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This limitation of liability shall apply to any claim or cause whatsoever whether such claim or cause arises in contract, tort or otherwise. 7 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 Review 1 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 Review 2 19 Past perfect, future, and future perfect tenses 8 20 Relative pronouns 21 Modifiers, adverbs, reflexive pronouns, and conjunctions 22 Double infinitive structures 23 Infinitive clauses 24 The passive voice 25 The subjunctive Final Review Appendix A: The principal parts of irregular verbs Appendix B: Prepositions and their required cases Appendix C: Summary of declensions Answer Key 9 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. New to this second edition are three review chapters that will assess your grasp of topics as you progress through the book. In addition, the McGraw-Hill Education Language Lab app contains extensive resources to support your study: flashcards for all vocabulary lists; review quizzes for each chapter; and extensive streaming audio recordings, corresponding to the answers of more than 80 exercises. 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. 10 Acknowledgment With much gratitude to Stefan Feyen for all his help and suggestions. 11 ·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. 12 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. 13 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. 14 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. 15