BASIC

GRAMMAR

GUIDE TO

GERMAN

INDEX

German Alphabet……………………………………………………………………………………Page 3

Sentence Structure…………………………………………..…………………………………Pages 4-8

Verb Tenses………………………………………………………………………………………Pages 8-11

Conjunctions…………………………………………………………………………………………Page 12

Prepositions……………………………………………………..……………………………………Page 13

Cases………………………………………………………………………………………………Pages 14-17

German Alphabet:

The German Alphabet has the 26 standard letters found in the English alphabet plus four letters that are specific to German.

Alphabet

LETTER GERMAN NAME LETTER GERMAN NAME a ah p peh

b beh q kuh

c tseh r err d deh s ess

e eh t teh f eff u uh

g geh v fau h hah w veh

i ih x iks

j yot y üppsilon k kah z tsett

l ell ä äh m emm ö öh

n enn ü üh

o oh ß ess-tsett

Sentence Structure:

There are three basic sentence types in German:

1. Declarative Sentences (Statements) 2. Interrogative Sentences (Questions) 3. Imperative Sentences (Commands)

Statements:

Simple Tenses – In statements in the simple present or simple past tense, the verb is in the second position, preceded by the subject and followed by the object or other sentence parts. The subject is usually a noun or pronoun.

Example:

SUBJECT CONJUGATED VERB OTHER SENTENCE PARTS

Der Mann ist unser Lehrer. Das Mädchen hat einen Pullover.

Der Mann ist unser Lehrer. ‘The man is our teacher.’ Das Mädchen hat einen Pullover. ‘The Girl has a sweater.’

The subject of sentences are known by this:

Ich I

Du You

Er/sie/es He/She/It

Wir We

Ihr You (plural)

Sie/Sie You (Formal)/They

Compound Tenses – In statements containing compound tenses, the conjugated verb is in the second position. The dependent infinitive (I will help him), or the past participle (His sister has bought the book for him)

Example:

SUBJECT CONJUGATED VERB

OTHER SENTENCE PARTS

INFINITIVE OR PAST PARTICIPLE

Ich werde ihm helfen.

Seine Schwester

hat ihm das Buch gekauft.

Ich werde ihm helfen. ‘I will help him.’ Seine Schwester hat ihm das Buch gekauft. ‘His sister bought him the book.’

Separable Prefixes – In Simple Tenses, the prefix is separated from the verb and it then occurs in the final position.

SUBJECT CONJUGATED VERB

OTHER SENTENCE PARTS

PREFIX

Wir gehen jeden Sonntag spazieren.

Die Studenten

kamen mit dem Zug an.

Wir gehen jeden Sonntag spazieren. ‘We go walking every Sunday.’ Die Studenten kamen mit dem Zug an. ‘The students came on the bus.’

spazierengehen = to walk ankommen = to come on

Questions:

Specific Questions – They are questions that ask for particular information. This type of questions is introduced using an interrogative word:

Wann? When? Warum? Why?

Wo? Where? Wie? How?

Was? What?

Wer? Who? Wieso? How so?

Example:

INTERROGATIVE QUESTION

CONJUGATED VERB

SUBJECT OTHER SENTENCE PARTS

Wann hat das Konzert begonnen?

Wo ist ihre Mutter gegangen?

Wann hat das Konzert begonnen? ‘When did the concert begin?’ Wo ist ihre Mutter gegangen? ‘Where has your Mom gone?’

General Questions – They are questions that ask whether something is true or false. They can be answered by ja yes or nein no. You use the conjugated verb as the start of the question.

Examples:

Kennst du meine Freundin? ‘Do you know my girlfriend?’ Wirst du ihn dort treffen? ‘Will you meet with him there?’

Commands:

The imperative verb is the first element of commands in German. There are 3 types of imperative commands:

1. Commands in the second-person singular (du) 2. Commands in the second-person plural (ihr) 3. Formal Commands (Sie)

Command = Verb (+ Subject)(+ Other sentence parts)! Note: Imperative commands must always end with an exclamation mark.

‘Du’ Command Examples:

Mach auf! Open up! Geh ins Kino! Go in the cinema!

With the first example ‘aufmachen’ it is a separable verb with auf + machen, therefore when you use an imperative for a singular person you use the du stem of ‘mach’ and send the separable part of the verb to the end of the command.

