/at/in	mit 30 Jahren
		at 30 years of age
nach	to/after/past	nach rechts unten gehen
		to go right downstairs
von	from/of/by	von 6 bis 9 Uhr abends
		from 6 to 9 in the evening
zu	to/at/for/on	zur Zeit
		at present


Prepositions With Accusative Only

German Preposition	English Meaning(s)	Example of Use
bis	till/by	bis nächstes Jahr!
		E: till next year
durch	through/by/along	durch Zufall
		by chance
entlang	along	sie rannte die Straße entlang
		she ran along the street
für	for	sie ging für ein Jahr ins Ausland
		she went abroad for a year
gegen	against/about/towards/	gegen 6 Uhr
	for/in return for/contrary to	at about 6 o'clock
ohne	without	sie kam ohne ihre Eltern
		she came without her parents
per	by	per Post
		by mail
um	round/at/around	um 11 Uhr
		at 11 o'clock


Prepositions With Dative or Accusative

German Preposition	English Meaning(s)
an	on/onto/against/to/at/in
auf	(down) on(to)
hinter	behind
in	in(to)
neben	next to/beside
über	above/over
unter	under(neath)/below
vor	in front of/before
zwischen	between

The dative case is used where the position or location of a person, thing or action is signified (wo?).

The accusative case indicates movement to, in the direction of, or a new position (wohin?).


Prepositions With Genitive

German Preposition	English Meaning(s)	Example of Use
anhand	by means of	er erläuterte seine Theorie anhand eines Beispiels
		he explained his theory by means of an example
ausserhalb	outside	außerhalb der Arbeitszeit
		outside working hours
diesseits	on this side of	diesseits der Straße
		on this side of the street
innerhalb	inside/within	innerhalb einer Sekunde
		within a second
jenseits	on the other side of	jenseits des Flusses
		on the other side of the river
kraft	by virtue of	kraft seines Amtes
		by virtue of his office
mittels	by means of	mittels eines Zweitschüssels
		by means of a duplicate key
statt	instead of	statt des Bürgermeisters
		instead of the mayor
um...willen	for...sake	um Gottes willen!
		for God's sake!


Prepositions with Genitive or Dative

German Preposition	English Meaning(s)	Example of Use
dank	thanks to	Genitive: dank meines guten Gedächtnisses
		Dative: dank meinem guten Gedächtnis
		thanks to my good memory
trotz	in spite of	Genitive: trotz strömenden Regens
		Dative: trotz strömendem Regen
		in spite of the pouring rain
wegen	because of/	Genitive: wegen meines Kindes
	for...sake	Dative: wegen meinem Kind
		for my child's sake


 Conjunctions

Conjunctions link words, phrases and clauses. They fall into two categories:

 Co-ordinating Conjunctions

Co-ordinating conjunctions link two similar words or groups of words (e.g. nouns, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, phrases or clauses).

1 Main co-ordinating conjuctions:

German	aber	denn	oder	und	sondern	sowie
English	but	because	or	and	but	as well as

2 Conjunctions consisting of two parts:

German	English
sowohl...als auch	both...and
nicht nur...sondern auch	not only...but also
entweder...oder	either...or
weder...noch	neither...nor

3 Adverbs

Some adverbs also function as co-ordinating conjunctions. In such cases the order of the following subject and finite verb are reversed. Among the most common of these adverbs are:

German	English
also	so, therefore
außerdem	in any case
deshalb	therefore
inzwischen	meanwhile
sonst	otherwise
trotzdem	despite that

 Subordinating Conjunctions

Subordinating conjunctions join a subordinate clause to another clause. The finite verb comes at the end of a subordinate clause.

