German

Grammar

Fundamentals

Nouns

Genders

Most world languages have nouns that are either masculine or feminine. German, besides capitalizing all nouns, goes them one better and adds a third gender: neuter. The masculine definite article (“the”) is der, feminine is die, and neuter is das. German-speakers just seem to know whether Wagen (car) is der or die or das. (It's der Wagen.) And they also know that the other German word for car is das Auto. But when referring to cars by brand name, it's always der Ford, der VW or der Mercedes. It's not the actual person, place or thing that has gender in German, but the WORD that stands for the actual thing. That's why a “car” can be either das Auto (neut.) or der Wagen (masc.). Forget linking gender to a specific meaning or concept. Although nouns for people often follow natural gender, there are exceptions such as das Mädchen, girl. There are three different German words for "ocean" or "sea"—all a different gender: der Ozean, das Meer, die See! And gender does not transfer well from one language to another. The word for "sun" is masculine in Spanish (el sol) but feminine in German (die Sonne). A German moon is masculine (der Mond), while a Spanish moon is feminine (la luna). It's enough to drive an English-speaker crazy! About.com





Articles

German Definite Article Masculine der Mann (the man) Feminine die Frau (the woman) Neuter das Brot (the bread) Plural die Männer (the men), die Frauen (the women), die Brote (the breads) Well, that’s not all; the form we went through above is only for the nominative case. Now let’s have a look at all the rest: German Definite Articles (The) Nominative case Masc: der Fem: die Neuter: das Plural: die Accusative case Masc: den Fem: die Neuter: das Plural: die Dative case (to the) Masc: dem Fem: der Neuter: dem Plural: den Genitive cases (of the) Masc: des Fem: der Neuter: des Plural: der Here are some examples: Nominative: der Mann ist hier (the man is here) Accusative: Ich grüße den Mann (I greet the man) Dative: Ich gebe dem Mann ein Buch (I give the book to the man) Genitive: Ich habe das Buch des Mannes (I have the book of the man) You may have noticed how the definite article changes each time the case changes. Speak 7





Singular/ Plural

Adjectives

Endings

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Possessive adjectives

Nominative

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Accusative

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Comparative & Superlative

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Adverbs

Definition: Adverbs are words which describe the action of a verb, adjectives, or other adverbs: They show how, when and where things happen - e.g. "quickly", "often", "outside". You can usually recognise an adverb in English becuase it ends in "-ly" - e.g. "happily", "regularly", "completely". Adverbs typically express some relation of place, time, manner, cause, inference, result, condition, exception, concession, purpose, means, or even negation. The German negative nicht is an adverb. Most adjectives can be used as adverbs without adding a suffix. In fact, when such adjectives are used as adverbs they have no endings at all: Anna is a healthy woman (= adjective). Anna ist eine gesunde Frau. "Metropolis" is a good film (= adjective). "Metropolis" ist ein guter Film. We eat very healthily (= adverb). Wir essen sehr gesund. I am very well (= adverb). Es geht mir gut.





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Pronouns

All cases

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Direct and indirect object pronoun

Direct

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Indirect

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Verbs

The infinitive

Present tense regular verbs

Haben

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Sein

New node

Negative

The future

The present for the future

Using werden

Cases

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Basic AS

Verbs

Present tense irregular verbs

Fahren

Lesen

Sprechen

Separable verbs

Inseparable verbs

Modal verbs

Können

Wollen

Müssen

Dürfen

Sollen

Mögen

Reflexive verbs

I like/ I prefer

Imperative

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