German: The language of punctuality

If there is one stereotype that doesn’t seem to be negative about Germans and the Swiss is that they are
punctual. As writer Paul Bilton notes, “The Swiss are so punctual that they have a concept
incomprehensible to lesser nations, that of being Überpünklich —literally, over punctual — and this is not
viewed as a fault.” The importance of punctuality can also be seen in newspaper headlines where delays in
train service are a hotly discussed and debated topic in German speaking countries, whereas they are a
fact of life and not worth mentioning in the English speaking world. Interestingly enough it is exactly this
punctuality that garners German speaking countries so much praise from foreigners.

While there may be numerous theories to do with punctuality, a factor that can surely not be ignored is
the linguistic element. When examining German syntax, one will note that German in a Time, Manner,
Placelanguage, which means that the time phrase usually appears early in the sentence. From this fact we
encounter a bit of a paradox, which I cannot answer: Does the time phrase come early in the sentence
because German speakers are by nature punctual — perhaps due to geography and seasonality — or are
they punctual because their language structure emphasizes time?

For the German learner, it is simply worth noting that the time phrase comes early in the sentence. Some
examples may help to highlight this.

Subject — Verb — Time — Manner — Place

1. English: (place, manner, time)

 Jane is going to Zurich with the train this evening.

German: (time, manner, place)

 Jane fährt heute Abend mit dem Zug nach Zürich.

A common variation of the sentence would be:

 Heute Abend fährt Jane mit dem Zug nach Zürich.

–> Note here though that the order is still time, manner, place.

2. English: (place, manner, time)

 We’re going hiking in Graubünden with our friends at the weekend.

 German: (time, manner, place)

 Wir gehen am Wochenende mit unseren Freunden in Graubünden wandern.

or

 Am Wochenende gehen wir mit unseren Freunden in Graubünden wandern.

So next time you go to build a sentence in German, remember the punctuality and stress the time by
putting it early in your sentence. You won’t just produce a more syntactically correct sentence, but may be
amazed with the sudden increase in punctuality of those around you.

German Linguistic Precision Part I — The German word for

“put”
 How does one say, “Just put that down over there.” in German? Though the sentence is quite simple it is the
source of much frustration to English speakers learning German. What is the German verb for “to put”?
Type “to put” into LEO and the following translations come up: anbringen, anwenden, legen, setzen. There
are of course others, but these are just for “to put” without taking “to put to” or “to put” + something
else into account.

This simple English verb that is just so handy unfortunately does not have an equally handy German
equivalent. And like so much in German it comes down to a linguistic precision that is the bane of all
German-English translators. The best solution though is actually quite simple — think like a German
speaker and critically evaluate what it is that you are doing.

So here we go you are either: setting – setzen, laying – legen, or placing – stellen. Three verbs for what an
English speaker would just say “put” to. But the fact that English translations of setzen, legen,
and stellenexist shows that English speakers can be precise in their descriptions, but that we simply
choose not to be. So which verb do you use when and why?

Setzen: A very helpful verb. Unlike legen and stellen, it can be used a bit more freely and does not take the
horizontality or verticality of the object into consideration. Yes, you read correctly the others have one
extra specification.

Conjugation of "setzen"

1. To set something down

o “Hans setzt die Tasse auf den Tisch.”
2. To seat oneself (sich setzen)
o “Bitte setzen Sie sich!”
3. For positioning figures on a board game
o “Oh, du hast schon gesetzt!”
4. To put things in the correct order
o “Setzen Sie die Bilder in die richtige Reihenfolge!”

Legen: Not quite as versatile as setzen, legen means to lay, as in to put something into a horizontal
position. If the surface area of the object you are putting somewhere covers more horizontal surface than
vertical, you will want to use legen.
 Conjugation of "legen"
1. To bring something into a horizontal position.
o “Ich lege das Buch auf den Tisch.” Note the book is sitting on the cover and is not standing.
2. To lay eggs
o “Die dicken Hennen legen viele Eier.”
3. To lay wires, pipes or flooring
o “Jetzt muss der Installateur nur noch Kabel legen.”

Stellen: So if legen has to do with putting something into a horizontal position then stellen must be to
place something in a vertical position. As we are not talking about hanging, stellen is essentially used for
tall upright objects. In many ways you can also think of stellen as “to stand”.

Conjugation of "stellen"

1. To bring something into a vertical position.

o “Er stellt die Vase auf den Tisch.”
o “Stelle das Buch bitte zurück ins Regal!”
2. To stand
1. “Das Kind musste sich in die Ecke stellen.”

** Please also note that we use the accusative with these verbs, as they always suggest movement.

*** For other situations where you might want to use the verb “to put” in English and get stuck, think
about what other verb you could use to describe the action and you’ll probably find a good German verb.
 German Linguistic Precision Part II — Saying where things
are in German
Last week we learned that the German language has three words that are generally used for “to put”. In
English once something is put somewhere it is usually there.

