2 Unit 1

Different characters
UNIT ONE
The German alphabet has some characters which do not exist in the English
What’s different in German? Basic tips alphabet:
and patterns ß – the sharp ‘s’
The letter ß, called eszett in German, is pronounced like the normal English
‘s’, for example in ‘sun’ or ‘basic’.
German uses this letter for instance after ei and ie, and after a, o, u if they
are pronounced long:

heißen to be called
Learning German is often perceived as difficult. In 1880, Mark Twain Straße street
famously dubbed it ‘the awful German language’, protesting ‘Surely there is groß big
not another language that is so slipshod and systemless, and so slippery and
elusive to the grasp’ (Mark Twain, ‘The awful German language’, The Tramp
The umlauts – ä, ö, ü
Abroad, 1880 (Harmondsworth: Penguin 1997), pp. 390–402).
But is this really the case? One thing that is very helpful in learning German These are very important. They change the pronunciation of a word and,
is that it is a systematic language, which follows rules. There are many ways to more importantly, its meaning:
make these rules easier to learn, and there are quite a few tips which will help
you in learning the language. Mutter means ‘mother’, but Mütter is the plural form and means
If you approach the language step by step you will find that it is much ‘mothers’. Musste means had to, but müsste means ‘should’ or ‘ought to’.
easier than you may think at the beginning. Here are pointers to some basic
principles where German is different from English, and which may be useful
before you start out with the grammar proper.
Three genders
All nouns in German are masculine, feminine or neuter. This shows in their
Spelling – capital letters and different characters singular article: der for masculine, die for feminine, das for neuter.
It is important to realise that gender in German is grammatical, not
There are a few ways in which German spelling is different from English. biological as it is in English. This means that objects, concepts etc. which are
neuter (‘it’) in English can be masculine, feminine or neuter in German:
Capital letters for nouns
der Tisch the table (masculine)
German is one of the few languages which uses capital letters not only at die Tür the door ( feminine)
the beginning of sentences but also within sentences. In English, this applies das Fenster the window (neuter)
only to proper names, to the personal pronoun ‘I’ and to personifications,
such as ‘Love’. Whenever you learn a new noun, always learn it with its gender: the best way
In German, all nouns must always be written with a capital letter, regard- to do it is to learn it with its article. You will find that this will pay off in the
less of whether they are at the beginning of a sentence or in the middle: long term.

Der Mann und die Frau arbeiten jeden Tag am Computer.

The man and the woman work at their computer every day. Endings
Note that the pronoun ich (‘I’) has no initial capital in German, but Sie One of the principal differences between English and German is that in
(formal form of ‘you’) has. German words take specific endings depending on their relationship to other
 Unit 1 3 4 Unit 1

parts of the sentence. This applies to verbs, articles and possessive adjectives The subject and the object are in different cases, which means that the article
and adjectives. (‘the’) has a different ending. Both ‘dog’ and ‘man’ are masculine (der) but
‘the dog’ is the subject (der Hund) and the man is the object (den Mann).
Verbs
These are words describing the ‘action’ of a sentence, such as ‘to run’, ‘to Word order
think’. For example, the German verb ‘to go’ has different endings when used
with ‘I’, ‘he’ and ‘they’: Word order is much more flexible in German than in English, but there are
some very important rules. The most important apply to the position of the
Ich gehe. I go. finite verb. Here are some basic principles, which illustrate the difference to
Er geht. He goes. English word order.
Sie gehen. They go. • The finite verb is the second idea in most statements:
Er hat zwei Brüder. He has two brothers.
Articles and possessive adjectives Morgen fahre ich nach Tomorrow I’m going to Manchester.
These are words linked to a noun such as ‘a’, ‘the’, ‘my’ or ‘his’. For example, Manchester.
the indefinite article meaning ‘a’ changes in German when it is linked to • The finite verb goes at the beginning of a sentence in orders and many
the subject of the sentence (ein Mann) or the object of the sentence (einen questions:
Mann):
Öffnet das Fenster! Open the window, please.
Ist das ein Mann? Is that a man? Hast Du morgen Zeit? Are you free tomorrow?
Da drüben sehe ich einen Mann. I can see a man over there. • The finite verb goes at the end in subordinate clauses:

Adjectives Ich kann morgen nicht kommen, weil ich nach Manchester fahre.
I can’t come tomorrow because I’m going to Manchester.
These words, which describe the quality of a noun, such as a ‘new’ computer,
an ‘intelligent’ woman, a ‘beautiful’ house, follow a similar pattern when they • If there are two verb forms, one of them goes at the end:
appear in front of a noun. In German adjectives can have different endings
when they are linked to a masculine noun (ein neuer Computer), a feminine Morgen muss ich nach Manchester fahren.
noun (eine intelligente Frau) or a neuter noun (ein schönes Haus). Tomorrow I have to go to Manchester.

