Deutschkurs: B1 (GRAMMATIK)

TENSES:

Das Präsens: Present

. used to describe an action that occurs or a condition in the present

. Singular: 1st person (I) ich komme

2nd person (you) du kommst
3rd person (he/she/it) er/sie/es kommt

. Plural: 1st person (we) wir kommen

2nd person (you) ihr kommt
3rd person (they) sie kommen
Formal (you) Sie kommen

Eg: Ich komme aus Frankreich - I come from France.

Das Perfekt: Present Perfect

. used to describe something that happened in the past,used in speaking
. formed in two parts:
1) Auxiliary verb conjugated (sein or haben)
2) Ge + verb (3rd person singular)

. most verbs use the verb haben

. some verbs use sein if:
- Sein,werden,bleiben
- Verbs that describe a process
- Verbs that describe a movement in a direction
Ge + verb + t (regular)
Ge + verb + en (unregular)
No Ge- , verbs with prefixes

Eg: Ich bin nach Berlin gezogen. - I moved to Berlin.

ACHTUNG! The present perfect tense of modal verbs are rarely used,
these are usually in the past simple.

Das Präteritum: Past Simple

. used mostly in writing not in speech
. describes an action that occured in the past
. formed by removing the ending -en from the infinitive and adding -te
and the personal ending

. Singular: 1st person (I) ich lernte

2nd person (you) du lerntest
3rd person (he/she/it) er/sie/es lernte

. Plural: 1st person (we) wir lernten

2nd person (you) ihr lerntet
3rd person (they) sie lernten
Formal (you) Sie lernten

. there are some verbs which don't fit the pattern, therefore you will
have to learn these (eg: gehen - ging)

Eg: Ich ging mit meiner Freundin ins Kino. - I went to the cinema
with my girlfriend.
Das Plusquamperfekt: Past Perfect
. expresses actions that took place before a given point in the past
. used more so in storytelling to describe something that happened
before a past event

haben/sein in past simple + past participle of main verb (ge-verb)

Eg: Wir hatten es ihm gesagt. - We had told him.

Das Futur I: Future

. we use the future to talk about our plans, to promise something or an
assumption about the future/past

Werden conjugated + infinitive

. Singular: 1st person (I) ich werde

2nd person (you) du wirst
3rd person (he/she/it) er/sie/es wird

. Plural: 1st person (we) wir werden

2nd person (you) ihr werdet
3rd person (they) sie werden
Formal (you) Sie werden

Eg: Der Klimawandel wird das Wetter verändern. - Climate change

will change the weather.
Das Futur II: Future Perfect
. expresses the idea that an action will have been completed by a
particular point in the future

Werden conjugated + past participle + auxiliary verb haben/sein

Eg: Ich werde Deutsch gelernt haben. - I will have learned German.

MOODS:

The Indicative:
. The indicative is the principal mood and the most frequently used. It is
used to express something real, something certain, a fact

Eg: Er spielt heute mit uns. - He is playing with us today.

The Konjunktiv I:
. used in indirect speech
. the statement of a person is reported by another

. Singular: 1st person (I) ich male

2nd person (you) du malest
3rd person (he/she/it) er/sie/es male

. Plural: 1st person (we) wir malen

2nd person (you) ihr malet
3rd person (they) sie malen
Formal (you) Sie malen

Eg: Henry sagt, er sei 20 Jahre alt. - Henry says that he is 20 years old.
The Konjunktiv II:
. it is used to express desires , dreams, fantasies, imaginary situations
. used for auxiliary verbs, for modal verbs and some irregular verbs
. not used for other regular verbs as it is the same as the simple past

So for regular verbs it is : würde + infinitive

SEIN HABEN WERDEN

wäre hätte würde

wärst hättest würdest

wäre hätte würde

wären hätten würden

wärt hättet würdet

wären hätten würden

wären hätten würden

Here is a table of the verbs that are irregular, these are the important
ones to remember:

Eg: Wenn ich an deiner Stelle wäre, würde ich Deutsch lernen - If I were
in your place, I would learn German.
The Imperativ:
. used to express requests and commands
. has three forms :

2nd Person Singular

- Address only one person/thing
- Infinitive of the verb without the -en ending , sometimes add an e
- Eg: Komm hier! - Come here!

2nd Person Plural

- Address more than one person/thing
- 2nd person plural form of verb without personal pronoun
- Eg: Seid ehrlich! - Be honest!

2nd Person Sing/Pl Formal

- Both singular and plural forms politely
- Infinitive verb + Sie/wir
- We use wir if we want to include ourselves in the command
- Eg: Verhalten Sie sich! - Behave yourselves!

