Niemiecki 3

1) Capitalising nouns 

In German, all nouns are capitalised.

Foer example:

mein Name

der Apfel

2) German genders

Nouns in German are either feminine, masculine or neuter.

For exampel

Frau - feminine, 

Mann - masculine,

Kind neuter

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

Mӓdchen - neuter -> because all words ending in -chen are neuter

Wasser - neuter

Cola -feminine

Saft - 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.

Indefinite articles 

- (a/an) ein is used for masculine and neuter nouns

- eine is used for feminine nouns.

gender                       indefinite article

------------------------------------------------

masculine                  ein Mann

neuter                        ein Mӓdchen

feminine                    eine Frau

3) Verb conjugations

a) Conjugating regular verbs

Verb conjugation in German is more complex than in English. to conjugate a regular verb in the present tense, identify the stem of the verb and add the ending corresponding to any of the grammatical persons, which you can simply memorize. For now, here are the singular forms:

Example:

trinken (to drink)

English person                    ending                   German example
________________________________________________________
I                                          -e                             ich trinke
you (singular informal)      -st                            du trinkst
he/she/it                              -t                              er/sie/es trinkt
we                                       -en                           wir trinken
you (plural informal)          -t                              ihr trinkt
they                                     -en                           sie trinken

b) Conjuations of the verb sein (to be)

Like in English, sein (to be) is completely irregular, and its conjugations simply need to be memorized.

English                                        German example

________________________________________________________

I am                                             ich bin

you (singular informal) are         du bist

he/she/it is                                   er/sie/es ist 

we are                                          wir sind

you (plural informal) are             ihr seid

they are                                        sie sind        

4) Umlauts

Umlauts are letters (more specifically vowels) that have two dots above them and appear in some German words like Mӓdchen

Literally, "umlaut" means "around the sound," because its function is to change how the vowel sounds.


no umlaut                umlaut
_________________________
a                               ӓ
o                               ӧ
u                               ü

An umlaut change may change the meaning. That's why it's important not to ignore those little dots.

If you can't type these, a workaround is to type "oe" instead of "ӧ", for example.

5) 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.

There's no such thing as Ich bin trinke or Ich bin trinken.

When translating into English, how can I tell whether to use the simple (I drink) or the continous form (I am drinking)?

Unless the context suggests otherwise, either form should be accepted.

6) Definite articles

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 Mӓdchen" (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
Die for feminine.


Later in this course you will learn that these might be modified according to "case".


gender               definite(the)                 indefinite (a/an)
______________________________________________
masculine          der Mann                    ein Mann
neuter                das Mӓdchen               ein Mӓdchen
feminine            die Frau                       eine Frau





7) Generic vs specific

Just like in English, using or dropping the definite article maes the difference between specific and generic.

I like bread = Ich mag Brot (bread in general)
Ilike the bread = Ich mag das Brot (specific bread)

A good general rule is to use an article when you would use one 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.

8) Plurals

Plural form does nor depend on what gender the singular form is.

Regardless of grammatical gender, all plural nouns take the definite article die ("cases" can modify this). This does not make tdem feminine. The grammatical gendeer of a word never changes. Like many other words, die is simply used for multiple purposes
just like in English, there's no plural indefinite article.

English                   German
_______________________
a man                      ein Mann
men                         Mӓnner

9) You

When addressing a single person, use du:

-Du bist mein Kind. (You are my child.)

If you are talking to more than one person, use ihr.

-Ihr seid meine Kinder. (You are my children.)


10) 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".
Er sounds similar to the English word "air" (imagine a British/RP accesnt)

Learn the pronouns toghether with the verb endings. This will greatly reduce the amount of ambiguity.

11) 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.


a) 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?)

b) Willkommen

In German, Willkommen means welcome as in "Welcome to our home", but it does not mean welcome as in "Thank you - You're welcome". German for the latter is Gern geschehen (or just Gern!) or Keine Ursache.


c) 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 their elements.

Part                   Meaning
_____________________
ent-                    de-
Schuld               guilt
-ig                      -y
-gung                 noun suffix

So, Entschuldigung literally means something like "deguiltification" : "Take the guilt away from me"



12) German Cases

In English, the words "he" and "I" can be used as subjects (the ones doing the action in a sentance), and they change to " him" and "me" when they are  objects (the ones the action is applied to).

Here's an example:

Subject                  Verb                Object
_____________________________________
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:

"a(n)"                     masc.            neut.         fem.
__________________________________________
Nominative            ein                ein            eine
Accusative             einen             ein           eine


"the"               m.           n.       f.         pl.
____________________________________
Nom.              der         das      die      die
Acc.                den        das      die      die

13) Flexible sentence order

The fact that most words in German are affected by the case explains why the sentence order is more flexible than in English. For example, you can say
"Das Madchen hat den Apfel" (The girl has the apple.) or
"Den Apfel hat das Madchen"
In both cases, den Apfel (the apple) is the accusative object, and das Madchen is the subject (always nominative).

However, take note that in German, the verb always has to be in position2. If something other than the subject takes up position 1, the subject will then move after the verb.

-Normally, I drink water.
-Normalerweise trinke ich Wasser.

14) Vowel change in some verbs

A few common verbs change the vowel in the second and third person singular.

Here is the table for a verb without vowel change

En. person                 person            trinken               lesen                 spreche
___________________________________________________________________________
I                                 ich                  trinke                    lese                   spreche
you (sg.)                    du                   trinkst                   liest                   sprichst
he/she/it                     er/sie/es         trinkt                     liest                   sprichst
we                              wir                 trinken                  lesen                 sprechen
you (pl.)                     ihr                  trinkt                    lest                    sprecht
they                            sie                  trinken                  lesen                 sprechen


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.

