German/Lesson 4

<< Lesson 3 | Lektion 4 | Lektion 5 >> thumb|543px|Zürich: am Ausfluss des Zürichsees Lesestück 4-1 ~ Eine Geschichte über Zürich Zürich ist die größte Stadt der Schweiz. Sie liegt am Ausfluss des Zürichsees und ist die Hauptstadt des gleichnamigen Kantons, des Kantons Zürich. Zürich ist ausgesprochen schön gelegen, am nördlichen Ende des Zürichsees—bei klarem Wetter hat man eine gute Sicht auf die Glarner Alpen. Zürich ist das Zentrum der schweizer Bankenwirtschaft. Neben den beiden Großbanken ('Credit Suisse' und 'UBS') haben auch etliche kleinere Bankinstitute ihren Sitz in der Stadt. Although this short story contains quite a number of impressive German nouns and adjectives, with the aid of Vokabeln 4-1 following you should have no trouble reading and understanding it. The passage makes considerable use of the German genitive case (English possessive case), which you have not yet learned. However, a clue applicable here: translate des as "of the" or "of" and note there are other der-words that also mean "of the". Vokabeln 4-1 die Alpen Alps der Ausfluss outlet, effluence (of a lake) die Bankinstitute banking institutes die Bankenwirtschaft banking business das Ende end die Großbanken major banks die Hauptstadt capital city das Haus house der Kanton canton (Swiss state) das Lesestück reading passage die Schweiz Switzerland die Sicht view der Sitz office das Wetter weather das Zentrum center (centre) das Zürich Zurich (city and canton in Switzerland) der Zürichsee Lake Zurich d.h. (das heißt) i.e. ("that is" in Latin) Glarner Alpen Glarner Alps man hat... one has... nach Hause (toward) home (compare: zu Hause = "at home") anrufen call, telephone geben (gab, gegeben) give kommen (kam, gekommen) come liegen (lag, gelegen) lie (lay, lain) am (an dem) at the ausgesprochen markedly bei in beiden two etliche a number of, quite a few, several gleichnamig same named größte largest klar clear klein small neben besides nördlich northern schweizer of or pertaining to Swiss Pronunciation Guide >> Grammatik 4-1 ~ Introduction to adjectives An adjective is a part of speech which can be thought of as a "describing word"—typically, an adjective modifies a noun. In both English and German, adjectives come before the noun they describe or modify. In many other languages (such as French) they usually come after the noun. Here are some examples of adjectives (underlined) you have already encountered: Ich habe viel Arbeit.I have much work.Wir haben keinen Käse.We have no cheese.Bei klarem Wetter hat man eine gute Sicht.   In clear weather, one has a good viewZürich ist die größte Stadt.Zurich is the largest city. Because nouns are capitalized in German, it is fairly obvious in these sentences where the adjectives occur: just before the nouns they modify. Note how the endings on German adjectives can change, depending upon the noun (keinen Käse; klarem Wetter; gute Sicht)—specifically, the gender and case of the noun they are modifying. Before explaining the basic rules governing adjective endings, you need to have a better understanding of person, gender, and case in German nouns—concepts that will be explored in the next few lessons. Finally, realize that the ordinal numbers you learned in Lektion 3 are, in fact, adjectives—subject to the same rules governing word endings for adjectives. Wer ist das dritte Mädchen?Who is the third girl?Wir verstehen nur die erste Lektion.We understand only the first lesson. Gespräch 4-1 ~ Das neue Mädchen Markus und Helena sind Freunde. Markus: Lena, wer ist das neue Mädchen? Die Brünette dort drüben. Helena: Ich glaube, sie heißt „Karoline“. Markus: Sie ist sehr schön. Helena: Sie ist hübsch, wenn man kleine Mädchen mit langen dunklen Haaren mag. Markus: Ja. Ihre Haare gefallen mir sehr. Helena: Markus, du bist ein Ferkel! This short conversational passage contains more examples of adjectives. Vokabeln 4-2 die Brünette brunette die Haare hair(s) das Mädchen girl das Ferkel piglet gefallen appeal to glauben believe heißen name, call mag like, desire, wish dort there (dort) drüben over there dunkel dark ihr her hübsch cute klein short lang long neue new wenn if wer? who? Pronunciation Guide >> Grammatik 4-2 ~ Nouns and pronouns in the accusative and dative As was noted previously when the concept of case was introduced for pronouns (Grammatik 2-2), there are four cases used in German. Recall that the nominative case in German corresponds to the subjective case in English and applies to nouns and pronouns used in a sentence as the subject of a verb. Nouns (and pronouns) that are used as objects of transitive (action) verbs are in the English objective case. If these are direct objects (recipients of the action of a verb), then these nouns are in the accusative case in German. If indirect objects, then these nouns are in the dative case in German. Essentially, the English objective case is divided, in German, into an accusative case used for direct objects and a dative case used for indirect objects. Pronouns For comparison with English, recall that the singular personal pronouns (nominative case) are "I", "you", and "he/she/it" (1st, 2nd, and 3rd persons). The objective case, personal pronouns in English are "me", "you", and "him/her/it"—and are used for both direct and indirect objects of verbs. For example: He gives it [the Direct Object] to me [the Indirect Object]. The German accusative case, personal pronouns (singular) are: mich, dich, ihn/sie/es. The German dative case, personal pronouns (singular) are: mir, dir, ihm/ihr/ihm. Thus, the above English example sentence becomes, in German: Er gibt es [the Direct Object] mir [the Indirect Object]. Because mir is a dative pronoun, there is no need in German to use a modifier as in English, where "to" is used as a signal of an indirect object. The following table summarizes the German pronouns in three cases for both singular and plural number: Singular Plural NOM. ACC. DAT. NOM. ACC. DAT. 1st person ich mich mir wir uns uns 2nd person du (Sie*) dich (Sie*) dir (Ihnen*) ihr (Sie*) euch (Sie*) euch (Ihnen*) 3rd person er, sie, es ihn, sie, es ihm, ihr, ihm sie sie ihnen * Polite form Recall from Gespräch 2-1 the "incomplete" sentence Und Ihnen? ('And you?'). Note that the pronoun agrees in case (here, dative) with the implied sentence — Und wie geht es Ihnen? The same rule is evident in Gespräch 1-1 (Und dir?). Such agreement is important to convey the correct meaning. Tables giving the German personal pronouns in all cases can be found in an appendix: Pronoun Tables. Nouns Nouns do not change their form (spelling) relative to case in German; instead, a preceding article indicates case. You have learned the nominative case definite and indefinite articles (Grammatik 3-3: der, die, das and ein, eine. ein) for each of the three noun genders. Now we will learn the accusative (used to signal a direct object) and dative (used to signal an indirect object) articles. First, the definite articles: Singular Plural NOM. ACC. DAT. NOM. ACC. DAT. Masculine der den dem die die den Feminine die die der die die den Neuter das das dem die die den This table might seem a bit overwhelming (and there is yet one more case in German: the genitive!), but some points to note can make memorizing much easier. First, as you can see from the table, gender does not really exist for plural nouns. No matter what the noun gender in its singular number, its plural always has the same set of definite articles: die, die, den for nominative, accusative, and dative cases. The plural der-words are similar to the feminine singular der-words, differing only in the dative case. Another point: the dative for both masculine and neuter nouns is the same: dem. Finally, for feminine, neuter, and plural nouns, there is no change between nominative and accusative cases. Thus, only for masculine nouns is there a definite article change in the accusative compared with the nominative. The following examples demonstrate the use of the definite article in various parts of speech: Du hast die Wurst und den Käse.You have the sausage and the cheese.(accusative case)Die Geschäftsleute verstehen die ArbeitThe business associates understand the work.(nominative and accusative cases)Zürich ist die größte Stadt.Zurich is the largest city.(nominative case) In the last example, you need to know that in both English and German, the noun (or pronoun) that follows the verb 'to be' is a predicate noun, for which the correct case is the nominative. That is why, in English, 'It is I' is grammatically correct and 'It is me' is simply incorrect. The indefinite articles are as follows: Singular NOM. ACC. DAT. Masculine ein einen einem Feminine eine eine einer Neuter ein ein einem Of course, there are no plural indefinite articles in German or English (ein means "a". "an", or "one"). It is important to see that there is a pattern in the case endings added to ein related to the der-words in the definite articles table above. For example, the dative definite article for masculine nouns is dem—the indefinite article is formed by adding -em onto ein to get einem. The dative definite article for feminine nouns is der—the indefinite is ein plus -er or einer. These ending changes will be covered in greater detail in a future lesson. You will see that there are a number of words (adjectives, for example) whose form relative changes by addition of these endings to signal the case of the noun they modify. Finally, we can see a pattern relationship between these "endings" and the 3rd person pronouns as well: NOM. ACC. DAT. Masculine indef. article ein einen einem 3rd pers. pronoun er ihn ihm Feminine indef. article eine eine einer 3rd pers. pronoun sie sie ihr Neuter indef. article ein ein einem 3rd pers. pronoun es es ihm We could construct a similar table to compare the definite articles to the 3rd person pronouns. And in that case, we would also see how the plural definite articles (die, die, den) compare with the third person plural pronouns (sie, sie, ihnen). Grammatik 4-3 ~ Interrogatives You have encountered nearly all of the interrogatives commonly used in German (review Grammatik 1-2): wann when warum why Warum sind Sie müde? was what Was ist das? wer who Wer ist das Mädchen? wie how Wie geht es dir? wieviel how much Wieviel Uhr ist es? wo where Wo ist das Buch? wohin where (to) Wohin gehst du? In a question, interrogatives replace the unknown object and establish the class of answer expected. Was haben Sie?What do you have?(Expected is a 'thing')Wieviel Arbeit ist zu viel?How much work is too much?(Expected is a 'quantity')Wann gehst du nach Hause?When do you go home?(Expected is a sense of 'time')Wo ist der Zürichsee?Where is Lake Zurich?(Expected is a 'place') Note that the English construction for some of the questions differs from the German in that the former uses the progressive form of "do". Übersetzung 4-1 Translate the following sentences into German: They have a good view of the Alps. Lake Zurich is very beautiful. Antworten >