questions-2

[mint herald]

Ahh der
Mein fehler

[plain umbra]

The charts at the top and bottom are correct. I have no idea what the middle text is talking about though.

Is it just a summary of the two charts?

[mint herald]

Yeah

[plain umbra]

Oh okay. Then yeah, it's correct.

[mint herald]

Danke

[mint herald]

Also one more question when is the sentence "dative"

[plain umbra]

Sentences don't have cases. Nouns and pronouns have cases.

So a sentence can't be dative, but something in the sentence can be dative.

[mint herald]

My wordings apologies but yeah that

How do you know that something in the sentence is dative or accusive or whatnot

[plain umbra]

Let me ask you an important question first.

When do you use nominative?

[fervent kernel]

yoooo an admin

[mint herald]

Well when you are introducing an object to the sentence

Like
Das haus

Or Der berg

[plain umbra]

Do you know about the idea of subject and object?

[fervent kernel]

I don't even know this as a native speaker LMAO

[mint herald]

Object yes
Subject not really sure (ich nicht weiß)

Object is like: (You/Him/Her/It/Them/They) etc.

Or that's a subject idk

[plain umbra]

The subject is the person/thing that does the action.

When you conjugate the verb in the sentence, how do you know what ending the verb gets?

[mint herald]

Depends but it really depends on the subject

Like
Du spielst
Ich spiele

[plain umbra]

Yes. "du" and "ich" are the subject in those examples. They're the person doing the action and you change the verb ending based on them.

The subject is always nominative.

[mint herald]

Ahh i understand

[plain umbra]

The objects in the sentence (there can be several) are accusative and/or dative, depending on a few things.

Technically they can also be genitive but you don't have to learn that until later.

[mint herald]

Yeah it's hurting my brain a little

[plain umbra]

All good. I will just give you the basics.

There are 2 things which can have object: verbs or prepositions.

You should take your time to learn prepositions... it can take some time since you have to memorise them. But I will give you an example just so you get the idea.

If you use the preposition "mit", it's a dative preposition, which means its object is always dative.

So like for example: mit dem Auto (with the car)

So that's one example of when to use dative. You just memorise "mit" always goes with dative.

And as for verbs... about 95% of the time, or maybe more, the object of the verb will be accusative. You can learn the exceptions later, but just start with that.

So for example: Ich sehe einen Hund. I see a dog.

The subject (ich) is nominative. The object (einen Hund) is accusative.

You're just beginning so don't worry about prepositions or complicated sentences yet.

Just start with these simple sentences like [subject] [verb] [object]

[mint herald]

Ahh alright then

[plain umbra]

Don't rush yourself, okay? Spend some time with these basic sentences before adding new info.

[mint herald]

Ich trinke wasser
Like that?

[plain umbra]

You really want to get comfortable because if you go too fast, you will feel lost.

[plain umbra]

Yes exactly. Try one that has articles.

[mint herald]

Yeah I'm a fast learner and i think I'm going too fast 💀

[plain umbra]

Try this: The man has a dog. The woman sees a car.

[mint herald]

Die frau seht ein Auto?
I don't know 💀

[long whale]

Check verb form on verbformen.de ;)

[plain umbra]

All good. Take your time with it.

Keep in mind, nouns must be capitalised in German.

[long whale]

And as Basmentality said, you need to add in the article: a car ;)

[mint herald]

I will remember but is the sentence grammatically correct?

[plain umbra]

Wrong form for the verb.

[mint herald]

So it's seiht?

[plain umbra]

sieht

[mint herald]

Does it work with other verbs too?

[plain umbra]

Some verbs have spelling changes in the du and er/sie/es forms. Some don't.

You have to learn it for each verb.

They're called vowel changes.

[mint herald]

Well this is more complicated

Should i learn verbs first then?

[plain umbra]

I did recommend to you a few times to learn present tense first.

Remember?

[mint herald]

I forgot 💀

[plain umbra]

You need nominative and present tense as your starting points.

faq present tense

[stoic mauve]

Conjugation

Präsens (Present Tense)
When you use a verb in a sentence (or clause), you have to conjugate it (change the form) to match the subject of the sentence (or clause).

For example, in English, we write I eat but he/she eats. The verb has a different ending! The concept is the same in German, except German has more endings.

The first thing you need to know in order to conjugate verbs is: which ending fits which subject? Here is a simple verb “trinken” (to drink) as an example:

trinken
ich trinke
du trinkst
er/sie/es trinkt
wir trinken
ihr trinkt
sie trinken / Sie trinken
(Note: the conjugation for sie (they) and Sie (formal you) is always the same)

Vowel/Stem Changes
There are a few variations and exceptions, but the most important is vowel changes (also called stem changes). Some verbs get a vowel change, which only affects the du and er/sie/es forms of the verb. (However, modal verbs and wissen have their own special pattern, which also has a vowel change in the ich form.)

Example: ich schlafe, du schläfst

Other Changes
There are various other differences but I can’t describe them all here, so please read these websites or use Google to find more information: https://www.vistawide.com/german/grammar/german_verbs_present_tense.htm
https://www.thoughtco.com/german-present-tense-verbs-4074838
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~deutsch/Grammatik/PresentTense/Present.html

[plain umbra]

Here's the info again.

Check out the links.

[mint herald]

I kinda know the
ich spiele
Du spielst
Es/sie/er spielt
Wir spielen
Ihr spielt
Sie/sie spielen

I memorize it

The question is the verbs
Why is sehe
Seiht

@plain umbra

[plain umbra]

It has a vowel change.

[mint herald]

Why is there an I?

What's a vowel change

[plain umbra]

The vowel changes from "e" to "ie" in du and er/sie/es forms.

ich sehe
du siehst
er/sie/es sieht
wir sehen
ihr seht
sie sehen

[mint herald]

Ahhh i see

And there's the umlaut as well 😭

[plain umbra]

Yes, some will change to an umlaut.

But don't stress about memorising every verb's forms.

The best thing is to learn how to look it up.

Try out verbformen.de as Susana suggested earlier.

[mint herald]

I will

[plain umbra]

Or if you have a dictionary you prefer, you can see if it has verb forms. A lot of dictionaries do but not all.

Once you get comfortable with looking up word info quickly, you will be a lot less stressed about memorising everything.

[fervent kernel]

can i join any study group?

[mint herald]

For now I'm collecting these

[plain umbra]

You mean the VCs? Yes.

[snow surge]

why all rooms are locked? 😫

[long whale]

Read #getting-started ;)

[elder tusk]

I was watching some movie or something and a guy slaps another guy and the guy who got slapped friends tell him something which I didn't pick up but from context I'd assume it meant something on the lines of I wouldn't let that be
Or something
Like you have to do something back

[long whale]

Yes...? Meaning you'd like me to look into my 🔮 to find the expression for you? ;)

[elder tusk]

Well assumed there's some saying

Just like in English

And other languages I know

[long whale]

Das würde ich mir nicht gefallen lassen probably.

[elder tusk]

/ just looking for a translation

Thanks

[carmine crag]

"Und pass gut auf die Dinge im Korb auf."

I am trying to read simple stories in German and this sentence confused me. Why is auf used twice in this sentence and why is the second one at the end?

[dreamy sluice]

aufpassen is one word which is splitted here

into pass .... auf

and the "second" auf is the preposition

[carmine crag]

so the second auf is "of" then?

"of" the things in the basket?

[whole portal]

the verb is "auf etw. aufpassen"

basically "to take care of sth."

[dreamy sluice]

yeah like in to care of sth

ah **** me

same stuff

[carmine crag]

So it gets bumped to the end to avoid saying auf twice in a row then?

[dreamy sluice]

the verb just get splitted, as a German I also do not know why

[whole portal]

the verb gets split, that's why the auf is at the end, that's normal

the other auf is just the preposition and therefore before the object

[carmine crag]

Ok, vielen dank an alle!

[dreamy sluice]

Kein Problem

[crystal gorge]

can someone help me with my homework?

this is pretty urgent and i really need help finishing them

[plain umbra]

Sure, people can certainly give you some guidance. They can't solve it for you though.

[crystal gorge]

thats exactly what i need, sorry if i made it sound like that haha

[plain umbra]

All good. We get many people asking for help cheating here but it's against server rules.

But if you're just stuck on a topic, feel free to explain the details.

[crystal gorge]

so i don't really know what to do here

theres an example above but i just don't really know how to put it correctly grammatically

[wise pendant]

Seems like conversation starters to practice talking with a mate.

You are probably supposed to write reactions to every sentence.

[plain umbra]

It seems like they just want you to give a sensible reply to the comment.

[crystal gorge]

the problem is the grammar, not sure if my sentence is grammatically correct

[plain umbra]

Feel free to write them and people can correct them or give tips.

[crystal gorge]

i'll list a few here, yeah?

[plain umbra]

Sure. I can't correct them right now but if you post them then most likely someone will help out.

[crystal gorge]

Aber du siehst müde aus

Ja, du weißt, ich habe nicht geschlafen

Woher hast du das ganze Geld?

Ich komme gerade vom der Bank

Hast du Brot gekauft?

Nein, ich habe es vergessen

[spring crest]

#dialects message

[icy flax]

von* der Bank (weil der Artikel schon korrekt und da ist)

[fervent kernel]

I am wondering, is it better to learn grammar before words in a language?

Because memorizing words in most Germanic and Romance languages seems almost pointless when so many of them are the same

I feel like grammar, common phrases, and then practicing those two are way more valuable than any amount of knowledge of the vocab

[past anchor]

Ich habe zuerst Grammatik gelernt, bevor ich Wörter gelernt habe.

[plain umbra]

You don't learn one before the other. You learn both at the same time.

[verbal girder]

also, it's more like one aspect helps the other, you learn some vocab so you can understand some grammar (or the value of) and with the new grammar you learn some new vocab that unlocks some more grammar that unlocks some more vocab ☯️

[plain umbra]

I will add also: rather than memorising a bunch of words, the first vocab-related skill to learn as a beginner is just how to find information about words.

Like how to use a dictionary, how to check verb conjugations, stuff like that.

[verbal girder]

the holy grail of learning a language is when you can start reading it

[fervent kernel]

^ speaking it*

[verbal girder]

... is the goal of learning

[fervent kernel]

when I learned english I just ignored understanding speech until I could read and write well lmao

[teal basin]

Hello, I would like to know the difference between these connectors: 1. der bus kam nicht, deshalb bin ich zu spat. 2. der bus kam nicht, also ich bin zu spat. 3. der bus kam nicht, sodass ich zu spat bin.

[long whale]

zu spä/spaet gekommen - 1 and 3 are correct, 2 is not (you'd have to change word order, same as after "deshalb"). No difference in meaning. ;)

Please note the dots on the Umlaut are not just decorative - you can not just drop them. At least insert an extra E if you can't type it. :)

[teal basin]

Yea, I know I'm just lazy 🙂

[dense obsidian]

do you also use B for ß?

[verbal girder]

that key is 8roken for me i use a 8

[fervent kernel]

schei8e

[elder tusk]

How would you say chest out?

As in shoulders back chest out for example

How would you say the whole thing basically

[dense obsidian]

Schultern zurück, Brust raus!

[quartz plume]

how should I ask for a hair cut? "Konnen Sie mir die Haare schneiden" is it correct?