NOUNS AND ADJECTIVES:

Nominalisierung und Verbalisierung:

. in the german language you have Nominalstil , where nouns are
common, and Verbstil ,where verbs are more common
. an example of going from Nominalstil to Verbstil:

Wegen des starken Regens, nehme ich einen Regenschirm mit.

Weil es stark regnet, nehme ich einen Regenschirm mit.

. as you can see the preposition, noun and adjective verbalise

Prepositions and Connectors
. there is a table to memorise for this but essentially in Nominalstil there
are prepositions whilst in Verbstil there are connectors

bei als / wenn

während während / solange

vor bevor

seit seit / seitdem

bis (zu) bis

nach nachdem

(vorzeitig!)

sofort nach sobald

wegen / aufgrund weil

trozt obwohl

zu um ... zu / damit

durch dadurch, dass ... /

indem

gemäß / zufolge / laut wie

/ nach
Nouns
. many nouns only need to be capitalised and have a neutral gender
Eg: essen ------ Das Essen
. some take the ending -ung and have a feminine gender
Eg: entscheiden - Die Entscheidung
. however these are again vocabulary you may have to learn

Adjectives
. this is relatively simple, the adjective (Nominalstil) declines, while an
adverb (Verbstil)doesn’t
Eg: starken ------ stark

N-declension:
. this occurs with only masculine nouns that have a plural form ending in
-n or -en , is a person or animal
. this does not occur in the normative case
. essentially the noun has an -(e)n at the end like the plural version

Eg: der Automat - den Automaten

. there are some exceptions where:

- These nouns do not fill the criteria yet have the n-declension:
Der Automat, Planet , Konsonant , Hydrant , Hertz
- These nouns are not declined:
der Doctor und der Drachen
- These nouns take the -n as well as the genitive -s:
Der Gedanke , Glaube , Wille , Frieden und Name

Adjectival Nouns:
. they work just like adjectives but have an article and endings according
to gender and case
. adjectival nouns that describe something abstract will always have the
article Das and be neutral

Eg: best - Das Beste ( the best (thing))

reich - Die Reiche (the rich woman)
Participial Adjectives:

Partizip I
. acts like an adjective when we want to describe two things that are
happening at the same time
. formed using infinitive + d
. because it acts as an adjective it needs to be declined according to
gender, case and number

Eg: Die Familie sitzt essend vor dem Fernseher. - The family sits eating
in front of the TV.

Partizip II
. describes either a state or two processes that take place at different
times but build on each other
. formed using the past participle plus the ending that is declined

Eg: Ich habe ein gebrauchtes Fahrrad gekauft. - I have bought a second
hand bike.

Comparative and Superlative:

. positive adjectives are the basic form of the adjective
. comparative adjectives are the first form of comparison and are formed
by adding -er at the end and the sentence uses als (as) i.e. besser
. superlative adjectives are the highest form of comparison which uses
am at the the start and has the ending -ste(n) i.e. am liebsten

. monosyllabic words often take an umlaut i.e. jung/jünger/am jüngsten

. some have irregular forms you need to learn i.e. gut/besser/am besten
CLAUSES AND CONJUNCTIONS:

Main and Subordinate Clauses:

. main clauses can stay on their own grammatically
and have the regular word order with the verb in 2nd position
. subordinate clauses cannot stay on their own grammatically and follow
a main clause and they have the verb at the end of the sentence

Causal Clauses:
. these are subordinate clauses that give the reason/cause of something
. they start with the conjunctions weil and da
. we use weil when the main clauses is at the beginning
. we use da when the subordinate clause is at the beginning

Eg: Lila arbeitet nicht heute, weil sie krank ist.

Da wir einige Kuchen gebacken haben, essen wir viel.

Relative clauses:
. relative clauses add information about the noun
. in a relative clause the conjugated verb goes at the end and a comma
will be placed in front of the relative pronoun
.relative pronoun gender are defined by the gender of the noun it
compliments
. relative pronouns are as follows, you will notice they are the same as
definitive articles apart from in the genitive:

Masculine Feminine Neutral Plural

Nominative der die das die
Accusative den die das die
Dative dem der dem denen
Genitive dessen deren dessen deren
. to pick the correct relative pronoun you need:
1. The gender of the noun being referred to
2. The case of the relative pronoun in its own clause

Accusative Relative Clauses:

- When the relative pronoun acts as a direct object

Eg: Der Roman, den ich lesen will, heisst Hamlet. - The book that I am
reading is called Hamlet.

Dative Relative clauses:

- When the relative pronoun acts as an indirect subject

Eg: Das ist der Laden, dem ich £20,000 schulde. - That is the shop to
which I owe £20,000.