Simmilary, essen turns to du isst/er isst.


15) Isst vs. ist

Isst and ist sound the same. So do Es ist ein Apfel, and Es isst ein Apfel. Sound the same?

Yes, but you can tell it's Es ist ein Apfel. Es isst ein Apfel is ungramamatical. The accusative of  ein Apfel is einen Apfel

16) Ich habe Brot

In English, you can say "I'm having bread" when you really mean that you're eating or about to eat bread. This does not work in German. The verb haben refers to possession only. Hence, the sentence Ich habe Brot only tranlates to I have bread, not I'm habing bread. Of course, the same applies to drinks. Ich habe Wasser only translates to I have water, not I'm having water.

Conjugation is also slightly irregular: two forms lose the -b-.



17) Ich habe Hunger

As mentioned in the "Accusative" lesson, haben is not used in the sens of "I'm having bread" or "I'm having tea" in German. Ich habe Brot only translates to "I have bread".

German uses haben in some instances where English uses "to be":

Ich habe Hunger. ( I am hungry.)

Ich habe Durst. (I am thirsty.)

Sie hat Recht. (She is right.)

Er hat Angst. (He is  afraid.)


18) Compound words


A compund word is a word that consists of two or more words. These are written as one word (no spaces.)

The gender of compound noun is always determined by ist last element. This shouldn't be top difficult to remember, because the last element is always the most important one. all the previous elements merely describe the last element

die Autobahn (das Auto + die Bahn)
der Orangensaft (die Orange + der Saft)
das Hundefutter (der Hund + das Futter)


Sometimes, there's a connecting sound (Fugenlaut) between two elements.

der Orangensaft (die Orange + der Saft)
das Hundefutter (der Hund + das Futter) - the dog food
das Liebeslied (die Liebe + das Lied) - the love song
das Tagesgericht (der Tag + das Gericht) - dish of the day

19) Mittagessen - lunch or dinner?


We're aware that "dinner" is sometimes used synomyously with "launch".

Frühstück - breakfest
Mittagessen - lunch
Abendessen/ Abendbrot - dinner/supper

20) Cute like sugar

The word süß means "sweet" when referring to food, and "cute" when referring to living beings

Der Zucker ist süß. (The sugar is sweet)
Die Katze ist süß. (The cat is cute.)



21)  Does Gemüse mean "vegetable" or "vegetables"?

In German, Gemüse is used as a mass noun. That means it's grammatically singular and takes a singular.

22) Recognizing noun gender

While noun genders might seem random for many words, there are quite a few ways to at least land a likely hit.

For example, many German nouns have some kind of ending, which will always or often come with 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 Kӓ. 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.

23) Fressen vs essen

Unlike English, German has two similar but different verbs for "to eat": essen and fressen. The latter is the standard way of expressing that an animal is eating something. Be careful not to use fressen to refer to humans - this would be a serious insult. Assuming you care about politeness, we will not accept your solutions if you use fressen with human subjects.

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.

Fortunately, both verbs have the same conjuation:


essen                          fressen (for animals)
___________________________________
ich esse                       ich fresse
du isst                         du frisst
er/sie/es isst                er/sie/es frisst
wir essen                     wir fressen
ihr esst                        ihr fresst
sie essen                     sie fressen

24) 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:

- the dog, the dogs

In German, different nouns have different ways of forming the plural.

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.

Ending in -(e)n

All nouns ending in -e, and most feminine nouns will add an -(e)n ending in the plural.

-> die Frau, die Frauen
-> die Ente, die Enten
-> der Junge, die Jungen


Ending in -s 

Most nouns ending in a full vowel will add an -s in the plural.

-> das Sofa, die Sofas
-> das Auto, die Autos
-> das Baby, die Babys
-> das Cafe, die Cafes

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:

-> der Chef (the boss), die Chefs
-> die Email, die Emails
-> Der Job, die Jobs

No ending change

There is no change for neuter or masculine nouns that have any of these singular endings:

-> chen, -lein, -el, or -er.
-> das Mӓdchen, die Mӓdchen
-> der Computer, die Computer
-> der Löffel (the spoon), die Löffel 

Some words for close family members will have an umlaut chang:

-> der Bruder (the brother), due Brüder

If words with these endings are feminine, the plural will end in -n:

-> die Schwester (the sister), die Schwestern
-> die Gabel (the fork), die Gabeln

Ending in -e/-er

Most German one-syllable nouns will add an -e in their plural form. There might be an umlaut change.

-> das Brot (the bread), die Brote
-> der Tisch (the table), die Tische
-> der Ball (the ball), die Bӓlle

Many other masculine or neuter nouns will need the -er ending, and there may be umlaut changes.

-> das Kind (the child), die Kinder
-> der Mann (the man), die Mӓnner

German feminine plurals - nouns ending in -in

Job descriptions are usually masculine:

-> der Koch (the male cook)
-> der Fahrer (the male driver)
-> der Lehrer ( the male teacher)
-> der Arzt (the male physician)

To refer to a female, German adds -in:

-> die Köchin (the female cook)
-> die Fahrerin (the female driver)
-> die Lehrerin (the female teacher)
-> die ӓrztin (the female physician)

As you can see, some of these get an umlaut change. The same 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:

-> die Köche (the cooks)
-> die Fahrer (the dirvers)
-> die Lehrer (the teachers)
-> die ӓrzte (the physicians)

If you want to specify that you sre 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 ӓrztinnen


25) Predicate adjectives

Predicate adjectives, i.e. adjectives that don't precded a noun, are not inflected

-> Der Mann ist groβ
-> Die Mӓnner sind groβ
-> Die Frau ist groβ
-> Die Frauen sind groβ
-> Das Haus ist groβ
-> Die Hӓuser sind groβ


26) German Negatives - nicht

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).