[dense obsidian]

yes, but "können", not "konnen".

[quartz plume]

I does not have that Umlaut

[dense obsidian]

use oe then. "koennen"

[fervent kernel]

Hallo.... vielen Dank für dir Gruppe

[steep yoke]

mm taking notes for learning german.. i have APD so ive been worried being so slow at learning how to understand hearing speech but this seems like a better route for me 🙌

[acoustic breach]

Faq Keyboard

faq Keyboard

[stoic mauve]

German letters

Being able to type German letters is quite important!

• Schon = already. Schön = beautiful.
• Mutter = mother. Mütter = mothers.

How to? There are several options.
🔸 Use a program like AutoHotkey. Download the program from https://www.autohotkey.com/ and read the pinned message in #resources for instructions on how to set it up. It can be used with any keyboard layout and the hotkeys can be customised.
🔸 US International layout: this is basically just a US keyboard layout with extra characters, so if you're using a US-style keyboard or something similar, the transition is very easy! Everything stays as you know it, except that some of the symbol keys can be used to create the special characters. For example " + a = ä. You can also do RightAlt + s = ß.
To use US International on Windows, look for the Region & Language options and switch your selected keyboard layout to US International.
🔸 If you're on Mac, on most systems you can press and hold a letter to show several variants including umlauts. You can type ß by pressing Option + B.

See the next page for more alternatives.

Page 1/2

[tender pilot]

What does APD stand for

[elder tusk]

Auditory processing disorder

[paper crest]

wie sagt man "I watched the video while drinking coffe" auf Deutsch? Vielleicht Ich habe das video geshen während ich kaffee trank?

[errant egret]

Ich habe das Video geschaut, während ich Kaffee getrunken habe

[paper crest]

danke

[elfin breach]

can you say "Ich habe das Video beim Kaffeetrinken geschaut"?

[paper crest]

alles in unserem burger-shop für sie kostenlos

[errant egret]

Yeah, that is correct aswell

[paper crest]

which one is more casual

like you would say in a daily conversation with friends

[errant egret]

Ich habe das Video beim Kaffeetrinken geschaut is more casual I would say, but there is not a huge difference

[fervent kernel]

is this wrong 🙃

the commas behind the coordinating conjunctions 😭

im trying to explain this to my teacher but i always seem to find contradictory info

imma cry

[tranquil flower]

Ok, mach das

https://www.duden.de/sprachwissen/rechtschreibregeln/komma

[kindred anchor]

Du bist eines misfit
Why there is es infront of ein? Isn't (du bist ein mistfit) enough? Because I see that Genitiv in this case is useless.

[undone verge]

Yeah I could be wrong but that just seems like a mistake or typo to me

[long whale]

It is indeed a typo. ;)

[boreal swift]

What is the right way to order a coffee

1. Ich möchte bitte einen Kaffee
2. Ich hätte gerne einen Kaffee
3. Ich würde gerne einen Kaffee

[plain umbra]

2 is the best. 1 is okay but 2 is more polite.

Not sure about 3, never heard that.

[long whale]

In addition to what Basementality said, 3 is simply wrong. It's missing the verb: Ich würde gerne einen Kaffee trinken (but that's just a statement: you'd like to have a coffee. You wouldn't really use that to ask a waiter for coffee.

[boreal swift]

Ok, got it! So is ,,würde´´ always used with an infinitive verb?

[long whale]

Yes.

[boreal swift]

danke

[scenic saddle]

hey i have a question what is the article of "Cappuccino" or is Cappuccino have an article

[charred harbor]

der Cappuccino

[scenic saddle]

thank you

[paper crest]

wie kann ich this is how i got where i am auf deutsch sagen?

[long whale]

Please don't ask the same question in more than one channel. :)

[paper crest]

warum nicht? die leute hier sind hilfriech

[long whale]

Because people won't realize a question has been answered elsewhere -> waste of time and effort. :)

[grand mortar]

Die Frage ist nicht sehr klar,

[long whale]

Deepl will render an excellent result for this question. I can vouch for that. :)

[paper crest]

das ist mir egal, ich lerne von jedem etwas anderes

[long whale]

Would you prefer to be told by a moderator? 🤔

[paper crest]

...

[icy flax]

"Download läuft... noch 1 Dateien"
Zumal daser* Singular doch einfach die Datei heißt, muss da daser* Plural sein, nur weil der Programmierer den Text nicht hat aktualisieren lassen, wenn es zur letzten Datei gekommen ist, oder?

[long whale]

Yup, of course. :D

*der Plural, btw. ;)

[kindred anchor]

Ich kann nicht auf jemand warten, der auf einer Schnecke reitet.
This is a sentence from a fantasy book and I wonder if jemand in this case is correctly set.

Could there be also typos in books?

[long whale]

Weirdly, yes. While I'd always use the declined form (here: jemanden), apparently, not declining "jemand" is fine. 🤷

[kindred anchor]

Even DeepL says it should be jemanden

[long whale]

Unfortunately, yes. (Ever since almost all publishing houses decided to save on the post of editors, almost all books are positively riddled with typos. 😡)

[long whale]

Well, it's definitely not wrong. :)

[kindred anchor]

Oh, okey. Thank you!!

[wise sand]

Er hat kaum Fähigkeiten in Videospielen, findet aber trotzdem irgendwie einen Weg, sie zu genießen x).

is that sentence grammatically correct, and how about the punctuation and comma usage?

[gusty silo]

it's grammatical and all, but Fähigkeiten seems very unidiomatic to me there

you mean he's not good at video games, right?

[long whale]

Grammatically and punctuation-wise, it's fine. Doesn't sound overly idiomatic to me, but not being into video games, I feel unable to come up with a better suggestion.

[wise sand]

he has barely any skills at video games, yes

I don't want to use an anglicism

[gusty silo]

skills as an anglicism would also be unidiomatic there

[wise sand]

damn xD

[gusty silo]

I'd simply say "Er ist (zwar) nicht sehr gut in Videospielen, ..."

[wise sand]

oh, that actually sounds neat, with the "zwar"

I always have trouble using "zwar" in adequate contexts

[gusty silo]

mhm i can imagine that to be a bit troublesome to figure out

[wise sand]

Thanks a lot, sir

[oblique gyro]

Hallo ...Kann mir jemand mit Testmaterialien für die telc b1-Prüfung helfen?

[rancid osprey]

I’m over 200 flashcards in and I realized should I be learning the plurals as well as the genders?

Should I go back and start updating them

[glass hawk]

Couldn't hurt if you have an efficient way of updating them. For nouns, I always made sure to show the article, noun, genitive singular, and plural. It sounds a lot, but honestly I found after a short adjustment period it was no harder and I felt much more sure of how to use them.

Something like that is what I went with.

[plush pelican]

you definitely must learn the genders with every noun.

plural would be good, but gender is a must

[kindred anchor]

Are gab and gäbe forms of Präteritum of the initial verb geben and are interchangeable?

[gusty silo]

gab is Präteritum of geben, gäbe is Konjunktiv 2. not interchangeable

[kindred anchor]

I saw (gäbe) besides (gab) and I thought they were similar!

Thank you

Another question, I have been reading a book lately, namely Die unedliche Geschichte and I encounter some words that I can't find in Google. For example, glichen. Is it the same as gleichen or they are distiguished?

[gusty silo]

wir/sie glichen is the Präteritum and Konjunktiv 2 of the verb gleichen 'to be similar to'

(same pattern there as schleichen-schlichen 'to sneak, were sneaking/sneaked', pfeifen-pfiffen 'to whistle, were whistling/whistled', schmeißen-schmissen 'to throw, were throwing/threw' and so on)

[reef moss]

Although this doesn't apply in this instance, be aware that the older you go into literature, that you are bound to find non-existent conjugations of words. Lenz for example has the word frug (fragte) and die schwarze Spinne has a lot of Swiss vocab that is difficult for even native speakers

[undone verge]

Sie antworten auf meine Frage

[steel patrol]

What do you guys call hash browns in German? (They're not quite Pfannkuchen, and DeepL tried to suggest that the name could be Rösti, but the image search of that doesn't really look accurate to me either.)

[long whale]

We don't call them anything because they don't exist/aren't made in Germany, at least not in German households. What we have and make and eat are either Kartoffelpuffer or Rösti. ;)

[gusty silo]

qualifies as Kartoffelpuffer as far as i'm concerned

[steel patrol]

Dang it, the British making me look silly 😄 That'll do then, thank you!

[long whale]

Mm... don't even think about asking about Yorkshire Pudding. In that case, we don't even have anything remotely like it. :D

[gusty silo]

or custard. i've just given up on finding a word or description for custard

(granted, i'm not a great cook, maybe someone who cooks more knows something)

[steel patrol]

Guess I'll just have to come to Germany and eat lots of local baked goods, for... research purposes :))

[long whale]

Depending on its consistency, it's just either Vanillepudding or Vanillesauce, isn't it? 🤔

[gusty silo]

i think so too but i've never confirmed this thought

[steel patrol]

Appartently it could be either "Vanillesauce" or "Eiercreme" or a couple other things? Idk either, to be fair.

[long whale]

Trust meee... ;)

[gusty silo]

oki :p

[long whale]

"Eiercreme"... 👀

[steel patrol]

I'm just the messenger 🥲

[wise pendant]

They are called Rösti-Ecken (as seen in these images)

I would have used Rösti as well to describe them.
Pfannkuchen, Kartoffelpuffer and all the other alternative names mean definitely something different imo

[fervent kernel]

Hallo ! Ich möchte ein gut Deutsch haben, aber ich habe kein Idee was ich kann arbeit.

Ich habe Deutsch mit Schule gelernt, aber ich habe kein Deutsch Klass und ich weiss nicht was ich kan für ein B2/C1 haben (mein Ziel ist Kommuniziert im Schweizerdeutsch in ein gut Deutsch)

[wise pendant]

Wichtig ist dabei vor allem täglich Input zu bekommen. das kann zum Beispiel sein Deutsche Bücher zu lesen, Podcasts zu hören, Videos zu gucken, Social Media zu nutzen, Nachrichten zu lesen, Gespräche mit Muttersprachler zu führen, etc.
Es geht darum das Gehirn zu trainieren.

[fervent kernel]

Ja aber zum Beispiel mit mein English ich bin B2 mit schreiben, hören, unsw. Alles Tage, aber ich habe viel Fehler wann ich sprache oder schreiben und ich denken es ist vielleicht nicht die besste Wahrscheinlichkeit

[wise pendant]

Input ist sehr wichtig. Glaube mir. Wenn du Deutsch in deinen Alltag integrierst machst du richtig gut Fortschritt!

Wenn du explizit reden können willst, kannst du auch regelmäßig Gespräche führen mit Muttersprachlern oder Sachen laut vorlesen, Selbstgespräche führen oder Muttersprachlern nachsprechen in Videos oder Podcasts.

[plush pelican]

Chances are, if you're reading in a book and you don't know a verb, it's a Präteritum form of a verb that you either don't know or aren't recognizing.

Try this website: https://conjugator.reverso.net/conjugation-german-verb-glichen.html

You can search for verbs, and regardless of which form it's in, it should find it. At least for common verbs. Some rare verbs it might not know.

