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Nominative, Acussative, Dative, Genitive i Nominative, Acussative, Dative, Genitive ii Preposition to with verb of Motion Mixed, Irregular and weak verbs Principle parts of common, Strong and mixed verbs German type form your keyboard
All nouns (ie. a person, place, thing, animal, event, or idea) have a grammatical gender in German. They are either masculine (der), feminine (die), or neuter (das). der
Mann = the man die
Frau = the woman As you can
see, sometimes grammatical gender reflects biological gender - as
with the German words for man (der
Mann - masculine), woman (die
Frau - feminine), and child (das
Kind neuter). However, oftentimes grammatical gender cannot be
explained or figured out: the table in German is masculine (der
Tisch) whereas the street is feminine (die Straße) and money is
neuter (das Geld). Males normally have masculine gender: the boy (der Junge); the uncle (der Onkel); the father (der Vater) etc. Females normally have feminine gender: the woman (die Frau); the sister (die Schwester); die Mutter (the mother). On the other hand, words indicating younger persons are neuter: das Baby (the baby) - das Kind (the child) - das Mädchen (the girl). Nouns indicating profession or nationality have two forms, one for males and one for females. A male teacher is der Lehrer, a female teacher die Lehrerin. A male Canadian is der Kanadier, a female Canadian die Kanadierin (der Amerikaner / die Amerikanerin). Notice the ending -in normally added to the feminine nouns indicating nationality or profession. Noun endings can also be helpful in determining grammatical gender: Masculine: days, months, seasons, mountains (but: die Alpen), lakes, precipitations, all N-nouns, nouns ending in -ich, -ig, -ling,-or, -el,-en -er ('Elener') Feminine: flowers, trees, nouns ending in -heit, -keit, -schaft, -tät, -ung, -in (persons only), -ei, -ine,-ik, -ion (foreign words like die Nation), -en/n/-nen. Neuter: towns and most countries (a few are feminine or plural: die Schweiz, die USA /Vereinigten Staaten, etc.), names of hotels, cafés and theatres, nouns ending in -chen, -lein, -nis, -tum, -um, -ment. German uses five endings to mark the plural of nouns: - (no change) - e - er - (e)n - s Some nouns of the first three types add an umlaut in the plural. There is a gender distinction for German nouns in the singular (der, die, das) but there is no gender distinction in the plural. All plural nouns (in the nominative and accusative) take the definite article "die". The indefinite article "ein" has no plural form but other "ein"-words like "kein" do (keine). Possessive adjectives (like "mein, dein," etc.) are also ein-words and form the plural accordingly ("meine, deine," etc.). When learning a new noun, always memorize the plural form as well. There is no sure way to predict the plural form but these rules will help you to make an educated guess. Examples: Type 1
(no
change): das Zimmer (die Zimmer), das Mädchen (die Mädchen) Type 2
(-e): der Abend, der Monat, das Geräusch, das Telefon Type 3
(-er):
das Kind (die Kinder) Type 4
(-en/n/nen) -n: a) nouns which end on a vowel (mainly on -e) in the singular: die Adresse, die Straße, die Woche but a number of b) nouns ending on consonants (mostly -r) in the singular: die Nummer (die Nummern) -n: N- nouns are a group of masculine nouns that take -n or -en in all cases but the nominative singular e.g.: der Student -en, (den Studenten, dem Studenten, die Studenten), der Mensch-en, -en, der Junge-n,-n, der Nachbar-n,-n -nen: nouns derived from masculine forms. Their singular forms end in -in: die Studentin (die Studentinnen), die Amerikanerin, die Professorin. These nouns are always feminine. Type 5 (-s): foreign words like: das Auto, das Radio In English a male person is masculine in grammatical gender, and we refer to the person as he; a female person is feminine in gender and we refer to the person as she. All things are neuter and we refer to each thing as it. However, some people sometimes personify things such as cars, ships etc., and refer to them as she. Thus: she (the car) is really fast. She (the ship) is an oceanliner.
In German the matter of grammatical gender is quite different. Gender does not depend entirely on sex. The noun for a male is generally (though not always) masculine and takes the definite article der, the noun for a female is generally (though not always) feminine and takes the definite article die. Things are not always neuter. Some are masculine, some are feminine, and some are neuter and take the definite article das.
