German grammar. German grammar is the grammar of the German language.
Although some features of German grammar, such as the formation of some of the verb forms, resemble those of English, German grammar differs from that of English in that it has, among other things, cases and gender in nouns and a strict verb-second word order in main clauses. German has retained many of the grammatical distinctions that other Germanic languages have lost in whole or in part. There are three genders and four cases, and verbs are conjugated for person and number. Accordingly, German has more inflections than English, and uses more suffixes. For example, in comparison to the -s added to third-person singular present-tense verbs in English, most German verbs employ four different suffixes for the conjugation of present-tense verbs, namely -e for the first-person singular, -st for the second-person singular, -t for the third-person singular and for the second-person plural, and -en for the first- and third-person plural.
German Verb Prefixes - Separable and Inseparable Prefixes. German Dative Case. The German dative case is generally used for the indirect object.
The indirect object is often the receiver of the direct object. Take this sentence for example: Der Bäcker gibt den Armen kein Brot - The Baker gives no bread to the poor In that sentence there are two objects, a direct one, 'bread', and the indirect one 'the poor'. To identify which of both is the indirect object, you could simply ask yourself 'To whom or for whom is the action being done? '. Endings in the Dative case Unlike the accusativ case discussed in the last lesson, the dative case not only affects the ending of the words linked to the noun, but it affects the noun itself as well. Note that in the German dative case, an '-en' or a '-n' is added to the plural of the noun unless if that plural already ends with a '-s' or a '-n'. German Genitive Case. The German genitive case is used to either indicate possession, or ownership.
However, in spoken German the genitive is often regarded as old-fashioned and too formal. A more common way to replace it is by using the preposition 'von' + dative. One very important thing you should know about genitive, is that it's different than English when it comes to word order. Whereas in English the genitive construction comes first, in German it usually follows the noun it refers to.
An example would better illustrate it: Hier ist das Auto meines Vaters - Here is my father's car. German Nominative Case. The Nominative case is used when the noun is the subject of the sentence, that is, the person or thing carrying out the action or performing the action of the verb.
As already mentioned, word order isn't very cruical in German, thus the subject of the sentence doesn't always come first. To easily identify it, always ask yourself 'Who or what is performing the verb? ' Endings in the Nominative case Cases are important in German because they affect the form of the noun by altering the ending of the various words linked to it. The table below shows endings in the nominative case for the definite articles, indefinite articles, negative articles (discussed thoroughly in a later lesson), and possessive articles (articles like 'my, your, his, our).
Personal Pronouns. German Accusative Case. The German accusative case is used when the noun/pronoun is the direct object of the sentence, that is, the person or thing affected by the action or the verb.
Endings in the Accusative case Except for the masculine gender, endings in the accusative case are exactly similar to those in the nominative case. Personal Pronouns Most of the personal pronouns make a change from the nominative case to the accusative case, as shown in the next table: Accusative case after certain verbs Nearly all of the German verbs that can take a direct object take the accusative, which is expected, as the accusative is the direct object of the sentence. Accusative case after certain prepositions. The Four German Cases: Summary. De.