Use nicht in following situations:

1. Nicht + definite article

Nicht negates a noun that has a definite article:

-> Das ist nicht  der Junge. (That is not the boy.)

2. Nicht + possessive pronoun

Nicht negates a noun that has a possessive pronoun:

-> Das ist nicht mein Glas. (That is not my glass.)

3. Nicht negates a verb

When negating a verb, use nicht.

-> Ich trinke nicht. (I do not drink.)

Why does the nicht appear at the end here?

Refer to the section "Position of nicht" below to find the answer.

4. Nicht negates a adverb

Nicht appears before an adverb or adverbial phrase:

-> Ich tanze nicht oft. (I don't dance often.)

5. Nicht negates a adjectives

Das ist nicht gut.

7. nicht negates a nouns

Ich verstehe kein Deutsch.
Das ist keine Katze

basic ending        XEXE
recivier of action NEXE

6. Nicht negates and adjective at the end of sentence

When an adjective is part of a verb, also use nicht.

-> Du bist nicht hungrig. (You are not hungry.)

The infinitive here is hungrig sein (to be hungry).

6. 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.

The general rule is:

Nicht appears before the item it negates.

-> Du bist nicht hungrig. (not hungry)
-> Ich tanze nicht oft. (not often)
-> Das ist nicht mein Glas. (not my glass)
-> Das ist nicht der Junge. (not the boy)

So, what about Ich trinke nicht?

When you negate a verb, you place "nicht" at the end. E.g.:

• Ich mag es nicht. (I do not like it.)
• Fährst du nicht? (Aren't you driving?)

When you negate anything else, you place "nicht" in front of the modified object. E.g.:

• Das ist nicht mein Zeug. (That is stuff, but that is not my stuff.)
• Die Äpfel sind nicht rot. (There are apples, but the apples are not red.)
• Wir laufen nicht schnell. (We run, but we do not run fast.)

If you can restructure the sentence so it negates a non-verb, you should use that structure when translating. E.g.:

• That is not cheese. -> That is no cheese. -> Das ist kein Käse.
• We don't play football. -> We play no football. -> Wir spielen kein Fußball.
• I don't know anything. -> I know nothing. -> Ich weiß nichts.

27) The German Sentance Bracket

Consider this English sentance:

-> I wake up in China.

The verb would be "wake up"; the infinitive " to wake up". Wnglish keeps its verb elements close together. german, on the other hand, has a peculiar sentence structure:

-> Ich wache in China auf.

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".

Here's a longer example:

-> Infinitive: mit Freunden ins Restaurant gehen (to go to to the restaurant with friends).

-> Ich gehe mit Freunden ins Restaurant.

This bracket is the reason nicht  might end up at the end of a sentence.

Consider these examples:

-> 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")




28) Questions

Yes/No Questions

When asking a yes/no question in English, you would say:

-> "Is it cold?", but
-> "Do you have a dog?" or
-> "Does the man drink water?"

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?

Questions can be asked by switching the subject and verb. For instance,

• Du verstehst das. (You understand this.)

becomes

• Verstehst du das? (Do you understand this?).

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?".

In German, all verbs follow this principle. There's no do-support.

Asking a Question in German With a W-Word

There are seven W-questions in German:

English	German
what	was
who	wer
where	wo
when	wann
how	wie
why	warum
which	welcher

Don't mix up wer and wo, which are "switched" in English :)

Some of these will change according to case.

Was (what)

If you ask was with a preposition, the two normally turn into a new word, according to the following pattern:

English	preposition	wo-
for what	für	wofür
about what	über	worüber
with what	mit	womit

If the preposition starts with a vowel, there will be an extra -r- to make it easier to pronounce.

This wo- prefix does not mean "where".

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:

• Wer ist da? (Who is there?).

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.

• Wen siehst du? — Ich sehe den Hund.
• (Whom do you see? — I see the dog.)

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):

case	masc.	Form of wer
nominative	der	wer
accusative	den	wen
dative	dem	wem

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
die (pl.)	welche
den	welchen

Wo (where)

In German, you can inquire about locations in several ways.

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).

Consider these examples:

• Wo ist mein Schuh? (Where is my shoe?)
• Wohin gehst du? (Where are you going (to)?)

Furthermore, wohin is separable into wo + hin:

• Wo ist mein Schuh hin? (Where did my shoe go?)

The same goes for woher (where from):

• Woher kommst du? (Where are you from)

might become

• Wo kommst du her?

English	German
where	wo
where to	wohin
where from	woher

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.

• Wann kommst du? (When are you coming?)
• 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?".

• Warum ist das Auto so alt?
• Wieso ist das Auto so alt?
• Weshalb ist das Auto so alt?
• Weswegen ist das Auto so alt?

Wie viel vs. wie viele

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?)

29) No continuous aspect

Remmeber that in German, there is no continuous aspect, i.e. there are no separate forms for  "I drink" and "I am drinking". There's only one form: Ich trinke.


30)Verb conjugation

a) Conjugation regular verbs

Example: gehen (to go)

English person                              German example
___________________________________________________
I                                                     ich gehe
you (sg. informal)                         du gehst
he/she/it                                         er/sie/es geht
we                                                  wir gehen
you (pl. informal)                          ihr geht
they                                                sie 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.

b) Vowel change in some verbs

A few common verbs change the vowel in the second and third person singular.