When forming a ‘du’ command, use the stem from the du verb so e.g.

Du gehst = You therefore drop the ‘st’ and it forms the command, which is Geh!

‘Ihr’ Command Examples:

Macht auf! Open up! Geht ins Kino! Go in the cinema!

When forming an ‘ihr’ command:

Ihr geht = You (plural) go, therefore the verb and command stay the same in the ‘ihr’ command.

‘Sie’ Command Examples:

Machen Sie auf! Open up!

Gehen Sie ins Kino! Go in the cinema!

When forming a ‘Sie’ command:

Sie gehen = They go/You go (formal), therefore when forming a Sie command swap the verb infinitive with Sie to form the command.

Verb Tenses:

There a four basic tenses with German verbs and sentence structure:

1. Present 2. Simple Past 3. Future Tense 4. Auxiliary Verbs

Present:

In German, with the present tense, you use the infinitive stem of the verb and then the present tense personal ending.

Examples of infinitive and stem:

INFINITIVE INFINITIVE STEM

Denken to think denk- Singen to sing sing-

Machen to do mach-

Examples of present tense personal ending:

Ich denke singe mache

Du denkst singst machst Er/sie/es denkt singt macht

Wir denken singen machen

Ihr denkt singt macht Sie/sie denken singen machen

Note: e,st,t,en,t,en like est ten ten to helps you remember the personal ending for the verb endings.

Some present verbs change vowels in the stem of the present tense in the second (du) and third person singular (er/sie/es) forms.

Example:

Ich fahre (to drive) laufe (to run) Du fährst läufst

Er/sie/es fährt läuft Wir fahren laufen

Ihr fahrt lauft

Sie/sie fahren laufen

Simple Past Tense:

In the simple past tense, there are weak verbs and strong verbs. Weak verbs follow a certain pattern, while the strong verbs also do but is slightly different.

Weak Verbs = Infinitive stem + Past tense marker –te + Personal ending

Ich bestellte machte

Du bestelltest machtest Er/sie/es bestellte machte

Wir bestellten machten Ihr bestelltet machtet

Sie/sie bestellten machten

Strong Verbs = Past Tense stem + Personal ending

Ich blieb (bleiben=to stay) ging (gehen=to go)

Du bliebst gingst Er/sie/es blieb ging

Wir blieben gingen

Ihr bliebt gingt Sie/sie blieben gingen

Future Tense:

The future tense is formed with the auxiliary verb werden (to become/will) plus the infinitive verb. The infinitive verb is at the end of the sentence.

Future Tense = Present tense of werden + infinitive

Ich werde Du wirst

Er/sie/es wird Wir werden

Ihr werdet

Sie/sie werden

Examples:

Wir werden einen Hund kaufen. ‘We will buy a dog.’ Ich werde jetzt gehen. ‘I will go now.’ Auxiliary Verbs:

They are helping verbs which are haben (to have), werden (to become/will), sein (to be)

Ich habe

Du hast Er/sie/es hat

Wir haben

Ihr habt Sie/sie haben

Ich bin Du bist

Er/sie/es ist Wir sind

Ihr seid Sie/sie sind

Haben is the only verb which follows the correct verb form, while werden is an irregular verb as the ‘du’ and ‘er/sie/es’ form change. The sein form is all irregular and must be learnt completely off by heart.

Ich werde Du wirst

Er/sie/es wird

Wir werden Ihr werdet

Sie/sie werden

Conjunctions:

A conjunction is a connecting word which connects two clauses together. There are two types of conjunctions:

Coordinating Conjunctions – In German, coordinating conjunctions link words, phrases and clauses that are parallel or equal and have no effect on the word order.

Subordinating Conjunctions – Subordinating conjunctions introduce a dependent clause which become a part of the sentence, therefore the conjunction makes the verb go to the end in the clause that is introduced.

COORDINATING CONJUNCTIONS SUBORDINATING CONJUNCTIONS

Examples: Look at the video lecture on conjunctions for examples of each conjunction, giving you greater depth and understanding of the conjunctions.

und and

sondern but (in the contrary)

oder or

denn because aber but

als when

bevor before

bis until nachdem after

während during damit so that

dass that

ob whether, if obwohl although

seit since weil because

wenn when, whenever wann when

Prepositions:

Prepositions are words that, in combination with a noun (or pronoun) show positions, direction, time, or manner.