English Example Version 1:

Husband: “Hun, where’s the latest issue of Modern Design? It should have come today.”

Wife: “It’s on the dining room table, dear.”

Now this example is very common in English, where we prefer to not be very precise. “It is on the table”. I
say this because it does not really tell us how it is on the table, but just that it exists on the table. Is it flat or
upright? We don’t know. Let’s see a more precise example.

English Example Version 2 — more precise:

Husband: “Hun, where’s the latest issue of Modern Design? It should have come today.”

Wife: “It’s lying on the dining room table, dear.”

With this more precise version we are approaching the German way of thinking. It tells us more about the
actual state of the magazine. It is flat on the table. Someone has laid it on the table.

So here is the German:

Mann: “Du, Schatz, wo ist die neuste Ausgabe von Modern Design? Sie sollte heute angekommen sein.”
 Frau: “Sie liegt auf dem Esstisch.”

Like legen, setzen, and stellen — the three commonly used verbs for telling someone where something is
being put — there are three verbs to tell us where that object now is. And fortunately they are related to
how it was put there.

setzen -> sitzen

legen -> liegen

stellen -> stehen

Sitzen: If you setzt (set) something somewhere it is then that object now sitzt (sits) there.

Conjugation of "sitzen"

1. With people — to sit on something

o “Das Kind sitzt auf dem Stuhl.”
2. With animals — to stay in a quietly in a certain place.
o “Der Hund saß ganz ruhig neben seinem Herrn”
3. To be stuck in a certain place for a long period of time
o “Wegen des Schneesturms saßen wir für sechs Stunden im Flughafen.”
4. To describe how clothing fits
o “Das Kleid sitzt wie angegossen.”
5. Slang for being in jail.
o Er sitzt schon zwei Jahre

Liegen: Like in English if you legst (lay) something somewhere, that object now liegt (lays) there.
Like legen liegen describes the position of an object that covers a larger horizontal surface than vertical.
Cities also lie — after all they cover more horizontal area than vertical.
 Conjugation of "liegen"

1. To cover a large horizontal surface.

o “Das Brett liegt auf dem Boden.”
2. To describe the comfortable position of one object to that of another
o “Das Messer liegt gut in der Hand.”
3. Used to describe the positional relation of one object to another
o “Das Buch liegt links neben dem Bett.”
4. Used to describe a position in a list or scale.
o “Die Durchschnittstemperatur liegt im Januar kaum über null Grad.”

Stehen: Was an object was gestellt (placed in an upright position) somewhere, it now steht (stands) there.
Here the object is usually quite tall and the majority of its surface area is not in contact with a horizontal
surface. The simple past form is stand, so just think of standing in English and you’ll be fine.

Conjugation of "stehen"

1. To stand on one’s legs without moving.

o “Er steht auf dem Teppich.”
2. To be clearly written somewhere
o “Hier steht es doch geschrieben.”
3. To be located somewhere
o “Sie stand zwei Stunden lang im Stau.”
4. To be in an upright position.
o “In meinem Bücherregal stehen viele Atlanten.”
5. To not function
o “Die alte Uhr von meinem Großvater steht.
6. Used to say objects such as clothes suit someone.
o “Blau steht dir sehr gut!”

Note with all of these that they require the dative when saying where they are. There is no movement and
the objects are thus is a still state.

In the perfect tense you use haben when describing the active indicative and sein for the passive (the
result of an action).

The many forms of German words

There are many things that make English a difficult language to learn: English speakers tend to use an
extraordinary amount of idioms, there are more tenses and subelties in their usage than with other
languages, there are many homonyms and the spelling of a word does not always represent a phonic
relation to the word’s pronunciation. This last point is of particular interest for us.

In English, when one learns that draught is pronounced /d???ft/, that is to say that the “augh” makes the
same sound as “af”, one also quickly learns that the plural form is draughts. In English most words have
two forms a singular and a plural. Pronunciation differs in that the plural ends with an “s” sound. The
 word may not be phonic, but it exists in only two forms that are fairly simple to read. That this simple
word, draught, has at least 15 meanings is another topic.

Now let’s look at German. As many will have already noticed, German is a precise language. Words do not
tend to have quite as many definitions or usages as in English. But to the English speaker German has
another tricky point: Form. Where in English each word generally has to forms, in German there are more.
Take the simple word “Haus” as an example.

Das Haus ist sehr schön. (Nominative, Singular)

 The house is very nice.

Ich habe mir ein neues Haus gekauft. (Accusative, Singular)

 I bought a new house.

Ich gehe nach Hause. (Dative, Singular)

 I’m going home.

Das Dach des Hauses muss repariert werden. (Genitive, Singular)

 The roof of the house must be repaired.

Die neuen Häuser in meiner Strasse wurden alle in den letzten drei Jahren gebaut. (Nominative, Plural)

 The new houses on my street were all built in the past three years.