Normally the vowel will change:

-> form a to ӓ
-> from e to i(e)



person                           schlafen                              sehen
____________________________________________________________
ich                                 schlafe                                sehe
du                                  schlӓfst                               siehst
er/sie/es                         schlӓft                                 sieht
wir                                 schlafen                              sehen
ihr                                  schlaft                                 seht
sie                                  schlafen                              sehen



Other verbs in this skill are:

-> fahren (to ride) - du fӓhrst
-> waschen (to wash) - du wӓschst

In addition, when a verb stem ends in -s, second and third person singular form will look  the same:

-> lesen (to read) - du liest, er liest

This is because the -s- from du ... -st and the -s form the verb stem merge

c) Wollen and mögen

Wollen (to want) and mögen (to like) follow a diefferent conjugation system:


English                      pronoun                      wollen                     mögen
__________________________________________________________________
I want/like                 ich                               will                          mag
you (sg. inf.)              du                                willst                       magst
he/she/it                     er/sie/es                       will                          mag
we                              wir                               wollen                     mögen
you (pl. inf.)               ihr                               wollt                        mögt
they                            sie                                wollen                     mögen


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.

31) How do you like things in German?

Use the verb mögen to express that you like something or someone.

Mögen cannot be used for verbs.

how 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 Fuβball spielen translates as "I would like to play soccer", not "I like playing soccer".)

Mögen is used  for things, animals, and people:

-> Ich mag Bier. (I like beer.)
-> Sie mag Katzen. (She likes cats.)
-> Wir mögen dich. (We like you.)
-> Ihr mögt Bücher. (You like books.)


32) Kleider - dresses or clothes?

Das Kleid means "the dress", and die Kleider means "the dresses", but the plural die Kleider can also mean "clothes" or "clothing". In most cases, "clothing" (or "clothes") translates to Kleidung (usuallyy uncountable), but it's important to be aware the kleider can be used in that sense as well.

33) 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.

34) Lakes and seas - false fiends ahoy.

The German for "the lake" is der See (masculine) and the most commonly used word for "the sea" is das Meer (neuter).

There's another slightly less commonly used word for "the sea" : die See (feminine).

Be careful no to confuse der See (the lake) and die See (the sea).


singular                          (masc.: "lake")                         (fem.: "sea")
________________________________________________________
nominative                      der See                                     die See
accusative                       den See                                     die See

The plural forms are identical (only the plral f der See is commonly used).

plural                              (masc.: "lakes")                         (fem.: "seas")
_____________________________________________________________
nominative                      die Seen                                     die Seen
accusative                        die Seen                                     die Seen


There are not many noun pairs like this in German. Here is the most extreme example plural forms:

-> das Band (die Bӓnder) - the tape (band)
-> der Band (die Bӓnde) - the volume/tome
-> die Band (pronouced as in English) (die Bands) - the music band

35) Personal Pronouns in the Nominative Case

A pronoun is a word that represents a noun, like er does for der Mann. In the nominative case, the personal pronouns are simply the grammatical persons you already know: ich, du, er/sie/es, wir, ihr, and sie.

a) Possessive pronouns

German uses possessive pronouns similar to the English ones. For example "my" ist mein in German, "his" is sein, and "her" is ihr.

personal pronouns                     possessive pronouns
______________________________________________
ich                                              mein
du                                               dein
er/es                                            sein
sie (feminine)                             ihr
wir                                              unser
ihr                                               euer
sie (plural)                                  ihr


Remember that in German, eu sounds like "boy", and the ending -er normally roughly sounds like "ma"

b) Nominative forms

Unlike English, these possessive pronouns change their endings in the same way as the indefinite article ein.

-> mein Bruder (ein Bruder)
-> meine Mutter (eine Mutter)

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 folowing table has the forms in the nominative case. These are used for subjects, as in

-> Meine Katze ist super. (My cat is great)


                                       der Hund             das Insekt                 die Katze               die Hunde
____________________________________________________________________________   
indef. article                   ein                        ein                            eine                       (keine)
ich                                  mein                     mein                         meine                     meine
du                                   dein                      dein                          deine                      deine
er/es                                sein                      sein                           seine                      seine
sie (fem                          ihr                         ihr                             ihre                        ihre
wir                                  unser                    unser                         unsere                    unsere
ihr                                   euer                      euer                           eure                       eure
sie (plural)                      ihr                        ihr                             ihre                         ihre


As you might notice, ihr has several different functions, so make sure you understand the context it is used in.           

c) 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 ist komisch. (That one is strange)
-> Meine Kinder? Die sind in England. (My kids? They/Those are in England.)

When spoken, the definite articles can serve a similar function:

-> Der junge liest eine Zeitung, der Junge liest ein Buch.
-> This boy is reading a newspaper, that boy is reading a book.

the articles would  be stressed in that case.


d) Some other pronouns

Some other words can function as pronouns.

The following ones change their endings like definite articles:



                                  der                        das                      die(fem.)                     die (pl.)       
_____________________________________________________________________________
this/these                   dieser                    dieses                 diese                            diese
every                         jeder                      jedes                   jede                             -
some                          mancher                manches             manche                       manche

-Dieser Junge isst, dieser (Junge) trinkt. - This boy eats, that (boy/one) drinks.
-Jedes Kind mag Pizza. - Every kid likes pizza.
-Manche Kinder mögen Kӓse. - some kids like cheese.