Relative clauses with Prepositions:

. sometimes the relative pronouns will have a preposition before it that is
accusative or dative
. therefore the relative pronoun will take the case of the preposition
. otherwise this doesn't really impact on the clause itself

Eg: Ein Computer ist eine Maschine, mit der man Aufsätze schreiben
kann. - A computer is a maschine with which one can write essays.

Conjunctions:

Obwohl & Trotzdem:

. trotzdem connects two main clauses, one describes an action and the
other describes an unexpected continuation of the action
. trotzdem essentially acts as the english word nevertheless

Eg: Es regnet heute, trotzdem gehe ich joggen. - It’s raining today,
nevertheless I’m going jogging.
. obwohl has a similar meaning but it connects a main and a subordinate
clause
. it means although or despite

Eg: Ich ging ins Kino, obwohl ich nicht so viel Geld hatte. - I went to the
cinema, although I didn’t have much money.

Wann, Wenn, Falls, Als & Ob:

. these all introduce subordinate clauses
. they also all translate as whether/if or when

- Wann is used in w-word questions and indirect questions that

speak about a point in time
Eg: Wann essen wir? - When do we eat?

- Wenn and als also have a temporal function and are used to
express that two things are happening or are happening at the
same time

- Wenn is used for the present, future and repeated events

Eg: Ich höre Musik, wenn ich joggen gehe. -I listen to music when I run.

- Als is used for the past

Eg: Als ich junger war, hatte ich viele Freizeit. - When I was younger, I
had a lot of free time.

- Wenn and falls can have a conditional function whereby they

describe when you need a condition to be met for something to
happen

- Wenn is more often used when conditions are likely to be met

Eg: Wenn du Hunger hast, können wir etwas bestellen.

- Falls is used when the likelihood of the event is lower

Eg: Falls ich Zeit habe, komme ich noch vorbei.
Da, Weil, Während & Bevor:
. all introduce subordinate clauses
. da and weil both have similar meanings in that they are used to
express a reason like the english conjunction because

- Weil is the most commonly used form

Eg: Ich habe viel zeit, weil ich im Moment keinen Unterricht habe. - I
have a lot of time because I have not classes at the moment.

- Though da is used in more formal situations and often is used in

the first clause rather than the second clause
Eg: Ich habe keinen Tisch gekauft, da ich nicht genug Geld habe. - I
didn't buy a table because I didn't have enough money.

- während means while and expresses two actions occurring at the

same time
Eg: Ich höre Musik, während ich die Küche putze. - I listen to music
whilst I clean the kitchen.

- bevor means before expressing an event that occurred prior to

another event
Eg: Ich gehe nach Hause, bevor ich treffe meine Freundin. - I am going
home before I meet my girlfriend.

Nachdem:
. means after expresses an event that happens once another event has
finished , it introduces a subordinate clause

Eg: Nachdem ich meine Hausaufgaben gemacht habe, werde ich

Minecraft spielen. - After I have done my homework I will play Minecraft.
Indem & Sodass:
. indem expresses something done by the means of another, sometimes
can be translated as while and it introduces a subordinate clause

Eg: Ich habe 3 Kilos abnehmen indem ich viel Sport gemacht habe. - I
lost 3 kilos by doing a lot of sports.

. sodass means so that , it expresses a reason for something and it also

introduces a subordinate clause

Eg: I habe neue Sportschuhe gekauft so dass ich Fussball spielen kann.
- I bought new trainers so that I can play football.

Two-Part Conjunctions:

Sowohl...als auch:
. expresses two similar things , means as well as

Eg: Sowohl meine Mutter als auch meine Schwester haben Deutsch
gelernt. - My mother as well as my sister have learnt German.

Nicht nur…sondern auch:

. expresses two things that are both true, translates at not only... but also

Eg: Ich habe nicht nur die Jacke gekauft sondern auch die Schuhe. - I
not only bought the jacket but also the shoes.

Weder…noch , entweder… oder:

. weder...noch means neither...nor

Eg: Ich habe weder einen Hund noch eine Katze. - I have neither a dog
nor a cat.
. entweder...oder means either...or , connects two or more choices and
presents only one choice

Eg: Ich will entweder nach Frankreich oder Deutschland. - I want to go

to either France or Germany.

Zwar...aber:
. means yeah...but and expresses that one thing is true but then gives
more information

Eg: Ich will zwar einen Hund aber ich finde Katzen auch hübsch. - I want
a dog but I also find cats cute.

