Duolingo Tips and Notes
Duolingo Tips and Notes
Duolingo Tips and Notes
While some nouns (Frau, Mann, …) have natural gender like in English (a woman is female, a man is male), most nouns have grammatical
gender (depends on word ending, or seemingly random).
For example, Mädchen (girl) is neuter, because all words ending in -chen are neuter. Wasser (water) is neuter, but Cola is feminine, and Saft
(juice) is masculine.
It is important to learn every noun along with its gender because parts of German sentences change depending on the gender of their
nouns.
For now, just remember that the indefinite article (a/an) ein is used for masculine and neuter nouns, and eine is used for feminine nouns.
Stay with us to find out how "cases" will later modify these.
Verb conjugations
1 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
I -e ich trinke
English German
I am ich bin
Umlauts
Umlauts are letters (more specifically vowels) that have two dots above them and appear in some German words like Mädchen.
Literally, "Umlaut" means "around the sound," because its function is to change how the vowel sounds.
no umlaut umlaut
a ä
o ö
u ü
An umlaut change may change the meaning. That's why it's important not to ignore those little dots.
No continuous aspect
In German, there's no continuous aspect. There are no separate forms for "I drink" and "I am drinking". There's only one form: Ich trinke.
When translating into English, how can I tell whether to use the simple (I drink) or the continuous form (I am drinking)?
Definite articles
As mentioned in Basics 1, German nouns have one of three genders: feminine, masculine or neuter .
While they sometimes correspond to a natural gender ("der Mann" is male), most often the gender will depend on the word, not on the
object it describes. For example, the word "das Mädchen" (the girl) ends in "-chen", hence it is neuter. This is called grammatical gender.
Each gender has its own definite article. Der is used for masculine nouns, das for neuter, and die for feminine. Later in this course you will
2 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
Conjugating verbs
Here are the conjugation tables from "Basics 1" (where you can find a more detailed explanation) again.
I -e ich trinke
English German
I am ich bin
A good general rule is to use an article when you would use on in English. If there is none in English, don't use one in German.
There are some slight differences when using a few abstract nouns, but we'll see about that later.
In some languages (such as French or Spanish), genders are also differentiated in the plural. In German, the plural form does not depend
on what gender the singular form is.
Regardless of grammatical gender, all plural nouns take the definite article die. (You will later learn how "cases" can modify this.) This does
not make them feminine. The grammatical gender of a word never changes. Like many other words, die is simply used for multiple purposes.
3 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
English German
men Männer
Some English speakers would use "y'all" or "you guys" for this plural form of "you".
Note that these only work for people you are familiar with (friends, family, …). For others, you would use the formal "you", which we teach
later in this course. So stay tuned :)
Ihr vs. er
If you're new to German, ihr and er may sound confusingly similar, but there is actually a difference. ihr sounds similar to the English word
"ear", and er sounds similar to the English word "air" (imagine a British/RP accent).
Don't worry if you can't pick up on the difference at first. You may need some more listening practice before you can tell them apart. Also,
try using headphones instead of speakers.
Learn the pronouns together with the verb endings. This will greatly reduce the amount of ambiguity.
Verb conjugation
Here is the complete table for conjugating regular verbs:
I -e ich trinke
Notice that the first and the third person plural have the same ending.
And here's the complete table for the irregular verb sein (to be):
4 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
English German
I am ich bin
You will learn about the distinction between "formal" and "informal" later (it's easy).
Common phrases
Commonly used phrases are often shortened versions of a longer sentence. Or they might be leftovers from some old grammar that has
otherwise fallen out of use. That means that their grammar might appear strange.
For now, just learn them like you would learn a long word.
Wie geht's?
There are many ways to ask someone how they are doing. Take "How are you?," "How do you do?" and "How is it going?" as examples. In
German, the common phrase or idiom uses the verb gehen (go): Wie geht es dir? (How are you?).
Entschuldigung!
Sometimes, German words can be a mouthful. Later on, you will find that you can take long words apart, and recognize the meaning from its
elements.
Here's an example:
Part Meaning
ent- de-
Schuld guilt
-ig -y
So, Entschuldigung literally means something like "deguiltification": "Take the guilt away from me" :)
5 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
Duo
Duo is the name of Duolingo's mascot (the green owl). He will guide you through this course. If you make him happy, he will make you
happy :)
German Cases
In English, the words "he" and "I" can be used as subjects (the ones doing the action in a sentence), and they change to "him" and "me"
when they are objects (the ones the action is applied to). Here's an example:
I see him
He sees me
This is called a grammatical case: the same word changes its form, depending on its relationship to the verb. In English, only pronouns have
cases. In German, most words other than verbs (such as nouns, pronouns, determiners, adjectives, etc.) have cases.
You'll learn more about cases later; for now you just need to understand the difference between the two simplest cases: nominative and
accusative.
The subject of a sentence (the one doing the action) is in the nominative case. So when we say Die Frau spielt. (The woman plays.), "die
Frau" is in the nominative.
The accusative object is the thing or person that is directly receiving the action. For example, in Der Mann sieht den Ball. (The man sees the
ball.), der Mann is the (nominative) subject and den Ball is the (accusative) object.
For the articles, nominative and accusative are nearly the same. Only the masculine ("der") forms change:
"the" m. n. f. pl.
However, take note that in German, the verb always has to be in position 2. If something other than the subject takes up position 1, the
subject will then move after the verb.
6 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
A few common verbs change the vowel in the second and third person singular.
I ich trinke
we wir trinken
And here are three verbs with that vowel change. Notice that in the first two verbs, the 2nd and 3rd person singular seem the same. This is
just because the du ending -st merged with the -s- of the verb stem. This is unrelated to the vowel change.
du liest sprichst
Yes, but you can tell it's Es ist ein Apfel: Es isst ein Apfel is ungrammatical. The accusative of ein Apfel is einen Apfel. Hence, It is eating an
apple translates as Es isst einen Apfel .
Of course, this only works for masculine nouns. Other forms will look the same in nominative and accusative:
7 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
I ich habe
we wir haben
Grammar break!
There is no new grammar in this lesson. If you're confused, you can review the grammar points from earlier lessons.
German uses haben in some instances where English uses "to be":
Compound words
A compound word is a word that consists of two or more words. These are written as one word (no spaces) .
The gender of a compound noun is always determined by its last element. This shouldn't be too difficult to remember, because the last
element is always the most important one. All the previous elements merely describe the last element.
8 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
For example, many German nouns have some kind of ending, which will always or often come with a particular gender.
Non-living objects that end in -e: these will almost always be feminine (Schokolade, Erdbeere, Orange, Banane, Suppe, …). One of the
very few exceptions is der Käse . This also works for many, but not all animals ( die Katze, Ente, Spinne, Biene, Fliege, … ).
Nouns beginning with Ge- are often neuter. This is the only prefix determining gender. (das Gemüse, …)
There are many more endings like these. You will learn more about them throughout this course.
The most common way to express that a human being is eating something is the verb essen. It is not wrong to use it for animals as well, so
we will accept both solutions. But we strongly recommend you accustom yourself to the distinction between essen and fressen.
du isst du frisst
9 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
German plurals
In English, making plurals out of singular nouns is typically as straightforward as adding an -(e)s at the end of the word:
Generally, you will probably have to memorize the plurals in the beginning. Later on, your brain will notice regular patterns that are not
easily explained.
However, there are some major regularities that are very helpful to know. If you apply these, the task of mastering German plurals will
become much easier :)
Ending in -(e)n
All nouns ending in -e, and most feminine nouns will add an -(e)n ending in the plural.
Ending in -s
Most nouns ending in a full vowel will add an -s in the plural.
This does not apply to nouns ending in -e (which is not a full vowel).
Many of these words are of foreign origin. Some other foreign words will also get the -s plural:
No ending change
There is no change for neuter or masculine nouns that have any of these singular endings :
Some words for close family members will have an umlaut change:
If words with these endings are feminine, the plural will end in -n:
10 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
Ending in -e/-er
Most German one-syllable nouns will add an -e in their plural form. There might be an umlaut change.
Many other masculine or neuter nouns will need the -er ending, and there may be umlaut changes.
As you can see, some of these get an umlaut change. The same umlaut change will happen in the plural.
The plural of the masculine forms usually refers to mixed, as well as all-male groups:
If you want to specify that you are talking about a group consisting of women, use the feminine plural forms. These will add -innen in the
plural.
die Köchinnen
die Fahrerinnen
die Lehrerinnen
die Ärztinnen
Predicate adjectives
Predicate adjectives, i.e. adjectives that don't precede a noun, are not inflected.
11 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
As you can see, the adjective remains in the base form, regardless of number and gender.
"D'uh", you say? Keep digging into the German skills tree, and you will soon find the deeper reality of German adjectives :)
Position of Nicht
Adverbs end up in different places in different languages. You cannot simply place the German adverb nicht where you would put "not" in
English.
12 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
I wake up in China.
The verb would be "wake up", the infinitive "to wake up". English keeps its verb elements close together. German, on the other hand, has a
peculiar sentence structure:
The infinitive here is auf|wachen. German will normally put the last element of the infinitive (the part that changes with the person) in
position 2 of the sentence. Everything else will end up at the very end. The rest of the sentence (for example, adverbs), will appear between
this "sentence bracket".
Infinitive: mit Freunden ins Restaurant gehen (to go to the restaurant with friends)
If you're confused now, don't worry :) This will become clearer as you get lots of practice throughout this course.
Why are we telling you this here? This bracket is the reason nicht might end up at the end of a sentence.
Ich lerne Deutsch. (I learn German.) — Deutsch lernen (to learn German)
Ich trinke Bier. (I drink beer.) — Bier trinken (to drink beer)
Ich trinke nicht. — nicht trinken ("to not drink")
Yes/No Questions
When asking a yes/no question in English, you would say:
German will not use "do" here. We will switch subject and verb for all verbs.
Ist es kalt?
Hast du einen Hund?
Trinkt der Mann Wasser?
No continuous aspect
Remember that in German, there's no continuous aspect, i.e. there are no separate forms for "I drink" and "I am drinking". There's only one
form: Ich trinke.