Der Spielplatz gehört den Häusern dort drüben. (Dative, Plural)

 The playground belongs to those houses over there.

In the six example sentences we see five different forms of the word “Haus”. This can best be understood
in a chart form.

The many forms of the word "Haus"

 What does this mean for the German learner? Well there are many more words to learn, yes. But really it
demands that you look for similarity and watch out for articles, that is the case in which the word is. When
you understand the role the word is playing in a sentence, you will be better able to understand.

So endings of words can change in the plural, dative and genitive forms and umlauts may be added to
vowels in the root of the word. Don’t let these fool you. If you see the word “Häuser” you know you are
dealing with more than one house. Check the article and you’ll see if they are the subject, object, or the
thing that is possessing something else.

Above we have seen that nouns in German often have more than two forms. I will not get into verbs,
because like in English the form of verbs generally changes. The best tip here is to learn all of the standard
conjugations of verbs in their present tense as well as the simple past (präteritum) and perfect form.

Adjectives also confuse many learners because the endings change depending on the case and number and
gender. Again, I suggest that if you see a word “neuen” for example and you know the word “neu”, it is
generally safe to assume that “neuen” is just a form of “neu”. The possible adjective endings are the
following: -e, -er, -es, -en, -em

Pronouns are perhaps the trickiest, because some like “sie” in the nominative case already mean:
youformal (Sie), she (sie), and they (sie). The fact that they stay the same in the accusative is not helpful
for English speakers as they then also take on the meaning of: her (sie), and them (sie). Confusing? Yes.
How does one make sense of this? Look at the verb. How is it conjugated? The verb, as is the case in
English, must stand in agreement with the subject. Let’s look at an example:

“Fragen Sie Frau Schneider!”

 “Ask Ms. Schneider!”

Therefore, we know in the above sentence that Sie (you) is the subject. And if we change Frau Schneider
for her (sie) — “Fragen Sie sie!” (“Ask her!”) — we still know that Sie (you) is the subject.

So just a short recap. With nouns and adjectives look for words that you know. The endings or these
words change to reflect case and number and with adjectives gender.

Haus, Hause, Hauses = house

neu, neue, neuer, neues, neuen, neuem = new

With pronouns look to see how the verb is conjugated. Also the subject in standard sentences must be
beside (either directly left or directly right) of the verb.
 Personal Pronoun Clarification — The many meanings of
“sie”
I’ve gone on and on on about how German is a very precise language where one word generally has one
meaning. At the same time you’ve probably been thinking that I’m full of it. German has words that are
incredibly long, complicated and pretty much unpronounceable and has other words like “sie” that are
used all over the place for things an English speaker thinks it shouldn’t be.

I must apologize here and say you’re right: When it come to personal pronouns, German is a little crazy, at
least until you understand how they are used. Let’s take a look at the personal pronouns.

In order to talk about personal pronouns in German we must understand personal pronouns in English —
Personal pronouns are pronouns used as substitutes for proper or common nouns (person, place or
thing).

One of the first things to remember is that German like French, Russian and many other languages, but not
like English has a formal personal pronoun for “you”. In German we use the word “Sie“. It is always
capitalized when used for the polite form. the Verb is conjugated the same way it is for “we” which is
usually just the infinitive. It is used to address people you don’t know and anyone you don’t have a good
close relationship with or a merely professional relationship.

In English “you” is always used. English also uses “you” for addressing a group of people directly. This is so
confusing that even some English speakers have come up with their own linguistic solutions such as
“yous”, “you guys”, and “y’all”. German on the other hand has the pronoun “ihr” to solve this problem.
Interestingly enough though, this is not used as much as other pronouns. If you are addressing a large
group of people, whom you don’t know very well, you would revert to “Sie“.

In German there are four (4) cases in which personal pronouns may occur — nominative, accusative,
dative, and genitive. As the genitive is not used very often, the possessive pronoun, which looks similar,
but changes it’s ending to provide information about the word which precedes it is used. Let’s take a look:

Nominative: The pronoun does the verb.

 Nominative Pronouns English — German

Ex.

Ich arbeite bei Marathon Sprachen.

 I work at Marathon Sprachen.

Du fährst morgen nach Lugano.

 You’re going to Lugano tomorrow.

Wir haben unsere Hausaufgaben nicht gemacht.

– We haven’t done our homework.

In each example the pronoun is doing the verb.

Accusative: The pronoun is the object of the verb (the verb is done on to the the pronoun).
 Accusative Pronouns English — German

Ex.

Der Mann hat mich geschlagen.

 The man hit me.

Hannes hat ihn angerufen.

 Hannes called him.

Der Nachbar hat uns gesehen.

 The neighbour saw us.

Dative: The pronoun is the indirect object of the verb. (In English there is usually a preposition to show
this).
 Dative Pronouns English — German

Ex.

Der Lehrer gibt ihm das Buch.

 The teacher gives him the book.

Das Buch gehört ihr.

 The book belongs to her.