1 Main subordinating conjunctions:

German	English
daß	that
nachdem	after
wenn	if/when(ever)
da/weil	because
obwohl/obgleich	although
als	when
seit(dem)	since
als ob	as if
so daß	with the result that
ohne(...)zu	wihtout
bevor/ehe	before
während	while
damit	so that
sobald	as soon as
um(...)zu	in order to

2 Omission

On occasion a subordinating conjuntion my be ommited: hatten wir nur Zeit, würden wir so viel tun = had we only the time, we would do so much

3 Interrogatives

Interrogatives (was?, welcher? and wie?) function as subordinating conjunctions in indirect questions: dann fragte er mich, was ich gehört hätte = then he asked me what I had heard


time and numbers

 Time & Numbers

Time

Dates

Numbers


 Time

German	wie spät ist es?	wievile Uhr ist es?	wieviel Uhr haben Sie?
English	what is the time?	what is the time?	what do you make the time?

 Full Hours

German	es ist ein Uhr	es ist Mittag
English	it is 1:00 o'clock	it is 12:00 noon

 Half Hours

German	es ist halb vier	es ist halb
English	it is half past three	it is 11.30

 Quarter Hours

German	es ist Viertel nach elf	es ist Viertel vor zehn
English	it is 11.15	it is 9.45

 Minutes

German	es ist acht Minuten nach neun	es ist sechzehn Minuten vor sechs
English	it is 9.08	it is 5.44


days of the week; months; seasons;dates

Dates

 Months

German	English
Januar	January
Februar	February
März	March
April	April
Mai	May
Juni	June
Juli	July
August	August
September	September
Oktober	October
November	November
Dezember	December

 Days of the Week

German	English
Montag	Monday
Dienstag	Tuesday
Mittwoch	Wednesday
Donnerstag	Thursday
Freitag	Friday
Samstag/Sonnabend	Saturday
Sonntag	Sunday

 Seasons

German	English
der Frühling	spring
der Sommer	summer
der Herbst	autumn
der Winter	winter

 The Date

1 As with English, ordinal numbers are used for the dates of the month but of is not translated into German:

German	English
der 1. (spoken = erste) Mai	the first of May
am 11. (spoken = elften) April	on the 11th of April
2 Dates on letters and card are usually written:

Dortmund, (den) 3.7.1988 (read: den dritten siebten neunzehnhundertachtundachtzig)

or Dortmund, den 3. Juli 1988

3 "What is the date today?" is translated as:

der wieveilte ist heute?  or

den wievielten haben wir heute?


 Numbers

Cardinal Numbers

Ordinal Numbers

Measurements

Prices


Cardinal Numbers

0	null
1	eins
2	zwei
3	drei
4	vier
5	fünf
6	sechs
7	sieben
8	acht
9	neun
10	zehn
11	elf
12	zwölf
13	dreizehn
14	vierzhen
15	fünfzehn
16	sechzehn
17	siebzehn
18	achtzehn
19	neunzehn
20	zwanzig
21	einundzwanzig
30	dreißig
40	vierzig
60	sechzig
70	siebzig
80	achtzig
90	neunzig
100	hundert
101	hunderteins
130	hundertdreißig
200	zweihundert
100	tausend
1,001	tausendundeins
1,234	tausendzweihundertvierunddreißig
1990	neunzehnhundertneunzig(date)
2,000	zweitausend
10,000	zehntausend
1,000,000	eineMillion
1,198,369	einenMillionhundertachtundneunzigtausenddreihundertneunundsechzig
2,000,000	zweiMillionen
1,000,000,000	eineMilliarde
1,000,000,000,000	eineBillion


Ordinal Numbers

The following numbers are usually preceded by an article and are always declined (e.g. they agree with the noun that follows them in gender and case):

1st	erst-
2nd	zweit-
3rd	dritt-
4th	viert-
5th	fünft-
6th	sechst-
7th	siebt-
8th	acht-
9th	neunt-
10th	zehnt-
11th	elft-
12th	zwölft-
13th	dreizehnt-
14th	vierzehnt-
15th	fünfzehnt-
16th	sechzehnt-
17th	siebzehnt-
18th	achtzehnt-
19th	neunzehnt-
20th	zwanzigst-
21st	einundzwanzigst-
30th	dreißigst-
100th	hundertst-
101st	hunderterst-
200th	zweihundertst-
1000th	tausendst-
10,000th	zehntausendst-
1,000,000th	millionst-


Measurements

Germany uses the metric system, therefore everything is measured in kilometers, meters, centimeters, milimeters, kilograms, grams et cetera.