13 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
Verb conjugation
I ich gehe
we wir gehen
Notice that the 1st and the 3rd person plural have the same ending.
The -h- in gehen tells you that the -e- before it will have a "long" pronunciation. It is not pronounced!
from a to ä
from e to i(e)
du schläfst siehst
In addition, when a verb stem ends in -s, second and third person plural forms will look the same:
This is because the -s- from du …-st and the -s from the verb stem merge.
14 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
Notice that here, the first and third person are the same (plural and singular). The vowel in singular is different from the vowel in plural.
In a later lesson, you will learn to use the adverb gern(e) to express that you like doing* something .
(The similar verb möchten can be followed by a verb, but Ich möchte Fußball spielen translates as "I would like to play soccer", not "I like
playing soccer".)
Hose or Hosen?
Both Hose and Hosen translate to "pants" ("trousers" in British English), but they're not interchangeable. The singular Hose refers to one pair
of pants, and the plural Hosen refers to multiple pairs of pants.
15 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
There's another slightly less commonly used word for "the sea": die See (feminine).
Be careful not to confuse der See (the lake) and die See (the sea). Remember that when you learn a noun, you should always learn the gender
with it.
The plural forms are identical (only the plural of der See is commonly used).
There are not many noun pairs like this in German. Here is the most extreme example, with plural forms:
Possessive pronouns
German uses possessive pronouns similar to the English ones. For example "my" is mein in German, "his" is sein, and "her" is ihr.
ich mein
du dein
er/es sein
wir unser
ihr euer
Remember that in German, eu sounds like "boy", and the ending -er normally roughly sounds like "ma".
Nominative forms
Unlike English, these possessive pronouns change their endings in the same way as the indefinite article ein.
16 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
This is mostly straightforward (just append the correct ending according to the noun). There is a slight irregularity: euer does not become
euere, but eure (it loses an internal -e-).
The following table has the forms in the nominative case. These are used for subjects, as in
As you might notice, ihr has several different functions, so make sure you understand the context it is used in.
Demonstrative Pronouns
The demonstrative pronouns in English are: this, that, these, and those. In German, in Nominative and Accusative, the demonstrative
pronouns are the same as the definite articles.
That means, der, die and das can also mean "that (one)" or "this (one)" depending on the gender of the respective noun, and "die" (plural)
can mean "these" or "those."
Der Junge liest eine Zeitung, der Junge liest ein Buch.
This boy is reading a newspaper, that boy is reading a book.
der das
17 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
diese diese
jede ---
manche manche
Ein Paar (uppercase P) means "a pair (of)" and is only used for things that typically come in pairs of two, e.g. ein Paar Schuhe (a pair of
shoes).
So this is quite similar to English "a couple" (a pair) vs. "a couple of" (some).
German Negatives
There are different ways to negate expressions in German (much like in English you can use "no" in some cases, and "does not" in others).
The German adverb nicht (not) is used very often, but sometimes you need to use kein (not a).
Nicht
As mentioned in the lesson "Not", you should use nicht in the following situations:
Negating a noun that has a definite article like der Junge (the boy) in Das ist nicht der Junge. (That is not the boy).
Negating a noun that has a possessive pronoun like mein Glas (my glass) in Das ist nicht mein Glas. (That is not my glass).
Negating the verb: Ich trinke nicht. (I do not drink.).
Negating an adverb or adverbial phrase. For instance, Ich tanze nicht oft. (I do not dance often)
Negating an adjective that is used with sein (to be): Ich bin nicht hungrig . (I am not hungry).
18 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
For details, and to learn where to put nicht in a sentence, refer to the "Not" lesson.
Kein
Simply put, kein is composed of k + ein and placed where the indefinite article would be in a sentence. If you want to negate ein, use
kein.
Just like mein and the other possessive pronouns, kein changes its ending like ein.
For instance, look at the positive and negative statement about these two nouns:
Er ist ein Mann. (He is a man) — Sie ist kein Mann. (She is not a/no man.)
Ich habe eine Katze. (I have a cat.) — Ich habe keine Katze. (I have no cat.)
Kein is also used for negating nouns that have no article: Er hat Brot. (He has bread.) versus Er hat kein Brot. (He has no bread.).
As a general rule:
Using nicht simply negates a fact, and is less overarching than nichts. For example, Der Schüler lernt nicht. (The student does not learn.) is
less extreme than Der Schüler lernt nichts. (The student does not learn anything.).
19 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
For now, we teach only the default version (which is masculine in German):
Er spielt gern(e) Fußball. (He likes to play soccer/He likes playing soccer.)
Wir lesen gern(e) Bücher. (We like to read books/We like reading books.)
Sie schreibt gern(e) Briefe. (She likes to write letters/She likes writing letters.)
Position of gerne
If you're not sure where to put gern(e): It goes to the same position as oft (often).
Gern/gerne, allein/alleine
What's the difference between gern and *gerne*? They're just variations of the same word. There's no difference in terms of meaning or
style. You can use whichever you like best.
20 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
Position of auch
Auch corresponds to English "also, too".
The positioning follows different rules in both languages. Soon you will learn more about the peculiarities of German sentence structure. For
now, remember that auch takes roughly the same position as nicht. When both occur together, auch will come before nicht.
Ich laufe. Du läufst auch. Er läuft nicht. Sie läuft auch nicht .
Ich komme aus China. Du kommst auch aus China. Er kommt nicht aus China. Sie kommt auch nicht aus China.
Ich trinke oft Bier. Du trinkst auch oft Bier. Er trinkt nicht oft Bier. Sie trinkt auch nicht oft Bier.
For reasons that will become clearer soon, Sie kommt aus China auch. is not a valid sentence in German.
non-living objects that end in -e: these will almost always be feminine ( die Lampe, Schokolade, Erdbeere, Orange, Banane, Suppe, Hose,
Jacke, Sonne, Straße, Brücke, Schule, … )
nouns beginning with Ge- are often neuter. This is the only prefix determining gender. ( das Gebäude, Gemüse, Gesicht, Gesetz, … )
In addition, rhyming can often help. If you already know a noun that rhymes with the new one, there's a good chance they will have the
same gender. Go for it :)
An example for this is Restaurant. Like in French, the last syllable will sound roughly like "raw". The -t will be silent. Some people will
pronounce the ending similar to English "rung" instead. Of course, the R- will sound like the German r, not the English one.
Combining stuff
German is well known for its long words that can be made up on the go by concatenating existing words. In this skill you will learn one very
simple and commonly used way of forming compounds: adding -zeug (="stuff") to existing words.
Remember that the last element determines gender and plural. So all new words in this lesson will be neuter.
OK, because you asked: the longest "real" German word (so far) is:
Rindfleisch-etikettierungs-überwachungs-aufgaben-übertragungs-gesetz
(Without the hyphens. We had to add those in order to be able to show the whole word…)
It's a law on how to transfer tasks about the monitoring of the labeling of beef. At least that's what the word says.
21 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
Some German -zeug words can work like this as well -- for example, Spielzeug and Werkzeug in the singular, without an article, mean "toys"
and "tools", which are plural in English.
Those words can also be used in a countable way: ein Spielzeug, zwei Werkzeuge "one toy, two tools". So "the tools" could be either das
Werkzeug or die Werkzeuge -- the former would view the tools as a group, the latter would consider them individually.
Look out for whether there is an indefinite article or number before the singular word to see whether it's used countably or uncountably.
If there's a possessive word or a definite article before such a noun in the singular, it could be either: mein Werkzeug ist neu could mean
either "My tool is new" or "My tools are new", for example; similarly with das Werkzeug ist neu which could be either "The tools is new" or
"The tools are new".
(An English word that works similarly is "fruit" -- "my fruit" could refer to just one apple, or it could refer to two apples and a banana all
together, depending on whether "fruit" is used countably or uncountably.)
Other -zeug words are always regular countable words, such as Flugzeug "airplane" or Feuerzeug "lighter".
Pronouns
Notice that apart from masculine singular, the third person forms are the same in nominative and accusative. The masculine form, which
does change, has the same endings as the definite article (der becomes den).
This extends to all cases. You already know that in the accusative case, only masculine singular changes :
but:
22 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
So, if you see einen, meinen, unseren and so forth with a singular noun, you will know two things:
It is clear here that the dog must be the object (accusative). So actually the woman does not like the dog.
Viele changes endings like the articles. But because the plural forms are the same for nominative and accusative, for now it will look always
the same.
Jeder
Jeder changes endings like definite articles:
Möbel
Möbel corresponds to English "furniture". While "furniture" is singular, Möbel is normally only used in the plural.
23 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
German Conjunctions
A conjunction like wenn (when) or und (and) connects two parts of a sentence together.
Coordinating conjunctions
Coordinating conjunctions form a group of coordinators (like und (and), aber (but)), which combine two items of equal importance; here,
each clause can stand on its own and the word order does not change.
Subordinating conjunctions
Subordinating conjunctions combine an independent clause with a dependent clause; the dependent clause cannot stand on its own and
its word order will be different than if it did. In these subordinate clauses, the verb switches from the second position to the last.
Correlative conjunctions
Correlative conjunctions work in pairs to join sentence parts of equal importance. For instance, entweder...oder (either...or) is such a pair and
can be used like this: Der Schuh ist entweder blau oder rot. (This shoe is either blue or red.).
In German, conjunctions do not change with the case (i.e. they are not declinable).
Sondern
Sondern works like "but … instead" in English. It only takes the element that is different:
24 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
Leute
In English, you refer to one "person", but multiple "people". In German, Leute is also only used in the plural. The singular is eine Person.
Yes/No Questions
Questions can be asked by switching the subject and verb. For instance,
becomes
These kinds of questions will generally just elicit yes/no answers. In English, the main verb "to be" follows the same principle. "You are
hungry." becomes "Are you hungry?".
English German
what was
who wer
where wo
when wann
how wie
why warum
which welcher
Was (what)
If you ask was with a preposition, the two normally turn into a new word, according to the following pattern:
25 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
If the preposition starts with a vowel, there will be an extra -r- to make it easier to pronounce.
