Last Update: Sunday, April 6, 2008

German V Tutorial

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81. Showing Purpose

Weil (because) + a dependent clause shows the reason for an action; however, damit and um…zu (so that, in order to) show the goal of an action. Damit is also followed by a dependent clause, whereas um…zu introduces an infinitive.

Sie macht das Fenster zu, damit sie nicht friert. = Sie macht das Fenster zu, um nicht zu frieren.
She closes the window, so that she won't freeze . = She closes the window, in order to not freeze.

Commonly, you use damit when the subject of the main clause is different from the subject of the dependent clause, and um…zu when the understood subject of the infinitive is the same as the subject of the main clause.

82. Shopping

83. Post Office and Bank

84. Zu with Infinitives

Infinitives are usually preceded by zu except when modals are used.  If a separable prefix is used in the infinitive, the zu is inserted between the prefix and the stem.

Hast du Lust, den Dom zu besichtigen?  Do you feel like visiting the cathedral?
Es dauert lange, durch die Stadt zu fahren.  It takes a long time to drive through the city.
Es ist zu früh um aufzustehen.  It is too early to get up.

Um, ohne and anstatt can be used with zu as well.  They introduce infinitival clauses.  Um.. zu is used to indicate purpose, while ohne...zu and anstatt...zu are used with infinitives, and translated as present participles in English.  (Um...zu must be used instead of just zu when the English equivalent "in order to" can be used sensibly.)

Er kam, um das Buch abzuholen.  He came in order to pick up the book.
Sie sagte es, ohne mich anzusehen.  She said it, without looking at me.
Statt hier zu sitzen, sollten wir ihn suchen.  Instead of sitting here, we should look for him.

Sein + zu + an infinitive are used the same way in English and German, but the construction is far more common in German.

Das ist nicht zu machen.  That can't be done.
Das ist in jedem Laden zu finden.  That can be found in any store.

85. Office / School Supplies

86. Expressions of Time

The accusative case is used to indicate definite time when no preposition is used.

Letzten Sonntag blieb ich zu Hause.  Last Sunday I stayed home.
Sie fährt nächste Woche nach Deutschland.  She's going to Germany next week.
Er hat uns voriges Jahr besucht.  He visited us last year.

Time expressions with the prepositions an, in and vor are in the dative case.

Wir müssen am Sonntag zurück.  We must return on Sunday.
In der Nacht wird es kalt.  It gets cold at night.
Vor drei Jahren war es hier genau so kalt.  Three years ago it was just as cold here.

The genitive case is used to express indefinite time, and may refer to the future or past.

Eines Tages war er krank.  One day he was sick.
Eines Morgens wird er zu spät kommen.  One morning he'll be late.

87. Travelling / Airport

88. Another

Ein(e) ander- and noch ein- both mean another, but they cannot be used interchangeably.  Ein(e) ander- means a different one, and ander- takes the adjective endings for adjectives preceded by ein words.  Noch ein means one more.

Sollen wir ein anderes Mal wiederkommen?  Should we come again at another (a different) time?

Möchtest du noch einen Raum anschauen?  Would you like to look at another (one more) room?

89. Cosmetics / Toiletries

90. Subjunctive II or General Subjunctive

This subjunctive mood is used to make statements that are contrary to fact, instead of factual statements that are made in the indicative mood.  There are two forms of the German subjunctive: Subjunctive II and Subjunctive I.  Subjunctive II or the general subjunctive is used with if...then (wenn... dann) statements and conditional sentences.  Subjunctive I or special subjunctive is a less common mood that is used with indirect discourse. (If you study other languages with a subjunctive mood, please don't confuse it with the German subjunctive. They are not the same!)

The present tense of Subjunctive II is derived from the simple past / imperfect tense of the indicative.  For weak (regular) verbs, the subjunctive II is the same as the simple past tense.  For strong (irregular) verbs, the present tense of the subjunctive II uses the stem of the simple past, adds an umlaut where possible, and then adds the following endings:

Some exceptions include the mixed verbs, modals and wissen which use the same endings as the simple past:

The past tense of Subjunctive II is derived from the past perfect tense of the indicative.  It is composed of a form of the subjunctive of sein or haben and a past participle.

