Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Present tense

The Basics
Each verb has a basic "infinitive" ("to") form. This is the form of the verb you find in a German dictionary. The verb "to play" in English is the infinitive form. ("He plays" is a conjugated form.) The German equivalent of "to play" is spielen. Each verb has a "stem" form, the basic part of the verb left after you remove the -en ending. For spielen the stem is spiel- (spielen - en). To conjugate the verb—that is, use it in a sentence—you must add the correct ending to the stem. If you want to say "I play" you add an -e ending: "ich spiele" (which can also be translated into English as "I am playing"). Each "person" (he, you, they, etc.) requires its own ending on the verb. This is called "conjugating the verb." If you don't know how to conjugate verbs correctly it means your German will sound strange to people who understand the language. German verbs require more different endings than English verbs. In English we use only an s ending or no ending for most verbs: "I/they/we/you play" or "he/she plays." In the present tense, German has a different ending for almost all of those verb situations: ich spiele, sie spielen, du spielst, er spielt, etc. Observe that the verb spielen has a different ending in each of the examples. If you want to sound intelligent in German, you need to learn when to use which ending. That's why we have this chart for you!

German has no present progressive tense ("am going"/"are buying"). The German Präsens "ich kaufe" can be translated into English as "I buy" or "I am buying," depending on the context.
The chart below lists two sample German verbs—one an example of a "normal" verb, the other an example of verbs that require a "connecting e" in the 2nd person singular and plural, and the 3rd person singular (du/ihr, er/sie/es)—as in er arbeitet.
We have also included a helpful list of some representative common stem-changing verbs. These are verbs that follow the normal pattern of endings, but have a vowel change in their stem or base form (hence the name "stem-changing"). In the chart below, the verb endings for each pronoun (person) are indicated in bold type.
Now let's look at another German verb. This one is only slightly different from the others. The verb arbeiten (to work) belongs to a category of verbs that add a "connecting" e in the 2nd person singular and plural, and the 3rd person singular (du/ihr, er/sie/es) in the present tense: er arbeitet. Verbs whose stem ends in d or t do this. The following are examples of verbs in this category: antworten (answer), bedeuten (mean), enden (end), senden (send). (The more common verbs in this group are included on our 50 Common German Verbs page.) In the chart below we have marked the 2nd and 3rd person conjugations with *.


Monday, June 27, 2011

Future tense

Introduction
In German the future tense (das Futur) occurs less frequently than in English. Even more frequently than in English, German often substitutes the present tense for the future ("Wir sehen uns morgen." - "We'll see you tomorrow.") However, German verbs do follow an easy-to-learn and predictable pattern in the future tense. Once you learn the pattern for just about any German verb, you know how all German verbs are conjugated in the future. Even irregular verbs are no exception.
Das Futur I: The Basics
German uses the basic werden + infinitive formula to form DAS FUTUR. To conjugate any verb in the future, you simply conjugate werden and add the infinitive of the verb you want to have in the future. Basically, if you can conjugate werden, you can form the future tense of all verbs. The chart below shows a sample German verb in the future tense.


Futur II: The Basics (Future Perfect)
The future perfect is somewhat rare in German. To form the future perfect (das Futur II) in German, you take the past participle of the verb being conjugated (for example, gespielt/played) and use it with a conjugated form of werden. The infinitive of the helping verb (haben or sein) is placed at the end of the sentence: “Wir werden die ganze Nacht gespielt haben.” (We will have played all night.)

Future tense

Friday, June 24, 2011

Prepositions


English
Germanpronounciation
onauf 
inin 
atbei 
sinceseit 
forfür 
agovor 
beforevor 
tozu 
pastVergangenheit 
to/till/untillto / bis / bis 
bydurch 
inin 
atbei 
onauf 
by, next todurch, neben 
underunter 
belowunten 
overüber 
above acrossoben auf 
throughdurch 
tozu 
intoin 
towardsauf 
ontoauf 
fromaus 
ofvon 
bydurch 
onauf 
inin 
offab 
out ofaus 
bydurch 
atbei 
aboutüber
 

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Tall short beautiful lady girl boy dress ....


GermanEnglishPronounciation
Der MannThe ManMaan
Die FrauThe WomenFraau
HerrMisterHerrr
Die DameLadyDaamaa
Der JungaBoyYunga
Die MadchenGirl 
JungesYoungYungas
HubscheBeautiful/PrettyHoubsha
AusshenHandsomeaousshen
GoBertTallGohosa
KleinerShortKleyna
WirWeWi yaa
schlankSlimschlyank
HausHouseHaaus
HeiBtName is Hyest
Jahre altyears oldyagha aalt
SehrverySeehr
SchonNiceScchhon
KleidDressKlyd

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Personal Pronoun


GermanEnglishPronounciation
IchIIsh
DuYouDuu
ErHeE ya
SieSheZee
EsItS


GermanEnglishPronounciation
Ich Spreche English.I speak englishSprich
Du spricht english.you speak englishSpriichst
Er Spricht english.He speaks English
Sie Spricht english.She speaks English
Spricht du English?Do you speak english?
Ich spreche kein english.I do not speak English
Du Spricht kein English.you do not speak English
Er Spricht kein english.He doesn’t speak English.
Sie Spricht kein english.She doesn’t speak English.

The pronouns listed below are in the nominative (subject) case. We will talk about their other forms and different cases in a later lesson. (Need help with grammar terms?
A special word about the "you" pronouns!

German, much more than English, makes a clear distinction between formal you (Sie) and familiar you (first name, du) in social situations. (Unlike English, most European and other languages also have both a formal and a familiar you.) In this regard, Germans tend to be more formal than English-speakers and use first names only after a long period of getting to know each other (sometimes years). This is a good example of how language and culture are intertwined, and you need to be aware of this to avoid embarassing yourself and others. In the table below, the familiar you forms (du, ihr) are marked with the abbreviation "fam." to distinguish them from the formal you (Sie).

NOTE: German has three different forms of sie! Often the only way to tell which one is meant is to notice the verb ending and/or the context in which the pronoun is used. Even the capitalized Sie (you, formal) is tricky if it appears at the beginning of a sentence. Lower-case sie can mean both "she" and "they": sie ist (she is), sie sind (they are).

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Jobs

GermanEnglishPronounciation
ich arbeite I workIsh R-byta
ich studiereI studyIsh Studira
der BerufjobBoo HuF
Was sind Sie von Beruf?What's your job? 
der Lehrer, die LehrerinteacherDya Legha, D leghagan
der Arzt, die ÄrztindoctorDya Aaazt, D Aaaztin
der Ingenieur, die IngenieurinengineerDya Engineeya,D Engineeyan
der Student, die StudentinstudentDya Student, D Studentin
der Mechaniker, die MechanikerinmechanicDya Mechanica, Dya Mechanicain
der Polizist, die Polizistinpolice officerDya Polizist, D Polizistin
im Krankenhausin a hospitalim Khan kha naus
bei einer Firmaat, in a companybei einer Firma
an der Universitätat, in (the) universityAn Dya Universititat
in der Schuleat, in (the) schoolin Dya Shoola
im Büroat, in the officein Bagho
ich lerneI learn..., I'm studying...ich Lyana
wowhereWo