Wer (who)
Wer is declinable and needs to adjust to the cases. The adjustment depends on what the question is targeting.
If you ask for the subject of a sentence (i.e. the nominative object), wer (who) remains as is:
If you ask for the direct (accusative) object in a sentence, wer changes to wen (who/whom). As a mnemonic, notice how wen rhymes with den
in den Apfel.
You will soon learn about the Dative case. You have to use wem then. And there is a forth case in German (Genitive). You would use wessen
here. This corresponds to English "whose".
The endings look like the endings of der (but don't change with gender/number):
Welche(r/s) (which)
Welche- words are used to ask about for a specific item out of a group of items, such as "which car is yours?".
This declines not only for case, but also for gender. The endings are the same as for definite articles:
article welch*
der welcher
das welches
die welche
den welchen
Wo (where)
26 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
Wo (where) is the general question word, but if you are asking for a direction in which someone or something is moving, you may use
*wohin* (where to).
might become
Wo kommst du her?
English German
where wo
where to wohin
Wann (when)
Wann (when) does not change depending on the case. Wann can be used with conjunctions such as seit (since) or bis (till):
Seit wann wartest du? (Since when have you been waiting?)
Bis wann geht der Film? (Till when does the movie last?).
Don't confuse wann with wenn which you learned in Conjunctions. Both translate to "when" in English, but they have different functions in
German.
Ich schlafe nicht, wenn ich Musik höre. (I don't sleep when I listen to music)
Warum (why)
Warum (why) is also not declinable. It will never change endings. Wieso, Weshalb, and Weswegen can be used instead of Warum. There's no
difference in meaning.
Here is an example. All four following sentences mean "Why is the car so old?".
27 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
Wie viel is used with uncountable or countable nouns (how much/how many), and wie viele is only used with countable nouns (how
many). Some people think that "wie viel" can only be used with uncountable nouns, but that is not true.
Wie viel Milch trinkst du? (How much milk do you drink?)
Wie viel(e) Tiere siehst du? (How many animals do you see?)
formal informal
Family plurals
You might notice that most members of the close family have their own "system" of plurals:
singular plural
Schwester has an extra -n, because it can't change its vowel (e has no umlaut).
Eltern
Eltern (parents) has no singular, unlike in English. We normally refer to Mutter or Vater then.
If necessary, there is a word das Elternteil (literally, "the parents part"). But this is only used in formal settings, for example on forms.
We can't accept all these terms, and since translations used in the German course for English speakers may also pop up in the English course
for German speakers, we don't want to confuse German speakers with these words. Please understand that we're not going to add more
alternatives. In your own interest, stick to the ones suggested by Duolingo (see above).
28 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
Prepositions
Prepositions take a noun (or a noun phrase):
In German, prepositions will change this noun into one of the cases (but never into nominative).
Here, you learn those that always trigger the accusative case.
Remember that as long as the noun is not masculine singular, the nominative and the accusative will look the same.
Accusative prepositions
Accusative prepositions always trigger the accusative case.
German has these common accusative prepositions: durch, für, gegen, ohne, um
Entlang
Entlang is a strange word :) It is commonly used with the accusative case. But then it has to appear after the noun.
It can be used before the noun, but then triggers a different case. This sounds a bit old-fashioned or stilted today. So better use it after the
noun.
German numbers
You might notice that German numbers look very similar to those in English. The two languages are closely related. So any time you
encounter a new word, it's worth checking whether you can find a similar-looking word in English.
At some point, you might realize that there are several more or less consistent changes between English and German. Here are some:
Generally, the vowels change faster than the consonants. So go for the consonants when looking for related words.
29 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
In addition, you will see Zahlen. The upper-case initial tells you this is a noun. It is the plural of die Zahl (the number).
singular plural
Schmecken
Schmecken is very similar to the English word "to taste":
Die Pizza schmeckt nicht! (The pizza does not taste good!)
Müsli
Müsli originally refers to "Bircher Müesli", a Swiss breakfast dish, based on rolled oats and fresh or dried fruits.
Nowadays, people will use it for all kinds of cereals or granola, often with high sugar content.
Hähnchen
Hähnchen usually refers to a chicken that has been turned into a dish. While derived from the word for "male chicken" (der Hahn), the only
distinction today is that it is a food item.
Remember that words ending in -chen are always neuter: das Hähnchen.
Salat
Salat can refer to the dish, as well as to the green leaves (usually lettuce) that often go into it.
30 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
You already saw that the accusative case can be used in different ways.
Der Hund frisst den Vogel. (The dog is eating the bird.)
Sie geht ohne den Hund. (She walks without the dog.)
Er hat einen Mantel ohne Knöpfe. (He has a coat without buttons.)
Dative object
The dative case also has a range of different functions.
In this lesson, you learn to use it with the indirect object. This is also called the dative object.
The indirect object in a sentence is the receiver of the direct (accusative) object.
Das Mädchen gibt einer Frau den Apfel. (A girl gives the apple to a woman.)
Ich gebe dem Mann einen Apfel. (I give the man an apple.)
Sie zeigt dem Kind den Hund. (She shows the child the dog.)
Dative verbs
The dative is also used for certain dative verbs such as danken (to thank) and antworten (to answer), or helfen (to help):
Dative articles
Note that the dative changes all articles for the words.
For example, die Katze is a feminine noun. However, the article in dative will be der. This might look like the masculine article. But in the
context of a sentence, there will never be any confusion between the two, as long as you know your genders. This is one reason why it's so
important to know the gender of a word.
31 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
Notice how masculine and neuter look the same in Dative (just like they look the same for Nominative indefinite articles).
This also means that if you see a noun in the Dative, and the article ends in -r, it will be a feminine word. Alternatively, if it ends in -m, it
won't.
It is very much worth remembering these Dative endings, because they will pop up in different context, and help you a lot to sort out the
grammar. In a way, Dative is the "simplest" case :)
Dative endings
Masculine/Neuter -m
Feminine -r
Plural -n
You just saw that articles (also pronouns etc.) get an -n ending in dative plural.
Later, you will learn that the German ending system for adjectives is a bit complicated. However, in dative plural, you just add an -n.
It goes so far that even plural forms of nouns get an extra -n in the Dative.
Er hat drei Hunde. Er spielt mit drei Hunden. (He plays with three dogs.)
Die Computer sind alt. Ich antworte den Computern. (I answer the computers.)
Even more -n
Some masculine nouns add an -en or -n ending in the dative and in all other cases besides the nominative . For example in the dative, it
is dem Jungen (the boy).
If you want to look these up, the term for them is "n-Declension".
Euro or Euros?
In German, the singular is Euro and the plural is usually Euro as well. As a rule of thumb, use Euro when talking about a specific amount, e.g.
200 Euro.
32 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
In some contexts, the form Euros is used as well. For instance, you can say Euros to refer to individual euro coins, an unquantified amount of
euros, or euros as opposed to a different currency, e.g.:
Ich habe hundert Schweizer Franken, aber keine Euros (I have a hundred Swiss francs but no euros).
In English, either plural form is perfectly fine. The plural form euro tends to be preferred in the Republic of Ireland, and the plural form euros
tends to preferred pretty much anywhere else. Originally, the plural form euro was supposed to be used in official EU documents, but that's
no longer the case.
du dich dir
Some observations:
In the third person, the endings are the same as for the articles: -m, -r, -n. However, plural dative is "ihnen" (not ihn, as you might
expect).
In the second person plural, accusative and dative pronouns are the same.
Now you can understand why, when thanking a female person, it is only correct to say Ich danke ihr ("I thank her", literally "I give-thank to
her") and not Ich danke sie (that sounds like "I thank she" would sound to an English speaker).
Dative verbs
Remember that some verbs have a dative object. This is just a quirk of German. There was a reason for it when these words were created, but
it's not easy to understand anymore, after a lot of language change.
In short, you just have to learn these :) There aren't very many.
Gehören literally means to "belong to". But don't translate too literally, often a different translation will be more natural.
Wem gehört das Kleid? ("Whose dress is it?" - Literally, "Whom does the dress belong to?")
This is why German people will often refer to tall people as "big" :)
33 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
Cousin, Cousine
These are French words. While it is possible to write Cousine as Kusine now, German never found a way to actually spell Cousin differently.
This is because German originally does not have the French sound at the end. Some people pronounce it like "Kusäng" instead.
When you say Die Frau kennt ihren Onkel, you're either talking about the woman's own uncle, another female person's uncle, or the uncle of
multiple people.
When you say Die Frau kennt seinen Onkel, you're talking about another person's uncle, and that person is male. People can know other
people's relatives.
Dative prepositions
Earlier, you learned that some prepositions always trigger the accusative case.
The most common ones are durch, für, gegen, ohne, um.
In the same way, dative prepositions always trigger the dative case.
Again, here are the common ones: aus, bei, gegenüber, mit, nach, seit, von, zu.
Contractions
Some prepositions and articles can be contracted.
zu + dem zum
zu + der zur
Seit
Seit roughly means "since". However, it works a bit differently.
Ich lerne seit sechs Jahren Englisch. (I'm learning English for six years now.)
Ich lerne seit 2012 Englisch (I've been learning English since 2012.)
Ich lerne Englisch, seit ich denken kann. (I've been learning English since I can think.)
In the first example, seit defines a stretch of time, which reaches into the present.
34 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
In the second example, it also defines a stretch of time, reaching into the present. But it defines this stretch of time by its starting point.
Seit can also be a subordinating conjunction (check the lesson "Conjunctions"). In these, the verb leaves the second position of the sentence,
and ends up at the end. This is why in the last example, ich kann denken (I can think) turns into seit ich denken kann.
The -e at the end of zu Hause and nach Hause is an archaic dative ending, which is no longer used in modern German, but survived in certain
fixed expressions.
Hals
Der Hals refers to the whole connection between head and shoulders. German does have more specialized words for "neck" and "throat",
but we normally use Hals for both.
Haare
Das Haar normally refers to a single hair. It can be used to refer to all the hair on someone's head, but is considered slightly outdated or
poetic.