Cases Tenses
One of the most important features of German is that you can tell what English tenses differentiate between an action happening at the moment
function a noun performs in a sentence by its ending and the form of the (‘I am working’) and an action taking place regularly (‘I work at Harrods’).
article. These show its case. For example, a noun can be the subject of the In German, this difference does not exist. The finite verb form is the same in
sentence, i.e. the ‘agent’ of what is happening: both statements:

Der Hund beißt den Mann. The dog bites the man. Ich arbeite. I am working.
Ich arbeite bei Harrods. I work at Harrods.
Or it can be the object, i.e. the ‘receiver’ of the action in the sentence:
The past in English is expressed either by the present perfect tense (when
Der Hund beißt den Mann. The dog bites the man. something happened recently or has a connection to the present: ‘I was
 Unit 1 5

working’ or the simple past tense (when something happened at a certain

time in the past or has no link to the present: ‘I worked’). German is simpler: UNIT TWO
you normally use the present perfect when you talk about the past regard-
less of when it happened, and you normally use the simple past in written Verbs in the present tense
German.

And finally – looking for principles

German is a very systematic language, and very soon you will realise that
there are certain patterns which occur again and again. If you bear this in
mind you will see that, after the first few weeks of a fairly steep learning
curve, things will become easier and you will recognise these patterns.
What is a verb?
Buy a good dictionary. It not only gives you a list of translations but
also tells you how to pronounce unfamiliar words and gives you important
A verb usually describes what a person or any other subject is doing: ‘I go to
grammatical information, for example whether a verb takes a certain case or
the cinema.’ ‘She thinks about her holiday.’ ‘They play football.’ It can also
what the plural is for a noun. Throughout the book, we tell you how to work
describe a state: ‘He is angry.’ ‘She lives over there.’ ‘They love me.’
with dictionaries to get this kind of information and how it is relevant.

Verbs in English
Checklist 
In English, verbs take no endings except for the third person singular
1 Where do you use capital letters in German? (‘he’/‘she’/‘it’) in the present tense. You would say: ‘I go’, ‘you go’, ‘he/she/it
goes’, ‘we go’, ‘you go’, ‘they go’. Apart from the third person singular
where ‘-(e)s’ is added, the verb in the sentence is the same form as the
2 When do you use the letter ß? infinitive, that is the basic form of a verb as it is listed in a dictionary or
glossary (‘to go’).

3 Why are umlauts important?

Verb Formation

4 What is the difference between the use of gender in German German has more endings for verbs in the present tense than English. You
and English? take the stem of a verb and then add the required ending. The stem is the
form of the infinitive without -en or -n.
5 Give an example where a word changes its ending in
German. infinitive stem
kommen komm to come
6 What is one of the most important principles affecting wohnen wohn to live
German word order? hören hör to hear

7 Is there a difference between ‘I am working’ and ‘I work’ in

German? Verb endings – an overview
Here is an overview of the verb endings in the present tense:
 Unit 2 7 8 Unit 2

komm-en wohn-en hör-en Er spielt Tennis. He plays tennis.

ich (I) -e komme wohne höre Woher kommt sie? Where does she come from?
du (you, informal) -st kommst wohnst hörst Es schneit. It is snowing.
Sie (you, formal) -en kommen wohnen hören
er/sie/es (he/she/it) -t kommt wohnt hört wir (‘we’)
wir (we) -en kommen wohnen hören Overall the plural forms are much easier to learn. ‘We’ (wir) takes -en – the
ihr (you, plural, informal) -t kommt wohnt hört same form as most infinitives:
Sie (you, plural, formal) -en kommen wohnen hören
sie (they) -en kommen wohnen hören Wir wohnen in Köln. We live in Cologne.
Wir lernen Deutsch. We learn German.
A verb with its ending is called a finite verb (as opposed to the infinitive which
does not have a meaningful ending). This is an important grammatical term,
ihr/Sie (‘you’, plural)
and you will find it in quite a few of the units.
As for the singular, there is an informal (ihr) and a formal way (Sie) to
address more than one person. These take different endings:
Verb endings in more detail
Wo wohnt ihr? Where do you live? (plural,
Although as a beginner you probably mostly use the first and second person informal)
singular (ich and du or Sie) it is important to know all the endings for the Was macht ihr hier? What are you doing here? (plural,
verbs. Here they are in more detail. informal)

ich (‘I’) Wo wohnen Sie? Where do you live? (plural, formal)