Roger hat es uns gesagt.

 Roger told us about it.

Genitive: The pronoun indicates possession. This is a little tricky, as genitive personal pronouns are not
often used in the simple form in German. More often we encounter genitive pronouns as stems of
possessive pronouns, whereby the ending of the pronoun changes to give us information about the word it
is possessing:
 Genitive Pronouns English — German

More common (possessive pronoun):

Possessive Pronouns English — German

Ex.

Mein Vater ist Anwalt.

 My father is a lawyer.

Das Buch gehört meiner Schwester.

 The book belongs to my sister.

 Der Chauffeur hat ihren Hund umgefahren.

 The driver ran over her dog.

So what do you need to keep in mind when dealing with personal pronouns in German sentences?

 In standard sentences personal pronouns in the nominative case come right before or right after the verb.
o Ich fahre morgen nach Luzern.
 I’m driving to Lucerne tomorrow.
o Morgen fahre ich nach Luzern.
 Tomorrow I’m driving to Lucerne.
 The personal preposition “sie” means more than one thing. See how the verb is conjugated to get a better
understanding of what the meaning is.
o Sie hat einen neuen Rechner gekauft.
 She bought a new computer.
o Sie haben einen neuen Rechner gekauft.
 They bought a new computer.
 Proper names can be replaced by personal pronouns. The personal pronoun depends on gender and
number.
o Der Wagen ist neu. Er ist voll ausgerüstet.
 The car is new. It’s fully loaded.
o Das Auto ist neu. Es ist voll ausgerüstet.
 The car is new. It’s fully loaded.
o Die Wohnung ist neu. Sie ist voll ausgestattet.
 The flat is new. It’s fully equipped.
o Die neuen Bücher sind angekommen. Sie sind sehr schwer.
 The new books have arrived. They are very heavy.

**Note here that in English we translate personal pronouns when referring to objects with it and not the
gendered personal pronouns he, she etc.

 If in English you want to say to + personal pronoun, think Dative personal pronoun in German.
o Seine Mutter gibt ihm das Buch.
 His mother gives the book to him. / His mother gives him the book.

Viel Spaß!
 The DER — DIE — DAS
If there is one thing that I stress when teaching German it is the importance of learning nouns with their
articles. Like French, Spanish and many other languages German has genders. What makes German just
that little harder though is that there are three genders. And the article for words in the plural is the same
as for the feminine words.

What do you need to know about genders? Is there an easy way to tell genders? In some instances there
are rules regarding the form of the word. These rules are great, but many words fall outside of these rules
and will leave you guessing. You cannot rely on natural gender either or analogy to other languages.

For instance:

French ? German

le soliel (masculine) ? die Sonne (feminine)

la lune (feminine) ? der Mond (masculine)

It is important to remember is that genders are grammatical. Therefore the following rule applies:

der –> er

 Der Hund ist nicht im Haus. Wo ist er?

(The dog is not in the house. Where is he?)

die –> sie

 Die Katze sprang auf den Tisch. Sie ist auf dem Tisch.

(The cat jumped onto the table. She is on the table.)

das –> es
 Das Mädchen ist sehr nett. Es schenkt Frau Müller Blumen.

(The girl is very nice. It gives Ms. Müller flowers.)

Important to remember is that DER, DIE, DAS mean “the”. The articles change in the four different cases.
Thus they provide us with information about the function of the word in the sentence. Is it the subject,
object, indirect object or possessive object?

Let’s see how these articles change. Like with the personal pronouns, many articles occur several times
and can make it a little confusing. Masculine words change their articles the most.

Articles with genders and cases: Notice change going down.

What happens if you make a mistake with articles? Usually it is just wrong, but other times it can change
the meaning as, like in English, German has homonyms that are spelled the same but mean something
different.

For example:

der Tor (the fool) ? das Tor (the gate)

der Mittag (midday (time)) ? das Mittag = (lunch (meal))

der Messer (the measuring device) ? das Messer (the knife)

The other reason you want to learn this early on is to understand German sentences, which do not always
follow a subject, verb predicate order.

For example:

Der Mann schießt den Hund.

(The man shoots the dog.)

der Mann = Nominative = Subject

den Hund = Accusative = Object

OR
 Den Hund schießt der Mann.

(The man shoots the dog.)

der Mann = Nominative = Subject

den Hund = Accusative = Object

*Not here that we cannot change the sentence structure in English and must translate it like the last
sentence.

So what are some of the rules for genders to help you along the way? Here are some guide lines you can
use.