36) Viel vs viele

These roughly correspond to English "much/many".

viel - used with uncountable nouns, "much" or "a lot of"
viele - used with countable nouns, "many"

These roughly correspond to English "much/many". Use viel with uncountable nouns, viele with countable ones.

• Ich trinke viel Wasser.
• Ich habe viele Hunde.

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.

Ich trinke viel Wasser
Ich habe viele Hunde


manche -some
niemand - nobody
jemand - someone, anyone
etwas - some
poor - few


37) Alles oder nichts

Just like nicht (not) has a look-alike nichts (nothing), alle (all) has alles (everything) as a counterpart.

-Ich esse nicht. (I do not eat).
-Ich esse nichts. (I eat nothing.)
-Ich esse alles (I eat everything.)
-Ich esse alle (Orangen). (I eat all (oranges).)

38) Ein paar vs Paar

Ein paar (lowercase p) means "a few", "some" or "a couple (of)" (only in the sense of at least two, not exactly two).

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).

39) 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).

a) Nicht

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).

For details, and to learn where to put nicht in a sentence, refer to the "Not" lesson.

b) 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, keinchanges 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 keineKatze. (I have no cat.)

Here are the endings of the indefinite article so far:

	masc	neut	fem	plural
nominative	ein	ein	eine	---
accusative	einen	ein	eine	---

Here is the list of the respective kein forms:

	masc	neut	fem	plural
nominative	kein	kein	keine	keine
accusative	keinen	kein	keine	keine

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:

• If you can use "not a/no" in English, use kein.
• If you need to use "not", use nicht.

c) Nicht vs. Nichts

Nicht is an adverb and is useful for negations. On the other hand, nichts (nothing/anything) is a pronoun and its meaning is different from that of nicht.

• Ich esse nicht. (I do not eat.)
• Ich esse nichts. (I eat nothing.)

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.).

d) Keiner, keine, keines

In German, "nobody" can be expressed in several ways.

As long as it refers to people, niemand works just fine:

• Niemand schläft. (Nobody sleeps.)

There is also keiner. It changes endings like the definite articles:

	masc.	neut.	fem.	plural
nominative	der	das	die	die
accusative	den	das	die	die

	masc.	neut.	fem.	plural
nominative	keiner	keines	keine	keine
accusative	keinen	keines	keine	keine

For now, we teach only the default version (which is masculine in German):

• Keiner schläft. (None of them sleeps.)

40) How do you like things in German?

Use the verb mögen to express that you like something or someone, and use the adverb gern(e) to express that you like doing something.

a) Mögen is used for things, animals, and people:

• Ich mag Bier. (I like beer.)
• Sie mag Katzen. (She likes cats.)
• Wir mögen dich. (We like you.)
• Ihr mögt Bücher. (You like books.)

Please refer to lesson "Present 1" for more details on mögen.

b) Gern(e) is used for verbs/activities:

• Ich trinke gern(e) Bier. (I like to drink beer/I like drinking beer.)
• 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.)

c) Position of gerne

If you're not sure where to put gern(e): It goes to the same position as oft (often).

• Ich trinke oft Bier. (I drink beer often.)
• Ich trinke gern Bier. (I like to drink beer.)

41)  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.

The same goes for allein(e).

42) 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.

Consider these two examples to get a first idea about this:

• 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 nichtaus China.

Here's one more adverb, to see how they work together:

• 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.

43) Recognizing noun gender

As mentioned before, you can often know the gender of a noun by looking at the word ending.

• 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 :)

• der Fisch, der Tisch
• der Raum, der Traum, der Baum
• der Kopf, der Knopf

44) Pronunciation of French loanwords

When English uses a word from French, it usually pronounces it according to English sound rules. German will often sound more close to the original.

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.

45) 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.

If you enjoyed this, check out "Rhabarberbarbara" on Youtube.

No, words like this don't normally happen in German :)

46) How much stuff?

In English, you can't count "stuff" -- you can't use the plural "stuffs" or say that "there are three stuffs on the floor". Instead, "stuff" is a collective noun, referring to a group of things but used in the singular: "there is stuff on the floor".

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 tool 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".

47) Pronouns

a) Personal Pronouns in the Accusative Case

Aside from the nominative case, most of the German pronouns are declined according to case. Like in English, when the subject becomes the object, the pronoun changes. For instance, ich changes to mich(accusative object) as in Sie sieht mich. (She sees me.).

Nominative (subject)	Accusative (object)
ich (I)	mich (me)
du (you singular informal)	dich (you singular informal)
er (he) sie (she) es (it)	ihn (him) sie (her) es(it)
wir (we)	uns (us)
ihr (you plural informal)	euch (you plural informal)
sie (they)	sie (them)

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 (derbecomes den).

b) Possessive Pronouns in the Accusative Case

You might remember from the lesson "Personal Pronouns" that German possessive pronouns change their endings like the indefinite article:

• ein Hund, mein Hund
• eine Katze, meine Katze

This extends to all cases. You already know that in the accusative case, only masculine singular changes:

• Ein Hund schläft. Er sieht einen Hund.

but:

• Eine Katze schläft. Sie sieht eine Katze. (no change)

So, if you see einen, meinen, unseren and so forth with a singular noun, you will know two things:

• the noun is masculine
• the noun is in the accusative case (probably the object of the sentence)

Consider this example:

• Meinen Hund mag die Frau nicht.

It is clear here that the dog must be the object (accusative). So actually the woman does not like the dog.