Conditional sentences
These sentences are based on an if... then (wenn... dann) pattern in both English and German.  Dann can be omitted in these sentences also.  Remember that wenn is a subordinating conjunction, and forces the conjugated verb to the end of the clause.

Present Subj. II:  Wenn ich Zeit hätte, (dann) ginge ich ins Kino.  If I had time, (then) I would go to the movies.
Past Subj. II:  Wenn ich Zeit gehabt hätte, dann wäre ich ins Kino gegangen.  If I had had time, (then) I would have gone to the movies.

Wenn clauses may be introduced by a verb, and in this case, wenn disappears and dann may be replaced by so.

Kommt er heute nicht, (so) kommt er morgen.  If he's not coming today, then he'll come tomorrow.

A conditional sentence may begin with the dann clause as well; but dann is never used and the clause uses normal word order.

Wir trinken den Kaffee nicht, wenn er zu heiß ist.  We don't drink coffee if it is too hot.

Forms of würden + an infinitive
Würde and an infinitive translate to would + infinitive and is more common than the one word form in the dann clause.  Wenn clauses tend to avoid the würde construction, except with these eight verbs: helfen, stehen, sterben, werfen, brennen, kennen, nennen, and rennen.  These eight verbs use the würde construction in the wenn clause because the one word forms are archaic.  Moreover, conversational German tends to replace many subjunctive II forms of strong verbs with the würde construction.  However, this construction cannot be used with the modal auxiliaries, haben or sein.

91. Other uses of Subjunctive II

To be more polite, use the subjunctive II form of the modals.

Könnten sie mir bitte helfen? Could you please help me?
Dürfte ich Ihr Telefon benutzen? Could I use your phone?

In modern German, the subjunctive forms of mögen has become almost a synonym of wollen. Was willst du?  = What do you want? Was möchtest du? = What would you like?

Hätte gern is also becoming common as a synonym for "would like" especially when ordering food. Wir hätten gern zwei Colas, bitte. = We would like two colas, please.

Note that these polite forms are only limited to the modal verbs, sein, haben and werden.  For this reason, you may hear Würden Sie mir helfen? but never Hülfen Sie mir?

92. Subjunctive I or Special Subjunctive

The Subjunctive I form is used with indirect discourse when reporting what someone says in a formal, impartial way.  The indicative can also be used to imply a statement of fact, while the subjunctive II can be used to imply the statement is open to question (since subjunctive II is used with contrary to fact statements.)  These three distinctions are quite subtle, although they are important.  In everyday conversation, the tendency is to avoid the subjunctive I and to choose instead between the indicative and subjunctive II.

The present tense of Subjunctive I is derived from the present tense of the indicative and formed by adding the following endings to the stem of the verb.  Note that the subjunctive I forms never have the stem vowel change found in their present indicative counterparts.

The only exception is sein, which has no endings in the ich and er forms:

The past tense of Subjunctive I is derived from the present perfect tense of the indicative.  It is composed of the subjunctive I form of haben or sein and a past participle.

The future tense of Subjunctive I is just like the regular future tense in the indicative.  The only difference is that werden uses the subjunctive I forms.

The tense used in an indirect quotation is dependent upon the tense used in the direct quotation that underlies it.  If the direct quotation is in the present tense of the indicative, then the indirect quotation must be in the present tense of the subjunctive I.  If the direct quotation is in any tense referring to past time in the indicative, then the indirect quotation is in the past tense of the subjunctive I.  (Subjunctive I only has one tense when referring to past time, as compared to the three tenses of the indicative.)  If the direct quotation is in the future tense, then the future tense of subjunctive I is used.

In certain cases, the subjunctive I forms and the indicative forms are identical.  In this case, the subjunctive II forms must be used instead.

If the original quotation is in subjunctive II, then the indirect quotation will also be in subjunctive II.

93. Parts of a Car

94. Present Participle

To form the present participle, simply add -d to the infinitive.  It usually functions as an adjective and takes the normal adjective endings.  Sometimes they are used like present participles in dependent clauses as in English, but this is rare and almost never used in spoken German.

kochendes Wasser  boiling water
die führenden Kritiker  the leading critics

95. In the Ocean

96. Als ob / Als wenn

The conjunctions als wenn and als ob are interchangeable; they both mean "as if" or "as though."  Both introduce a dependent clause, so the conjugated verb must go to the end.  In addition, both require the subjunctive II.

