Practice Makes Perfect Complete German Grammar

By Ed Swick

Build your confidence in your German skills with practice, practice, practice!

From present tense regular verbs to double object pronouns, this comprehensive guide and workbook covers all those aspects of German grammar that you might find a little intimidating or hard to remember. Practice Makes Perfect: Complete German Grammar focuses on the practical aspects of German as it's really spoken, so you are not bogged down by unnecessary technicalities. Each unit features crystal-clear explanations, numerous realistic examples, and dozens of engaging exercises in a variety of formats--including multiple choice, fill-in sentences and passages, sentence rewrites, and creative writing--perfect for whatever your learning style.

Whenever possible, explanations include comparisons you to understand the basic logic behind the rules and to remember correct usage. This new edition includes:

• Time-saving vocabulary panels that eliminate having to look words up
• Advice on how to avoid common mistakes
• A detailed answer key for quick, easy progress checks

Offering a winning formula for getting a handle on German grammar right away, Practice Makes Perfect: Complete German Grammar your ultimate resource for learning to speak German the way the native speakers do.

• Language: English
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Education
• Release date: Sep 30, 2011
• ISBN: 9780071763615

Book preview

PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT™

Complete German Grammar

PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT™

Complete German Grammar

Ed Swick

Copyright © 2012 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

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Contents

Preface

Acknowledgment

1 Pronunciation and gender

2 Definite and indefinite articles

3 Pronouns, plurals, and the verb sein

4 Titles, locations, and interrogatives

5 The verbs haben and werden and negation

6 The present tense and numbers

7 Direct objects and the accusative case

8 Irregular verbs in the present tense

9 Separable and inseparable prefixes and imperatives

10 Accusative case prepositions and interrogatives

11 Regular verbs in the past tense and word order

12 Indirect objects and the dative case

13 Irregular verbs in the past tense

14 Modal auxiliaries in the present and past tenses

15 The accusative-dative prepositions

16 Regular verbs in the present perfect tense and more imperatives

17 Genitive case, the comparative, and the superlative

18 Irregular verbs in the present perfect tense and adjectives

19 Past perfect, future, and future perfect tenses

20 Relative pronouns

21 Modifiers, adverbs, reflexive pronouns, and conjunctions

22 Double infinitive structures

23 Infinitive clauses

24 The passive voice

25 The subjunctive

Appendix A: The principal parts of irregular verbs

Appendix B: Prepositions and their required cases

Appendix C: Summary of declensions

Answer key

Preface

This book can serve as a reference for the complete German grammar. It is designed to provide detailed explanations of the various aspects of German grammar as well as numerous examples that illustrate how the grammar functions in practical sentences. Each chapter contains a variety of exercises for practice with the covered grammar topics.

The explanations and example sentences are accompanied by the English translation, which should help you more clearly understand how a specific point in grammar works.

The exercises take a variety of forms. Some are conjugations of an isolated verb in any of the tenses. Some exercises are completions that need a single word or short phrase, and others may require writing a complete sentence. Some chapters have multiple-choice exercises, which require the reader to demonstrate not only the understanding of a grammatical concept but also how that concept is correctly applied in a sentence.

Most chapters have a single major grammatical topic. However, some chapters also include a secondary topic that is often linked in some manner to the major topic. The earliest chapters contain the topics that are appropriate for readers who have limited experience with German, for example, conjugations of verbs and basic declensions. The later chapters introduce structures that require an intermediate level of understanding of German grammar, such as the passive voice or the subjunctive mood.

Mastery of the chapters in this book will give the reader a greater understanding of the complete German grammar. That mastery will be the result of consistent practice. Remember, practice makes perfect. Übung macht den Meister.

Acknowledgment

With much gratitude to Stefan Feyen for all his help and suggestions.

PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT™

Complete German Grammar

1 Pronunciation and gender

Pronunciation

Just like English and most other European languages, German uses the Latin alphabet as the basis for its writing. But the letters, in many cases, are pronounced slightly differently from English, and in four instances there are special letters for four sounds unique to German. Let’s look at the German alphabet and its pronunciation.