Here is the table of possessive pronouns for the accusative case:

Accusative	derHund	dasInsekt	dieKatze	dieHunde
indef. article	einen	ein	eine	(keine)
ich	meinen	mein	meine	meine
du	deinen	dein	deine	deine
er/es	seinen	sein	seine	seine
sie (fem.)	ihren	ihr	ihre	ihre
wir	unseren	unser	unsere	unsere
ihr	euren	euer	eure	eure
sie (plural)	ihren	ihr	ihre	ihre

48) Möbel

Möbel corresponds to English "furniture". While "furniture" is singular, Möbel is normally only used in the plural.

• Die Möbel sind super! (The furniture is great!)

49)  German Conjunctions

A conjunction like wenn (when) or und (and) connects two parts of a sentence together.

a) 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.

• Ich mag Schokolade. Sie mag Pizza.
• Ich mag Schokolade und sie mag Pizza.

Examples: und, oder, aber, denn

und - and
aber - but
oder -
denn - because

b) 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.

• Ich bin gesund. Ich laufe oft.
• Ich bin gesund, weil ich oft laufe.
• Ich spreche gut Deutsch. Ich lerne oft Deutsch.
• Ich spreche gut Deutsch, weil ich oft Deutsch lerne.

Examples: weil, wenn, dass, obwohl

c) Correlative conjunctions

orrelative 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).

• Du trägst einen Rock. Du trägst eine Hose.
• Du trägst entweder einen Rock oder eine Hose.
• Du wäschst den Rock. Du trägst eine Hose.
• Entweder du wäschst den Rock, oder du trägst eine Hose.
• Du wäschst entweder den Rock oder (du) trägst eine Hose.

Examples: entweder … oder, nicht nur … sondern auch, weder … noch

dach - yet

weil - because

wenn - when 

dass - that

obwohl - even though

d) Sondern

Sondern works like "but … instead" in English. It only takes the element that is different:

• Ich trage kein Kleid. Ich trage eine Hose.
• Ich trage kein Kleid, sondern eine Hose.
• Sie kommt nicht aus Deutschland. Sie kommt aus China.
• Sie kommt nicht aus Deutschland, sondern aus China.

entweder .. oder - either ... or
nicht nur ... sondern auch - not only ... but also
weder ... noch - neither ... nor

50)  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.

..........................Singular....................Plural

Nominativ.....der Name.................die Namen

Genitiv............des Namens...........der Namen

Dativ................dem Namen...........den Namen

Akkusativ.......den Namen.............die Namen

51) Family

a) Informal and formal words for family members

Just like in English, there are informal and formal words for "mother", "father", "grandmother", and "grandfather". Note that in German, the difference between formal and informal is a lot more pronounced than in English. The informal terms are pretty much only used within your own family.

formal	informal
die Mutter (the mother)	die Mama (the mom)
der Vater (the father)	der Papa (the dad)
die Großmutter (the grandmother)	die Oma (the grandma)
der Großvater (the grandfather)	der Opa (the grandpa)

b) Family plurals

You might notice that most members of the close family have their own "system" of plurals:

singular	plural
die Mutter	die Mütter
der Vater	die Väter
der Bruder	die Brüder
die Tochter	die Töchter
die Schwester	die Schwestern

Schwester has an extra -n, because it can't change its vowel (e has no umlaut).

c) 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.

d) Alternative words for family members

There are countless alternative words for certain family members. A lot of them are regionalisms or influenced by your own family's heritage. Some of them are ambiguous as well. For instance, some people call their father "papa", and some people call their grandfather "papa".

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.

e) Tall and short people

Tall people are groß, not hoch, and short people are klein, not kurz.

This is why German people will often refer to tall people as "big" :)

f) Cousin, Cousine

These are French words. While it is possible to write Cousine as Kusinenow, 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.

g) Die Frau kennt seinen Onkel - Why not ihren Onkel?

Both Die Frau kennt ihren Onkel and Die Frau kennt seinen Onkel are grammatically correct, but they don't have the same meaning.

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.

52) Accusative Preposition

a) Prepositions

Prepositions take a noun (or a noun phrase):

• I talk with a friend from school.

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.

• Der Hund trinkt den Saft. (both are masculine)
• Die Katze trinkt die Milch. (both are feminine)

b) Accusative prepositions

Accusative prepositions always trigger the accusative case.

• Nicht ohne meinen Hund! (Not without my dog!)
• Die Suppe ist für den Mann ohne Zähne. (The soup is for the man without teeth.)

German has these common accusative prepositions: durch, für, gegen, ohne, um

c) Entlang

Entlang is a strange word :) It is commonly used with the accusative case. But then it has to appear after the noun.

• Ich gehe den Fluss entlang. (I walk along the river.)

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.

53) Numbers 

a) 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:

Change	English	German
t > s/z	ten, two	zehn, zwei
gh > ch	eight	acht
v > b	seven	sieben
th > d/t	three	drei
o > ei	one, two	eins, zwei

Generally, the vowels change faster than the consonants. So go for the consonants when looking for related words.

b) Zahlen, zahlen, zählen

You learned bezahlen (to pay) earlier. There's also the word zahlen, which also means to pay. In this lesson, you learn zählen, which means "to count". Don't confuse the two.

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).

c) 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.

So 84 would be vier|und|acht|zig (literally, four and eighty).

This might take some getting used to, but at least it's consistent ;)

d) Hundert

For "100", people would usually just say hundert, not einhundert (as in English).

e) 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.

