Grammar Notes for Mr. Smith`s German Classes The following notes

Grammar Notes
for
Mr. Smith’s
German Classes
The following notes are designed to help students who are learning German;
print out a copy for yourself, and keep it with your German notes and papers.
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HOW DO I KNOW IF A NOUN IS A “DER, DIE, OR DAS WORD”?
HOW DO I KNOW IF A NOUN IS MASCULINE, FEMININE, OR
NEUTER? Bad news, folks! A lot of them simply have to be memorized. But
there are a few ways to get a hint:
NOUNS WITH THE FOLLOWING SUFFIXES ARE USUALLY
MASCULINE:
-ling, -ismus, -ig, -ich, -iker, -ist, -or, -and, -ant, -er
NOUNS WITH THE FOLLOWING SUFFIXES ARE USUALLY
FEMININE:
-schaft, -heit, -keit, -ung, -ei, -in, -ance, -tion, -sion, -ie, -enz, -iere, -ik, -ine,
-isse,
-tät, -ur, -üre
NOUNS WITH THE FOLLOWING SUFFIXES ARE USUALLY NEUTER:
-chen, -lein, -tel, -icht, -ment
IN GENERAL, if a word ends with -e, it’s USUALLY, but NOT ALWAYS,
feminine; if it’s a monosyllabic word ending with a consonant, it’s
USUALLY, but NOT ALWAYS, not feminine. There are exceptions to most
of these generalizations, but this is a good start. NOUNS ENDING WITH
-in are feminine if the purpose of the -in is to make them feminine (die
Lehrerin, die Schülerin), but otherwise not (das Benzin).
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WHAT IS A CASE? Any and every German noun has four forms; whenever
a noun is used in a sentence, it has to choose which of these forms it will
take. These forms are called “cases”, and are called “nominative”,
“accusative”, “dative”, and “genitive”. There are two factors which will
determine the case of a noun: whether there is a preposition in front of the
noun, and what role the noun plays in a sentence. If there is a preposition in
front of the noun, it will determine the case. If there is no preposition in front
of the noun, then the noun’s role in a sentence will determine the case.
Pronouns also have these four cases.
WHAT ROLES CAN A NOUN PLAY IN A SENTENCE? A noun can be
the subject, the direct object, the indirect object, or a genitive possessor; a
noun can also be the object of preposition. Pronouns also can play these five
roles.
IN THE SENTENCES BELOW, THE DIRECT OBJECT IS UNDERLINED
(ACCUSATIVE CASE):
Yesterday, I ate two hamburgers.
The student sent her mom a postcard from summer camp.
What did you buy at the mall?
Why did you hit him?
Ich habe den Kuli in dem Laden gekauft.
Mit Johann habe ich Fußball gespielt.
Zum Geburtstag habe ich meinem Vater einen Bleistift gegeben.
Was hast du gestern gesehen?
Wen hast du geschlagen?
Wem hast du den Brief geschrieben?
Wer hat dir das Geld geschickt?
Eine Wurst möchte ich essen.
Einen Film haben wir im Kino gesehen.
Gestern habe ich ihn gesehen.
IN THE SENTENCES BELOW, THE INDIRECT OBJECT IS
UNDERLINED (DATIVE CASE):
I gave my friend a CD.
We sent him a letter.
The gentleman bought the lady a flower.
Ich habe meinem Freund eine CD gegeben.
Wir haben ihm einen Brief geschickt.
Der Mann hat der Frau eine Blume gekauft.
Wem hast du das Geld gegeben?
Wer hat dir die Geschichte erzählt?
Was hat der Vater dem Sohn geschenkt?
Mir hat er nichts erzählt!
Ihm habe ich nichts gesagt!
***
NOTICE THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN AN INDIRECT OBJECT AND A
PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE; SAME MEANING, DIFFERENT
GRAMMAR:
indirect object:
I gave him five dollars.
prepositional phrase: I gave five dollars to him.
indirect object:
We bought our mom a flower.
prepositional phrase: We bought a flower for our mom.
***
THE SUBJECT OF THE SENTENCE is the person or thing doing the
action. The verb must be in the right form to agree with the subject:
Thomas and Robert play golf.
Thomas plays golf with Robert.
Johann und Udo spielen Fußball.
Johann spielt Fußball mit Udo.
THE PRESENT FORM OF THE VERB: in English, there are several
different forms of the present; they all mean essentially the same thing:
I eat bread at the table. = I am eating bread at the table.
The teacher writes on the board. = The teacher is writing on the board.
Does he play golf on Friday? = Is he playing golf on Friday?
Are we going to the store today? = Do we go to the store today?
In German, there is only one present form, which does the work of the
several different English present forms:
Schläfst du? = Are you sleeping? = Do you sleep?