[fervent kernel]

Woher kann ich mit Muttersparchlern sprechen ? Und ich habe nicht so virl zu sagen

Und denkst du lernen Wortschatz auswendig ist ein gut Idee ?

[long whale]

VC here. There's also #1065443550004781067 Or, you could try to find a language partner somewhere like conversationexchange.com - You can find lists of possible conversation topics on the internet. - Learning vocab is usually part of language learning, yes.

[wise pendant]

Ja, Wörter lernen kann sehr viel helfen. Vor allem mit Karteikartenprogrammen wie Anki.

[fervent kernel]

Was wörter muss ich lernen ?

[wise pendant]

Am besten lernst du die häufigsten Wörter die vorkommen können.
ZB mit so einer Liste:
https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/912352287

Es ist immer besser eine längere Liste am Anfang zu wählen, als später eine zweite zu finden.

@fervent kernel

[fervent kernel]

Und ich möchte die Schweizerdutsch zu lernen, denkst du ich muss ein Deutsch Niveau in Deutsch haben am ersten um die Schw. zu lernen ?

[wise pendant]

Lerne am besten erstmal Standarddeutsch und Schweizerdeutsch kannst du dann in der Schweiz immernoch lernen, wenn du da bist.
Die meisten Schweizer können nämlich auch Standarddeutsch

[fervent kernel]

Ok ok

Danke schön !

[sleek pulsar]

Aw that's a bummer, hash browns are good

[iron hound]

Which word order works more?

[gusty silo]

the alternative they provided is the default

i'd say

[long whale]

The alternative they suggest sounds a lot more idiomatic to me.

[fervent kernel]

"im bett wird geschlafen"
Can someone please help me make sense of this sentence?

[spiral falcon]

"one sleeps in bed" / "a bed is made for sleeping" is how i'd translate it

[fervent kernel]

like, the grammar of the sentece

[steel patrol]

It's the passive voice, so it's placing the focus on the bed itself rather than who may or may not be sleeping in one.

[fervent kernel]

what is the "im" for though?

[steel patrol]

Contraction of in + dem

[fervent kernel]

why is in needed

[steel patrol]

You can't just say "Bett wird geschlafen", it's in a/the bed

[dense obsidian]

You could say "In dem Bett wird geschlafen." though.

[deep thicket]

im is short for in dem, so you need the "in" in order for it to make sense

[fervent kernel]

But why do you.use an "in" in the sentnce in the first place?

[deep thicket]

you just say it like that

"ich liege im bett"

im bett

"sie liegt in meinem bett"

[nocturne scaffold]

Can someone give me an example of dative case not mentioning an animal/person? I'm looking in books and online and it's all: ''Ich gebe dir...'' or ''Er gab dem Mann...''

[verbal girder]

it usualy involves a living being

[gusty silo]

Ich sitze auf einem Stuhl
?

or do you think prepositions are cheating here :p

Ich säge dem Baum den Ast ab

[nocturne scaffold]

thank you

[nocturne scaffold]

also thank you

i was just confused

because i thought an indirect object can be anything, but wouldnt make sense without a presposition

thanks for clearing it up ❤️

[steel patrol]

You can also use it without a preposition afaik, for example: "Ich habe den Computer fallen lassen, aber ihm (dem Computer) ist nichts passiert! - I dropped the computer, but nothing happened to it (the computer)"

[dense obsidian]

your examples involve a living being. "Ich"

[gusty silo]

🤔 i guess, but it's not the dative

how about "Der Wind bläßt dem Baum die Blätter von den Ästen."

"The wind blows to the tree(weird to translate to english directly like this) the leaves off the branches" (and von den Ästen is technically also a dative)

[nocturne scaffold]

thank you 🙏

im tryna get my head around it since im learning german cases for the first time today

much help ❤️

[dense obsidian]

did you go to elementary school before 1996?

i'm pretty sure it's bläst and they changed it in the rechtschreibreform

[gusty silo]

oops, no it's just a typo

(since the contrast between sharp and soft s is neutralised in this position, i sometimes misspell words like that)

[dense obsidian]

i think ß is never used after a "langer vokal"

[gusty silo]

oh it very much is

ah yes

no not after a short one, correct

[dense obsidian]

well im confused nwo

[gusty silo]

but bläßt is long, so

[dense obsidian]

yeah it's wrong

[gusty silo]

bläst, whatever

the vowel in blasen is long 😅

[dense obsidian]

do you know a word with ß that has a short vowel in front of it?

[gusty silo]

no, no, in the modern orthography, there are none

[dense obsidian]

there you have your eselsbrücke 😉

[gusty silo]

🙃 you misunderstand me

[dense obsidian]

probably

i think im just confused between long and short vowel

[gusty silo]

modern german spelling dictates, except if you're in switzerland where you always write ss instead of ß, the following:

              sharp s           soft s
short vowel     ss      (doesn't normally occur)
long vowel      ß                  s

[dense obsidian]

Auf einen kurzen Vokal folgt nach korrekter Rechtschreibung das Doppel-s; auf einen langen Vokal oder eine Verbindung aus zwei Vokalen folgt "ß":

[gusty silo]

but the spoken sharp-s/soft-s distinction is neutralised before another consonant or at the end of a word.

so i made a spelling mistake

[dense obsidian]

Schluss oder Schluß?

[gusty silo]

Schluss, as the vowel is short

[ruby ferry]

hi! this is more of a manners question than anything else, but right now i am emailing my mentor teacher who will be hosting me on my exchange year in Austria. if she starts using du and my first name, should i reply to her with du and her first name, or continue to use Sie? she seems very friendly and the conversation is not too formal, just information and greetings, but i dont want to come across as impolite to the lady who will be employing me! thank u!!

[verbal girder]

its up to you, but its safer to go with Sie till they correct you

[long whale]

Knowing how old each of you is would help me to answer this. ;)

[ruby ferry]

ah, im not sure how big the gap is but she is definitely older than me! so that is why im tempted to stick to Sie, but i dont know what the rules are so i wasnt sure what is considered ok to do :)

[long whale]

Yes, in that case I'd go with what make me a sadwitch said: just stick to "Sie" - if she'd prefer you to use informal address, it's up to her to tell you. (The older person/the one higher in "rank" is the one to suggest informal address.)

[verbal girder]

ultimately its a matter of manners *and respect,
if you feel like youd need to give someone respect (unelss they are around your age or younger) you would adress them with certain distance ( the formal adressions)
if you feel like disrespecting/or respect is irelevant you would use informal adression

actually, you could even use formal adression to distance yourself from someone (indirect disrespect) (but the informal way is more direct and violent lol)

[fervent kernel]

hi

[ruby ferry]

ok that makes sense! thank you to both of you

[mint herald]

Wann tun ich benutze
"Ob"
"Ab"
"Andere"
"Ander"

[long whale]

Perhaps try https://de.pons.com/übersetzung/deutsch-englisch/ob - ?

[mint herald]

It helped but there's no Ander there

[long whale]

Because it's not a word. It needs an ending, like "andere"

[mint herald]

Ahh

[long whale]

Or "anders" if that's what you meant.

[mint herald]

Ja has a lot of uses i just noticed

Auch danke!

[acoustic breach]

I wanted to say that "sicher sein" would be correct, with or without the Reflexiv

Ohne oder mit dem Reflexiv geht der Satz <- would this be correct ?

I could say "es ist richtig, egal ob es das Reflexiv hat", but just want to ask if the above would be usable

[fervent kernel]

Hi guys, I've got a problem with "lassen" grammar.

Is this sentence correct?
"Darüber hinaus könnte andere Option sein, dass viele diesen Lebensmittel einfrieren lassen können

[whole portal]

No

What are you trying to say

[fervent kernel]

I wanna say that a lot of these food can be freezed, but I also want to use lassen grammar

[whole portal]

Viele Lebensmittel lassen sich einfrieren.

[fervent kernel]

can someone simply explain me accusative and dative

and other cases

I tried youtube but

I think I need some confirmation

[spiral falcon]

Nominative = wer oder was? As the "Ich" in "ich heiße Desiree"

Accusative = wen oder was? As the " dich" in "ich liebe dich"

Dative = wem oder was? As the "dir" in "ich gebe dir das Buch"

Genitive = wessen? As the "mein" in "Das ist mein Hund"

https://yourdailygerman.com/german-cases-accusative-dative/ maybe this helps

[random loom]

Nominativ: The main actor of the sentence
Genitiv: Additional information about who is owning something or to what somebody/something belongs
Dativ: Indirect object, like to whom you are giving or sending something
Akkusativ: direct object, if you're giving or sending something to somebody, then that something is your Akkusativ

most prepositions come along with the Dativ or Akkusativ or can be used with both (different meaning then), a few ones come along with the Genitiv

the Dativ is also used sometimes to express certain feelings
Dativ: Mir ist heiß. = It's so hot right now!
Nominativ: Ich bin heiß. = I am hot a.k.a. super attractive.
Dangerous to confuse these two = )

[sleek bone]

"Nur weiß ich, das es eklig schmekt."

Ist das ein richtiger Satz?

[proven sphinx]

"Ich weiß nur, dass es eklig schmeckt."

So schreibt man es richtig.

"dass" und "das" sollte man nicht verwechseln, obwohl das wohl der häufigste Rechtschreibfehler bei Muttersprachlern ist. 😅

"dass" ist eine Konjunktion/Subjunktion und "das" ist ein Relativpronomen. "das" kann natürlich auch vieles anderes sein, aber dort wird es normalerweise nicht mit "dass" verwechselt.

Das ist das Land, das ich kenne. --> Relativpronomen
Ich weiß, dass es so ist. --> Konjunktion

Ein Relativpronomen bezieht sich immer direkt auf ein Wort im vorherigen Hauptsatz.

[sleek bone]

Danke. Ich habe aber gedacht, dass ich der Haupsatz wechseln kann.

[proven sphinx]

Man kann die Position des Hauptsatzes wechseln, ja.

"Dass es eklig schmeckt, weiß ich."
"Ich weiß, dass es eklig schmeckt."

Meinst du sowas?

[sleek bone]

Ja.

[proven sphinx]

Achte aber immer darauf, dass das Verb im Hauptsatz immer direkt nach dem Komma kommt, wenn du mit dem Nebensatz anfängst. Es ist sehr einfach, das zu vergessen. 😅

Das heißt also, dass "Dass es eklig schmeckt, ich weiß." immer falsch ist. Das Verb "weiß" muss hier nach dem Komma kommen, wie du oben sehen kannst.

[sleek bone]

Das ist neu für mich. Danke für diese Information. Es wird mir beim Bilden von Sätzen sehr helfen.

[proven sphinx]

Du weißt vielleicht bereits, dass das Verb im deutschen Hauptsatz immer an zweiter Stelle kommt. Das gehört eigentlich auch dazu, obwohl es nicht sofort ersichtlich ist.

"Dass es eklig schmeckt, weiß ich." könnte schließlich einfach durch "Das weiß ich" ersetzt werden und der Satz würde immer noch mehr oder weniger das Gleiche bedeuten.

Der ganze Nebensatz nimmt also hier die "erste Stelle" ein, sozusagen.

[storm mulch]

Konjugieren Sie das Verb sein im Präsens und Bilden Sie die Sätze.