Was machen Sie hier? What are you doing here? (plural,
For the first person singular you add -e to the stem: formal)
Ich wohne in Frankfurt. I live in Frankfurt.
Ich spiele Gitarre. I play the guitar. sie (‘they’)
When referring to several people, German uses sie again (spelled with a small
du/Sie (‘you’, singular) s!). You have to add -en:
There are two forms of address in German: the informal and the formal. If
you are addressing one person, the informal address is du and the formal is Und woher kommen sie? And where do they come from?
Sie (always with an initial capital letter). The endings are -st and -en: Jutta und Bernd – was machen sie? Jutta and Bernd – what are they
doing?
Woher kommst du? Where do you come from?
(informal) Uses of sie/Sie
Wo wohnst du? Where do you live? (informal)
When you start learning German you may be confused by the different
Woher kommen Sie? Where do you come from? (formal) meanings of the word sie.
Wo wohnen Sie? Where do you live? (formal)
• sie with a small s can mean either ‘she’ or ‘they’.
er/sie/es (‘he’, ‘she’, ‘it’) • Sie with a capital S is used for formal ‘you’ in both singular and plural.

To talk about a third person or thing you use er for ‘he’, sie (with small s) for The verb endings for ‘they’ and singular and plural formal ‘you’ are
‘she’ and es for ‘it’ in German and add -t to the stem: identical.
 Unit 2 9 10 Unit 2

One present tense in German Exercise 2.2

As we have seen, in German there is only one present tense, which corre- Here is a short interview with Alex Maschke, who lives in Berlin. Complete
sponds both to the simple and to the continous present in English: the gaps with the appropriate verb forms.

Er trinkt Bier. He drinks beer. or He is drinking Example: kommen → Woher du? – Ich aus Frankfurt.
beer. → Woher kommst du? – Ich komme aus Frankfurt.
Sie spielt Fußball. She plays football. or She is playing
football. 1 wohnen → Wo du? – Ich jetzt in Berlin.
2 studieren → Und was du? – Ich Physik und Chemie.
3 hören → Welche Musik du? – Ich gern klassische Musik.
Exceptions 4 lernen → Welche Sprache du im Moment? – Ich Spanisch.
5 trinken → Was du gern? – Ich gern Kaffee.
Although the majority of verbs in German follow the regular pattern
described above, there are a number of exceptions (irregular forms): As you have probably noticed, Alex was addressed informally. Rewrite the
• Some verbs have slight spelling variations, or their stem vowel changes questions in the formal mode (using the Sie form).
(see Unit 3).
• Sein and haben (‘to be’ or ‘to have’) are particularly irregular (see Unit 4).
Exercise 2.3
But before you explore the mysteries of German verb endings further, make
sure that you have digested all the information from this Unit. Supply the missing endings.

Example: Anna komm aus Wien.

• For more information on verb endings see Units 3 and 4. → Anna kommt aus Wien.
• See also Unit 15 for more details on personal pronouns (‘I’, ‘you’, ‘he’,
‘she’ etc.). 1 Ich heiß Ulrike.
2 Komm du wirklich aus London?
3 Peter wohn im Stadtzentrum.
4 Das ist Pia. Sie geh sehr gern ins Restaurant.
Exercise 2.1 5 Wie heiß Sie?
6 Ich heiß Petra Schmidt.
Use the endings from the list below to complete the verb forms. The first one 7 Und was mach Sie beruflich?
has been done for you. 8 Ich studier Physik.
9 Und woher komm ihr?
-en -en -e -st -t -en -en -t 10 Was mach ihr hier?
11 Und wo wohn ihr?
ich -e wir 12 Wir komm aus Süddeutschland.
du ihr 13 Wir geh zu einem Fußballspiel.
Sie Sie 14 Wir bleib drei Tage.
er/sie/es sie 15 Sie (Pier und Jörg) lern Englisch.
16 Basel lieg in der Schweiz.
17 Komm ihr aus Freiburg?
18 Und woher komm du?
 Unit 2 11

19 Ann und Tina spiel gern Badminton.

20 Wir find Berlin sehr interessant.

Exercise 2.4

Translate the following sentences:

1 I live in Berlin.
2 He drinks beer.
3 She plays tennis.
4 Carla and Sophia are playing football.
5 Where do you come from? (Use (a) the du and (b) the Sie form.)
6 Where do you live? (Use (a) the du, (b) the Sie-form and (c) the ihr form.)

Checklist 

1 Can you form the stem of a German verb?

2 What are the verb endings in the singular?

3 Do you know the endings in the plural?

4 How many tenses are there in German for the present?

5 Can you define what a finite verb is?