German: An Essential Grammar

This is a further title for the "Essential Grammars Series"---a simple non technical treatment of the structural patterns of modern German. All the essentials of the grammar will be covered, but many of the smaller exceptions to the many rules and colloquial variants will not be dealt with. In an effort to keep it user friendly the author will avoid phonetic symbols and incorporate a glossary of grammatical terminology. Some functional material will be included within the description of relevant structural features of the language.

Introduction

xi

Abbreviations

xv

Chapter 1 Pronunciation

1

1.1 Vowels

1

1.2 Diphthongs

3

1.3 Consonants

3

1.4 Stress

7

1.5 Regional variants

8

Chapter 2 Spelling

9

2.1 Indicating vowel length

9

2.2 Use of the Umlaut

9

2.3 Use of capital letters

10

2.4 Use of the hyphen

10

2.5 The new spelling

11

2.6 The alphabet

12

Chapter 3 Punctuation

13

3.1 Commas

13

3.2 Colons with direct speech

15

3.3 Inverted commas/quotation marks

15

3.4 Exclamation marks

16

Chapter 4 Case

17

4.1 Case endings on nouns

18

4.2 Other uses of the nominative case

20

4.3 Other uses of the accusative case

20

4.4 The genitive case

21

4.5 Other uses of the dative case

22

4.6 Nouns in apposition

23

4.7 Order of cases in paradigms

24

Chapter 5 Articles and other determiners

25

5.1 The definite article

25

5.2 Other determiners inflected like der/die/das

29

5.3 The indefinite article

30

5.4 Other determiners inflected like ein

32

5.5 Indefinite pronouns used as determiners

32

Chapter 6 Nouns

33

6.1 Gender of nouns

33

6.2 Pluralization of nouns

37

6.3 Diminutization of nouns

41

6.4 Names of towns

42

6.5 Names of countries

44

6.6 Feminizing agents

44

6.7 Adjectival nouns

45

6.8 Compound nouns

47

6.9 Nouns in apposition (see 4.6)

48

Chapter 7 Pronouns

49

7.1 Personal pronouns

49

7.2 Possessives

58

7.3 Reflexive pronouns

60

7.4 Demonstrative pronouns

63

7.5 Interrogative pronouns

63

7.6 Relative pronouns

64

7.7 Indefinite pronouns

69

Chapter 8 Adjectives

75

8.1 Rules for inflection

76

8.1.1 The der/die/das (weak) endings

76

8.1.2 The ein/eine/ein (mixed) endings

76

8.1.3 The unpreceded adjectival (strong) endings

77

8.1.4 Adjectival endings after indefinite pronouns

78

8.1.5 Indeclinable adjectives

78

8.2 Comparative of adjectives and adverbs

79

8.3 Superlative of adjectives and adverbs

81

8.4 Predicate adjectives followed by a prepositional object

83

Chapter 9 Adverbs

86

9.1 Adverbs that are also adjectives

86

9.2 Comparative and superlative of adverbs

87

9.3 Intensifying adverbs

87

9.4 Adverbs of time

88

9.5 Adverbs of place and direction

100

9.6 Adverbs of manner and degree

102

9.7 Interrogative adverbs

102

Chapter 10 Verbs

105

10.1 Formation of tenses

106

10.1.1 The present tense

106

10.1.2 The future tense

111

10.1.3 The imperative

113

10.1.4 The imperfect tense

115

10.1.5 The perfect tense

120

10.1.6 The pluperfect tense

127

10.1.7 The future perfect tense

128

10.1.8 The conditional tense

128

10.1.9 The conditional perfect tense

129

10.2 Modal auxiliary verbs

131

10.2.1 Double infinitive constructions

135

10.2.2 Modals used with perfective infinitives

138

10.3 The subjunctive

138

10.3.1 The subjunctive I

139

10.3.2 The subjunctive II

141

10.4 The passive

145

10.5 The infinitive

151

10.5.1 Characteristics of the infinitive

151

10.5.2 Rules for the use of zu with infinitives

152

10.5.3 Use of um...zu before infinitives

153

10.5.4 Double infinitive constructions (see 10.2.1)

154

10.5.5 The infinitive used as a noun

154

10.6 Participles

154

10.6.1 Present participles

154

10.6.2 Past participles

155

10.6.3 Use of present and past participles in extended adjectival phrases (see 7.6.4)

155

10.7 Progressive tenses

156

10.8 Reflexive verbs

157

10.9 Verbal prefixes

157

10.9.1 Verbs with separable prefixes (separable verbs)

157

10.9.2 Verbs with inseparable prefixes (inseparable verbs)

159

10.9.3 Verbs with variable prefixes (separable or inseparable verbs)

160

10.10 Verbs followed by prepositional objects

161

10.10.1 Use of prepositional adverbs before subordinate clauses

169

10.11 Transitive and intransitive verbs

170

10.11.1 Use of sein and lassen with intransitive verbs

171

10.11.2 Intransitive verbs and the passive

172

10.12 List of irregular verbs

172

10.12.1 Alphabetical list of irregular verbs

178

Chapter 11 Conjunctions

183

11.1 Coordinating conjunctions

184

11.2 Subordinating conjunctions

185

11.3 Conjunctions introducing infinitive clauses

192

11.4 Correlative conjunctions

193

Chapter 12 Prepositions I

I95

12.1 Prepositions that take the accusative case

196

12.2 Prepositions that take the dative case

199

12.3 Prepositions that take both the accusative and the dative case

207

12.4 Prepositions that take the genitive case

210

12.5 Contraction of prepositions with the definite article

213

12.6 How to translate 'to' into German

214

Chapter 13 Numerals

217

13.1 Cardinal numerals

217

13.2 Ordinal numerals

219

13.3 Fractions

221

13.4 Arithmetic/calculation

222

13.5 Age

222

13.6 Money

223

13.7 Telling the time

223

13.8 Dates

225

13.9 Weights

226

13.10 Measurement

227

13.11 School marks/grades

228

Chapter 14 Negation

230

14.1 Position of nicht (not) and nie(mals) (never)

230

14.2 Notes on negatives

232

Chapter 15 Common German abbreviations

237

Appendix 1: List of countries, inhabitants and adjectives/languages

238

Index

252

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German: An Essential Grammar

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Table of Contents

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