German adds an umlaut to three vowels to change their pronunciation. These vowels are ä, ö, and ü. In addition, there is one special letter called ess-tset, which is the combination of an earlier form of an s and a z, and it looks like this: ß.

The vowel ä is pronounced very much like the German e. For example: spät, shpate, late. The vowel ö sounds something like the English sound er in the word her, but the r in that word is muted. For example: können, kernen, can. The sound of the vowel ü is made by pursing the lips to say oo but pronouncing ee in the mouth. For example: Tür, tuer, door. Note that the vowel y is pronounced in much the same way as ü. For example: Gymnasium, guem-nah-zee-oom, preparatory school.

The consonant sound of ß is identical to a double s in English. For example: weiß, vice, white.

Let’s look at certain letter combinations that have their own unique sound.

Words that end in voiced consonants change to their voiceless counterparts.

The final syllable -er in a word is pronounced much like the final -er in a British English word, or something like -uh.

ÜBUNG

1.1 In the blank provided, write the letter of the pronunciation that matches the pronunciation of the German word.

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Whenever in doubt about how a word is pronounced, refer to a good dictionary or speak to a German speaker. But be aware that just as with English, there are regional differences of pronunciation.

Gender

The gender of a noun can be masculine, feminine, or neuter. In English, the gender of masculine and feminine nouns is primarily determined by whether a living thing is male or female. Inanimate objects are called neuter. Look at these examples of English nouns that illustrate this:

There are some rare exceptions to this concept of gender. For example, ships are often referred to as feminine:

That’s Old Ironsides. She’s a fine old ship.

Or a car might be considered feminine when there is a strong attachment to it:

My old Ford just won’t run anymore. But she got me around for years.

The English speaker learning German has to put the English concept of gender aside and accept a different concept of gender—gender in the German language. For German gender is determined in more than one way. The easiest to understand is sexual gender. Most males are considered masculine, and most females are considered feminine. For example:

Often, a suffix is attached to a masculine noun to make it feminine. You should be aware that this is a very common practice in German.

If a German noun is masculine, its definite article (the) is der. If it is feminine, its definite article is die. For example:

ÜBUNG

1.2 In the blank provided, write the appropriate definite article for each noun—der or die.

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German, like English, also has a neuter gender. But it does not necessarily refer to inanimate objects. The definite article (the) used with neuter nouns is das. Notice that neuter nouns can include persons as well as objects:

And masculine and feminine nouns can include objects as well as persons. For example:

Perhaps you are now wondering how you determine gender in German. Let’s consider some signals to watch for. Masculine nouns:

♦ Tend to be those nouns that describe males

♦ Often end in -er, -en, or -el

Feminine nouns:

♦ Tend to be those that describe females

♦ End in -in

♦ End in -ung, -heit, -keit, -ion, -schaft, or -tät

♦ Tend to end in -e

Neuter nouns:

♦ End in -chen or -lein and are diminutives

♦ End in -um

♦ Tend to end in -tum

These descriptions of gender are not rules; they are signals for determining the likely gender of a German noun. There are many exceptions, because often the choice of a noun’s gender is based upon the traditional use of that noun. Sometimes the gender used in Germany is different from the gender used in Austria or Switzerland. The newcomer to German has to put up with this in the beginning stages of learning. But in time and with experience, using German gender correctly becomes a reality.

ÜBUNG

1.3 In the blank provided, write in the appropriate definite article (der, die, or das) for each of the following nouns.

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2 Definite and indefinite articles

Definite articles

Just as in English, the subject in a German sentence can be a noun or a pronoun. If the subject is a noun, it will illustrate its gender by being accompanied by either der, die, or das, the definite articles in German that all mean the. Naturally, to have a sentence, there has to be a verb and perhaps other elements in the sentence besides the subject. Let’s look at some simple sentences that demonstrate masculine nouns, feminine nouns, and neuter nouns used as the subject of a sentence.

ÜBUNG

2.1 Rewrite each sentence with the nouns provided in parentheses. Add the appropriate definite article—der, die, or das.

FOR EXAMPLE: ______________ist hier.

                            (Mann)                             Der Mann ist hier.                                   ______________ist da.