In German the prepositions can be followed by the accusative case or the dative case, depending on whether they are used with verbs that indicate motion or change of positions, or with verbs that indicate location or position.

Accusative Prepositions:

Dative Prepositions:

Examples: Look at the video lecture on prepositions for examples of each preposition, giving you greater depth and understanding of the prepositions.

bis by, until

durch through

entlang along für for

gegen against ohne without

um around

aus out of, from außer except (for), besides

bei with (at the home of), at, near mit with

nach after

seit since von from, by, of, about

zu to gegenüber across

Cases:

A case signals how a noun is used within a sentence, clause or phrase. In German there are 3 main cases used:

1. Nominative Case 2. Accusative Case 3. Dative Case

Note: There is also another case, known as the Genitive Case but it isn’t used in spoken German as much.

In German, as in English there is a definite article and an indefinite article:

The definite article (der, die, das) is used to refer to a particular or specific person, place or thing.

E.g Der Arzt hat viele Patienten. ‘The Doctor has many patients.’

The indefinite article (ein, eine, ein) is used to refer to an unspecified person, place or thing.

E.g Ein Arzt hat viele Patienten. ‘A Doctor has many patients.’

The (der, die, das) words are known as genders and each word in German has a gender. ‘Der’ is a masculine word, ‘die’ is a feminine word and ‘das’ is a neuter word.

Nominative Case:

The Nominative Case is simply the noun or subject of the start of the sentence.

SINGULAR PLURAL

MASCULINE NEUTER FEMININE ALL GENDERS Definite Article

der das die die

Indefinite Article

ein ein eine (no plural)

Examples:

Der Mann spielt Golf. ‘The man plays Golf.’ Die Freundin kommt. ‘The girlfriend is coming.’ Das Auto ist neu. ‘The car is new.’ Die Autos sind neu. ‘The cars are new.’ Die Kinder weinen. ‘The children are crying.’

Accusative Case:

The accusative case is simply the direct object of the sentence.

SINGULAR PLURAL

MASCULINE NEUTER FEMININE ALL GENDERS Definite Article

den das die die

Indefinite Article

einen ein eine (no plural)

In the Accusative Case, the ‘der’ word is the only word which changes to ‘den’ while the rest stay the same.

Examples:

Wir kaufen die Zeitung. ‘We are buying the newspaper.’ Wir kaufen den Wagen. ‘We are buying the car.’ Kennst du das Drama? ‘Do you know the drama?’ Ich habe die Bücher. ‘I have the books.’

The accusative case is also used with prepositions as discussed previously, however here are some more examples of the accusative case with prepositions:

Ich gehe gern ohne meine Mutter. ‘I go well without my mom.’ Ich gehe durch den Sturm. ‘I go through the storm.’

Dative Case: The Dative Case is used as the indirect object of the verb. The person or animal to whom something is given, shown, or told is in the dative case.

SINGULAR PLURAL MASCULINE NEUTER FEMININE ALL GENDERS

Definite Article

dem dem der den

Indefinite Article

einem einem einer (no plural)

Examples:

Ich hole dem Hund das Futter. ‘I am getting the dog the food.’

In this example, ‘dem Hund’ is in the dative case and ‘das Futter’ is in the accusative case.

Er kauft der Frau die Karte. ‘He is buying the ticket for the woman.’

In this example, ‘der Frau’ is in the dative case and ‘die Karte’ is in the accusative case.

The Dative case can also be used with dative verbs. There are only a certain amount of verbs which only take dative objects. These verbs are used with the dative case:

DATIVE VERB EXAMPLE TRANSLATION

antworten to answer

Ich antworte dem Herrn. I answer the gentleman.

danken to thank

Wir danken dem Lehrer. We thank the teacher.

helfen to help

Ich helfe dem Kind. I help the child.

gefallen to like

Der Hut gefällt seiner Frau. His wife likes the hat.

The Dative Case is also used with prepositions as previously discussed, however here are some examples of the dative case with prepositions:

Ich treffe mit meiner Schwester. ‘Ich meet up with my sister.’ Ich gehe zu dem Park. ‘I am going to the Park.’