Bein
Das Bein refers to the leg. It used to mean "bone" a long time ago. This meaning survives in some word combinations:
Magen
Der Magen is the stomach, the part of your body that starts digestion. It is not commonly used to refer to the belly (der Bauch).
Brust
Die Brust can have several meanings, depending on context.
Komm an meine Brust! - This means the chest area. It will always be used in the singular.
Vögel haben keine Brüste. (Birds don't have breasts) - This refers to female breasts. It can be used in the singular.
Surprise! There's another way of addressing people. The good news is: it's super easy. Just use the "they" forms when talking to people
you're not close with.
35 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
Du
If you are familiar with someone, you use du (which is called "duzen"). For example, if you talk to your mother, you would say:
"Hast du jetzt Zeit, Mama?" (Do you have time now, Mommy?).
Use this form for family members, co-students, children and young adults.
Ihr
If you refer to more than one person, you use ihr. This is also a "familiar" form, so use it in the same settings as du.
The German ihr you learned earlier is the informal plural of "you," like in
Hans und Karl, habt ihr Zeit? (Hans and Karl, do you have time?)
Haben Sie jetzt Zeit, Herr Schmidt? (Do you have time now, Mr. Schmidt?)
Sie is also used for multiple people. But you can't translate it well with "you all" or "you guys", because that would sound too informal.
Here are the three forms of "you", and "they" for comparison:
When spoken, "they" and formal "you" are identical. So, in a way, Germans formally address people like "How are they today?"
For instance, Sie sind schön. can either refer to a beautiful individual or a group of beautiful people. The verbs for sie (they) and Sie (you)
are conjugated the same. On Duolingo, either should be accepted unless the context suggests otherwise. In real life, there's always
context. Don't worry about misunderstandings.
Fortunately, the verb for sie (she) is different. Sie ist schön. only translates to "She is beautiful." There's no ambiguity.
36 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
There are more ways to address people formally in German, but they are not in common use and/or outdated, so we don't support
them in this course. You might encounter them in Middle Ages reenactments or so :)
The second person plural was also used, and is still used locally:
Ihr habt einen schönen Hut. (literally, "You all have a nice hat.")
Einkaufen is normally used without an object, and often refers to shopping. It can be used in conjunction with gehen:
Verkaufen means "to sell". The prefix ver- is often associated with an "away" notion.
Laden, Geschäft
A variety of words exist for "shop". These are two common ones, with roughly exchangeable usage.
Sehenswürdigkeiten?!
The word Sehenswürdigkeit (sight as in sightseeing) is made up of several meaningful parts: sehen + s + würdig + keit.
Part Meaning
sehen to see
würdig to be worthy
Often the ending of a compound noun is a good indicator for the gender of the noun. For example, if a noun ends in -keit, it will always be
feminine (die).
37 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
Visum
In English, you need "a visa". In German, the singular is das Visum, Visa is the plural (as it is in Latin, the source language of this word).
The word weg (with a short, open -e-) roughly means "away". Here are some examples:
German numbers
You learned earlier that the numbers from 1-19 are very similar to those in English.
This mostly continues in German, with one important quirk. Did you ever notice that the digits in numbers 13-19 are kind of "switched" in
English? German continues that through to 99.
This might take some getting used to, but at least it's consistent ;)
Hundert
For "100", people would usually just say hundert, not einhundert (as in English).
Huge numbers
There used to be two different systems for huge numbers, called "short scale" and "long scale". Unfortunately, German and American English
ended up with different ones. British English used to use the long scale, but switched to short scale.
38 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
Adjective endings
When an adjective comes before a noun, its ending will change according to this noun.
Article + Adjective
You can think of the adjective endings as "markers", that kind of mark what part of speech the adjective belongs to.
Nominative
Remember that Nominative is used for the subject of a sentence. These are the nominative adjectives :
- rote Schuhe
While that might look a bit chaotic, there is not so much going on:
1) Masculine: Either the article, or the adjective must have the -r ending. The same goes for neuter and -s.
2) Feminine and Plural end in -e. If you add an article, you also have to add an -n.
Accusative
Do you remember that quite often, the accusative looks like the nominative? Specifically, only the articles for masculine nouns change.
The same goes for the adjectives. The accusative endings are the same as for Nominative; the only exception is for masculine nouns. The
39 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
Die alte Katze schläft. Der alte Mann sieht die alte Katze (no change)
Die alte Katze sieht den alten Mann.
- rote Schuhe
Dative
Dative, as always, is even simpler.
Der Hund mit der roten Nase schläft. (The dog with the red nose is sleeping.)
- roten Schuhen
40 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
Imperative
The imperative mood is used to express commands, just like in English.
There are three different forms, according to the three types of "you" in German.
Du imperative
The imperative for du is very similar to English:
For most verbs, to come up with the correct verb form, just lose the -st ending:
You might have noticed that some common verbs have an extra umlaut in the 2nd/3rd person singular:
fahren, du fährst
schlafen, du schläfst
Ihr imperative
The second one is used to address more than one person informally. It uses the same conjugation as the regular ihr form of the present
tense. This form of the imperative does not include a personal pronoun.
Sie imperative
The third one is used to address one or more people formally. It uses the same conjugation as the regular Sie form of the present tense. The
formal imperative is the only form to include the personal pronoun (Sie). Note that the word order is reversed. The verb always precedes the
pronoun. It essentially looks like a question.
normal imperative
du bist sei
41 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
normal imperative
Nehmen, du nimmst??
As mentioned before, a small number of common verbs changes the vowel in the second + third person singular.
Student or Schüler?
Ein Student is a university student and a Schüler is a pupil/student at a primary, secondary or high school. Students attending other types
of schools such as language or dancing schools may also be called Schüler.
Dropping articles
When talking about your or someone else's profession in sentences such as I'm a teacher or She's a judge , German speakers usually drop
the indefinite article (ein/eine).
It sounds more natural to say Ich bin Lehrer and Sie ist Richterin than Ich bin ein Lehrer and Sie ist eine Richterin. This rule also applies to
students.
If you add an adjective, you can't drop the article. Er ist ein schlechter Arzt (He's a bad doctor) is correct, but Er ist schlechter Arzt is not.
Also note that you can't drop the definite article (der/die/das).
So the word that refers to a male baker is grammatically masculine, and the word that refers to a female baker is grammatically feminine.
42 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
In the vast majority of cases, the female variant is formed by simply adding the suffix -in to the male variant , e.g. der Bäcker becomes
die Bäckerin and der Schüler (the pupil) becomes die Schülerin.
The plural of the female variant is formed by adding the ending -innen to the singular of the male variant, e.g. die Bäckerinnen and die
Schülerinnen .
Keep in mind that, in some cases, the plural comes with an umlauted stem vowel. This applies to the female variant as well.
singular plural
Prepositions
Accusative prepositions
Accusative prepositions always trigger the accusative case.
Here are the most common ones: durch, für, gegen, ohne, um
Dative prepositions
Dative prepositions always trigger the dative case.
Here are the most common ones: aus, außer, bei, gegenüber, mit, nach, seit, von, zu
Two-way prepositions
Two-way prepositions take the dative case or the accusative case, depending on the context.
If there's movement from one place to another, use the accusative case.
Die Katze geht in die Küche. (The cat walks into the kitchen.)
If there's no movement, or if there's movement within a certain place, use the dative case.
Die Katze schläft in der Küche. (The cat sleeps in the kitchen.)
Die Katze geht in der Küche. (The cat walks within the kitchen.)
These prepositions can switch case: an, auf, hinter, in, neben, über, unter, vor, zwischen
43 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
However, don't forget that for some prepositions, you don't have to decide:
Durch and um will always be accusative, although they might signify an activity without location change:
Das Kind rennt durch den Wald. (The child is running through the forest.)
Die Stühle stehen um den Tisch. (The chairs are standing around the table.)
Aus, von, zu will always be dative, although they might signify a location change.
When used with these verbs, vor will always trigger the Dative:
An, in and auf are more complicated: in some verbs, they trigger the accusative, in others the dative. You'll just have to memorize these.
Ich warte auf den Bus. (I'm waiting for the bus.)
Der Film basiert auf meinem Leben. (The film is based on my life.)
Contractions
Some prepositions and articles can be contracted.
an + das ans
an + dem am
in + das ins
in + dem im
um + das ums
44 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
an + das ans
zu + dem zum
zu + der zur
If you would use "that" in English, you would not use a contraction:
So when you see a "preposition" at the end of a sentence, try to combine it with the verb. You might just have learned a new word :)
Sie macht die Lampe an. (anmachen means "turn on" here)
Nimm deinen Hut ab! (abnehmen means "to take off" in this context)
Unfortunately, the way Duolingo is built does not allow to selectively teach German sentence structure. We hope this will change soon :)
Plastik
Plastik is one of the few words that changes meaning, depending on which gender it is.
In German, Holz only refers to the material. Der Wald is "the forest". We also have a word der Forst, but it only refers to a maintained forest
(something like a garden for trees), where the trees are grown for commercial purposes.
45 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
Ordinal numbers
German ordinal numbers are pretty regular. The general rule is:
1-19 -te
> 19 -ste
Irregular forms
1. erste
3. dritte
7. siebte
Ordinal numbers behave like adjectives, so their endings will change accordingly:
This is pretty straightforward. However, quite often, the vowel of short adjectives will get an umlaut change :
You might notice that there will be an extra e in the superlative, if the word stem ends in t (or d). This is a general sound rule, just like in ich
arbeite, er arbeitet .
Again, this is a general sound rule. You might have noticed it for euer (plural your), which becomes eure, not euere when it gets an ending.
46 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
As you can see, comparative adjectives get adjective endings, just like any "normal" adjective.
In the second example, the first -er is for the comparative, the second -er is the ending from der Bruder.
If you find that really confusing, why not practice adjective endings a bit? :) You can do so in the earlier lesson "Colors".
Superlative
Please refer to the lesson "Comparisons" for a table of comparative and superlative forms, especially how to form the irregular forms.
