Category: Uncategorized

German has two subjunctive conjugational patterns, which simply are called subjunctive I and subjunctive II. Subjunctive I This conjugational pattern is also called the present subjunctive, because verbs conjugated in this pattern resemble the present-tense conjugation. But the conjugational endings in subjunctive I are somewhat different from the present-tense conjugation. The subjunctive […]

The passive voice is so named because the subject of the active sentence moves to a passive position. The English passive voice consists of a form of the verb to be and a past participle: is broken, was allowed, has been destroyed, and so on. Let’s look at a pair […]

The comparative of adjectives and adverbs shows a comparison between two persons or objects.  John is taller than Mary.Mary runs faster than John. The superlative describes the ultimate degree or quality of adjectives and adverbs.  John is the tallest man in town.Mary runs the fastest of anyone on the team. […]

  Relative pronouns are used to combine two sentences together that have an identical noun or pronoun element in them. For example: The man is a friend of mine. You met the man in Chicago. The man whom you met in Chicago is a friend of mine.  There are three categories […]

  Short, individual sentences can sound uninteresting in both writing and speech. To make language more appealing and flow more smoothly, use conjunctions to combine sentences. Coordinating conjunctions   The most commonly used coordinating conjunctions in German are aber, oder, und, denn, and sondern (but, or, and, because, but rather). A coordinating conjunction […]

    You have already encountered the modal auxiliaries dürfen, können, mögen, müssen, sollen, and wollen in the present and past tenses. This group of verbs forms a unique conjugation in the perfect and future tenses called a double infinitive.    When the modal auxiliary is the only verb in […]

  Numbers have functions that go beyond their application in arithmetic. They have other important roles as well. Cardinal numbers  Cardinal numbers (Arabic numerals) are the ones usually learned early in foreign language, and they are the ones that are used in arithmetic expressions. Let’s look at their spelling. 0 null 10 […]

German uses prefixes far more than English does. Also, a single verb derives a variety of new meanings from the prefixes. For example: schreiben       write  anschreiben   write up beschreiben   describe zuschreiben   attribute to German has two categories of prefixes: inseparable prefixes and separable prefixes. But a few prefixes […]

 Unlike English, German does not use a suffix to form a reflexive (myself, yourself, himself, etc.). Instead, individual reflexive pronouns are used. But German has two forms of reflexive pronouns: accusative and dative. Accusative reflexive pronouns The accusative reflexive pronouns are so named because they occur where the accusative case is required in […]

Imperatives are commands. German commands are given to the second person, and they have to conform to the second-person pronouns du, ihr, and Sie. For most verbs, the imperative for du comprises the stem of the infinitive plus an -e ending. In casual speech the -e ending is often dropped. […]