Je…desto:
. it is a subordinating conjunctions split into two parts, the second
clauses has a comparative

Eg: Je mehr ich lese, desto klüger werde ich. - The more I read, the
cleverer I become.

Anstatt...zu / ohne…zu/ um...zu :

. these are infinitive constructions which have a subordinate clause and
the sentence ends with zu+infinitive

- (An)statt...zu, used to express something unexpected happens or

acts as a substitute, it means instead of
Eg: Du solltest Unterricht nehmen, anstatt zu selbstlernen. - You should
take classes instead of self-learning.

- Ohne...zu, used to express a negation, it essentially means without

Eg: Ich will ein neues Auto kaufen ohne die Umwelt zu beschädigen. - I
want to buy a new car without damaging the environment.

- Um...zu , expresses a reason or an objective, it means in order to

Eg: Ich habe vieles gemacht um meiner Tochter stolz zu machen. - I
have done a lot of things to make my daughter proud.
Als ob” (“as if”) + subjunctive II:
. “As if” clauses are followed by the subjunctive II

Eg: Das Kind sieht aus, als ob es krank wäre. - The child looks as if it
were ill.

THE GENITIVE:
. the genitive case expresses possession and answers the question
Wessen? (Whose?)
. is used after certain adjectives and verbs which you should lean as well
as a few prepositions:

List of prepositions that take the genitive:

anstelle/an Stelle, aufgrund/auf Grund, während, wegen
außerhalb, oberhalb, unterhalb, innerhalb
beiderseits, diesseits, jenseits, unweit, entlang …, links, rechts
nördlich, östlich, südlich, westlich
trotz, ungeachtet

List of verbs that take the genitive:

jemanden einer Sache anklagen, beschuldigen, bezichtigen,
überführen
sich einer Sache brüsten, enthalten, rühmen, schämen, erinnern,
freuen
einer Sache gedenken, Herr werden, bedürfen

List of adjectives that take the genitive:

einer Sache kundig, mächtig, unwürdig, überdrüssig sein

. the definitive articles are des (masc) , der (fem) , des (neu) , der (plural)

. the declinations are much simpler in the genitive, for adjectives and
adverbs they all take -en
. in terms of personal pronouns they take the endings of the definitive
articles, -er and -es respective to the gender and whether it is
singular/plural

. for nouns in the genitive, we add an -s/-es to masculine and neuter

nouns,like des Vaters

VERBS:

Infinitives with(out) zu:

. most verbs take zu with the infinitive
. in trennbare (separable) verbs the zu goes between the first and
second part of the word i.e. einzuhalten - to comply with

. some verbs do not take zu:

- Modal verbs
- Verbs of senses
- Verbs of movement
- Finden and haben in conjunction with location
- Bleiben
- Lassen and schicken

Nicht/nur + brauchen:
. nicht brauchen zu + Infinitiv , a negation of the sentence which
expresses that it doesn't need

Eg: Er braucht nicht für sie warten. - He doesn't need to wait for her.

PREPOSITIONS:

Trotz + Genitive:
. trotz means despite, you may already recognise it as a conjunction but
it is also a preposition
. it takes the genitive case and is used to express an action done in spite
of another

Eg: Trotz des schlechten Wetters ging ich spazieren. - Despite the bad
weather I went for a walk.

Wegen + Genitive:
. similar to trotz and it means against or because of
. it takes the genitive case and expresses the reason for doing
something

Eg: Wegen meiner Schwester machen wir Urlaub in Frankreich.-

Because of my sister we are going on holiday to France.

Da/wo/hin + prepositions:
. if there is a vowel as the first letter of the preposition, add -r between
da- and wo- and the preposition for ease of pronunciation

. da-compounds are used to express the preposition in question

followed by “that” (with that)

Eg: Ich habe meinem Sohn ein neues Spielzeug gekauft und er spinnst
darüber. - I bought my son a new toy and he is crazy about it.

. wo-compounds are used to express the preposition in question which

precede “on” , this turns it into a question (on what)

Eg: Worauf spielst du? - What are you playing on?

Ich spiele auf meinen Computer. - I am playing on my computer.

. hin and her-compounds describe a movement

. hin- describes a movement away from the speaker towards a particular
destination
. her- describes a movement from a point of origin towards the speaker
Eg: Der Apfel fiel ins Gras hinunter. - The apple fell down into the grass.

Sabrina komm da heraus! - Sabrina, come out of there!

