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All German grammar in human language!

The most important topics in German grammar (topics are best studied in the order in which they are published):

1. Sentence construction:

There are 3 construction schemes in German simple sentences. One way or another, any sentence in the German language fits into one of these schemes. First, let's remember a couple of terms: Subject - a noun in the nominative case (answering the question who? what?). The predicate is a verb. Circumstance - answers the question how, where, when, why,.... In other words, the circumstance clarifies the proposal. Examples of circumstances: today, after work, in Berlin, ...

And here are the proposal diagrams themselves:

1. Subject -> predicate -> circumstances and everything else -> second verb, if present in the sentence.
2. Circumstance -> predicate -> subject -> everything else -> second verb, if any
3. (Question word) -> predicate -> subject -> everything else -> second verb, if any

2. Times:

There are 6 tenses in German (1 present, 3 past and 2 future):

Present tense (Präsens):

This is the simplest tense in German. To construct the present tense, you just need to put the verb in the correct conjugation:

Example: machen - to do

Examples:
Hans geht zur Arbeit. - Hans goes to work.
Der Computer arbeitet nicht. - Computer does not work.

Past tenses:

There are 3 past tenses in German. However, in fact, 2 times will be enough for you. The first is called "Präteritum" and the second "Perfekt". In most cases, both tenses are translated the same way into Russian. In official correspondence and in books "Präteritum" is used. In oral speech, "Perfekt" is usually used, although sometimes "Präteritum" is used.

Präteritum:

Here we first encounter the concept of regular (strong) and irregular (weak) verbs. Forms regular verbs change according to a clear pattern. Forms of irregular verbs need to be memorized. You will find them in.

Regular verb: machen (Infinitiv) -> machte (Präteritum)
Conjugations of the verb machen in Präteritum:

Examples:
"Du machtest die Hausaufgabe!" - "You did homework!"
"Du spieltest Fussball" - "You played football"

Irregular verb gehen (Infinitiv) -> ging (Präteritum)

Example:
"Du gingst nach Hause!" - “You were going home!”

Future tenses:

In German there are "Futur l" and "Futur ll" for the future tense. The Germans do not use “Futur ll” at all, and they usually replace “Futur ll” with the present tense (Präsens) indicating the future as a clarification.

Example: "Morgen gehen wir ins Kino." - "Tomorrow we are going to the cinema."

If you indicate a circumstance of the future tense (tomorrow, soon, in a week, etc.), then you can safely use the present tense to express plans for the future.

If we still consider the time “Futur l”, then it is constructed as follows:

Subject -> auxiliary"werden" -> everything else -> semantic verb in the form "Infinitiv".

Example: "Wir werden ins Kino gehen." - "We'll go to the cinema."(verbatim: "We're going to the cinema.")

Conjugations of the verb "werden"

3. Cases:

Cases]

4. Compound and compound sentences:

Präteritum is the simple past tense form. Präteritum of weak verbs in German is formed from the 2nd main form by adding the same personal endings as in the present. The exception is the 1st and 3rd person singular: in the 1st and 3rd person singular of the preterite the verb does not take a personal ending.

For example:

Formation of the preterite of strong verbs in German

The preterite of strong verbs in German is characterized by a change in the root vowel. Strong verbs, like weak ones, take the same personal endings as in the present. In the 1st and 3rd person singular they also do not have personal endings.

For example:

Strong verbs whose roots end in ß, z, tz, sch, have in the 2nd person singular a connecting vowel between the root and the personal ending e:du lasest. In colloquial speech the form du last is used.
The perfect of the verbs haben, sein, werden, tun has its own characteristics (these forms must be remembered).

Imperfect of modal verbs and verb wissen in German

Modal verbs and the verb wissen in German form a preterite like weak verbs, i.e. by adding a suffix -te. The modal verbs können, dürfen, müssen, mögen* lose their umlaut in the preterite.

Conjugation of modal verbs in the preterite in German

	müssen - musste		sollen - sollte		Wollen - Wollte
Unit h.	ich must	I had to	ich sollte	I had to	Ich Wollte	I wanted
	du musttest	you had to	du solltest	you had to	du wolltest	you wanted
	er musste	he should have been	er sollte	he should have been	er Wollte	he wanted
Mn. h.	wir musten	we had to	wir sollten	we had to	wir wollten	we wanted
	ihr musstet	you should have	ihr solltet	you should have	ihr Wolltet	you wanted
	sie mussten	they had to	sollten	they had to	sie wollten	they wanted
Polite form reverse	Sie mussten	you should have	Sie sollten	you should have	Sie wollten	You wanted

The verb wissen takes the suffix into the preterite -te and changes the root vowel.

Conjugation of the verb wissen into the present

Use of the preterite in German
and translating it into Russian

The perfect is used in coherent descriptions, narratives, and in stories about the past. Therefore, it is usually called the past narrative tense. In modern German, it can express both completed and incomplete actions, both single and multiple. Translated into Russian using the past tense.

Past tense (Präteritum)

Except Perfect (perfect tense) There is also a simple past tense in the German language - Präteritum(which in Latin means past past). It is formed using the suffix -t-. Compare:

Ich tanze. – I am dancing (present tense – Präsens).