Um neun spiele ich. = I play at nine. = I am playing at nine.
Wir fahren nach Hause. = We’re going home. = We go home.
THE PAST. There are several verb forms which speak about past events. We
are mainly interested in two of these, the “preterit” and the “perfect”:
compare:
I ate cookies. = I have eaten cookies.
We drove to Stuttgart. = We have driven to Stuttgart.
He was bored. = He has been bored.
She went to Tübingen. = She has gone to Tübingen.
preterit
I played pingpong. = Ich spielte Tischtennis.
She went to Berlin. = Sie ging nach Berlin.
We did our homework. = Wir machten unsere Hausaufgaben.
He carried the suitcase. = Er trug den Koffer.
perfect
I have played pingpong. = Ich habe Tischtennis gespielt.
She has gone to Berlin. = Sie ist nach Berlin gegangen.
We had done our work. = Wir haben unsere Arbeit gemacht.
He has carried the suitcase. = Er hat den Koffer getragen.
TO MAKE A VERB IN THE PERFECT, you actually have two verbs in the
sentence. In the front of the sentence, you have an auxilliary verb:
I have seen Aerosmith in concert twice.
Bob has beaten me in golf every day this week.
Wir haben zwei Pizzas gegessen.
Der Kunstlehrer hat ein Bild gemalt.
Ich bin nach Berlin gefahren.
NOTE that in English, the auxilliary verb is always a form of “have”, but in
German, there are two different verbs that can be used to form the perfect:
one is haben and the other is sein:
Ich bin nach Hause gefahren. = I have driven home.
Ich habe meine Hausaufgaben gemacht. = I have done my homework.
Wir sind nach Köln geflogen. = We have flown to Cologne.
Wir haben dort Eis gegessen. = We have eaten ice-cream there.
AT THE END OF THE SENTENCE, you have the other part of the perfect
verb, which we will call the “past participle”:
Ich bin in die Schule gegangen. = I have gone into the school.
Ich habe ein Buch gelesen. = I have read a book.
Wir sind in Dresden gewesen. = We have been in Dresden.
In Leipzig haben wir gut gegessen. = In Leipzig we have eaten well.
NOTE THAT THE RULES OF CONTEMPORARY CONVERSATIONAL
GERMAN REQUIRE THE PAST PARTICIPLE TO BE AT THE END OF
THE SENTENCE; in literary German, you may find it elsewhere.
THE PAST PARTICIPLE USUALLY BEGINS WITH THE ge- PREFIX;
exceptions are: verbs beginning with the prefixes ver-, er-, zer- and be-; and
verbs whose infinitive forms end with -ieren.
THE PAST PARTICIPLE ENDS WITH -t IF IT IS A REGULAR VERB,
AND ENDS WITH -en IF IT IS IRREGULAR.
SOME IRREGULAR VERBS HAVE A VOWELL CHANGE IN THE
PAST PARTICIPLE; and some don’t:
Ich fliege. - Ich bin geflogen.
Ich lese. - Ich habe gelesen.
Ich nehme. - Ich habe genommen.
Ich fahre. - Ich bin gefahren.
***
ADJECTIVES takes endings when the come before nouns. If they occur later
in the sentence, they take no ending:
Das Auto ist rot. Ich habe ein rotes Auto.
Der Kuli ist blau. Ich habe einen blauen Kuli.
TO FIGURE OUT WHICH ENDING GOES ONTO THE ADJECTIVE, you
must ask about the noun which comes right after it: is it masculine, feminine,
or neuter? Is it singular or plural? Is it nominative, accusative, dative, or
genitive? When you know the answers to those questions about the noun,
then you can calculate the ending for the adjective.
ADJECTIVES TAKE DIFFERENT ENDINGS if they occur after a definite
article, an indefinite article, or other sorts of wierd little words:
Das rote Auto ist teuer.
Ein rotes Auto ist teuer.
Dieses rote Auto ist teuer.
Unser rotes Auto ist teuer.
THE ENDINGS WHICH AN ADJECTIVE TAKES AFTER AN
INDEFINITE ARTICLE [ein, eine, einen, einem, einer] ARE THE SAME
ENDINGS IT TAKES AFTER A POSSESSIVE [mein, dein, sein, ihr, unser,
euer, meine, meinen, meinem, etc.].
THE ENDINGS WHICH AN ADJECTIVE TAKES AFTER A DEFINITE
ARTICLE [den, dem, des, der, die, das] ARE THE SAME ENDINGS IT
WILL TAKE AFTER dieser, welcher, jeder, jener, solcher, mancher, diese,
diesem, diesen, etc.
***
VERBS CAN BE PASSIVE when the direct object becomes the subject:
The senator ate the apple. = The apple was eaten by the senator.
