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    German Essentials
    German Essentials
    German Essentials
    Ebook183 pages1 hour

    German Essentials

    By Linda Thomas

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    About this ebook

    REA’s Essentials provide quick and easy access to critical information in a variety of different fields, ranging from the most basic to the most advanced. As its name implies, these concise, comprehensive study guides summarize the essentials of the field covered. Essentials are helpful when preparing for exams, doing homework and will remain a lasting reference source for students, teachers, and professionals. German reviews the fundamentals of the German language, including basic pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, and sentence structure. Other topics include cognates, numbers, idiomatic expressions, time, weather, and clothing.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherResearch & Education Association
    Release dateJan 1, 2013
    ISBN9780738668376
    German Essentials

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    • 5/5
      Very good explanation. I really appreciate this writer. I wish everyone who wants to learn German read this book.
    • 5/5
      I really want to say "thank you" to you. This is a very interesting book and you are one of the best.

    Book preview

    German Essentials - Linda Thomas

    Glossary

    CHAPTER 1

    Alphabet and Sounds

    1.1 The Alphabet

    There is only one letter in the German alphabet that does not exist in the English alphabet: B. This letter was originally an s and a z and is named after those two letters, ess-tset.

    a ah

    b beh

    c tseh

    d deh

    e eh

    f eff

    g geh

    h hah

    i ih

    j jot

    k kah

    I ell

    m emm

    n enn

    o oh

    p peh

    q kuh

    r err

    s ess

    β ess-tset

    t teh

    u uh

    v fau

    w weh

    x iks

    y üppsilon

    z tsett

    1.2 Vowels

    Vowels are long when followed by an h or by only one consonant. They are short when followed by two or more consonants.

    1.3 Modified Vowels

    An umlaut (‥) modifies the sound of a vowel. In some cases there is no corresponding English sound.

    1.4 Diphthongs

    Diphthongs are always long.

    1.5 Consonants

    CHAPTER 2

    Cases

    German has four cases. Without an understanding of the function of each case, it is impossible to proceed with German grammar.

    2.1 The Nominative Case

    The nominative case is the subject case. The subject of the sentence performs the action expressed by the verb. It tells us who or what performs the action.

    Der Hund hat den Mann gebissen. The dog bit the man.

    The verbs heiβen, sein, and werden can never have an object. They are always followed by the nominative case. One should think of these verbs as an equal sign. The nouns on both sides of the equation are nominative.

    NOM. NOM.

    Er heiβt Herr Schmidt. His name is/He is called Mr. Schmidt.

    Er ist unser Lehrer. He is our teacher.

    Sie wird die beste Schülerin der Klasse. She is becoming the best pupil in the class.

    2.2 The Accusative Case

    The accusative case is the direct object case. The direct object receives the action performed by the subject and expressed by the verb. It answers the question who? or what? after the verb.

    Der Hund hat den Mann gebissen. The dog bit the man.

    In English, grammatical function often is shown by word order. The meaning of the English sentence can be changed drastically by changing the word order.

    The man bit the dog.

    In German, the article indicates the case and a change in word order cannot change the basic meaning.

    Den Mann hat der Hund gebissen. The dog bit the man.

    Den shows that Mann is the direct object (accusative), and der shows us that Hund is the subject (nominative). Putting the direct object first does change the emphasis.

    The accusative case also functions as the object of the prepositions durch, für, gegen, ohne, and um. This will be discussed further in chapter 10.

    2.3 The Dative Case

    The dative case is the indirect object case. It answers the question to whom? after the verb. Unlike English, which signals the indirect object by a preposition or by word order, German changes the form of the article, pronoun, or noun.

    Der Mann hat dem Hund einen Knochen gegeben. The man gave a bone to the dog./The man gave the dog a bone.

    Der Hund hat dem Mann einen Ball gegeben. The dog gave a ball to the man.

    The dative case also functions as the object of the prepositions aus, auβer, bei, mit, nach, seit, von, and zu (discussed in chapter 10). In addition, the dative case is used with certain verbs. Some of the most common are antworten, danken, gefallen, gehören, helfen, and zuhören.

    Er antwortet mir. He is answering me.

    Wir danken

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