1. Sprachen-sprechen- welche-du?
2. du-wohnen- wo?
3. sein-Studenten-wir.

Hello guys pls help to do this

[long whale]

Please don't post the same question in more than 1 channel. :)

[storm mulch]

Sorry

[steel patrol]

Have a go yourself first mate

We'll correct you

[regal heath]

1. Welche Sprachen sprichst du?
   2.Wo wohnst du?
   3.Wir sind Studenten

[storm mulch]

Thank you very much

[flint nimbus]

Kann man Die ist eine große Katze sagen? (Die = sie)

[undone verge]

yes

[flint nimbus]

my friend who is native german said no native german would ever say it like that

[vapid cosmos]

You can say it theroetically, but its almost never used practically

[flint nimbus]

do you have a better example of where das and die could be used kind of interchangeably? I think i remember being told there were such cases - in that they technically mean different things, but cash out to the same meaning

[vapid cosmos]

Hmm maybe "Sie, da hinten." and "Die, da hinten"

it means "She, over there"

Second example is kinda adressed indirectly

[plain umbra]

For what reason though?

[undone verge]

like what?

sounds totally normal to me.

with 'die'

[plain umbra]

I think there are a few factors that come into it.

[flint nimbus]

just because it sounds wrong to him

[plain umbra]

Like you're more often using this die/der/das to point out a specific thing rather than refer to it casually.

Like "that one".

And if you're introducing/describing the object for the first time, you're using "das" instead.

[flint nimbus]

right, so the usage would rarely if ever overlap

[plain umbra]

What wouldn't overlap?

The usage of what exactly?

[flint nimbus]

oh i thought that was what you were saying

[plain umbra]

Can you please clarify what you're asking?

[flint nimbus]

like "das ist eine große Katze" and "die ist eine große Katze"

[plain umbra]

Correct. Those are different things.

You see a cat and you point it out to your friend: Das ist eine große Katze.
You were already talking about the cat and add some comment: Sie/die ist eine große Katze.

"Das ist ..." is just what you use whenever you introduce a new thing.

Or explain what something is.

"Was ist das?" "Das ist ..."

[flint nimbus]

right, i see

[fervent kernel]

Could you expand on the difference between using "sie" and "die" here, is there an English equivalent? When would it be more appropriate for you to use "sie" rather than "die"?

[golden dome]

In English it would be either "She is a big cat." or "It is a big cat." But the main thing in German is here that "Sie/die ist ..." sticks together without belonging to the noun "Katze".

[fervent kernel]

In this context you could use both for the same meaning. However, you would use "sie" if it's a female cat. Also there's so many scenarios where you would use Der Die Das or who knows what, it would take long to go over thru every scenario but a few examples:

There's many cats, your friend asks "Which one is the prettiest?" and you say "Die da!" = "That one!" since a cat's article is "Die"

Your friend is telling you about how much care he puts into the cats fur and you tell him "Sie sieht sehr schön aus" = "She looks very pretty", however this only applies if the car would be a female. The "sie" in this context would literally translate to "she" and that would be like that in most of the times

In the end, you use "sie" because it's a female cat and "die" because it's the cats article

[golden dome]

The simple thing is: "Sie/die/es ist" belongs together. It does not depend on "eine Katze".

So the best is to use "Es/Das ist ..." It will always be correct.

[fervent kernel]

Thanks for the detailed explanation 🙂

[fervent kernel]

tbh this confuses me what do you mean by "belong together"

[golden dome]

Subject and verb are "Es ist". Here you have KNG Kongruenz.

You can always say "Das/Es ist -ein/der Mann -eine Frau/die Frau -ein Kind/das Kind"

[golden dome]

The pronoun "es" appears as a formal, i. H. largely functionless and meaningless subject and stands with the verb "ist".

Of course you can use "Sie/die" instead but then you already have to know the genus.

[mild prawn]

Can anyone help me with German hw? I'll pay you fr. I need this done within a time frame

[whole portal]

This server is not there to do your homework for you

What we can assist with is acquiring the necessary skills to do them yourself.

Please also refrain from posting in more than one channel simultaneously.

[mild prawn]

I wish I could but I can't cause I'm doing other finals thats why

[long whale]

Really? I'd say "Das ist eine große Katze" 🤔

[long whale]

faq homework

[stoic mauve]

How to ask a question

If you want something corrected, you can put it in a Google Doc and share a link with permission level »can suggest« in #writing .

Don't ask us to translate something for you outright: that takes professional time and effort and we're not here for that. You can try your luck with deepl.com.
For single words, use dict.cc or another dictionary, it'll be quicker.

If you want to know if/how a word can be used, provide some context to help us understand the situation.

Don't ask us to do your homework or exams for you! Show us your best attempt at something and try to pinpoint what exactly you don't understand.

[undone verge]

I agree with basementality that it totally depends on the situation

Das ist eine große Katze <- I'm looking at a cat I just noticed and commenting on it
Die ist eine große Katze <- seems like following information for a cat that has already been mentioned/the topic of convo

[long whale]

Well... I suppose... maybe other native speakers disagree with me on this? But I really can't see/hear myself saying this. If it's clear we're talking about a cat: Die ist groß, yes. But not "Die ist eine große Katze". "... bla-bla-bla und es ist eine große Katze", yes. 🤷

[lean ledge]

yeah im on Susanas side here
it just sounds weird with "Die"

maybe correct idk but noone would ever say it like that

[whole portal]

Siding with the others, 'die' is weird.

'Sie' is a possibility if you wanna talk about a known cat

But that's kinda it

I'm afraid I do not speak or read korean.

[past anchor]

Es ist ein Hund. Er ist groß. Der ist groß.

Es ist eine Katze. Sie ist groß. Die ist groß.

Es ist ein Kind. Es ist groß. Das ist groß.

[past anchor]

Okay.

[misty ginkgo]

Hallo "Gehört das dir nicht?"

Why is das (akk) placed before dir (dat) here?

[cobalt oriole]

Das is referring to an object like „das Buch“. It would change to „Gehört der dir nicht?“ if you were to talk about an umbrella (der Regenschirm). It has nothing to do with the Akkusativ.

[misty ginkgo]

Ohh but it says that the order should be

Nominativ + Verb + Dativ + Akkusativ

Shouldnt it be" Gehört dir das nicht?"

[cobalt oriole]

The standard word order in German is typically "Nominative + Verb + Dative + Accusative." However, in the specific sentence "Gehört das dir nicht?" the word order is slightly different. The placement of "das" at the beginning of the sentence emphasizes the object and expresses surprise or emphasis. It is a way to draw attention to the object. The alternative formulation "Gehört dir das nicht?" is also correct and follows the standard word order. Both versions are acceptable, but the emphasis and context may vary slightly. German allows for flexible word order, and there are not so strict rules that must be applied to every sentence. The meaning of a sentence can change depending on word order and emphasis.

[misty ginkgo]

Oh i see! So the word order like in my example, is more of a suggestion?

[acoustic breach]

Actually,
"Das" here is Nominativ

Das (Nom) gehört dir

[long whale]

Yes. Precisely. 😽

[misty ginkgo]

omg youre right, I overlooked that

Now it makes sense

Vielen Dank an alle!!

[plain umbra]

Dative before accusative is true for accusative nouns, but if it's an accusative pronoun, the pronoun goes first.

[misty ginkgo]

but the order is not fixed, only a suggestion?

[long whale]

Well, you'll hear a sentence like the one in your original post, but you won't see it written -> in that respect, the order is fixed, yes.

[ripe dust]

How important is a B1 to B2 certificate in German? For example, for admission to universities in Austria.

[misty ginkgo]

You mean "Gehört das dir?"

[long whale]

In your original post, it was "Gehört das dir nicht?", but - yeah. ;)

[misty ginkgo]

Oh wait, why wouldnt it be seen written?

I though it was the "proper" order

[long whale]

It isn't, I'm afraid. 🤷

[misty ginkgo]

Sorry, then what is?

[long whale]

Gehört dir das nicht?

[misty ginkgo]

oh I thought the Subjekt should be as close as possible to the verb : o

[long whale]

Yes, that's a very good rule. Frankly, I'm not quite sure why the Dativ pronoun pushes the subject towards the end in this case, but it does. 😳 Let me see if @reef moss knows the answer...

Or maybe @undone verge ?

[misty ginkgo]

Ohhhh that's interesting, never heard that before

[plush pelican]

Found the explanation in Hammer's German Grammar. First, Table 19.9, describing word order in a sentence:

Second 19.4.1:

(a) Pronouns are usually the first elements in the verbal bracket

and

(b)

I guess I should link (a) as well:

pronouns are typically unstressed and for this reason occupy the least prominent position within the verbal bracket.

earlier in the sentence = older information = less important
later in the sentence = newer information = more important

So, unless the pronoun is being emphasized, it has a tendency to be pushed to the left because it's unimportant, which overrides the tendency that the subject is generally close to the verb

[long whale]

Brilliant, thank you so much! 😅

[plain umbra]

They are pretty much fixed, yes. Could an exception exist? Perhaps. But for you as a learner/beginner, you can think of it as fixed.

[plain umbra]

Just to clarify, that's not the grammar rule in question for the message you replied to. They were asking about the order of akk vs dat, but the example sentence is nom and dat.

Basically the main point is that sometimes people simplify "dative before accusative" and forget that it matters whether they're pronouns or nouns, since that changes the order.

With nominative it's a bit less consistent I think (as seen in argus' post above).

[long whale]

Well, I was trying to kind of tactfully point out that another native speaker may have thought this order was correct because it does occur in spoken German... 🤷

[plain umbra]

Even with accusative and dative?

[long whale]

Ehh... depending on whether one of the pronouns is an "es", I think so. 🤔 Ich gebe es dir ✅ Ich gebe dir es ❌ Ich gebe dir das... is not sth I'd write, but yeah, I can hear myself saying this.

To clarify: Ich gebe dir es isn't just wrong, grammar-wise - it's something I don't think a native speaker would ever say.

[plain umbra]

Thanks.

[misty ginkgo]

Ah okay danke. I'd like to ask if this is just a special case? d.h. i wont encounter this often

[plush pelican]

You will encounter it often, is what I'm saying. If the object is a pronoun but the subject isn't, the object will tend to come first, unless it's being specifically emphasized for some reason, because pronouns tend to precede the noun subject (unless the subject is also a pronoun.)

Did you see the chart?

[misty ginkgo]

I did, am just not absorbing it rn hahahah but ill come back to it later. Danke !! 🙏

[willow hemlock]

Is there a general meaning for the prefixes of Trennbare Verben, like in english where (un, in, de) each have a meaning (example: possible ≠ impossible)?

[plush pelican]

A lot of them have multiple potential meanings: http://www.dartmouth.edu/~deutsch/Grammatik/Wortbildung/Separables.html

[versed wasp]

Was ist der unterschied zwischen mit dem problem beschäftigen und sich mit dem problem befassen !? kannst du auch ein beispiel für jeden Ausdruck zeigen?

[proven sphinx]

They're both the same, as far as I'm aware.

"sich mit dem Problem befassen" is perhaps a bit more idiomatic.

"Ich muss mich immer mit dem Problem befassen, dass meine Mitarbeiter zu spät zur Arbeit kommen." (I always have to deal with the problem that my co-workers arrive late for work.)

For an example sentence.