Als ob ich das nicht wüßte!  As if I didn't know that!
Er tut, als wenn er nichts Besseres zu tun hätte.  He acts as though he had nothing better to do.

97. In Space

98. Future Perfect

The future perfect tense is comparable to the other perfect tenses.  It is formed with the future of haben or sein, and the past participle.  The future perfect deals with the future as if it were already past time (he will have done it), or it is used to imply probability (that was probably him.)  The latter case commonly uses the past tense in English though.

Er wird gegangen sein.  He will have gone.
Ich werde es genommen haben.  I will have taken it.
Es wird dunkel geworden sein.  It will have become dark.
Das wird Rudi gewesen sein.  That will have been Rudi. / That was probably Rudi.

When using modals, the future perfect tense can create the double infinitive construction, so make sure to put the double infinitive at the very end.

Die Uhr wird sehr viel gekostet haben müssen.

99. Make Believe Stuff

100. Spelling Reform

Recently, there has been a spelling reform of the German language. The following are a few points that have changed:

1. Write ss after a short vowel, and ß after a long vowel or diphthong.  Please note that ß is not used in Switzerland or Liechtenstein and a lot of people don't pay attention to this rule anyway.  Also, there is no capital letter that corresponds to the lower case ß, so it must be written as SS.

2. Words that are now capitalized: (auf) Deutsch, Mittag, Abend, Morgen, Recht haben, Leid tun…

3. The forms of Du (familiar you) are no longer capitalized in letters.

4. A comma is not necessary when two independent clauses are joined by und.

101. Review of Declensions of Nouns

1)  Feminine Singular nouns remain unchanged in all Singular cases.

2) All Neuter and most Masculine Singular add -s or -es (if one syllable) to Genitive Singular.

Note: The genitive singular of shoe is generally written des Schuhs in colloquial German.

3) Masculine nouns that end in -e in Nom. Sing. and designate living things add -n to form both Singular and Plural for all cases.

4) All Dative Plural either adds -n or -en.

5) In Plurals of all declensions of all genders, the Nominative, Genitive, and Accusative Plural are the same.

Note: To form the Dative Plural, add -n or -en to the Nominative Plural, unless it already ends in -s or -n, then add nothing.

Most singular declensions can be formed from the first three rules above, but plural nouns are more complex and irregular.  Some may add -n, -en, -r, -er, -e, or an umlaut over the stem vowel with a final -e, and some nouns do not change from singular to plural.

Group 1
-Singular follows rules
-Plural adds umlaut to stem vowel and -n to all datives

Nouns belonging to this group:  Most nouns whose Nom. Sing. end in -el, -en, -er; and neuter nouns that begin with Ge- and end with -e

Group 2
-Singular follows rules
-Plural sometimes adds umlaut to stem vowel and -e to Nominative, Genitive, and Accusative; -en to Dative

Nouns belonging to this group:  Masculine that are one syllable; half of feminine and neuter that are one syllable

Group 3
-Singular follow rules
-Plural adds umlaut to stem vowel and -er to Nominative, Genitive, and Accusative; -ern to Dative

Nouns belonging to this group: Many neuter that are one syllable; no feminine nouns

Group 4
-Singular adds -en to all Masculine Dative, Accusative, and Genitive; Feminine follows rule
-Plural adds -n or -en to all forms

Nouns belonging to this group:  Most feminine that are more than one syllable, most masculine that denote living things; no neuter nouns

Group 5
-Add -s to Genitive Singular
-Add -s to all plural forms

Nouns belonging to this group:  Foreign origin words, such as das Radio, das Restaurant, and das Hotel.

Group 6 - Irregular
-Add -ns or -ens to Genitive Singular
-Add -en to Dative Singular, may add -en to Accusative Singular
-All plural add -en

Group 7 - Mixed
-Add -s or -es for Genitive Singular
-Add -n or -en for all plural

German States / Bundesländer

Berlin, Bremen and Hamburg are cities as well as states.

Austrian States / Bundesländer

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