A Really Brief Introduction To German. Session Five Fünften Übung.
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Introduction
GERMAN
It is a member of western group of Germanic branch of Indo-European languages,
spoken by about 120 million people in the world, with Germany, Austria and
Switzerland as the three main centers of usage. It is one of the most widely spoken
languages in the world.
GERMAN CHARACTERS
1. GERMAN has 26 characters as in English, but their pronunciations are
different. In addition, German has a character (ß- ss) called eszett. (we use
double s as a substitution of ß)
Aa ah Oo oh Be bay Pe pay Ce say Qu koo De day eR err Ee ay eS ess eF eff Te tay Ge gay Uu ooh Ha haa Vau fow Ii yi We Vay
Jot yot iX ixx Ka kah Ypsilon oop-see-lohn eL ell Zet zett eM emm eN enn ß eszett
Umlaut Diphthongsä ay ei eyeö ooh ai eyeü yuu äu/eu oy
ie eeh
Introduction 1
NOUNS AND GENDER
1. A noun is a word which represents a person, place, thing or idea. In German,
all nouns are capitalized (Haus, Mann, Tisch…) It is to make the nouns easy to
spot when determining the grammatical structure of a sentence. Verbals and
adjectives which function as nouns are also capitalized. (Hobbys: Schwimmen,
Singen…)
2. All German nouns belong to one of the three grammatical genders:
Masculine, Feminine, or Neuter. Often you must memorize the gender of a
noun when you learn its meaning.
The gender is most easily identified by the noun’s definite article in the
nominative case: der (masculine), die (feminine), and das (neuter).
Nouns formed with the following suffixes are always or usually Masculine:
-er, -ner, -ler, -ich, -ig, -ling, -ast, -or, -tor, -ismus, -us, -and, -ant, - än, - är –at, -et, -
eur, -iker, -ist, -oge, -nom.
Exceptions: die Butter, das Fieber, das Labor
Nouns formed with the following suffixes are always or usually Feminine:
-in, -ung, -t, -keit, -schaft, -sion, -tion, -heit, -ie, -ei, -a, -ade, -age, -anz, -enz, -ik, -
ine, -it is, -ose, -sis, -tät, - üre, -ur.
Exceptions: das Sofa, der Papagei, das Genie, der Atlantik, das AbiturIntroduction 2
Nouns formed with the following suffixes are always or usually Neuter:
-chen, -lein, -sel, -erl, -li, -tel, -eau, -icht, -ett, -ma, -il, -in, -ing, -um, -tum, -ment, -
ium, -it.
Exception: der Profit, die Firma
3. Definite Article –“The”
The genders of German nouns are typically shown by way of an
accompanying definite article: der (masculine), die (feminine), or das
(neuter).
The plural form is identical to the feminine form in the nominative and
accusative cases (die)
Masculine Feminine Neuter PluralNominative der Mann die Frau das Kind die KinderAccusative den Mann die Frau das Kind die KinderDative dem Mann der Frau dem Kind den KindernGenitive des Mannes der Frau des Kindes der Kinder
4. Indefinite Article- “a/an”
Indefinite article cannot be used with the plural form of a noun.
Masculine Feminine Neuter PluralNominative ein Mann eine Frau ein Kind KinderAccusative einen Mann eine Frau ein Kind KinderDative einem Mann einer Frau einem Kind KindernGenitive eines Mannes einer Frau eines Kindes Kinder
Introduction 3
5. Kein- to negate a noun
The german article kein, which is infected similarly to ein and means “no”,
“not a”, is often combined with plurals.
Kein is usually used to negate a noun with an indefinite article preceding the
noun.
If no article precedes the noun, kein is used.
Er hat ein Auto --- Er hat kein Auto.
He has a car. ----He doesn’t have any car.
Hast du Zeit? ---Nein, Ich habe keine Zeit.
Do you have time? ---No, I don’t have time.
Masculine Feminine Neuter PluralNominative kein Mann keine Frau kein Kind keine KinderAccusative keinen Mann keine Frau kein Kind keine KinderDative keinem Mann keiner Frau keinem Kind keinen KindernGenitive keines Mannes keiner Frau keines Kindes keener Kinder
NOUNS AND CASES
The case of a noun or pronoun signifies its function in the sentence, that is, whether
it is acting as the subject or an object, or whether it is acting in some other capacity.
Case allows the word order in a German sentence to be more flexible, as seen in the
example below, in which the nominative (subject) case is black:
Der Mann isst den Apfel
Den Apfel isst der Mann.
In German the word order can be changed for emphasis (as shown above)- without
altering the basic meaning of the sentence. There are four different cases:
Introduction 4
1. Nominative Case. The nominative case is the subject of the sentence; it
performs the action of the verb.
2. Accusative Case. The accusative case is the object of the verb. This case is
also used after accusative prepositions and some time expressions.
3. Dative Case. The dative case generally indicates the indirect object of the
sentence. It is a person or thing toor for whom an activity is done. The dative
case is also used after dative verbs and dative prepositions.
4. Genitive Case. The genitive case establishes a relationship between two
nouns but is also used in some idiomatic expressions.
YOU- DU UND SIE
Like several other languages, German has two sets of pronouns that can be used to
other people, all of which mean “you”. We have the formal and informal “you”. and
the singular and plural “you”.
1. Du Singular informal
2. Ihr Plural informal
3. Sie Singular/Plural formal
When to use familiar/ informal “you”
- when speaking with family members
- when speaking with friends
- when speaking with pets
- when speaking with children
Introduction 5
- when speaking with people who start addressing you as “Du” (but if the
person who starts addreassing you as ”Du” is someone in a position of
authority over you, you should not respond in the informal form)
- when speaking with someone who asks you to (“sich duzen”) address
him/her in informal form.
When to use formal form?
In situations other than those mentioned above.
Introduction 6