Number	US English (short scale)	German (long scale)
10^6	million	Million
10^9	billion	Milliarde
10^12	trillion	Billion
10^15	quadrillion	Billiarde
10^18	quintillion	Trillion

(10^6 means a one with six zeros)

54) Food

a) Küche vs. Kuchen

Die Küche (the kitchen) and der Kuchen (the cake) are often confused by learners. To German ears, they sound quite different. One reason is that in Küche, the vowel is short, while the vowel in Kuchen is long.

singular	plural
die Küche	die Küchen
der Kuchen	die Kuchen

Kochen (to cook) also has a short vowel.

b) Schmecken

Schmecken is very similar to the English word "to taste":

• Ich schmecke Knoblauch! (I taste garlic!)
• Knoblauch schmeckt super! (Garlic tastes great!)

In addition, schmecken can be used by itself:

• Die Pizza schmeckt nicht! (The pizza does not taste good!)

c) Some popular food

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.

55) Dative Case

a) The Dative Case

Welcome to the third important case in German :) Later on, there will be a last, less important one.

Remember the Accusative ?

You already saw that the accusative case can be used in different ways.

It can signify the object of a sentence:

• Der Hund frisst den Vogel. (The dog is eating the bird.)

This is called the direct object (or accusative object).

It can also be used in combination with some prepositions:

• Sie geht ohne den Hund. (She walks without the dog.)
• Er hat einen Mantel ohne Knöpfe. (He has a coat without buttons.)

b) 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.

For example, Frau is the indirect (dative) object in

• Das Mädchen gibt einer Frau den Apfel. (A girl gives the apple to a woman.)

You can think about it as "the other person involved" in a transaction.

• Ich gebe dem Mann einen Apfel. (I give the man an apple.)
• Sie zeigt dem Kind den Hund. (She shows the child the dog.)

As a rule the dative object comes before the accusative object, if none of these objects is a pronoun (things are a little more complicated if pronouns come into play):

c) Dative verbs

The dative is also used for certain dative verbs such as danken (to thank) and antworten (to answer), or helfen (to help):

• Ich danke dem Kind. (I thank the child.)
• Ich helfe der Frau. (I help the woman.)
• Ich antworte meinem Bruder. (I answer my brother.)

These verbs don't have an accusative object.

d) 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.

definite articles	Nominative	Accusative	Dative
masculine	der	den	dem
neuter	das	das	dem
feminine	die	die	der
plural	die	die	den

indefinite articles	Nominative	Accusative	Dative
masculine	ein	einen	einem
neuter	ein	ein	einem
feminine	eine	eine	einer
plural	(keine)	(keine)	(keinen)

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

e) Plural Nouns in Dative

Here's a great rule:

Plural Dative: Everything gets an -n

(Insert Oprah Winfrey GIF here)

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.)

There are two "exceptions":

• If the plural already end in -n, you're set.
• If the plural ends in -s, there's also no change.

f) 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".

56) Money

a) 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.

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).

Many native speakers use either plural form regardless of context.

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 eurowas supposed to be used in official EU documents, but that's no longer the case.

57) Dative Pronoun

a) Personal Pronouns in the Dative Case

Many words change in the dative case. For the third person pronouns, the following are different from the nominative case: the masculine pronoun is ihm (to him), the feminine is ihr (to her), the neuter is ihm (to it), and the plural is ihnen (to them).

Nominative	Accusative	Dative
ich (I)	mich (me)	mir (to me)
du	dich	dir
er / es / sie	ihn / es / sie	ihm / ihm / ihr
wir	uns	uns
ihr	euch	euch
sie	sie	ihnen

Some observations:

• In dative, mir, dir, ihr (to me / you / her) rhyme.
• 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).

b) 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?")

58) Dative Prepositions

von - about (ex. You are talking about my animal. -> Ihr sprecht von meinem Tier.)

a) 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.

b) Contractions

Some prepositions and articles can be contracted.

preposition + article	contraction
bei + dem	beim
von + dem	vom
vor + das	vors
zu + dem	zum
zu + der	zur

There are some more, which you will learn later.

c) Seit

Seit roughly means "since". However, it works a bit differently.

First, it always denotes something that is still going on.

Second, it has three different ways of usage.

Consider these examples:

• 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.

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.

d) Zu Hause vs. nach Hause

Zu Hause means at home, and nach Hause means home (homewards, not at home).

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.

• Ich bin zu Hause. (I am at home.)
• Ich gehe nach Hause. (I am walking home.)

59) Body

a) 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.

b) 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.

• Seine Haare sind lang. (ok)
• Sein Haar ist lang. (sounds a bit old)

c) Bein

Das Bein refers to the leg. It used to mean "bone" a long time ago. This meaning survives in some word combinations:

• Elfenbein (ivory, literally "elephant bone")
• Eisbein (pork knuckle, literally "ischias bone", because it referred to hip meat before)
• Beinhaus (bone house)
• Gebein(e) (a collection of bones)

d) 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).

e) 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.

60) Formal you

     a) German You: Who are you talking to?

In English, "you" can be either singular or plural, and no distinction is made between formal and informal. In German, there are three ways of saying "you".

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?)

Sie (formal you)

If you are not familiar with someone or still wish to stay formal and express respect, you use Sie (so-called "siezen"). For example, you would always address your professor like this:

• 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:

English person	ending	German example
you (singular informal)	-st	du trinkst
you (plural informal)	-t	ihr trinkt
you (formal)	-en	Sie trinken
they	-en	sie trinken

When spoken, "they" and formal "you" are identical. So, in a way, Germans formally address people like "How are they today?"

How do you know if sie means "she", "they", or "you"?