Superlative as an adverb
In the last lesson, you learned the comparative:
Am ältesten works like an adverb (How is he? - the oldest; How does she run? the fastest). That means its endings will never change.
Superlative as an adjective
Like in English, you can also use superlatives as adjectives.
Remember that adjectives change their endings according to the noun, if they come before the noun:
Mein Hund ist der älteste. (imagine a second "Hund" at the end)
Mein Hund ist am ältesten.
47 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
Both translate to "My dog is the oldest", and both are possible in German. The last one is more common though, and we recommend you
only use this one for now.
This is because you can't put an adverb in front of a noun. That's what adjectives are for.
Don't forget that with adjectives, you have to use the right ending to match with the noun:
Das ist die kleinste Katze der Welt! (This is the world's smallest cat!)
Wir geben der schönsten Katze einen Preis. (We give a prize to the most beautiful cat.)
As a rough guideline, use a form like die älteste, den ältesten, … before a noun, and am ältesten at the end of a sentence.
Ganz
As an adjective: easy
The word "ganz" has several functions in German. As an adjective, it means "whole":
As an adverb: tricky!
As as adverb, it can intensify or de-intensify other words (depending on which other word you use).
Intensifier De-Intensifer
schlecht gut
oben nett
vorne sympathisch
früh schön
sicher interessant
toll gern
furchtbar lustig
… ok
Der Film war ganz gut. (The film was quite nice.)
Der Film war ganz toll! (The film was really great!)
You see the problem :) Ganz is tricky to use for beginners. For now, better use these two words instead :
Der Film war total gut. (The film was really nice.)
48 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
Der Film war ziemlich toll. (The film was quite great.)
English German
However, we changed to Monday as the start of the week, which makes Mittwoch sound a bit silly now :)
Am, im, um
If you want to say "on Monday" and so on, that would be am Montag.
am Montag
um drei Uhr
im Juni
Location
With hier (here) and dort (there) you can be more specific about the distance.
hier (here)
49 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
da (here/there)
dort (there)
You can also say da oben for "up there" and so on:
Das hier
You can combine all of them with articles, and use them similar to this and that !
Many people use this with the other articles as well. Note that while all of the following constructs are commonly used in spoken language,
they are not appropriate for written, formal language.
To refer to one specific thing, you can put a noun between the article and hier/da/dort.
For example:
Der Apfel da drüben ist groß. (That apple over there is big.)
Die Katzen dort drüben sind süß. (Those cats over there are cute.)
Innen, drinnen
Innen and außen mostly refer to the inside and outside of objects.
Drinnen and draußen are normally only used for rooms (more generally, enclosed spaces that people can be in).
Die Wassermelone ist innen rot und außen grün. (The watermelon is red on the inside, and green on the outside.)
Drinnen ist es trocken, aber draußen regnet es. (Inside, it is dry, but outside it is raining.)
The first two sound the same in regular speech (in some dialects, all three sound the same). You already encountered this with the numbers
(zwanzig).
When you add an ending to the -ig adjectives, it will no longer sound like ch:
50 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
-bar
-bar often corresponds to "-(a)ble" in English:
sichtbar (visible)
verfügbar (available)
Yes, there are lots of bars with joke adjective names in Germany :)
-los, -voll
These correspond to English "-less" and "-ful".
hoffnungsvoll (hopeful)
hoffnungslos (hopeless)
-tion
In English, the "-tion" ending is pronounced "-shen". In German, it always becomes "-tsion". It will always be the emphasized syllable, and
the word will always be feminine.
When nouns ending in -tion are used in an adjective, the ending -a (or -ell) will be used. The resulting adjective will be pronounced on the
last syllable:
Bundesland
Germany is a Federal Republic (Bundesrepublik). It consists of 16 federal states, which have some degree of autonomy. These are called
Bundesländer.
Pension
Die Pension has different meanings, depending on context. Here it means "guest house". It can also mean "retirement pay".
What is a Pflaster?
Das Pflaster is a small adhesive bandage.
Depending on where you live, you may call it "Band-Aid", "plaster" or "Elastoplast" in English.
The German word Pflaster does not refer to a plaster cast. The German for plaster cast is der Gips(verband).
51 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
Kennen
Kennen is used when talking about people, places and the like. It means that you are aware of its existence. Kennen needs an object.
Wissen
Wissen is used for knowledge about something. It usually does not have an object. Commonly, it is used with a subordinate clause
("Nebensatz"):
In rare cases, wissen can be used with an object, which might lead to very subtle situations like this:
In the first example, you have never seen this word before. In the second example, you have seen it, but you don't know what it means.
Können
Können generally means "be able to", and is generally used like "can/be able to" in English. The only confusing thing is that it can take a
language instead of an infinitive, which English cannot:
Conjugation of wissen
We already used a range of verbs that change the vowel in the second and third person singular :
You also encountered modal verbs which generally have a different vowel in singular and plural, respectively. They also have a simpler (and
the same) ending in the first and second person singular.
Wissen (to know) is a full verb. However, it is one of the very few full verbs that conjugates like a modal verb:
52 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
Non-stressed prefixes
You already noticed that in German, some verb prefixes can split off:
It might be easiest to remember those that are never stressed. The most important ones are:
If you encounter a different prefix, guessing that it splits off will most likely be correct.
Gefallen
So far, you have learned two ways to say "I like".
What's going on?! Literally, it means "He is-pleasing to me." That's why "him" become the subject, and "I" becomes the Dative object in the
example above.
Gefallen is normally used if you like the look, sound or feel of something:
Like mögen, you would only use it with nouns (not with verbs).
53 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
Ich lege den Ball auf den Tisch. (I put the ball on(to) the table.)
Der Ball liegt auf dem Tisch (The ball is on the table.)
Monatlich
Just as in English you have "year/yearly", German has the same word pairs. In German, some of these have an umlaut change:
noun adjective
Why does monatlich not change? All others are emphasized on the syllable that changes. Monatlich is emphasized on the first syllable.
Seasons
The seasons in German are as follows:
English German
Herbst sounds similar to "harvest", and Frühling has früh (early) in it.
When you refer to seasons or months, you use im. Here's the mnemonic again that helps you remind which is which:
am Montag
um drei Uhr
im Juni
Verein
Der Verein (the r is silent) is something between a club and a society. It is very common in Germany: There are almost 600,000 eingetragene
Vereine (publicly registered associations) in Germany. They bear the abbreviation e.V..
54 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
A Verein might help the homeless, offer tennis lessons, dance together, among many other activities.
Man
In English, you can say "you can say" or "one can say". In German, man is commonly used for this purpose. It does not imply that only male
people are included, think of it like the English "man" as in "mankind".
Er schläft nicht auf der Küche. (He does not sleep in the kitchen)
Man schläft nicht in der Küche! (One does not sleep in the kitchen!)
Ein Paar (uppercase P) means a pair (of) and is only used for things that typically come in pairs of two, e.g. ein Paar Schuhe (a pair of shoes).
So this is quite similar to English "a couple" (a pair) vs. "a couple of" (some).
On some occasions (for example when making promises or predictions), German does use a future tense. It is very similar to the one in
English.
The future tense consists of a conjugated form of werden in the present tense and an infinitive (the base form of the verb).
German English
Depending on the context, ich werde spielen translates to "I will play" or "I am going to play". In German, there is no distinction between
"will" and "going to".
Be aware that the German verb wollen (to want) is a false friend of the English will :
55 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
Der Taxifahrer fährt den Fahrgast. (The taxi driver drives the passenger.)
Der Fahrgast wird gefahren. (The passenger is being driven.)
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is given for the geeks among you :) But you can also copy/paste one of these symbols into
Wikipedia to get an in-depth explanation of it (with sound!).
You can also google "german sounds" for a longer introduction to German sounds.
56 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
Note that instead of "zz" (which only occurs in the Italian "Pizza"), German uses tz. Instead of "kk", we use ck.
There are also some signals that clearly show the vowel is long.
Note that if you read the list above, you should not hear a single h sound. It is geh|en, not ge|hen.
For these, you just have to trust your language feeling, it will normally not be a big problem :)
Times of day
German uses a system similar to English:
English German
am Montag
um drei Uhr
im Juni
Am Montag, am Mittag. Just "at night there are different rules": in der Nacht and um Mitternacht are irregular.
All of these have and adverbial form: morgens, vormittags, abends, nachts*, …
57 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
Morgen am Morgen?
Similar to Spanish, the words for "tomorrow" and "morning" are the same in German. Unlike Spanish, German escapes this problem by
choosing a different word when they clash.
Official time
In German, there are "official" and informal ways to say the time. Here's the official one (often used on radio and television):
English German
o'clock Uhr
Die Uhr can also mean "clock" or "watch". Die Stunde can also mean "lesson" (which confusingly might not last one hour).
Informal time
In everyday life, people will often use informal time.
There are several systems, with two forms dominant. In many parts of Germany, this system is used:
58 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
Yes, the part in the middle is very confusing :) German considers the next hour to be half full. In addition, German relates "X:25" and "X:35" to
the half hour.
Ob
Indirect questions are subordinate clauses in German:
For questions with a question word, the question word starts the sentece, and the verb ends it.
For yes/no-questions, German uses ob as a placeholder (just like "whether" is used in English):
Je … desto …
Je … desto … works roughly like "the … the …" in English:
However, the sentence structure is unusual, when compared to English. For the above sentence, it is:
The je part is a subordinate clause, so the verb will be at the end. Because the je+comparison is in the first position, the subject has to come
immediately after, followed by the rest of the sentence.
The desto part is a main clause. The verb is in position 2, and desto+comparison are in the first position. This is not unusual in German, as
you can put all kinds of elements in the first position:
| Position 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |---|---|---|---|---] | Ich |esse |morgen |mit einem Freund |zu Mittag.| |Morgen |esse |ich |mit einem Freund |zu Mittag.|
|Mit einem Freund |esse |ich |morgen |zu Mittag.| |Zu Mittag |esse |ich |morgen |mit einem Freund.|
Notice how the verb is always in the second position. The subject is either at the beginning (the default), or directly behind the verb.