The players kicked the ball. = The ball was kicked by the players.
Der Mann ißt den Apfel. = Der Apfel wird von dem Mann gegessen.
Ich schreibe einen Brief. = Ein Brief wird von mir geschrieben.
The passive is formed by using the verb werden (ich werde, du wirst, er wird,
wir werden) as an auxilliary with the past participle.
***
A RELATIVE CLAUSE is added to a sentence to give more information
about a noun; it begins with a relative pronoun:
The waiter brought the food.
The waiter, who is six feet tall, brought the food.
Der Spieler wirft den Ball.
Der Spieler, der sehr schnell spielt, wirft den Ball.
***
VERBS CAN BE MADE INTO ADJECTIVES by using either the “present
participle” or the “past participle” form:
The water boils. = It is boiling water.
The girls sings. = She is a singing girl.
He fried the potatoes. = They are fried potatoes.
She baked the fish. = It is baked fish.
Er bäckt das Brot. Das gebackene Brot schmeckt super!
Er kocht die Kartoffeln. Die gekochten Kartoffeln sind heiß!
Sie singt gern. Sie ist ein singendes Mädchen.
Das Tier fliegt. Es ist ein fliegendes Tier.
***
PREPOSITIONS usually occur in front of a noun, and determine the case of
the noun when they are present. They are in four main groups:
ACCUSATIVE PREPOSITIONS: any pronoun or noun following one of
these prepositions will be in the accusative case: durch, für, ohne, gegen, um,
wider, entlang, bis.
Der Tunnel ist lang; wir fahren durch den Tunnel.
Er spielt gut, aber die Mannschaft muß ohne ihn spielen.
DATIVE PREPOSITIONS: any pronoun or noun following one of these
prepositions will be in the dative case: aus, außer, bei, mit, nach,seit, von, zu.
Das Haus ist klein; ich wohne in dem Haus.
Sie ist schnell; ich laufe zehn Kilometer mit ihr.
GENITIVE PREPOSITIONS: any pronoun or noun following one of these
prepositions will be in the GENITIVE case: trotz, wegen, während,
anläßlich, behufs, innerhalb, außerhalb, oberhalb, unterhalb, jenseits.
Das Wetter ist schlecht; trotz des Wetters fahren wir auf’s Land.
Der Krieg war lang; während des Krieges war Opa lange weg.
AC/DC PREPOSITIONS can take either the dative case or the accusative
case; they take dative when they express location, and accusative when they
express destination: an, auf, hinter, in, neben, über, unter, vor, zwischen.
Ich gehe in die Küche; ich helfe ihm in der Küche.
Ich lege das Buch auf den Tisch; das Buch liegt jetzt auf dem Tisch.
***
CONJUNCTIONS are words which “glue” together words and phrases;
conjunctions can take two small sentences and make them into one long
sentence.
I am wet. It is raining. = I am wet because it is raining.
She ate pizza. She went dancing. = She ate pizza and she went dancing.
Ich schlafe. Ich bin müde. = Ich schlafe, weil ich müde bin.
Du bist alt. Ich bin jung = Du bist alt und ich bin jung.
IN GERMAN, THERE ARE TWO KINDS OF CONJUNCTIONS:
subordinating and co-ordinating. Because there are two different types of
conjunctions, there are two different rules about word-order.
SUBORDINATING CONJUNCTIONS WILL PUT THE VERB AT THE
END OF THE CLAUSE WHICH FOLLOWS THEM:
Ich habe kein Geld, weil ich ein Auto gestern gekauft habe.
Er trinkt viel Wasser, weil er im Garten viel arbeitet.
Sie sagt, daß sie nicht zur Schule kommen kann.
Er spielt weiter, obwohl es jetzt regnet.
Note that sentences can begin with subordinating conjunctions:
Weil ich viel Arbeit habe, kann ich nicht ins Stadion gehen.
Obwohl wir kein Geld haben, gehen wir einkaufen.
Weil der Kellner schnell arbeitet, verdient er viel Geld.
***
MODAL VERBS are used in sentences with other verbs; so if you see a
modal verb in a sentence, then there are usually a total of two verbs in that
sentence, one modal verb, and one “regular” verb. Usually, but not always!
The other verb will be at the end of the sentence, and will be in the infinitive
form (i.e., ending with -n). Modal verbs are all IRREGULAR.
Ich muß meine Hausaufgaben machen.
Er soll sein Auto putzen.
Sie kann ihrem Freund ein Geschenk geben.
Modal verbs may be used in a past form:
Gestern mußte ich Käse, Brot, und Senf kaufen.
Letzte Woche sollte er seinem Freund helfen.
Letztes Wochenende konnte sie nicht tanzen gehen.