Prices

German	was kosten die Umschläge?	sie kosten zwei Mark zehn (Dm 2.10)
English	how much are the envelopes?	they are 2 marks 10
German	75 Pfening das Stück	5 Mark das Kilo
English	75 pfenings each	5 marks a kilo


 Sentence Structure

Word Order

Negatives

Direct & Indirect Questions

Answers (Yes & No)

Translation Problems


Word Order

 Main Clauses

1 In a simple sentence the basic word order is: Subject + Finite Verb (+ object(s)) (+ complement)

2 If there is both a direct and an indirect object the normal order depends on whether they are nouns or pronouns.

3 Past participles, dependent infinitives, separable prefixes and adverbial complements usually come at the end of a sentence.

4 Inversion: It is quite common to begin a sentence with something other than the subject in German. Not only adverbs and adverbial phrases but also direct and indirect objects regularly function in this way.

 Subordinate Clauses

After relative pronouns (derm dessen, an dem, worauf, et cetera) and subordinating conjunctions (daß, warum, obwohl, et cetera) the finite verb goes to the end of the clause.


Negatives

German	English
kein/keine/kein	not a/no
keiner/keine/ekin(e)s	nobody/none
keinerlei	no...of any sort
keineswegs	by no means
nicht	not
nicht nur...sondern auch	not only...but also
nicht mehr	no more
nichts	nothing
nie/niemals	never
niemand	nobody
nirgends/nirgendwo	nowhere
nirgenwohin	(to) nowhere
weder...noch	neither...nor


questions

Direct & Indirect Questions

 Direct Questions

There are four basic ways of forming direct questions in German:

1 Inversion of the normal word order of a statement: sprechen Sie Deutsch? = do you speak German?

2 Question word(s) + finite verb (+ subject) (+ complement)

German	English	German	English
wer?	who?	wann?	when?
(an) wen?	(to) who(m)?	warum?	why?
wessen?	whose?	was?	what?
(mit) wem?	(with) whom?	was für?	what kind of?
welch-?	which-?	wie?	how?
wo?	where?	woher?	where...from?
		wohin?	where...to?
3 Subject + finite verb (+ complement): das soll billig sein?! = that's suposed to be cheap?!

4 Subject + finite verb (+ complement) + tag:

Tags in English:  isn't it, aren't you, doesn't he, can't she, et cetera.

Tags in German: nicht (wahr), gell/gelt, oder.

 Indirect Questions

1 Indirect questions follow a verb or a clause and are introduced by an interrogative word: "explain why you are angry"

2 The two clauses are always separated by a comma and the finite verb comes at the end of the indirect question.


Answers (Yes & No)

1 Ja and doch both mean yes but ja is used to answer an affirmative question and doch to contradict a negative question:

	Question	Answer
German	gehst du schon?	ja, ich muß jetzt gehen
English	are you going already?	yes, I have to go now
German	liebst du mich nicht mehr?	doch
English	don't you love me any more?	yes, I do love you

2 Nein means no:

	Question	Answer
German	war es interessant?	nein, es war langweilig
English	was it interesting?	no, it was boring


 Translation Problems

Some English words are difficult if not impossible to translate into German:

1 Articles:

(A) The indefinite article is often left out in German where it is present in English: er ist leider Popsänger geworden = unfortunately he has become a pop singer

(B) The definite article is often used where it is omitted in English: ich verstehe nichts von der Gärtnerei = I know nothing about gardening

2 daß and the relative pronoun are often omitted in English but must be kept in German: das Getränk, dass ich am liebsten mag = the drink I like best

3 After modal verbs, a verb expressing motion is very often omitted if there is an adverb or phrase indicating direction: ich spüre nichts = I cannot feel anything

4 "Can" is sometimes omitted with verbs of preception where it is present in English: hörst du mich? = can you hear me?