Mal
(-)mal can often be translated with "time(s)" in English:
German English
manchmal sometimes
In addition, it has a function as a "modal particle". These are words that give a sentence an additional flavor, and can't be easily translated.
Modal particles are almost never emphasized.
We don't teach modal particles in this course (because you can't translate them). But you will encounter mal schauen in this lesson, which
roughly means "let's see".
59 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
Modal verbs
Verb forms
You already learned some modal verbs:
Modal verbs are the same in the first and third person singular.
They also often change their vowel. The vowel in the singular will be different from the vowel of the infinitive.
As in können und wollen, the vowel in the singular is different. The first and third person are the same in the plural and in the singular (unlike
normal verbs).
du sollst möchtest
60 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
sollen does not change its vowel. Otherwise it works roughly like "shall".
möchten is unusual. It is actually the subjunctive form of "mögen", which is why it has the same ending system as subjunctive and past
tense verbs. You will learn about those later in the course.
If you remember that mögen translates to "like" in English, it makes perfect sense that its subjunctive möchten means "would like to".
Because of the peculiarity of German sentence structure, the infinitive verb will appear at the end in a normal sentence:
Actually, the problem is in English. Let's look at the same example again, but use "have to" instead:
As you can see, if you think "have to" instead of "must", you'll be fine.
As you can see, dürfen works pretty much like "may" in English.
Das ist ein Stift. Damit schreibe ich. (That's a pen. With that, I write.)
Ich habe ein Deutschzertifikat. Damit kann ich in Deutschland studieren. (I have a German certificate. With that, I can study in
61 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
Germany.)
This word is generally emphasized on the first syllable. As any standard sentence element, If it is used in the first position, the subject will
have to go after the verb (with has to be in position 2).
Ich kaufe einen Stift, damit ich schreiben kann. (I buy a pen so that I can write.)
Ich lerne Deutsch, damit ich in Deutschland studieren kann. (I learn German so that I can study in Germany.)
Because it creates a subordinate clause, the verb of that clause has to go to the end. This version of damit is pronounced at the second
syllable.
To remember which is which, remember that the one that's emphasized at the end also sends the verb to the end.
Damit, um … zu …, zum …
There are at least three ways to express a goal.
Zum
The easiest just takes a simple verb:
The verb becomes a noun here, hence the upper-case initial, and the zum (zu+dem) preposition. If a verb turns into a noun, it always gets
neuter gender (das Essen, das Lachen).
Um … zu …
If you have a more complicated verb complex (for example, with adverbs or objects), you cannot use zum. Use um … zu … instead:
Ich gehe ins Restaurant, um mit Freunden Pizza zu essen. (I go to the restaurant in order to eat pizza with friends.)
mit Freunden im Supermarkt einkaufen (to go shopping in the supermarket with friends)
The um goes to the beginning of the infinitive construction. The zu goes were the verb part (in the above example, kaufen splits off.
Damit
If your main sentence has a different subject than your goal, you can't use an infinitive. Use damit, which comes with a subordinate clause.
Ich gebe ihm mein Handy, damit er seine Mutter anrufen kann. (I give him my phone so that he can call his mom)
Read the section "damit vs. damit" for more information on how to use it.
Womit? Damit!
Many prepositions can be combined with wo- and da-. da roughly translates to "that" here, wo normally to "what" (not "where" which is its
normal meaning).
62 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
wo- da-
woran daran
worauf darauf
woraus daraus
wobei dabei
wodurch dadurch
wofür dafür
wogegen dagegen
wohinter dahinter
worin darin
womit damit
wonach danach
worum darum
worüber darüber
worunter darunter
wovon davon
wovor davor
wozu dazu
wozwischen dazwischen
If the preposition starts with a vowel, there will be a binding r. So worum is pronounced wo-rum (not wor-um).
Check out Bodensee and Nordsee on Google Maps and see if you can figure out which one is feminine and which one is masculine :)
Der Strand
Der Strand means "the beach". This meaning still survives in the English adjective "stranded" (literally, ended up on a lonely beach).
In German, Holz only refers to the material. Der Wald is "the forest". We also have a word Der Forst, but it only refers to a maintained forest
63 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
(something like a garden for trees), where the trees are grown for commercial purposes.
Das Fahrrad des Mannes ist schwarz. (The man's bike is black.)
Das Fahrrad des Kindes ist blau. (The kid's bike is blue.)
Das Fahrrad der Frau ist grün. (The woman's bike is green.)
Das Fahrrad der Männer/der Kinder/der Frauen ist rot. (The people's bike is red.)
Nouns
Nouns consisting of one syllable tend to add -es in the masculine and neuter. The ending is often reduced to just -s, especially in
colloquial speech.
Nouns consisting of more than one syllable, tend to add just -s.
Weak nouns add -n or -en in the genitive as well (all cases but the nominative), e.g. des Jungen and des Studenten. Check the lesson
"Dative Case" for a discussion of these nouns.
64 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
Proper names
In contrast to common nouns, proper names precede the noun.
Do not add an apostrophe unless the name already ends in -s or -z. In the latter case, the apostrophe comes at the very end of the
name.
Adjectives
Adjectives in the genitive case end in -en. The only exception are feminine and plural, without article (feminine without article is
quite rare).
plural (any gender) das Fahrrad der kleinen Kinder wegen neuer Informationen
German English
anstatt instead of
statt instead of
aufgrund because of
trotz despite
während during
wegen because of
In colloquial speech, some prepositions that traditionally take the genitive tend to take the dative nowadays.
65 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
As an alternative for the genitive, you can often use von followed by the dative case . Here are some examples:
genitive dative
Often, the genitive case will be preferred in written language, with colloquial language going more for the dative case.
Student or Schüler?
A Student is a university student and a Schüler is a pupil/student at a primary, secondary or high school. Students attending other types of
schools such as language or dancing schools may also be called Schüler.
Dropping articles
When talking about your or someone else's profession in sentences such as I'm a teacher or She's a judge , German speakers usually drop
the indefinite article (ein/eine). It sounds more natural to say Ich bin Lehrer and Sie ist Richterin than Ich bin ein Lehrer and Sie ist eine
Richterin. This rule also applies to students.
If you add an adjective, you can't drop the article. Er ist ein schlechter Arzt (He's a bad doctor) is correct, but Er ist schlechter Arzt is not.
Also note that you can't drop the definite article (der/die/das).
The plural of the female variant is formed by adding the suffing -innen to the singular of the male variant, e.g. die Bäckerinnen and die
Schülerinnen.
Keep in mind that, in some cases, the plural comes with an umlauted stem vowel. This applies to the female variant as well, e.g. der Koch
becomes die Köche and die Köchin becomes die Köchinnen.
In contrast to the English present perfect, the German Perfekt is not used to describe events that started in the past and are still ongoing. In
such cases, German speakers use the present tense :
Ich lebe seit drei Jahren hier. (I have been living here for three years.)
66 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
Gestern hat er nur zwei Stunden geschlafen. (Yesterday, he only slept for two hours.)
Verbs that indicate a motion normally take sein as a helper verb. Here are some common examples:
Infinitiv Perfekt
However, verbs that indicate some other change also take sein:
Infinitiv Perfekt
67 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
None of these verbs have an object (they are "intransitive"). If they have a variant with an object ("transitive"), they take haben:
machen - gemacht
arbeiten - gearbeitet
Irregular verbs
German has a number of irregular verbs. Most of these are "strong" verbs. For these, you add ge-, but you add -en. There might be a vowel
change involved. Rarely, the change in the word stem is more drastic.
Infinitiv Partizip II
schlafen geschlafen
trinken getrunken
schwimmen geschwommen
essen gegessen
gehen gegangen
While most verbs are weak, many of the most common verbs are strong.
There is a small group of irregular verbs that follow a different system (called " mixed verbs "). Here are most of them:
Infinitiv Partizip II
wissen gewusst
rennen gerannt
brennen gebrannt
kennen gekannt
denken gedacht
bringen gebracht
German verbs have two kinds of prefixes. Some can split off. These are always emphasized:
68 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
Verbs like this will have the -ge- between the prefix and the verb stem:
ab-, an-, auf-, aus-, bei-, ein-, mit-, nach-, vor-, zu-
Other prefixes are not emphasized. They never split off. For these (and any other verbs that are not emphasized on the first syllable), do
not add a ge- prefix . This includes all verbs that end in -ieren (as these are emphasized at the -ie-).
Adjective endings
When an adjective comes before a noun, its ending will change according to this noun.
Article + Adjective
You can think of the adjective endings as "markers", that kind of mark what part of speech the adjective belongs to.
Nominative
Remember that the nominative case is used for the subject of a sentence. These are the nominative adjectives :
- rote Schuhe
While that might look a bit chaotic, there is not so much going on:
1) Masculine: Either the article, or the adjective must have the -r ending. The same goes for neuter and -s
69 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
2) Feminine and Plural end in -e. If you add an article, you also have to add an -n.
The same goes for the adjectives. They are the same as for nominative; the only exception is for masculine nouns. The changes are marked in
bold in the table below.
Die alte Katze schläft. Der alte Mann sieht die alte Katze (no change)
Die alte Katze sieht den alten Mann.
- rote Schuhe
Please refer to the previous lessons on adjectives about the endings for nominative and accusative.
Dative
Dative, as always, is even simpler.
70 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
- roten Schuhen
Der Mann mit dem roten Hemd (the man in the red shirt)
Sie mag Männer mit roten Haaren (She likes men with red hair)
Rarely, single nouns will be used without any article. This mostly happens in idiomatic expressions.
What happens here is that the ending that would normally be used in the article now ends up on the adjective.
Nominative
Remember that nominative is used for the subject of a sentence. These are the nominative adjectives :
71 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
- rote Schuhe
While that might look a bit chaotic, there is not so much going on:
1) masculine: Either the article, or the adjective must have the -r ending. The same goes for neuter and -s.
2) Feminine and Plural end in -e. If you add an article, you also have to add an -n.
Ich bin müde, obwohl ich Kaffee getrunken habe. (I'm tired, although I drank coffee.)