Local and temporal prepositions:

. local prepositions denote a place and temporal prepositions a time
. some require a specific case

LOCAL:

Preposition Meaning Usage

an on/at/by Attached to/close to
auf on/in/at/onto On a surface/in or at a
place
aus from Origin place
außerhalb Outside Outside of a place
bei at/with At a place/with
somebody
durch across/through To cross somewhere
gegenüber opposite Facing somewhere
hinter behind At the back of
somewhere
in in/on/at In/at a place/on
something (tv/radio)
nach to To a place/country
neben Next to Next to somewhere
über above/over To be above/cross
over something
unter under/below To be under or below
a place
vor In front of In front of a place
zu to To go to/towards a
place
zwischen Between Between two places

TEMPORAL:

Prepositions Meaning Usage

ab from/as of from/as of a point in
time
an on/in/at on/in/at a time
außerhalb Outside of/apart from Outside of a point in
time
bis by/until Up till a certain time
In in/at In a certain
month/season, at a
time of day
nach past With specific times
seit since since/for a certain time
um at At a specific time
von…bis from…to Marker of time
vor before/ago Before a certain time
während during A period of time
OTHER:

Expressions with es:

. usually es is used as a personal pronoun to replace a neutral noun
. however it can also be used as the formal subject with impersonal
verbs
. this means es does not stand in for a definite noun but rather some
undefinable subject
. es stands for a situation or state to which no concrete subject can be
attributed

Eg: Es regnet. - It is raining.

. es is therefore used with what we call impersonal verbs which are as

follows:
- Weather related verbs
- Dealing with noise
- Dealing with senses
- Sein, werden and bleiben can behave as impersonal verbs when
used with adjectives/adverbs related to weather or time
- Gehen is used to mean there is

Modal Particles:
. they are essentially filler words which indicate the mood or the attitude
towards what you are talking about
. the word particle expresses words that have no real meaning like hmm
. they are common in everyday speech
. below I’ve put a table of some of them:
 aber gerne!

with pleasure!
aber

aber sicher!

most certainly

Das ist wohl wahr!

wohl
That’s certainly true!

Affirmation/

Agreement

Das ist ja eine tolle idee!

ja
That’s really a great idea!

Na klar komme ich!

na You bet I‘m coming!

Na logisch!
 Of course!

Du bist doch nur zugekifft.

You're just [saying that because you're] high.

Contradiction/
doch
Disagreement
Q: Das ist doch nicht dein Ernst, oder? A: Doch!

Q: You’re not being serious, are you? A: I am!

Dass ich das gerade von DIR höre...

That I'm hearing that from YOU (of all people)…

gerade

Special
Gerade heute musste es schneien!
Emphasis/

It had to snow today (of all days)!

Focus

eben
Ich versuche, eine Antwort auf eben die Frage zu
formulieren.
 I'm trying to find an answer to [just] that very
question.

So ist es eben. / Es ist eben so.

eben
That's just how it is.

Naja, was hast du erwartet?

Resignation naja
Ah well, what did you expect?

Ich war halt besoffen.

halt
(What can i say?) I was drunk.

Das war aber nett von dir!

aber
That was nice of you! [I wasn't expecting it]
Surprise
 Ist das etwa für mich?
etwa
Is that for me?

Wie alt bist du denn? [to a child]

denn
So how old are you?

Interest

Guck dir das mal an!

mal
Take a look at that!

Das ist schon viel!

schon
It’s more than you think/more than it seems

Intensifiers

ja
Du bist ja blöd!
 Are you ever dumb!

Das ist aber völliger Quatsch!

aber
That's complete nonsense!

Wie konntest du nur?

How COULD you?

nur

Was hat er sich nur dabei gedacht?

What WAS he thinking?

Exasperation/

Anger

Was will er schon von mir?

schon
What in the world does he want from me?

nun
 Was soll das nun bedeuten?

Now what’s that supposed to mean?

Es war halt ein Vorschlag.

halt
It was just a suggestion.

Softening/

Casual

Warte mal.
mal
Wait a sec.

Passive:
. in the active voice, the subject of the sentence acts upon an object
Eg: She attacks him.
. in the passive voice, the subject of the sentence receives the action
Eg: He is attacked (by her).

. in german we use “werden'' as the auxiliary verb in the passive

Eg: Hier wird nur Deutsch gesprochen. - Only German is spoken here.

. when used with modal verbs werden is pushed to the end of the
sentence as an infinitive
Eg: Etwas muss getan werden. - Something must be done.

. The passive sentence's tenses are achieved through manipulation of

the auxiliary verb

- In the present the passive is formed with:

Werden + past participle

Eg: Der Mann wird verletzt.

- In the simple past the passive is formed with:

Wurden (conjugated) + past participle

Eg: Der Mann wurde verletzt.

- In the present perfect the passive is formed with:

Past participle + worden

Eg: Der Mann ist verletzt worden.