[reef moss]

This is exactly what I wanted to say. It really depends on what what you want to emphasize. Nonetheless, verbs that demand dative tend to like the dative object close. Otherwise, it sounds just sounds different in the best case or basically wrong in the worst case (Ich gebe den Tisch einem Mann) @long whale @misty ginkgo

[versed wasp]

warum benutzt man hier rufen und nicht anrufen? was ist der unterschied denn??

[gusty silo]

weil du die Hilfe von denen willst, letzten Endes

jmdn rufen meint, dass du die Aufmerksamkeit von jemandem willst

(egal ob am Telefon oder nicht)

[gritty kite]

There's something I'm just not sure about, is the word "Bruder" generally disliked by Germans? If so why and what else can you say to express a similar meaning in English (bro, dude, etc..)

[whole portal]

I mean it's not necessarily but you don't actually talk to people like that usually

can be quite rude if you aren't close to that person

[gusty silo]

in terms of words to address someone with a similar feeling to bro/dude, i think Alter/Dicker(/alternative spellings closer to pronunciation like Digger/Dicka/Digga)/Kumpel/Keule/Ker(le) are generally more common (notwithstanding the fact that some are regional)

Bruder does also occur in this use though, it's not not a thing. just not as common, like yoshi said

[gritty kite]

Ok thanks, both of you, appreciated 🙏

[fervent kernel]

However out of all of those Bruder is the most pleasant one to say actually

Going up to strangers saying "Alter ..." or like "Digga ..." would be much more rude than saying "Bruder"

[gusty silo]

that much is true for atleast those two

i suppose

[fervent kernel]

Close friends or family it really doesn't matter

As for strangers we don't have a friendly way of saying "Dude"

At least I can't think of any

Maybe "Kumpel"? or "Kollege"?

[gusty silo]

i mean most people in society in general don't address each other or strangers with any of these, do they

the use of any of these skews towards younger and/or more working class people, i think

[fervent kernel]

In my city they do, and in most parts of Frankfurt too

But we don't talk about Frankfurt 🤣

[gusty silo]

m fair, i'm a village person (also hessia though)

[fervent kernel]

Frankfurt is Germany's worst city

When it comes to formal, friendly and nice interactions

It is hard to not surround yourself with bad company in the more populated areas in that city

[fervent kernel]

I dont think so. I have lived in frankfurt for 2 years and have friends from there. they are all decent people

[sleek bone]

Welches von diesen beiden ist richtig?
"Lass uns Schmetterlinge sein."
Oder
"Seien wir Schmetterlinge."

Lol i couldn't find a better sentence.

[long whale]

They're both correct, grammar-wise, but neither would actually be used in spoken German (not unless you'd like to sound as if you were in a Shakespearean play). ;)

[plush pelican]

Or in a math equation?

Let X be 5 and Y be 7

I remember something about Konjunktiv I being used there

[feral jewel]

Is there any way to add audio to words automatically in Anki? I want to make some flashcards but I don't have audio recordings for the words myself

[long whale]

Please don't post the same question in more than one question channel. You might have a better chance of getting this one answered in #general , I'd say. 🤔 (And if you do get a good answer, please let me know - it just never occurred to me that adding audio automatically might be possible. ;) )

[feral jewel]

Sorry, will do. I thought the other channel was busy

[kindred smelt]

sagt man 'ich werde geholfen' oder 'mir wird geholfen'?

[long whale]

Only the 2nd is correct. ;)

[kindred smelt]

Okay, danke

[fervent kernel]

Maybe it's a deficiency in my reading material but is Konjunktiv I relatively rare? or I am just not "noticing" it? I feel like it compromises only 5-10% of what I read

[delicate tiger]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XxNoQ8V0eY "Da werden Sie geholfen" only works in ads 😉 (don't use when speaking/ in exams)

[delicate tiger]

95% of its use is in news/reporting

[whole portal]

wait

was the idea of the ad that you keep it in mind more because she makes a grammatical error?

[long whale]

I'd say so, yes.

[plush pelican]

"helfen" as a verb requires dative for its objects, and when you convert an active sentence "Er hilft mir" into a passive sentence with no subject ("Mir wird geholfen"), you keep dative objects in dative.

If it had been a verb demanding an accusative object, that's when you convert the object into nominative case. "Sie verletzt den Mann" becoming "Der Mann wird verletzt".

https://deutsch.lingolia.com/en/grammar/verbs/passive

[plush pelican]

How cruel for language learners

[kindred smelt]

I'd heard you were supposed to keep the indirect object in dative as in 'mir wird es gegeben', but I wasn't sure about verbs like helfen where the dative is the only object of the sentence

So is the construction with the nominative really never used, or is it used colloquially?

[sand sail]

Can somebody explain me why dont we use zu for up satze

[long whale]

"up satze" - ? Modal verbs like müssen (here: muss) require a plain infinitive, one without zu. ;)

[long whale]

No, it's simply wrong. If people do use Sie werden geholfen colloquially, it's only ever in invisible quotation marks, because of this one particular advertisement. :)

[sand sail]

I mean quadrat lol, thank you

[whole portal]

Once upon a time, the birds came to the conclusion that they would need a king.

or needed a king

Yeah you can usually replace the K2 form with infinitiv + würden

[fervent kernel]

ich schaue gerade Dramatizeme Deutsch auf Youtube, aber ich finde die geschichte ein bisschen komisch. Gibt es andere Youtube channel mit leicht und besser Getschichte mit Deutsche subtitles zu schauen?

[storm tulip]

Silly beginner question but how would you say “have a great day”

[vapid cosmos]

there are no silly questions, In german its "Habe einen schönen Tag"

[storm tulip]

I appreciate you! Danke!

[vapid cosmos]

Bitte

[fervent kernel]

to add to Strandspeck’s answer, I’ve learnt to say “Schönen Tag noch” at the start/middle of someone’s shift (i.e in the supermarket/ bank etc)

[vapid cosmos]

Yes thats also a way of saying it

[plush pelican]

What do you mean?

Ah. As Susana said, there was apparently some ad with intentionally wrong grammar

[ruby ferry]

hi :) is there a german equivalent to the english idiom 'xyz is a bed of nails' as in like a situation is really difficult to endure?

im writing an essay and translating between 3 languages so its all getting a bit lost lol i cant remember

[long whale]

More context might help... 🤔

[ruby ferry]

i am writing an essay on the book mutterzunge, and im talking about how she uses the phase 'Liebe ist ein Hemd aus Feuer' which is a direct translation of a turkish idiom which i think sort of is equivalent to 'love is a bed of nails' in english (i dont speak turkish but my friends do)? so i was going to mention in my essay that the author uses the phrase rather than a german equivalent, so i was wondering if there actually was a german equivalent to that particular idiom

if there isnt an equivalent i can still use the point in my writing im sort of a bit curious now as well

[long whale]

Oof... "Keine Rose ohne Dornen", maybe?

[plush pelican]

"Every rose has its thorn" exists in English as well, FYI

[flint nimbus]

Ja, es waren nur zwei Wochen.
how come it's waren? I interpret it as agreeing with the plural of zwei Wochen. But why does it agree with zwei Wochen and not es?

[regal heath]

i dont really get the question, what else would you put there?

or what were your ideas?

[flint nimbus]

i would've expected war, instead of waren

because it agrees with es

[regal heath]

its waren because Wochen is plural

[flint nimbus]

but why does it agree with zwei Wochen, rather than es?

for example if i say "Ich hilft Ihren", i don't conjugate hilft to Sie

[regal heath]

ich hilft sie is completely wrong

[flint nimbus]

yes sorry

[regal heath]

you would say ich helfe ihr

thats wrong too

you have to conjugate the hilft

would be helfe

[flint nimbus]

anyway, i would've expected the es to be what waren conjugates to

not zwei Wochen

[regal heath]

sorry man it could be bc i am just stupid but i really dont get ur question 💀

maybe ask some1 else for help sorry

[flint nimbus]

Ja, es waren nur zwei Wochen.
this is the original sentence.
In this sentence, waren is a verb. Verbs in german conjugate depending on their subject, unless they're in their infinitive form. You said waren is conjugated to third person plural because its subject is zwei Wochen. My question is: why not es? Es seems to me to be the more natural subject in that sentence, rather than zwei Wochen, which is how it's conjugated now. If it were conjugated with es in mind, that is, third person singular, then it would be war, rather than waren.

[regal heath]

well the subject in a sentence always answers the questions „who?“ or „what?“. This is not a great example sentence for that but you could basically ask yourself the question „what is?“ two weeks „is“

but i understand why you think es ist the subject

[regal heath]

on the other hand you could technically also answer the question with „es“ ist

so i think you just have to think what makes more sense here

[flint nimbus]

but it would sound wrong to say es war nur zwei Wochen?

[regal heath]

it would not only sound wrong it is wrong gramatically

to say war you would have to add smth like „für“ before the zwei wochen

[flint nimbus]

ok i see, thank you!

[long whale]

In case this didn't get cleared up: the "es" is a so-called "dummy subject" here. "sein/war/waren" requires Nominativ on both sides, right? And there have to be 2 things in Nominativ in the sentence. But we've only got "verb + 2 Wochen", that's not enough to make a sentence. Solution: throw in an "es". (That's the way German grammar "thinks". I realize it's different in English. But then, we also say "Das sind meine Eltern" instead of Die sind meine Eltern, see?)

[winter zinc]

Hi, can someone please explain why is it "haben" here and not " habe"?

"Besonders gut haben mir das Römisch-Germanische Museum und das Museum Ludwig gefallen."

[tropic thistle]

The two museums are being taken together as the subject of gefallen

[fervent kernel]

Hallo, kann mir jemand helfen?
Wie kann ich diesen Satz mit (zu, als dass) nutzen?
dieses smartphone ist sehr teuer, es wird kein Verkaufshit.

[fervent kernel]

You want to use all 3?

Dieses Smartphone ist zu teuer, ich befürchte dass es kein Verkaufshit wird.

maybe?

[dense obsidian]

Dieses Smartphone ist zu teuer, als dass es [...]

[green parrot]

Hi. "Leider koennen wir nur vier Tage bleiben, freuen uns aber trotzdem schon sehr darauf" can someone please make me understand the second part. i dont get it.

and why the second clause also start with freuen, isnt verb supposed to be last in this case

[digital jasper]

Should I learn the german alphabet besides the special characters or is it pointless

[whole portal]

Wdym

[keen hawk]

I think German's alphabet is the same as English except for the umlauts and the eszett

[whole portal]

Are you already familiar with the latin alphabet ...?

It's both the latin script yes

[digital jasper]

ok, dumb question

my bad

[keen hawk]

You mean how the letter's names are pronounced?

[digital jasper]

Yeah

nvm it was a dumb question in general

[keen hawk]

I also have no clue

Like English but more German

[digital jasper]

Makes sense

lol

[whole portal]

Well

In that case it's not too bad of an idea to learn the letter names or rather the pronounciation of each letter

While it's not that simple still, you can get a lot more information about the pronounciation of a word from the written form in German compared to English

Altho you'll probably learn that automatically on the side

[keen hawk]

At least German makes an effort to be phonetically consistent

[whole portal]

Yeah until the french words come in

[keen hawk]

Wait what

[digital jasper]

What do you mean

[whole portal]

The most common situation where a word in German will break the pronounciation rules is when it's a french word we just took

[digital jasper]

Do you have an example?