Ich habe Kaffee getrunken. Trotzdem bin ich müde. (I drank coffee. Nevertheless, I'm tired.)
Trotzdem is an adverb. It is part of a sentence and will replace the subject if it appears in the first position.
Obwohl is a subordinating conjunction. It will send the verb to the last position. See the lesson "Conjunctions" for more details.
The conjunctions weil and denn are used in the form "Statement, weil/denn Reason".
Ich bin müde, weil ich nicht geschlafen habe. (subordinating conjunction)
Ich bin müde, denn ich habe nicht geschlafen. (coordinating conjunction)
Darum and its sisters are used in the form "Reason, darum Statement" (or "Statement, darum Result").
Womit? Damit!
Many prepositions can be combined with wo- and da-. Da roughly translates to "that" here, wo normally to "what" (not "where" which is its
72 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
normal meaning).
wo- da-
woran daran
worauf darauf
woraus daraus
wobei dabei
wodurch dadurch
wofür dafür
wogegen dagegen
wohinter dahinter
worin darin
womit damit
wonach danach
worum darum
worüber darüber
worunter darunter
wovon davon
wovor davor
wozu dazu
wozwischen dazwischen
If the preposition starts with a vowel, there will be a binding r. So worum is pronounced "wo-rum", not "wor-um".
73 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
Möchten
The verb möchten (would like to/to want to), which is technically the subjunctive of mögen, does not have a preterite form. Instead, the
preterite of wollen (to want [to]) is used.
Present Präteritum
74 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
Strong verbs
To form the Präteritum of strong verbs, you need to find the modified verb stem first. Google "German irregular verbs" to get a list.
Person Ending
ich -
du -st
er/sie/es -
wir -en
ihr -t
sie/Sie -en
Notice that these are the same endings as for the modal verbs in the present tense. First and third person are the same in singular and
plural.
Present Präteritum
Present Präteritum
Gewitter
Das Gewitter refers to bad weather with lightning and thunder, not necessarily to strong winds. Hence, we do not accept the translation
75 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
German uses the singular for all of these. Die Hose is "a pair of pants". Die Hosen (plural) is at least two pairs of pants.
Stelle
Die Stelle has the meaning of "position" in at least two ways. It can be a location, or it can be a job position.
Geschenk, Gift
The common German word German for "gift" is das Geschenk. Das Gift means "poison" . The reason is that a long time ago, "gift" in the
meaning of "something that is given" was used as an euphemism for poison.
Regardless of whether you always refer to your cellphone as a phone, in this course, you will not be able to use (tele)phone/Telefon and
cellphone/Handy interchangeably.
Rufen, anrufen
Rufen translates to "call":
Because people used to call the police long before phones existed, German uses rufen for this:
Informationen
Unlike English, the German word die Information has a singular and a plural form.
Fernseher, Fernsehen
76 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
Fernsehen, frühstücken
Ich sehe fern. Ich habe ferngesehen.
Ich frühstücke. Ich habe gefrühstückt.
Sehen is interpreted as a verb by itself. Thus, fern is interpreted as the prefix. Because it is emphasized, it will split off. Because it splits off, the
-ge- of the participle will end up inside the word.
Stücken is not a verb. Frühstücken is a verb that was created from the noun das Frühstück . Hence, the first syllable, although emphasized, will
not split off.
On some occasions (for example when making promises or predictions), German does use a future tense. It is very similar to the one in
English.
The future tense consists of a conjugated form of werden in the present tense and an infinitive (the base form of the verb).
German English
Depending on the context, ich werde spielen translates to "I will play" or "I am going to play". In German, there is no distinction between
"will" and "going to".
Be aware that the German verb wollen (to want) is a false friend of the English "will" :
77 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
If werden is used in combination with an adjective or noun, the meaning will be "to become" or "to get":
Der Taxifahrer fährt den Fahrgast. (The taxi driver drives the passenger.)
Der Fahrgast wird gefahren. (The passenger is being driven.)
Die Seite
Die Seite can mean "the side" or "the page", depending on context.
Ich stehe auf der anderen Seite. (I am standing on the other side.)
Ich lese die Seite. (I read the page.)
In the context of the internet, it refers to a web page, as well as to a web site.
WLAN
WLAN is pronounced [ˈveːlaːn] in German. Unfortunately, the computer voice of the German course refuses to acknowledge this, and insists
on pronouncing it wrong.
Ich muss noch zehn Seiten drucken! (I have to print ten more pages!)
Drücken means "to press". Der Drücker may refer to an electric button, or to a hug.
Der Drücker am Aufzug ist kaputt. (The button of the lift is broken.)
Drücker! (Hugs!)
Past perfect
78 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
Student or Schüler?
A Student is a university student and a Schüler is a pupil/student at a primary, secondary or high school. Students attending other types of
schools such as language or dancing schools may also be called Schüler.
A Universität is a full research university and a Fachhochschule (often just called Hochschule) is a university with a practical focus that offers
Bachelor and Master degrees. PhD programmes may be offered in cooperation with other universities.
The German for a sports gym is die Turnhalle (used by schools and sports clubs) or das Fitnessstudio (commercial).
Future Perfect
The future perfect talks about actions that will have been completed in the future. It's used pretty much like the English future perfect, but
it's formed slightly differently.
The future perfect consists of the future tense of the auxiliary verb haben or sein, and the past participle of the main verb.
79 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
Please refer to the "Perfect" lesson to review how to form the participle, and for more details on when to use haben or sein.
The auxiliary verb that goes with essen is haben. All you need to do is form the future tense of haben (ich werde haben) and add the past
participle of the main verb essen (gegessen) to the left of haben.
German English
The auxiliary verb that goes with gehen is sein. All you need to do is form the future tense of sein (ich werde sein) and add the past participle
of the main verb gehen (gegangen) to the left of sein.
German English
Example English
naja "Was ist das Problem?" — "Naja, dein Hund stinkt." Well…
80 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
Example English
Motor, Motoren
Normally, nouns don't change the stress pattern when they change into the plural:
Elefant, Elefanten
Gelegenheit, Gelegenheiten
Nouns ending in -or are an exception. In the plural, the emphasis lands on the -or- syllable.
Doktor, Doktoren
Motor, Motoren
Reflexive verbs
Reflexive verbs are pretty common in many European languages, but in comparison are rather rare in English:
He hurt himself.
She found herself.
In German, they are more frequent. Sometimes, they make perfect sense:
But often, the reason for using this form is lost in history, and the verb just has to be learned as is:
Ich befinde mich im Garten. ("I'm in the garden", literally "I find myself in the garden")
Sie setzt sich hin. ("She sits down", lit. "She seats hearself")
Ich erinnere mich nicht. ("I don't remember" (myself))
Verb objects
Remember that verbs often have a "direct object". This will be in the accusative case:
Some verbs have an additional "indirect object", which will be in the dative case:
Der Mann gibt dem Kind einen Apfel. (The man gives an apple to the child.)
The reflexive pronoun will take the place of one of these objects.
81 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
In the next example, "die Haare" is the Accusative object. Hence, the reflexive pronoun is in the dative ("mir"):
Ich wasche mir die Haare. ("I wash my hair", literally "I wash the hairs to myself")
Reflexive pronouns
Here is a review of the normal pronouns:
du dich dir
Notice that for wir and ihr, accusative and dative do not differ.
du dich dir
82 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
The reflexive pronoun for the third person (singular and plural) is sich. Otherwise, they don't differ from their non-reflexive
counterparts.
It must be a different person: He washes the feet of somebody else. If it were his own feet, the sentence would be:
Post
Die Post has several meanings in German.
Ist die Post schon da? (Has the mail arrived yet?)
Gehst du heute zur Post? (Are you going to the post office today?)
Or, it can refer to the mail company (which used to be state run in Germany):
Die Post hat die Gebühren erhöht. (The mail company raised their fees.)
Fabrik
Don't confuse die Fabrik (the manufacturing plant) with the English word "fabric". The former is the place where something is fabricated, the
latter is the fabricated product of the world's first manufacturing plants (hence the name).
Geschichte
In German, the words for "story" and "history" are the same (just as in Spanish).
However, they are used differently. When used with an article, it generally refers to a story:
83 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
Ich muss noch zehn Seiten drucken! (I have to print ten more pages!)
Drücken means "to press". Der Drücker may refer to an electric button, or to a hug.
Der Drücker am Aufzug ist kaputt. (The button of the lift is broken.)
Drücker! (Hugs!)
Slightly confusingly, der Druck can refer to "pressure", but also to a "print".
Affen
In German, der Affe may refer to all primates, or to all primates excluding lemurs.
In everyday English, "apes" tend to be distinguished from other primates, most of which are referred to as "monkeys". German does not
make this distinction. If you want to refer to apes only, you can use the word Menschenaffen.
Kamele
Das Kamel is stressed on the last syllable: [kaˈmeːl]. Unfortunately, Duolingo's computer voice has other ideas about this. When you're in
Cologne, don't confuse these adorable, but weighty animals with Kamelle ([kaˈmɛlə], caramels traditionally thrown around during Karneval).
Telefonieren, anrufen
Telefonieren does not have an object (it is "intransitive"). Hence, you need a preposition for the other person:
Ich telefoniere mit meiner Mutter. (I'm on the phone with my mother.)
Remember that for the police, you would use rufen (without the an-):
Wechseln, tauschen
Tauschen generally means to swap, or to change something:
84 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
Hirn, Gehirn
The words das Gehirn und das Hirn are used more or less interchangeably in German.
Ich muss noch zehn Seiten drucken! (I have to print ten more pages!)
Drücken means "to press". Der Drücker may refer to an electric button, or to a hug.
Der Drücker am Aufzug ist kaputt. (The button of the lift is broken.)
Drücker! (Hugs!)
Slightly confusingly, der Druck can refer to "pressure", but also to a "print".
Wunderbar
Due to its use as a loanword in English, wunderbar is often overused by English-speaking learners of German. Contrary to popular opinion,
most Germans don't run around in leather trousers, smiling broadly and shouting Wunderbar! at each other :)
Think of it as the equivalent to "splendid!". If you want to sound less antiquated, better use Super! or Toll! or something like that.