Always MASCULINE (der/ein):

 Days, months, and seasons: Montag, Juli, Sommer (Monday, July, summer). The one exception is das
Frühjahr, another word for der Frühling, spring.
 Points of the compass, map locations and winds: Nordwest(en) (northwest), Süd(en) (south), der Föhn
(warm wind out of the Alps), der Scirocco (sirocco, a hot desert wind).
 Precipitation: Regen, Schnee, Nebel (rain, snow, fog/mist)
 Names of cars and trains: der VW, der ICE, der Mercedes. (But motorbikes and aircraft are feminine.)
 Words ending in -ismus: Journalismus, Kommunismus, Synchronismus (equal -ism words in English)
 Words ending in -ner: Rentner, Schaffner, Zentner, Zöllner (pensioner, [train] conductor, hundred-weight,
customs collector). The feminine form adds -in (die Rentnerin).
 The basic “atmospheric” elements that end in -stoff: der Sauerstoff (oxygen), der Stickstoff (nitrogen), der
Wasserstoff (hydrogen), plus carbon (der Kohlenstoff). The only other elements (out of 112) that are
masculine are der Phosphor and der Schwefel (sulphur).

Usually MASCULINE (der/ein):

 Agents (people who do something), most occupations and nationalities: der Architekt, der Arzt, der
Deutsche, der Fahrer, der Verkäufer, der Student, der Täter (architect, physician, German [person], driver,
salesman, student, perpetrator).
 Nouns ending in -er, when referring to people (but die Jungfer, die Mutter, die Schwester, die Tochter, das
Fenster)
 Names of alcoholic drinks: der Wein, der Wodka (but das Bier)
 Names of mountains and lakes: der Berg, der See (but Germany’s highest peak, die Zugspitze follows the
rule for the feminine ending -e, and die See is the sea).
 Most rivers outside of Europe: der Amazonas, der Kongo, der Mississippi
 Most nouns ending in -ich, -ling, -ist: Rettich, Sittich, Schädling, Frühling, Pazifist (radish, parakeet,
pest/parasite, spring, pacifist)
 Der Golf. Das Auto.

——————–

Always FEMININE (die/eine):

 Nouns ending in the following suffixes: -heit, -keit, -tät, -ung, -schaft – Examples: die Freiheit, Schnelligkeit,
Universität, Zeitung, Freundschaft (freedom, quickness, university, newspaper, friendship). **Note that
these suffixes usually have a corresponding English suffix, such as -ness (-heit, -keit), -ty (-tät), -ship (-
schaft).
 Nouns ending in -ie: Drogerie, Geographie, Komödie, Industrie, Ironie (often equal to words ending in -y in
English)
 Names of aircraft, ships and motorbikes: die Boeing 747, die Titanic, die BMW (motorbike only; the car is
der BMW). The die comes from die Maschine, which can mean plane, motorbike and engine. **Helpful
reminder: Ships are often referred to as “she” in English.
 Nouns ending in -ik: die Grammatik, Grafik, Klinik, Musik, Panik, Physik
 Borrowed (foreign) nouns ending in: -ade, -age, -anz, -enz, -ette, -ine, -ion, -tur: Parade, Blamage (shame),
Bilanz, Distanz, Frequenz, Serviette (napkin), Limonade, Nation, Konjunktur (economic trend).
 Cardinal numbers: eine Eins, eine Drei (a one, a three)

Usually FEMININE (die/eine):

 Nouns ending in -in that pertain to female people, occupations, nationalities: Amerikanerin, Studentin
(female American, student), but der Harlekin and also many non-people words: das Benzin, der Urin
(gasoline/petrol, urine).
 Most nouns ending in -e: Ecke, Ente, Grenze, Pistole, Seuche (corner, duck, border, pistol, epidemic), but
der Deutsche, das Ensemble, der Friede, der Junge ([the] German person, ensemble, peace, boy)
 Nouns ending in -ei: Partei, Schweinerei (party [political], dirty trick/mess), but das Ei, der Papagei (egg,
parrot).
 Most types of flowers and trees: Birke, Chrysantheme, Eiche, Rose (birch, chrysanthemum, oak, rose), but
der Ahorn, (maple), das Gänseblümchen (daisy), and the word for tree is der Baum
 Borrowed (foreign) nouns ending in -isse, -itis, -ive: Hornisse, Initiative (hornet, initiative)

——————–

Always NEUTER (das/ein):

 Nouns ending in -chen or -lein: Fräulein, Häuschen, Kaninchen, Mädchen (unmarried woman, cottage,
rabbit, girl/maiden)
 Infinitives used as nouns (gerunds): das Essen, das Schreiben (eating/food, writing)
 Almost all of the 112 known chemical elements (das Aluminium, Blei, Kupfer, Uran, Zink, Zinn, Zirkonium,
…). **Note: Most of the elements end in -ium, a das ending.
 Names of hotels, cafés and theaters
 Names of colors used as nouns: das Blau, das Rot (blue, red)

Usually NEUTER (das/ein):