[whole portal]

Trikot

The end is just pronounced as a long O

Kaserne

The a is short (should be long because no ss)

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_von_Gallizismen

Have fun

It's not just french ofc, you can also see it with english and slavic influences

[keen hawk]

“Möchtest du am Sonntag in der Kirche gehen?”

Is this correct

[whole portal]

Welllllll

It's not grammatically wrong

"Do you wanna walk inside the church on sunday?"

I don't think that's what you wanted to say

[keen hawk]

I don’t get this language

[dense obsidian]

are you sure it's not wrong?

[whole portal]

in die -> Akkusativ (f) -> into the
in der -> Dativ (f) -> inside the

So you probably want die, not der.

[keen hawk]

Ah, vielen dank

Also when should I start learning past and future tenses

[charred harbor]

Future tense is easy af but past tense is more tricky

I’d advise learning the latter asap

[keen hawk]

"Ich werde ins Kino gehen"

Is that correct

[charred harbor]

It is now xD

It’s worth bearing in mind that in German people often just use the present tense in place of future tense when context makes it obvious

So it’s not like people use werden every single time they want to refer to something in the future
It’s just a way to do it more directly

Example
-> Warte. Ich tu es
-> Wait. I’ll do it

[long whale]

It's just 2 main clauses connected by a comma. Since the subject is the same in both, they dropped it in the 2nd: [wir] freuen uns aber... Does that help?

[devout rampart]

hi

:)

[plain umbra]

@narrow flame Can you explain more about what you're trying to learn right now and your obstacles?

[narrow flame]

Like

Making sentences

[devout rampart]

i get what you are trying to say

[narrow flame]

That are correct

[devout rampart]

it comes kinda natural

[plain umbra]

"Making sentences that are correct" is a huge topic though. You have to start small with small topics and simple sentences.

[devout rampart]

try https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-_cxHx5FD4&list=PLKCEuz6wxDQkpEHEB85W2jlJzbStuBMft

[plain umbra]

Some sentences are really difficult, even a native speaker would struggle. So you won't be able to write every single type of sentence right away.

[devout rampart]

es ist sehr interessant

[narrow flame]

Yes but I hate verbs and all that sht

[plain umbra]

For example, the first things you need to learn are noun gender, nominative case and present tense verbs.

[narrow flame]

Iike u have to put it at the end

[devout rampart]

you mean all of the funny|| painful|| exceptions with cases and everything

[narrow flame]

But how do ik it its a verb

[plain umbra]

The most likely reason that you're struggling is that you're trying to rush and learn everything at once. You need to slow right down and stick to one or two things at a time.

So take a breath, let go of your hate, and check your knowledge on the basics: subject (nominative case) and present tense.

[devout rampart]

does anyone have notes about what @narrow flame is struggling with?

[narrow flame]

Idc i just want to learn how to build sentences

[devout rampart]

it would be useful for me as well

[plush pelican]

1. By learning vocabulary, including verbs
2. By learning conjugation (there's a standardized way of conjugating verbs. It doesn't apply to every verb, but most verbs look something like it.)
3. By learning how sentences are structured. Verbs have specific spots in a sentence, so you can expect to find verbs there, if you know where to look.

But this is all a bit superfluous: as Base said, work your way through the grammar (that YourGermanTeacher YouTube channel is quite good for this, they even break down the grammar topics according to level so you can learn them in order), and you'll learn over time how sentences fit together and thus how all this works.

[narrow flame]

Ich werde gehe in die supermarket

[plain umbra]

I'm trying to help you with that but it seems you are not interested in listening.

You're trying to skip ahead to the end. You need to start at the start.

[narrow flame]

Why

[plain umbra]

Because, the reason you're not absorbing these ideas is because you are trying to learn every rule at the same time.

They're very easy if you learn them one at a time, but not if you try to learn them all magically in one go.

[plush pelican]

1. You only conjugate 1 verb per sentence.
2. Hauptsätze (independent clauses) have specific spots where you put verbs. the conjugated verb goes in position 2, the others go to the end in reverse order. The YourGermanTeacher videos explain all this.

[devout rampart]

i think it is zu

[narrow flame]

Wdym

[devout rampart]

your learning too much

[long whale]

Because, sadly, a lot of the trickier, more bothersome bits of German grammar appear right at the start -> it takes a lot longer until you're able to string 3 words together correctly in German than it does in many other languages. 😽

[dire hearth]

Totally this. I can only say simple things in the present tense at the moment. It can be frustrating sometimes but it's the way you learn

[plain umbra]

"How to write a sentence" is not just one rule. It can be dozens of rules and ideas all at once.

Let me show you an example.

faq beginner

[stoic mauve]

How to get started

The simplest way to learn German is to find topics you don’t understand yet and search for explanations of them. This list provides you with a guide for which topics to learn if you are completely new to German. Type the topic into Google (or YouTube) and start learning!

Introduction

1: Alphabet (especially ä, ü, ö and ß)
2: Basic greetings (hello, goodbye, etc.)

Part 1 - Simple Sentence

1: Noun gender & plurals
2: Nominative case (What are cases?)
3: Nominative pronouns (I, you, he, she, etc.)
4: Verbs in present tense
5: Definite/indefinite articles
6: Accusative case (for nouns)
7: Accusative pronouns
8: Word order of simple sentences
9: How to ask questions

See Part 2 on the next page.

Tips

• Always learn the gender of a noun when you learn a new noun
• Learn to use a translation dictionary (e.g. dict.cc, leo.org)
• Use >faq resources to see our list of German learning resources
• For listening and pronunciation practice, try watching movies or videos (incl. YouTube)
• You can listen to pronunciation for words on websites like dict.cc, forvo.com, and others
• Practice writing sentences every day (and asking people to correct them)
• Ask as many questions as possible
• Don’t be scared to make mistakes!!!! If you don’t let yourself make mistakes, you will never be able to learn German

Page 1/2

[plain umbra]

See this list of topics?

[devout rampart]

how long would it take to learn all of this?

[plush pelican]

Well, I've been learning German for 3 years, so...

[plain umbra]

This is a list of topics just to learn how to make a simple sentence. It doesn't take long, it's not complicated, but you need to learn all these things and understand them.

[devout rampart]

how long do you spend in a week?

[narrow flame]

Wgats plurar

[plain umbra]

By all do you mean total fluency or just how to make a basic sentence?

[plain umbra]

Plural means more than one. So like in English the plural of "dog" is "dogs".

[devout rampart]

how to get through the mess which is called a1 grammar

[narrow flame]

Whats the 2nd one

[narrow flame]

Hund hunden????

[devout rampart]

i spent about 5-10 hours in a week as i am decently free

[narrow flame]

Idk

[devout rampart]

i dont think it is hunden

i think its hunde

[plain umbra]

Everyone will be different. Some people absorb grammar really easily (especially if they have experience with language learning or linguistics), and on the other end, some people find grammar really intimidating and have some psychological blocks that they have to work through before they feel comfortable.

[devout rampart]

die hunde

[plush pelican]

It depends, but at a minimum, I try to:

1. review flashcards for vocab (15-25 minutes)
2. write a short post on r/WriteStreakGerman (coming up with a topic takes me forever, but the actual writing...idk, 20-30 minutes?)

I additionally quite often will do multiple of the following:

• Read casually a subreddit in German a bit
• Watch a video or TV episode in German
• Listen to a podcast episode in German
• Lately I've been trying to read an actual book in German...slowly.

And once a week I speak for an hour with another German learner, in German.

[narrow flame]

Hellooo

[devout rampart]

Wow!

[plush pelican]

Don't forget to capitalize nouns, it's a part of the spelling

[plain umbra]

For the average person, I think 3 months is a reasonable goal (for the grammar of A1). But it's totally fine to slow down and take longer if you are someone who finds these ideas confusing.

[narrow flame]

What are nominative cases

[devout rampart]

ah

Nominative is the most basic case in German

[plush pelican]

Go watch the video on it, my dude: https://youtu.be/I7vsv8DN9EE

[devout rampart]

it appears in the dictionary

like

der hund

but there is also something called the accusative case, which is something like: Ich sehe DEN hund

[long whale]

Very good. Just please try to remember capitalization of nouns is not optional in German: der Hund, ich sehe den Hund. 🧁

[devout rampart]

i always forget, thanks

[narrow flame]

Oh ok ik this

[uneven mulch]

Can someone please review my answers from goethe past papers and help me correct any mistakes? would really appreciate feedback on how i could have done better as well.

[narrow flame]

faq beginner

[stoic mauve]

How to get started - Part 2

Please make sure to read Part 1 before starting Part 2!

Part 2 – Beyond a Simple Sentence

1: Conjunctions (coordinating and subordinating)
2: Subordinate clause word order
3: Dative case
4: Dative verbs
5: Verbs with two objects (e.g. geben)
6: Prepositions (accusative, dative, and two-way)
7: Spoken past tense (Perfekt)
8: Written past tense (Präteritum)
9: Genitive case
10: Relative clauses
11: Adjective declension

Tips

• Make sure to practice writing and reading simple texts
• Some of these concepts are confusing to start with, so it’s a good idea to ask for help in #questions when you’re unsure
• You should use a declension chart to help with declension to start with, because you won’t be able to memorize it straight away
• After you feel confident with creating sentences, you can start learning the adjective declension properly by using the command >faq adjective declension and reading the guide provided

Page 2/2

[sleek pulsar]

Warum "schlau" hier und nicht "klug"?

[long whale]

You'd have to ask the author. On a colloquial level, "schlau" and "klug" can be seen as synonyms. Otherwise, "schlau" tends to have a bit of a negative meaning, to be clever in a rather devious way. "klug", on the other hand tends more towards "wise".

[sleek pulsar]

Ah ok, I didn't know about that distinction, that's cool! Danke schön!

[old girder]

Is a Feinschmecker like a food critic?

[gusty tangle]

Someone who likes eating good food

[verbal girder]

who doesn't

[gusty tangle]

yes but like hes picky

[old girder]

I see, thank you guys

[acoustic breach]

is this sentence correct?

nachdem ich Deutsch angefangen zu lernen habe, …

[gusty silo]

if your goal is to express yourself normally, i recommend "nachdem ich Deutsch angefangen habe zu lernen", because that definitely is grammatical and more normal.
but i feel like i cannot actually tell if it's really ungrammatical or just unusual (for that matter i'm not even sure i can confidently say i'd reject this if i heard it in speech, or that i might never say it. but it's not a phrasing i think of as normal, so seeing it actually written i'm confused but inclined to reject it)

[acoustic breach]

Hmm now i think of it
I probably mixed Englisch grammar into it

[delicate tiger]

"Nachdem ich angefangen habe Deutsch zu lernen..."

[acoustic breach]

Two Sprachgefühle came together

[gusty silo]

yeah that's probably the most normal one

[acoustic breach]

I know that, but my first instinct was to write what I asked there, hence I was curious

[gusty silo]

this sentence kills me a bit with which variants i'd accept or not 😅

[acoustic breach]

Ill just go with this then
Thank you!

[gusty silo]

yes do, it's the most normal version

[long whale]

I... kind of only half agree. 🤔 Shouldn't it be either "Nachdem ich angefangen hatte Deutsch zu lernen..." or "Als/Seit ich angefangen habe Deutsch zu lernen..." - ?