DEFINITE ARTICLES
INDEFINITE ARTICLES Die Zahlen: Learn to count in German Eins - zwei - drei, los geht's! PLEASE NOTE: Clicking on the numbers will open a new window. This window might be hidden behind your present window. eins, zwei, drei, vier, fünf, sechs, sieben, acht, neun, zehn elf, zwölf, dreizehn, vierzehn, fünfzehn, sechzehn, siebzehn, achtzehn, neunzehn, zwanzig einundzwanzig, zweiundzwanzig, dreiundzwanzig, vierundzwanzig, fünfundzwanzig, sechsundzwanzig, siebenundzwanzig, achtundzwanzig, neunundzwanzig, dreißig zehn, zwanzig, dreißig, vierzig, fünfzig, sechzig, siebzig, achtzig, neunzig, hundert (einhundert), zweihundert, dreihundert, vierhundert, fünfhundert, sechshundert, siebenhundert, achthundert, neunhundert, (ein)tausend zehntausend, zwanzigtausend, dreißigtausend, vierzigtausend, fünfzigtausend, sechzigtausend, siebzigtausend, achtzigtausend, neunzigtausend, (ein)hunderttausend hunderttausend, zweihunderttausend, dreihundertausend, vierhunderttausend, fünfhunderttausend, sechshunderttausend, siebenhunderttausend, achthunderttausend, neunhunderttausend, eine Million
The subject of a sentence (who/what does the action) is in the nominative. She works a lot. To find out what the subject of a sentence is, you ask 'Who (or What)?' In this case, you would ask: 'Who (or What)' works a lot? The answer is: She.
My brother
eats a Schnitzel. My sister
likes to play. This
computer is very expensive. Und jetzt auf Deutsch! Die Frau
geht nach Deutschland. Das Kind
spielt. Der Computer
ist sehr teuer.
In English as in German, there are different cases. In English, the definite ("the") and indefinite ("a") articles are the same in the nominative and the accusative case. There is a change, however, when you use personal pronouns. Say, the subject of a sentence (i.e. the nominative) is "she". When used in the accusative, it becomes "her".
The difference of subject (nominative) and direct object (accusative) in English becomes clear when you look at personal pronouns (i.e. she/her; he/him)
Articles for feminine nouns, neuter nouns, and for plural forms are exactly the same in the nominative and in the accusative case. Only the article for masculine nouns changes in the accusative case.
The dative case is the case of the indirect object and answers the question "to whom?" or "for whom?", i.e. to whom or for whom the action described in this sentence is being done. In English, you oftentimes use the prepositions 'to' or 'for' to indicate such an indirect object. You do not always use these prepositions, though. I'm giving my brother a new bike. OR: I'm giving a new bike to my brother. Both sentences mean the same. In German you don't have a choice - the indirect object is always expressed by the dative case, never with 'to' or 'for'.
Ich gebe meinem
Partner Blumen.
Mein Partner
gibt mir auch Blumen.
Nominative, Accusative, Dative, Genitive:
The genitive case indicates possession. For proper names, German adds an 's', just like in English. The only difference is that in German you do not add an apostrophy: Peter's car = Peters Auto; Mary's lamb = Marys Lamm. Masculine and neuter nouns add an 's' if the noun has more than one syllable, an 'es' if it has only one syllable. Note that in the genitive the article has to change, too.
One syllable:
das Kind - des Kindes The only exception to this rule are masculine 'N-nouns' as they also add 'n' or 'en' in the genitive. They do not add an additional 's'. Feminine and plural nouns do not change in the genitive. (See "Clothing" vocabulary)
Jakobs Hemd =
Jacob's shirt
NOMINATIVE, ACCUSATIVE, DATIVE, GENITIVE
Die Frau kauft
den Computer. der-words:
Diese Frau
kauft diesen Computer.
NOMINATIVE, ACCUSATIVE, DATIVE, GENITIVE IIIndefinite articles
Eine Frau kauft
einen Computer. ein-words: (including possessive adjectives)
Definite articles and der-words Like English, German uses definite and indefinite articles. If you are talking about a specific person, animal, place, event, thing, or idea, you use a definite article, i.e. the. The German definite article must agree (=match) with the gender of the noun it precedes, its number [i.e. singular (=one) or plural (=many)], and its case [i.e. nominative or accusative]. As you can see, the definite article in the plural is always "die".
Beispiel: Die Frau kauft den Computer. Dieser (=this one), jeder (=every one), welcher (=which one) take (almost) the same endings as the definite articles and are therefore called der-words.
Beispiel: Diese Frau kauft diesen Computer. Indefinite articles and ein-words Like English, German uses definite and indefinite articles. If you are talking about an unspecified person, animal, place, event, thing, or idea, you use an indefinite article, i.e. a or an. The German equivalent to a or an is ein. Unlike English, though, ein takes an ending which agrees with the gender of the noun it precedes, its number [i.e. singular (=one) or plural (=many)], and its case [i.e. nominative or accusative]. As you can see from this table, in three cases ein does not take an ending. Obviously, a/an and ein are only used in the singular. The negative form of ein is kein (=not a, not (any), no). Kein can be used in the plural and always takes an -e, i.e. keine.
Zum Beispiel: Eine Frau kauft einen Computer. Do you want to review the nominative and accusative cases?
ein-words Ein and kein are so-called ein-words. Adjectives indicating possessions or relationships are also ein-words and behave exactly like the indefinite articles ein and kein and take the same endings. For example, mein (=my):
Although only some of the possessive adjectives rhyme with "ein" (i.e. mein, dein, sein), all possessive adjectives are ein-words and therefore take an ein-word ending. Keep in mind that the possessive adjective sein can mean "his" and "its" and that ihr can mean "her" and "their". The preposition 'to' with verbs of motion
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