You can distinguish the formal Sie from the plural sie (they) because the formal Sie will always be capitalized. However, it will remain ambiguous at the beginning of written sentences.

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.

Other formal "you"s

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 third person singular was used:

• Hat er heute gut geschlafen? (literally, "Has he slept well today?")

The second person plural was also used, and is still used locally:

• Ihr habt einen schönen Hut. (literally, "You all have a nice hat.")

You will encounter the informal you in this skill as well

As some of the sentences in this skill are shared among multiple skills, you will encounter the informal you in this skill as well. For technical reasons, this cannot be changed at this point. Please do not send a report regarding this issue.

61) Shopping

a) Kaufen vs. einkaufen

Kaufen is normally used in the meaning of "to buy":

• Ich kaufe einen Hut.

Einkaufen is normally used without an object, and often refers to shopping. It can be used in conjunction with gehen:

• Ich kaufe im Supermarkt ein. (I shop in the supermarket)
• Wann gehst du einkaufen? (When do you go shopping?)

Verkaufen means "to sell". The prefix ver- is often associated with an "away" notion.

b) Laden, Geschäft

A variety of words exist for "shop". These are two common ones, with roughly exchangeable usage.

62) Travel

a) Sehenswürdigkeiten?!

The word Sehenswürdigkeit (sight as in sightseeing) is made up of several meaningful parts: sehen + s + würdig + keit.

Let's look at each part and its meaning.

Part	Meaning
sehen	to see
-s-	connecting element
würdig	to be worthy
-keit	noun suffix

Literally Sehenswürdigkeit means something which is worthy to see.

The connecting element -s- is used to link words together.

The ending -keit turns an adjective into a noun.

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).

b) Urlaub vs. Ferien

Just like in English there's "holidays" and "vacation", in German there are Ferien and Urlaub. They can be used interchangeably to some extent.

Ferien only exists as a plural noun:

• Die Ferien sind im Sommer. (The holidays are in summer.)

Urlaub only exists as a singular noun:

• Wann ist der Urlaub? (When is the vacation?)

c) 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).

d) Weg vs. weg

Der Weg (with a long -e-) roughly means "the path".

• Der Weg ist lang. (The path is long.)

The word weg (with a short, open -e-) roughly means "away". Here are some examples:

• Geh weg! (Go away!)
• Ich bin weg! (I'm gone!)

63) Pronouns glosses over

He is one of us.          

Er ist einer von uns.

Basically, I think you have to distinguish between pronouns and determiners; confusingly, the latter are sometimes also called "pronouns" but they act more like adjectives or articles (standing before a noun) rather than replacing a noun.

The conjugations are usually the same, but not always: masculine/neuter nominative singular is the place where they differ. (And neuter accusative singular since that's always the same as neuter nominative.)

"Das ist ein Mann." versus "Das ist einer."

"Das ist mein Stift." (That is my pen) versus "Das ist meiner." (That is mine) -- note that English makes a distinction here between "my" (possessive determiner, stands before a noun) and "mine" (possessive pronoun, replaces a noun); this is the distinction between "mein" and "meiner" in German, and the distinction between "ein" and "einer" is similar.

Compare http://www.canoo.net/inflection/ein:Art:Indef:SG(inflection of "ein" as a determiner) and http://www.canoo.net/inflection/einer:Pron:SG:Indef(inflection of "einer" as a pronoun).

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1.                  Mann, m                           mężczyzna
2.                  Frau, f                               kobieta
3.                  Junge, m                           chłopiec
4.                  Mӓdchen, n                      dziewczynka
5.                  Brot, n                              chleb
6.                  Wasser, n                          woda
7.                  und                                    i
8.                  ich                                     ja
9.                  du                                      ty
10.                er/sie/es                             on/ona/ono
11.                Kind, n                              dziecko
12.                sein                                   być
13.                trinken                              pić
14.                das                                    to
15.                Apfel,m                            jabłko
16.                bitte                                  proszę
17.                danke                                dziękuję
18.                tschüss                              pa
19.                ja                                       tak
20.                nein                                   nie
21.                hallo                                  witaj
22.                guten tag                           dobry dzień (w południe)
23.                willkommen                      welcome
24.                guten Abend                      dobry wieczór
25.                gern geschehen                 nie ma za co
26.                bis spӓter                           do zobaczenia później
27.                bis morgen                        do zobaczenia jutro
28.                auf Wiedersehen               do zobaczenia
29.                bis bald                             do zobaczenia wkrótce
30.                gute Nacht                        dobranoc
31.                Entschuldigung                przepraszam
32.                leider                                niestety
33.                In Ordnung                       wporządku  Alrigth
34.                es tut mir leid                   przykro mi
35.                genau                               dokładnie
36.                alles klar                          wszystko jasne
37.                keine Ahnung                 nie mam pojęcia
38.                Mir geht's gut                  jest mi dobrze
39.                Shon gut                          wszystko wporządku
40.                haben                               mieć 
41.                Buch, m                           ksiązka
42.                Milch, f                            milk         
43.                lesen                                czytać
44.                Zeitung, f                        gazeta
45.                heiβen                             nazywać się
46.                kommen                          pochodzić
47.                aus                                   from
48.                Europa                             europa
49.                Deutschland                    Niemcy
50.                Ӧsterreich                       Austria
51.                Frankreich                       Francja
52.                Brasilien                          Brazylia
53.                spreche                             mówić
54.                Englisch                           angielski
55.                verstehen                          rozumieć
56.                Deutsch                            niemiecki
57.                Groβbritannien                 Wielka Brytania
58.
59.
60.
61.
62.
63.