 Geographic place names (towns, countries, continents): das Berlin, Deutschland, Brasilien, Afrika (but
learn non-das countries, such as: der Irak, der Jemen, die Schweiz, die Türkei, die USA [plur.])
 Young animals and people: das Baby, das Küken (chick); but der Junge (boy).
 Most metals: Aluminium, Blei, Kupfer, Messing, Zinn (aluminium, lead, copper, brass, tin/pewter; but die
Bronze, der Stahl – bronze, steel)
 Nouns ending in -o (often cognates from Latin): das Auto, Büro, Kasino, Konto (account), Radio, Veto,
Video: BUT: die Avocado, die Disko, der Euro, der Scirocco, etc.
 Fractions: das/ein Viertel (¼), das/ein Drittel (but die Hälfte, half)
 Most nouns starting with Ge-: Genick, Gerät, Geschirr, Geschlecht, Gesetz, Gespräch (back of the neck,
device, dishes, sex/gender, law, conversation): BUT der Gebrauch, der Gedanke, die Gefahr, der Gefallen,
der Genuss, der Geschmack, der Gewinn, die Gebühr, die Geburt, die Geduld, die Gemeinde, die Geschichte
etc.
 Most borrowed (foreign) nouns ending in -ment: Ressentiment, Supplement (but der Zement, der/das
Moment [2 diff. meanings])
 Most nouns ending in -nis: Versäumnis (neglect; BUT die Erlaubnis, die Erkenntnis, die Finsternis)
 Most nouns ending in -tum or -um: Christentum, Königtum (Christianity, kingship; but der Irrtum, der
Reichtum – error, wealth)

So there you have it. Now just remember though the Slogan is “Volkswagen — Das Auto“, even more
German would be “Vokswagen — Der Wagen“.

I buy me a coffee — The reflexive in German

When I lived in Vancouver I had a German friend who would always ask us the following question: “I’m
going to buy me a coffee, would anyone else like one?”

We always tried to explain to him that English unlike German does not use the reflexive as much as
German. Though in the case above one could exchange “me” with “myself” and it would be a very explicit
sentence.
 The grammatical term reflexive means that the verb’s subject (the person or thing doing the verb) is also
its object (the person or thing being acted upon). The object is thus a reflection of the of the subject. To use
an English example, let’s look at the sentence: “We are enjoying ourselves.” In English the reflexive
pronoun always ends in -self or -selves. So the sentence: “He has injured himself.” is also reflexive.

When it come to verbs dealing with parts of the body or possession, German uses reflexive verbs much
more than in English. As we will see English would usually choose to use a possessive article or even leave
the object out of altogether.

Ex.

 Max is washing his hands. (Max wäscht seine Hände)

 Max wäscht sich die Hände. (Max is washing himself the hands.)
 I’m shaving. (Ich rasiere.)
 Ich rasiere mich. (I’m shaving myself.)

Note that in both of the examples above the German sentence on the second line is the linguistically most
accurate and correct expression.

There is some good news here for everyone who hates memorizing pronouns. Between the accusative and
dative reflective pronouns there are only 7 different ones to remember. They are in the following table:

Reflexive Pronouns in German (Accusative & Dative)

Sometimes you may hear or read the words selber or selbst used after the reflexive pronoun. These usually
add emphasis that the action is being done on one’s own. While their meaning are the same, it is
considered better form to use selbst.

Most German reflexive German verbs can also be used as non-reflexive verbs, but their meaning may alter
slightly or completely. Most German-English dictionaries will denote reflexive verbs using one of the
following three abbreviations: s. – sich – refl. The infinitive is usually written with sich + verb, ex. sich
setzen, sich erkälten.
Common Reflexive Verbs in German
 Noch einmal — Danke schön!
When I studied in Germany I had a friend who would always say “Danke schon” when the waiter or
waitress brought him his cappuccino. I’d always wait till the server left and tell him, “Danke schön”,
emphasizing the o with the umlaut. His retort was always the same, “That’s what I said.”

As we grow older our ears become less attuned to certain variations in sound. Depending how many
languages we know, speak and live in as well as if we play music some sound variations may blend
together. Then there is also the issue of things just sounding similar, dialect, intonation, clarity and lest we
forget spelling. All of these issues are part of the reason why many English speakers find the difference
between schon/schön and noch/nach in German difficult.

Let’s take a look at these words and find out their pronunciation, meaning and usage.

schon
Pronunciation:

[ʃoːn] HEAR

Meaning:

already

German Synonym:

bereits

Usage:

Schon mit 5 Jahren komponierte Mozart sein erstes Musikstück.

 Already at the age of 5, Mozart composed his first piece of music.

Bist du schon da? Ich dachte, du arbeitest heute länger.

 You’re already here? I thought you were working later today.

 schön
Pronunciation:

[ʃøːn] HEAR

Meaning:

1. aesthetically beautiful
2. good, pleasant
3. colloquial: strengthens the meaning of considerable/considerably
4. Colloquial: used as an affirmative answer to a question
5. Colloquial: used to express that something is as it schould be
6. In certain expressions it has a mixed meaning between 1 & 2.