(depending on what the 2nd part of the sentence is like, of course. Not that those are interchangeable!)

[acoustic breach]

According to what I know, so long the Zeitform in Nachdem part is earlier (more into the Vergangenheit) than the next sentence, it would be ok

(My intended sentence was using Perfekt for Nachdem, then Präsens for the next)

[gusty silo]

hm valid point!

[acoustic breach]

I was joking in one of the channels, saying my throat having problems after learning german (referring to the "r"

Nachdem ich angefangen habe, Deutsch zu lernen, hat mein Hals Probleme

[gusty silo]

swap nachdem for seit(dem) i'd say, mhm

[acoustic breach]

I see

[long whale]

Yeah. "seit" is what I'd use instead of "nachdem" (and: habe ich Probleme mit dem Hals OR habe ich Halsschmerzen)

[acoustic breach]

Danke

[fast island]

What is the best way to say "Indeed" in a casual conversation?

[whole portal]

tatsächlich, in der Tat

[fast island]

Dankeschön

[whole portal]

allerdings

[gusty silo]

wirklich as well

[final sand]

I have heard that "lieben" is not used like "love" is in English, that is, both to love someone romantically and like something a lot, but rather just to love someone romantically. Is this true, and if so, how would you say that you really like something in German?

[gusty silo]

i suppose not never, but it is rarer. more often you just use gern(e) haben or mögen with some intensifying adverb (sehr, richtig, dolle, whatever)

or if you're talking about loving to do something, you can similarly just add sehr/richtig gerne to the verb that stands for the action you like doing, instead of having to add a verb to express that

(which differs from english in a way that misleads people into thinking gerne were a verb occasionally, which it really really isn't)

oh, clarification: gerne haben is mostly (and the similar phrasing lieb haben only) used for liking/loving people, not as often things. mögen is normal for either.
So even when talking about actually loving someone, German doesn't use lieben as often as English does.
(many, if not most, german dialects infact don't really use lieben as a verb, sometimes straight-up not having the verb)

@final sand

[final sand]

Danke! This helps a lot!
Is "hat mir gefallen" used often?

[gusty silo]

it's very common when talking about experiences that you liked, yes. movies or books or activities you've done (sports), or for that matter holiday's you've been on, museums and parks you've visited

[plush pelican]

What do they use to say "love" if they don't have the verb at all? just "Ich habe Schokolade lieb?" xD

[undone verge]

You can say that

[undone verge]

do it yourself

[long whale]

What about 4? I'm sure you can do 4, easily.

Try to look up those words you don't know.

[spiral falcon]

I feel like this question has a mistake in it:
It's supposed to be MICH not MIR 🙂 "jemanden anrufen" goes with Akkusativ

[rare jetty]

He has been warned before, Susana. It's a test and he was trying to cheat, so you better not help him

Also he's left/got kicked now

[long whale]

I'd say your feeling is right. :D

[spiral falcon]

außer, man ist Schwabe, dann steht anrufen mit Dativ 😄

[long whale]

Berliner/Brandenburger, meinst Du? 😄

[rare jetty]

I han dir ogrufa

[spiral falcon]

so isches, aber i dät "d'r" schreibe

[rare jetty]

Ha noi, des isch uffem Handy so e gschäft

[gusty silo]

Mei jetz werd scho eam Froekanoal Schwäwisch geschwasst, schlemm eas haure ;P

[rare jetty]

schlemm eas haure
Das hab ich nicht verstanden 🤔

[rare jetty]

Schwäbisch goes inderneschenell

[gusty silo]

schlimm ist's heute

[rare jetty]

Haure wie "heute" oder "heuer"?

[gusty silo]

heute

eu ist in einigen Wörtern au (zB nau statt neu), t zwischen Vokalen wird generell r

[rare jetty]

Danke für die Erläuterung

[calm kernel]

Wenn ich wählen können hätten / Wenn ich hätten wählen können
Welche ist richtig? Ich habe die zweite Verwendung gehört und jetzt bin ich ein bisschen verwirrt

ist das denn eine Ausnahme?

nvm so präge ich mir das ein

die Menschen (plural) --> genitiv -> der Menschen

wurde das falsch geschrieben oder habe ich schuld?

[long whale]

... of the other person (singular)

[calm kernel]

achso danke

[fallow glen]

I realised my weakest point in learning (speaking and listening) German so far is how the last verb is all the way back, I got lost and fell off from the context every, single, time . My brain was mentally fixated on english sentence order lol (rip)
So, how do I manage this? 😩

[glass hawk]

It'll come with time and exposure. Say sentences aloud in a non-pressured environment (narrate what you're doing in your own house to yourself), take it slow and get it right. Recite sentences to yourself. Do it enough and it becomes easier to formulate them in real time during a conversation. I struggled with this a lot myself (and often I'll still trip up halfway through a sentence when I suddenly realise I need a different sentence structure to express the thought I'm midway through expressing).

[undone verge]

it gets better over time. The more 'second nature' the constructions and words become to you, the less your head will get jumbled on the way to the end. i had a lot of trouble with this, too, losing my way in the middle of a sentence, or forgetting what I even wanted to say by the time it came to put the verb at the end of a nebensatz 🙂 it rarely happens anymore

[glass hawk]

There's a give and a take though. Honestly, I don't think it's the word thing in the world to express yourself with bad grammar during a conversation to keep the conversation going, though obviously there's a limit to how bad the grammar can be before comprehensibility becomes an issue. But yeah, what I'm trying to say is address it deliberately as you study, but don't let it stress you out too much in conversation

[fallow glen]

Vielen danke alles für deine Beratung. Correct me if I butchered it ;)) I struggle to listen to german vids only because of the cursed verb placement ahahaha. I'll surely recite what stuff I do (especially while playing games.)

[calm kernel]

verb is at the end in my native language so i can relate to german D: but that's like the only common thing, so yeah

[spark fox]

If I wanted to say “because it is much more eventful than my country” would it be “Weil es viel erlebnisreciher ist als mein Land” or “weil es viel erlebnisreicher als mein Land ist”?

[plush pelican]

To add some more: https://de.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/Mensch

Apparently "Menschen" has N-Deklination, and doesn't have an -s added on in Genitiv singular, since it already added the -en for N-Deklination?

[calm kernel]

oh of course

i forgot that there thats prob why i was so confused ty for the clarification

[glass hawk]

Although there are still some nouns with N-Deklination that like to still add the genitive "-s" just to be a pain >_<

[plush pelican]

WHAT

[glass hawk]

https://de.wiktionary.org/wiki/Friede z.B.

[acoustic breach]

words with N deklination still have s for singular genitiv
but i didnt know that menschen is an exception

[plush pelican]

https://tenor.com/view/greys-anatomy-owen-hunt-why-did-you-tell-me-this-now-why-did-you-just-tell-me-this-why-didnt-you-tell-me-before-gif-21291971

[acoustic breach]

oh wait im wrong

[glass hawk]

Seems to go either way. Affe is another exception
https://de.wiktionary.org/wiki/Affe

[acoustic breach]

Journalisten has no s
Namens does
wth?

[glass hawk]

In fact ignore that last comment

That's wrong 😛

[plush pelican]

des Namens
des Typs OR des Typen
des Türken
des Experten
des Kollegen
des Bären
des Drachen
des Herzens OR des Herzes
des Autisten
des Christen
des Automaten
des Kandidaten
des Bauern
des Idioten

[glass hawk]

What I meant was animals, the male version often takes N-Deklination but no genitive -S. I don't know why I thought of professions instead of animals

[plush pelican]

It seems like most take no -S? 🤔

[glass hawk]

This is interesting haha. All I knew is that there were two separate patterns with N-Deklination, and I learn them on a case-by-case basis, but I never really thought about how frequent one is compared to the other

[acoustic breach]

btw Herzen is an exception to the whole thing cuz its neutral and only for genitive

[plush pelican]

dem Herzen?

[acoustic breach]

(in terms of singular)

[acoustic breach]

oh ya and dative,

but not akkusativ

and there are 2 options for dativ lmao

[plush pelican]

I like how even within "Singular 1", there's 2 ways of doing dative xD

[glass hawk]

Ahh, German

[proven sphinx]

To be fair, they're not used the same way. Singular 1 is used for the heart in a more figurative sense, whereas Singular 2 is used for the heart in the literal sense as the organ.

[plush pelican]

https://tenor.com/view/oh-god-why-dana-carvey-angry-gif-13877401

[proven sphinx]

Wait, no. I don't think that was correct. LOL.

I'll just copy this here...

[verbal girder]

Auch hatte er ihn wohl einen Muggel genannt, was immer das sein mochte.
what sort of Nebensatz is this? thank you.

[knotty wraith]

should be a Fragewortsatz

out of interest is with a question mark at the end

that often makes it clear

[plush oracle]

if i'm saying something like "While most consider tomatoes to be vegetables, they are fruits" or some other similar use of "while", is während a correct conjunction to use? and does it assume genitive case after or no because it isn't being used as a preposition?

[undone verge]

Während is good and no, as you said since in this case it is a conjunction it doesn’t take genitive like a preposition

[long whale]

Apart from the spelling error, you'll usually see the 1st form - comparisons usually come after the verb. ;)

[misty ginkgo]

Hallo, is "auch wenn" and "obwohl" interchangeable?

[long whale]

No...

[misty ginkgo]

wieso?

[long whale]

Wir gehen ins Kino, auch wenn du nicht mitkommst (even if/in case) vs. Wir gehen ins Kino, obwohl du nicht mitkommst (it's clear you aren't coming with us)

[misty ginkgo]

ohhhh i thought auch wenn expresses more contrast than obwohl

anyway, danke!

[ruby ferry]

im trying to do Nominalisierungen... why is this wrong 😭

i feel like this is not wrong but maybe i am not understanding the concept fully

[long whale]

I know this is not wrong, and I'd say I do understand the concept, so... 🤷 You could try "Aufgrund..." - maybe the stupid programme only accepts 1 solution?

[ruby ferry]

i think it does only accept one 😭 im glad to hear thats not incorrect at least haha thank you

[ruby ferry]

it wanted 'einer' rather than 'der' 💔 thank u :)

[long whale]

Jeez... Here, have a large

🧁

[plush pelican]

What program is this?

[ruby ferry]

sprachkuko.com :)

i think actually sprachkulturkommunikation.com is where you will find the exercises

[fervent kernel]

I assume there's a pattern or a rule here
"Wir gehen durch den Wald** hin__durch__**"
"Er kommt um die Ecke her__um__"
why repeat the preposition?

[glass hawk]

My instinct is that they're simply separable verbs. Hindurchgehen, herumkommen. Not 100% on that though, always ready for a quirk to stick the boot in 😛

[fervent kernel]

if you would translate those into English what would they mean:

"We go into through the forest"??
"He comes around about the corner"??

[plush pelican]

"um etwas herumgehen" just translates to "go around sth"

[fervent kernel]

figured as much, it's just the repetition that's freaking me out

[plush pelican]

You know languages don't translate one to one, right?

Ich erinnere mich an meinen Bruder.
I remember my brother.