Conditional mood
The conditional mood is mostly used for wishes or unreal situations.
German English
85 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
Sometimes, English uses special forms for the Conditional. These generally look like Simple Past forms:
In German, these two forms are also similar. However, German normally adds an umlaut change (and occasional -e) :
du warst wär(e)st
Apart from the sein, haben and the modal verbs, only a few verbs are still conjugated directly. For most verbs, this is now unusual, and
considered old-fashioned. Use würde + infinitive instead.
To show you the pattern, here are the forms for haben (to have), dürfen (may) and geben (to give):
For the other modal verbs, the forms for ich are:
müssen - müsste
wollen - wollte (no umlaut change!)
sollen - sollte (also no umlaut change)
Here are some other verbs that use their own form for the Conditional:
Equals
86 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
A few loanwords will instead replace the singular ending with a different one:
Party, Partei
Die Party, an English loanword, refers to a celebration. A political party will be die Partei .
Conditional Perfect
Conditional Perfect works just as normal Perfect, but uses the conditional form of haben instead. So,
becomes
For verbs that use sein instead, use the conditional form of sein:
becomes
Be aware that in some verbs, such as behalten, verlassen, erfahren, the Participle looks like the Infinitive. Don't let that confuse you, always
use the Participle!
Firma
Most verbs in German get their plural by attaching an ending. There might be an umlaut change:
A few verbs (from Ancient Greek and Latin) will instead replace a singular ending with a different plural ending:
87 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
As a fallback, it can help you to just continue speaking, even when you run the risk making up your own words:
Ich muss den Brief noch machen. (very bad German, but people will get what you mean)
As a general rule: It's better to speak bad German, than to stop speaking, just because you don't know how to say it well. Keep going, and
learn from your mistakes.
Plastik
Plastik is one of the few words that changes meaning, depending on which gender it is.
Note that the accusative object of an active sentence (einen Brief) becomes the (nominative) subject of the passive version (ein Brief).
The passive is often used when the original subject is unknown or irrelevant:
Mein Handy wurde gestohlen! ("My phone was stolen!" — You don't know who did it.)
Mein Handy wurde repariert. ("My phone was fixed." — You don't care by whom.)
88 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
Der Taxifahrer fährt den Fahrgast. (The taxi driver drives the passenger.)
Der Fahrgast wird gefahren. (The passenger is being driven.)
Conditional mood
Please refer to lesson "Verbs: Conditional 1" to review to German's "Konjunktiv II" mood. This is normally formed by a form of würden +
infinitive:
Wenn ich reich wäre, würde ich den ganzen Tag Deutsch lernen. (If I were rich, I would learn German all day.)
Konjunktiv I
German has another, lesser used form, the "Konjunktiv I". It is mostly used for marking indirect speech in newspapers:
Therefore, only the third person (singular and plural) is commonly used.
Here are the forms of present tense and past tense (Präteritum), together with the two forms of Konjunktiv, to demonstrate the pattern.
Forms in brackets are rarely used:
du hast (habest)
du hattest hättest
89 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
As you can see, Konjunktiv I is sometimes the same as the present tense form. In these cases, German uses the Konjunktiv II form:
… and so on.
If you want, now would be a good time to review the adjective endings in earlier lessons :)
N-declension
Don't confuse adjectival nouns with nouns that follow the "n-declension". (See lesson "Dative" for details)
For example, all other nouns for nationalities that end in -e follow the n-declension:
Relative clauses
In English, relative clauses look like this:
In German, relative clauses are subordinate clauses. The verb moves from position 2 to the end.
Der Mann kauft Hundefutter. Ihm gehört der Hund. (The man buys dog food. The dog belongs to him.)
Der Mann, dem der Hund gehört, kauft Hundefutter. (The man to whom the dog belongs buys dog food.)
Relative clauses are always set off by commas from the rest of the sentence.
90 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
Relative pronouns
The relative pronouns look like the definite articles, with the exception of the dative plural and the genitive forms.
The relative pronouns closely correspond to the personal pronouns they replace:
Das sind die Bälle. Mit ihnen spielt er. (These are the balls. He plays with them.)
Der Mann mag Pizza. Seine Tochter kann singen. (The man likes pizza. His daughter can sing.)
Here, too, the possessive pronouns correspond somewhat to the relative pronouns:
The form you need to use is governed by the grammatical gender and number of the word that is being referred to (outside the relative
clause), and the case is governed by the context of the relative clause.
91 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
Keep in mind that certain prepositions and verbs always trigger a certain case, e.g. the preposition mit always takes the dative case and so
does the verb helfen.
Das Kind schläft. Die Frau hat ihm geholfen. (The kid sleeps. The woman helped him.)
Das Kind, dem die Frau geholfen hat, schläft.
What is a Wurst?
A Wurst is a sausage. It does not specifically refer to any kind of sausage. It could be a salami, chorizo, mortadella, frankfurter, etc.
Congratulations! :)
Welcome to the last lesson of this course!
We hope you got a good first impression on how German works and thinks. But your journey should not end here :) Find other speakers, get
some learning material, and/or keep using this course.
Extra!
Dieses/Jenes
There is no such clear cut difference in German as in English between this and that. In principle, there are the two forms dieses (this) and
jenes (that), but Germans pretty much never use "jenes" anymore. We just always use the same.
Then you have a big difference between spoken German and written German. Spoken German is a lot more colloquial and often uses words
with special emphases to mean different things; since you can't see the emphasis in written German, we tend to use more distinct words
there.
So let's start with das. Normally, it's just an article for neuter words, like "das Auto". But if you use it without any noun it refers to, it becomes
a demonstrative pronoun:
Since it doesn't refer to anything in particular, it doesn't get any flection. Whatever you currently do or see or experience, it is nice.
Now if you want to talk about a specific noun and use a demonstrative like "this car", you use dieses. Since it refers to a noun which has a
gender and also a case, you have to decline it according to the noun:
This cat is black - diese Katze ist schwarz. (nominative sg. fem)
These children are loud - diese Kinder sind laut. (nominative pl)
I like this dog - ich mag diesen Hund (accussative sg. masc.)
You can actually drop the noun here, but you still match the pronoun to the item you refer to:
92 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
You mean a specific noun without naming the noun, so this one is a pretty good translation in my opinion. Compare to unspecific "I like this"
- "ich mag das".
So far is what you would probably use in writing. In speech, you sometimes use the article as a demonstrative, but then it gets a flection, too.
You have to lay heavy emphasis on the article to convey that you use it as demonstrative pronoun:
again, you can drop the noun but keep the declinated form and the emphasis:
At last, we have dies without any ending. You can use it the same way you used das as a demonstrative in the example above:
It sounds a little more stilted. You would mostly hear it while someone points a finger and explains something, but using das is correct then
as well, so you can easily live without dies.
There are some more obscure demonstrative pronouns in german, like the aforementioned jener, derjenige, derselbe and solcher, but you
don't need to worry about them for now.
Conjuctions
Conjuctions are fairly easy, there are just two different kinds. The ones who connect two or more main clauses, and the ones who connect a
subclause to the main clause.
TYPE1: CONNECTING MAIN CLAUSES: ABER (BUT), DENN (BECAUSE), ODER (OR), SONDERN (THE "OTHER" BUT, AFTER A NEGATION), UND
(AND)
The first main clause ends with a comma before aber, denn + sondern, but you don't need one in front of und + oder. After that, the second
main clause is placed with the same word order as the first (verb second in statements, verb first in questions and commands).
If the subject and/or verb in the second clause is the same as in the first, you can omit them, unless you have the conjunction denn (don't
ask me why):
Wir gehen jetzt, denn wir (!) müssen den Bus noch erreichen.
These conjuctions do not take up a "spot" in the sentence, so you don't count them when you determine where the verb has to go.
Ich fragte ihn, ob er noch bleiben (könne) und (er) mit mir das Spiel ansehen könne.
Es ist mir egal, ob du mir zuhörst oder (ob du mir) nicht (zuhörst).
As you can see, it's a little difficult in which of those you then can actually leave out the recurring parts, but that's a problem for a different
explanation, okay? You can always write them all down if you are unsure, it's not that elegant, but it is grammatically correct.
There are also some two-part conjuctions: "sowohl... als auch" (as well as), "weder...noch" (neither...nor), "Entweder...oder" (either...or),
"zwar...aber" (in fact... but), "nicht nur... sondern auch" (not only... but also), where each clause gets preceeded by one of these parts.
93 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05
Duol ngo T ps and Notes http://vokabel. r/duo.html
There are a big bunch of those and you can find many of them here: http://www.canoo.net/services/OnlineGrammar/Wort/Konjunktion
/Gebrauch/subord.html
The most important part to remember is that the subclause always begins with them. The clauses also are always separated by a comma. The
actual order of the clauses however is your choice:
Note that in the second example, the word order of the main clause is twisted. This is because the subordinate clause actually counts as
"spot 1" of the sentence, so it is immediately followed by the main verb in "spot 2".
The word order of the subordinate clause stays unaffected, the verb still comes at the end of the clause. Another fixed position is the subject
of the subclause (du), which always comes directly after the conjuction. You can not slip it around.
Nicht
The placement of nicht is really pretty complicated, and I don't think I can give you a rule that fits for every sentence, but there are some
guidelines I can give you.
If you want to negate an adverb(ial), you put the nicht in front of it:
If you want to negate an adjective, you don't use nicht at all, but kein(e):
That's because you really negate the unspecified noun in this sentence:
But if you want to negate a specific noun, you set the nicht in front of everything that specifies it:
Das ist nicht das grüne Hemd - this is not the green shirt
To negate a verb, you put the nicht at the end of the sentence, because you negate the action of the whole sentence:
Er findet das grüne Hemd nicht - he does not find the green shirt.
That sounds easy enough, but if you have more than one verb, you may already know that they get piled up at the end of the clause too.
And let's just say they bully the nicht a little back in line:
Er kann das grüne Hemd nicht finden - he cannot find the green shirt.
94 / 94 22.02.2023 13:05