German Synonyms:

1. anziehend, attraktiv, hübsch

2. angenehm, gut
3. besonders, beträchtlich, sehr
4. ja, einverstanden, okay
5. Ordnungsgemäß

Usage:

Das Musikstück ist schön.

 The piece of music is beautiful.

Das hat er schön gemacht.

 He has done that very well.

Das wird eine schöne Stange Geld kosten.

 That will cost a pretty penny.

Lass uns doch mal wieder ins Theater gehen. — Schön, dann gehen wir.

 Let’s go to the theater again. — Yes, let’s go.

Schön aufpassen, wenn du über die Strasse gehst!

 Pay careful attention, when you go to cross the street!

noch
Pronunciation:
 [nɔχ] HEAR

Meaning:

1. a further
2. in the immediate future
3. up to now, at the moment, currently

German Synonyms:

1. weiteren, zusätzlich, nochmal

2. zukünftig
3. gegenwärtig

Usage:

Ein Termin wird nicht genügen, wir sollten noch einen vereinbaren.

 One appointment won’t be enough, we should arrange a further one.

Möchten Sie noch ein Bier?

 Would you like another beer?

Du musst dich noch umziehen, bevor wir ins Theater gehen.

 You still need to change before we go to the theater.

Noch bin ich der Chef.

 I’m still the boss.

nach
Pronunciation:

[naːχ]: HEAR

Meaning:

1. In the direction of, to, (for cities and countries without articles)
2. for showing the target of an action in a sentence
3. for showing the spacial or temporal relation (after)
4. For quoting someone, something. (according to)

German Synonyms:

1. —
2. —
3. hinter (behind)
4. gemäß, laut

Usage:

Ich muss nach Hause.

 I have to go home.

Wir fliegen nach Tokio.

 We’re flying to Tokyo.

Adam griff nach dem Apfel.

 Adam reached for the apple.

Es ist Viertel nach sieben. (7:15).

 It’s quarter past seven.

Nach der Haltestelle Kanonengasse kommt die Langstrasse.

 After the stop Kononengasse is the Langstrasse.

Nach seinem Wunsch wurde auf der Feier nur Bordeaux serviert.

 In accordance with his wish only Bordeaux was served at the party.

**Note. nach takes the dative case after it.

Now we see why we shouldn’t say “Danke schon” when the waiter or waitress brings us our cappuccino —
“Thanks already” isn’t a very nice way to express your appreciation.

No “Not Jokes” in German — The Placement of nicht

 If you’ve seen the the Sacha Baron Cohen film Borat, you are probably familiar with the “Not joke.” One of
the most confusing things in German word order is where to negate, that is where to place the word
“nicht” (not, no). Read on and see why trying to make a not joke in German will often be a correctly
formulated negated sentence and which is why in German version of Borat, the “Not jokes” were
translated with jokes about mothers-in-law (Schwiegermutter Witze).

The position of “nicht” depends on what we want to negate. Is it the entire clause, or a specific element?

Clause-level negation:
A. Nicht follows conjugated verbs, dative and accusative objects, and most adverbial modifiers.

Sie kauft den Computer nicht. (accusative object)

 She’s not buying the computer.

Die Musik gefällt ihm nicht. (dative object)

 The music doesn’t please him. (He doesn’t like the music)

Die Studenten sehen den Film heute nicht. (time modifier)

 The students are not going to watch the film today.

Wir essen dort nicht. (place modifier)

 We’re not eating there.

B. Nicht precedes adverbial modifiers of manner (i.e. gern), predicate nominatives and predicate
adjectives, verbal compliments and two verb constructions (including separable prefixes).

Martin kann nicht schnell hacken. (adverb of manner)

 Martin cannot chop quickly.

Das ist nicht das richtige Messer dafür. (predicate nominative)

 That is not the right knife for it.

Diese Rezepte werden nicht einfacher. (predicate adjective)

 These recipes are not getting easier.

Susanne backt das Gemüse nicht auf. (separable prefix)

 Susanne is not crisping the vegetables.

Sie konnte das Rezept nicht folgen. (infinitive)

 She couldn’t follow the recipe.

Er hat die Pizza nicht gemacht. (past participle)

 He didn’t make the pizza.

Element-level negation:
When negating a specific element “nicht” precedes this element directly, and the element receives
intonational emphasis when spoken. Contrasting or corrective information is usually given afterwards and
introduced with the word “sondern”.

Clause-level negation
Max möchte den iPod. –> Max möchte den iPod nicht.

Element-level negation
Max möchte den 11 Zoll MacBook Air. –> Max möchte doch nicht den 11 Zoll MacBook Air, oder?
(emphasis)

With contrasting information.