[fervent kernel]

well that sounded a bit condescending

[plush pelican]

I mean it literally

Some people don't know that

For example, in the above sentence the verb requires a reflexive pronoun in German, but it doesn't need one in English

[fervent kernel]

well I happen to know that it doesn't infact translate one-to-one but I also know that sometimes there are illogical reasons why languages do certain stuff hence why asked

[plush pelican]

Illogical reasons?

Every language has a logic to it, we just don't necessarily know the logic behind it

[fervent kernel]

sure

thanks for the answer

[plush pelican]

Sometimes you'd need to be a linguist to know the logic. Or sometimes it goes back so far even the linguists don't know why. But there's always a logic to it.

At least, that's been my experience

[fervent kernel]

tbh I didn't ask here to get a lesson about linguistics, I wanted to know if there was the reason for the repetition. That's it. Because in Arabic such repetition would mean emphasizing the manner, maybe it's the same in German maybe it's completely different that was my question. What does it mean exactly and how does it differ from "Wir gehen durch den Wald" If you happen to know the answer please do enlighten me.

[plush pelican]

That's a reasonable concern.

"herumgehen" is a separable verb that needs the preposition "um" to work. As far as I know, it's not to doubly emphasize anything, it's just how the verb works. Certain verbs require certain prepositions, they are paired up, and form a single unit when it comes to meaning.

Like the "sich an etwas erinnern." Why not "auf" or "mit" or any other preposition?

I don't know the exact reason, but with that verb, it requires that preposition as part of its functioning.

Btw, there's also the circumposition "um etwas herum"

[cunning igloo]

circumposition

https://tenor.com/view/bh187-family-guy-peter-griffin-laugh-laughing-gif-21485227

omg unkown link

[plush pelican]

Durch den Wald gehen would mean you're going through it, instead of around it.

I forgot about your other sentence, "wir gehen durch den Wald hindurch."

I'm not familiar with that verb

[fervent kernel]

@plush pelican I found this:

[plush pelican]

Weird that it calls it an adverb

What section of Hammer's is that?

[fervent kernel]

"Adverbs" 😅

7.2

[plush pelican]

I know that sometimes "mit" acts as a separable verb prefix with like "mitgehen" and sometimes it acts as an adverb (that was a question on r/German recently).

But I didn't think all separable verb prefixes could be thought of as adverbs

[past anchor]

Liest du nur dieses Buch für deutsche Lehrbücher?

Ich bin neugierig.

[plush pelican]

Ich habe kein Lehrbuch, aber das ist kein Lehrbuch, eher ein Nachschlagebuch, oder?

Man wäre überrascht, wie viele Ressourcen es im Internet gibt, wenn man danach sucht 😄

[past anchor]

Okay. Hahaha.

Liest du nur diese Nachschlagebuch?

[plush pelican]

Nein, ich lese viele Webseiten. Aber dieses Buch ist sehr hilfreich; es hat fast immer wenigstens etwas über ein Thema zu sagen.

[past anchor]

Also, liest du nur diese Nachschlagebuch außer Webseiten?

[plush pelican]

Ich habe ansonsten keine echten Bücher, wenn du das meinst.

Eigentlich ist dieses Nachschlagebuch ein PDF 😄

[past anchor]

Ja. Hahaha. Danke.

[plush pelican]

Ich habe eigentlich andere PDFs, Lehrbücher, aber ich bin faul und habe sie nicht durchgearbeitet

[past anchor]

Es ist also richtig, nur dieses Buch des PDFs zu lesen, oder?

😀

[plush pelican]

Es kommt drauf an, was das Ziel ist

Dieses Buch eignet sich schlecht fürs Unterrichten einer Sprache

Wie gesagt, es ist ein Nachschlagebuch, kein Lehrbuch

[past anchor]

Ja.

[plush pelican]

Aber ich habe YouTube-Kanäle geschaut, die die Grammatik erklären. Ich habe Nico's Weg teilweise gemacht. Ich habe Duolingo und Seedlang benutzt, und viele andere Dinge nebenbei. Wenn man das alles richtig machen will, sollte man aber wohl ein Lehrbuch benutzen, mit einer Lehrerin xD

[past anchor]

Ja. Danke.

Danke für alle Antworten!

[steel patrol]

Can I say "Kätzchenlein"? That is, can a double diminutive be used for 1 word?

[dense obsidian]

That's not a word.

[steel patrol]

I mean, you know how instead of just "Katze" you can say "Kätzchen" to cutify it? The two common diminutive suffixes are -chen and -lein, so I was wondering if you can use both together to make a noun extra cute.

[dense obsidian]

You can't. You can say Kätzlein or Kätzchen, but not Kätzchenlein.

[steel patrol]

Ok, just wanted to be sure, thank you 👍

[acoustic breach]

Are these nouns correctly constructed?

Ich verbessere mein Deutsch-Sprechen

Sprachenlernen/Deutschlernen macht mir Spaß

[long whale]

The first one sounds/looks quite awkward to me. "mein mündliches Deutsch" is what I'd say. I'd also preferably say "Es macht mir Spaß, Sprachen/Deutsch zu lernen". But yes, they're all possible/correct, I suppose.

[spark fox]

Oh yeah sorry for the mistake didn’t see it 😅😅 thank you tho!

[acoustic breach]

Danke!

[static wren]

Hallo!

Kannst du mir helfen, bitte? Ich habe diese Phrase "an den Lippen hängen" gelesen aber ich weiß nicht, was diese Phrase bedeutet. Vielleicht kann jemand erklären und ein Beispielsatz geben? Vielen Dank!

[past anchor]

an jemandes Lippen hängen (einer bzw. einem Sprechenden konzentriert, gespannt zuhören [und sie bzw. ihn dabei anblicken])

Ich habe es auf Duden online gefunden. Schlag Lippe auch in deinem Wörterbuch nach. Dann kannst du es auch finden.

[static wren]

Vielen Dank!

[past anchor]

Bitte.

[jaunty jetty]

i was practicing my Akkusativ and making a sentence by pretending i'm having a chat with someone and maybe someone can tell me to improvise it because I knew I still feel a bit off this one. Viele Dank!

"Heute gehen Sie um 8 Uhr in den Park"
"Ohne dich, geh'n Sie heut' Nacht in den Park nicht"
"Möchtest du gehst zu den Park?"
"bei Sie?"

[long whale]

The first says "Today, you (formal) are going to the park at 8" and it's fine, grammar-wise.

The 2nd doesn't make any sense at all, since "ohne dich" = without you (informal), you (formal) aren't going into the park tonight - you can't mix formal and informal in 1 sentence like that. For word order with "nicht", please see https://learnoutlive.com/german-negation-nicht/ The 3rd is off, grammar-wise: a modal verb (möchten/möchtest) requires a plain infinitive, not another conjugated verb, and zu den Park doesn't work, since "zu" is a Dativ preposition, just like "bei" - the 4th doesn't work.

[clever harbor]

Would "Es stellt die Geschichte einer Familie, die zerrüttet war, dar." be correct?

[lethal shale]

Hey, weiß jemand, wo ich ein Beispiel für einen Aufsatz für DSD 2 finden kann? Ich meine den ganzen zusammenhängenden Text

[long whale]

According to some grammar books, yes. However, these days, we don't really like having the separable prefix dangling there, all on its own, at the very end of a sentence, after a comma. Also, you may want to describe the family simply by using "zerrüttet-" as an adjective (don't forget the appropriate ending, please!) instead of using a relative clause. ;)

[clever harbor]

So would it be preferrablt to say "Es stellt die Geschichte einer zerrütteten Familie dar."?

[long whale]

Sounds better to me, yes. ;)

[clever harbor]

Vielen dank!

[plush pelican]

Can't you also have the relative clause after the "dar", so:

"Es stellt die Geschichte einer Familie dar, die zerrüttet war"

?

I suppose that sounds worse than using zerrüttet as an adjective?

[long whale]

🤔 That's what I said, didn't I?

[long whale]

Well, yes, IMO, it's better with the adjective than the relative clause. But if you do put in the relative clause, you'd at least have to pull the prefix forwards.

[plush pelican]

You said it was wrong to leave it on its own after the relative clause, not that it was right to put the relative clause after "dar".

[long whale]

So... where else could you put "dar"? 🤔

[plush pelican]

You gave the alternative of having an adjective rather than a relative clause

[long whale]

True.

[plush pelican]

It seems obvious to you as a native that saying, "well, you can't put the dar after the relative clause [therefore you should put it before]", but it's not obvious to the learner, especially since you gave a different alternative that might've been the only correct alternative.

[long whale]

I see. Yes, I'm sure you're right. :)

[plush pelican]

Sometimes you have to spell things out for us, Susana 😛

[long whale]

Right. 😄 Also, the relative clause isn't wrong, it's just that when there's such an obvious/easy way of avoiding it, I would. ;)

[misty ginkgo]

Hallo, I was answering an online exercise about deshalb:

1. Ich bin böse, weil ich auf die Party nicht gehen darf.
   The answer: Ich darf nicht auf die Party. Deshalb bin ich böse.

Shouldnt it be: Ich darf nicht auf die Party gehen. ?

[lunar void]

Not necessarily, but your version works too

[misty ginkgo]

Why did gehen get removed?

[crude sun]

I'm learning zweiteilige konnektoren and confused about "where can I put adjective ?" Is this sentence grammatically correct :
"Ich kann weder fließend Gitarre spielen, noch kann ich Klavier spielen."

[plush pelican]

Hammer's German Grammar 15.1.2(f):

Basically, it's considered so obvious that you're allowed to leave out the verb of motion in those cases.

[long whale]

It's grammatically correct, yes. I'd say "gut" instead of "fließend", but mostly, where you put "gut" will influence the meaning of the sentence. Yours says you can't play the guitar well, and you can't play the piano, either -> I'd take that to mean you can play the guitar, just not very well, and that you can't play the piano at all.

[misty ginkgo]

danke!!

[crude sun]

Okay thnxx... so where to put the konnektoren and the adjective is depends on the meaning I want to make ?

[long whale]

I'd say so, at least in this case. If you wanted to say you aren't good at either, you'd usually say: Ich kann weder Gitarre noch Klavier gut spielen ;)

[crude sun]

Super! Danke schön

[plucky furnace]

This is Perfekt?

„Denken Sie, dass er Julia ermordet haben könnte?”

[long whale]

No. It's a modal verb in KII + Perfekt (a C1/C2 grammar topic)

[normal sluice]

wait, isnt it subjektive modalverben? like when you express die vermutung

[undone verge]

yes

[old girder]

Is “Nee” commonly used ? Are there other words like it?

[misty saddle]

Yeah, and there are lots of other ones, which partly depend on region. https://www.atlas-alltagssprache.de/runde-1/f10/

[whole portal]

yeah, the word "nein" isn't actually all that common compared to things like "nö" or "nee"

In spoken language obviously

[whole portal]

Okay maybe I'm blind, where are the nöö dots?

There's a single one below Würzburg huh

Seems like a methodic error to me though

[undone verge]

in my experience nö and nee are both very widely used (cannot speak for southern germany).

[misty saddle]

Yeah, me too. Have you ever filled one of their surveys? Iisat with my friend in my WG (german) while he did one once, and there were bunches of times where he wanted to put in more than one answer, but couldn't

[lyric python]

@clear vortex

Du kannst einfach

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