Nicht den MacBook Air, sondern den MacBook Pro

Max möchte nicht den MacBook Air, sondern denMacBook Pro. (emphasis)

Max möchte nicht den 13 Zoll MacBook, sondern den15 Zoll MacBook, weil er eine grössere Festplatte
hat. (emphasis)

** “nie” and “niemals” follow the same rule as “nicht”.

Verbal compliments
German is full of verbal compliments. Examples of this are “Fussball spielen”, “Klavier spielen”, and “Rad
fahren.” Notice the absence of an article with the nouns. That is because the noun is part of the complete
verb, the verb is thus specific. This also applies to adverbs that join with verbs to form specific meanings
like “auswendig lernen”. When confronted with a Verbal compliment the “nicht” is placed before the
verbal compliment.
 Example:

Er kann Fussball spielen. –> Er kann nicht Fussball spielen.

** Because some German speakers treat the compliment as a direct object, you may also hear “kein-”
instead of nicht.

Prepositional Phrases
Like with verbal compliments “nicht” comes before the following prepositional phrases:

 Phrases that complete the action of motion verbs

o nach Hause gehen
o in die Stadt fahren
o nach Zürich fliegen
o auf das Regal stellen
o ins Kino gehen
o nach Grindelwald wandern
 Phrases that complete the idea of position verbs
o zu Hause bleiben
o auf dem Land wohnen
o in der Ecke sitzen
o im Bett liegen
o bei Müllers übernachten
 Prepositional phrases that form specific meanings with verbs
o auf jemanden warten (wait for someone)
o an etwas denken (think about something)
o über jemanden schimpfen (complain about someone)
o sich für etwas interessieren (to be interested in something)
o sich vor etwas/jemandem fürchten (to be afraid of something/someone)
Back to Borat
Here is that clip from Borat about the Schwiegermutter Witz. Pay attention to the use and placement
ofnicht and kein.

Alter Mann: In Amerika sind das sehr beliebte Witze. Kennen Sie einen Schwiegermutter Witz?
Borat: Ja.
Alter Mann: Dann los.
Borat: Ich hatte eine Sexy Time mit meiner Schwiegermutter.
Alter Mann: Eine was Time?
Borat: Eine Sexy Time. Ich habe Sexy Time gemacht mit meiner Schwiegermutter.
Alter Mann: Sie hatten Sex mit Ihrer Schwiegermutter?
Borat: Ja!
Alter Mann: Ich glaube nicht, dass Amerikaner das witzig finden würden.
Borat: Nein, das ist kein Witz.
 Saying “there” in German (da vs. dort vs. hier)
When learning any new languages, one of the hardest things for most people to do is to stop translating
word for word from their first language to the new language. Even if you have a large vocabulary doing
this will still render more incorrect sentences than correct ones. The same is true from between German
and English.

How can one overcome this hurdle? The answer is to learn expressions and grammatical structures.
Within the first two hours of German instruction most people learn that the phrase: “Ich möchte
…” means “I would like …” for ordering.

This week I’d like to address one English word that causes confusion and the simple expressions to learn
and avoid many mistakes.

The word “there” has seven different meanings in English. We often use there, not to suggest a place, like
“Over there …”, but rather as a subject as in “There are many public swimming areas in Zurich.” If you look
up“there” in a German-English dictionary you will find four general translations. The first two suggest
the“there” for a place. It is only the third that provides the meaning of “there” as a subject — in this
case “es”.

Careful! While we translate the “there” with “es”, what we are generally wanting to say is something
like:“There is a book by Carl Jung about dreams.” or “There are far too many people in the train.” So we want
to express the idea: “There is …” / “There are …” In German this is translated with “Es gibt …”

Because “es” functions as the subject, “gibt” does not need to be conjugated.

Ex.
 Es gibt eine Bar gleich um die Ecke.

 There’s a bar right around the corner.

Dienstags gibt es Live Musik da.*

 There’s live music there on Tuesdays.

Wegen die tolle Stimmung gibt es immer viele Gäste.*

 Because of the good atmosphere there are always many guests.

*Note: The verb “gibt” is in the second position and because another element is in the first position (time,
reason) the subject comes in the third.

If you would like to ask a yes/no question ie. “Is there …?” or “Are there …?” simply start the sentence
with“Gibt es …?”

Ex.

Gibt es ein Opernhaus in Zürich? — Ja, es gibt ein Opernhaus in Zürich.

 Is there an opera house in Zurich? — Yes, there is an opera house in Zurich.

Gibt es viele aktive Leute in der Schweiz? — Ja, es gibt viele aktive Leute in der Schweiz.

 Are there many active people in Switzerland. — Yes, there are many active people in Switzerland.

If you would like to practice building sentences with “es gibt” try out these activities from the
BBC:http://bbc.in/fDRV05

Speaking of “there” many people ask about the word for “there” as in a place. Is it “da” or “dort” and what
about “here”, is that “hier” or “da”. And if “da” is “there”, how can “da” also be “here”. It sounds confusing,
but is actually quite simple if we chart it:

hier — dort — da

In the Southern German speaking realm (Southern Germany, Switzerland and parts of Austria) more
people tend to use “da” over “hier”. To avoid confusion either use the more formal variations (you’ll
always be clear and correct) or use hand gestures.