Ich tanz t e. – I danced (past tense – Präteritum).

This is similar to the English past tense, where the sign of the past tense is the suffix -d-:

I dance – I danced.

Präsens Präteritum

ich sage - I say ich sagte - I said

wir, sie, Sie sagen wir, sie, Sie sagten

du sagst du sagtest

er sagt er sagte (!)

ihr sagt ihr sagtet

Feature Präteritum is what is in the form he she it) no personal ending added -t, that is: forms I And He match up. (As you remember, the same thing happens with modal verbs.)

As we have already said, the German language has strong (irregular, non-rule) verbs. Sagen – weak, regular verb. And here fallen – strong:

ich, er fiel (I, he fell), wir, sie, Sie fielen,

du fielst,

ihr fielt.

The past tense suffix is ​​no longer needed here -t-, since the past tense is indicated by the changed word itself (compare with English: I see - I see, I saw - I saw). Forms I And He are the same, there are no personal endings in these forms (all the same as with modal verbs in the present tense).

So, the Russian phrase I bought beer It can be translated into German in two ways:

Ich kaufte Bier. – Präteritum (past tense).

Ich habe Bier gekauft. – Perfect (perfect tense).

What is the difference?

Perfect is used when an action committed in the past is connected with the present moment, when it is relevant. For example, you come home and your wife asks you (as they say, dreaming is not harmful):

Hast du Bier gekauft? -Did you buy beer?

Ja, ich habe Bier gekauft.(You answer with a sense of accomplishment).

She is not interested in the moment in the past when you bought beer, not in history, but in the result of the action - that is, the availability of beer. Is it done or not? Has it happened or not? Hence the name - Perfect (perfect tense).

Präteritum (past tense) used when an action performed in the past has nothing to do with the present moment. It's just a story, a story about some past events. That's why Perfect is used, as a rule, in conversation, in dialogue, when exchanging remarks (after all, it is in conversation that what is most often important is not the action itself in the past, but its relevance for the present, its result), and Präteritum- in a story, in a monologue. For example, you talk about how you spent your vacation:

Ich kaufte ein paar Flaschen Bier... Dann ging ich an den Strand... – I bought a few bottles of beer, went to the beach...

Or tell your child a fairy tale:

Es war einmal ein König, der hatte drei Töchter... - Once upon a time there was a king, he had three daughters...

Ich kam, ich sah, ich siegte. – I came, I saw, I conquered.

Because the Präteritum needed, as a rule, for a story, then the second person form ( you you) are rarely used. Even in a question to a person telling about something, it is more often used Perfect – so used to it that this form is for replicas, Präteritum with this interruption of the narrator it sounds very literary (albeit beautiful): Kauftest du Bier? Gingt ihr dann an den Strand? Basically, you will encounter and use the following two forms:

(ich, er) kaufte, wir (sie) kauften– for weak verbs,

(ich, er) ging, wir (sie) gingen– for strong verbs.

Table - formation of the preterite:

So: in conversation you use Perfect, in a story (about events not related to the present moment) - Präteritum.

However Präteritum verbs sein, haben and modal verbs (+ verb wissen) is also used in conversation - along with Perfect:

Ich war in der Türkei. (Präteritum) – I was in Turkey.

= Ich bin in der Türkei gewesen. (Perfect)

Ich hatte einen Hund. (Präteritum) – I had a dog.

= Ich habe einen Hund gehabt. (Perfect)

Ich musste ihr helfen. (Präteritum) – I had to help her.

= Ich habe ihr helfen müssen. (Perfect)

Ich wusste das. (Präteritum) - I knew it.

Ich habe das gewusst. (Perfect)

Past tense forms sein -> war (du warst, er war, wir waren…) And haben -> hatte (du hattest, er hatte, wir hatten…) need to remember.

Modal verbs form Präteritum as weak - by inserting a suffix -t-, with the only peculiarity that Umlaut (mutation) in this case it “evaporates”: müssen -> musste, sollen -> sollte, dürfen -> durfte, können -> konnte, wollen -> wollte.

For example:

Ich konnte in die Schweiz fahren. Ich hatte Glück. Ich war noch nie in der Schweiz. – I was able to go to Switzerland. I was lucky (I was lucky). I've never been to Switzerland before.

Separately, you need to remember: mögen -> mochte:

Ich mochte früher Käse. Jetzt mag ich keinen Käse. – I used to love cheese. Now I don't like cheese.

Now we can write down the so-called basic forms of the verb (Grundformen):

Infinitiv Präteritum Partizip 2

kaufen kaufte gekauft

(buy) (bought) (purchased)

trinken trunk getrunken

For weak verbs, there is no need to memorize the basic forms, since they are formed regularly. The basic forms of strong verbs must be memorized (as, by the way, in English: drink – drank – drunk, see – saw – seen…)

For some strong verbs, as you remember, you need to remember the present tense form (Präsens) – for forms You And he she it): nehmen – er nimmt (he takes), fallen – er fällt (he falls).

Of particular note is a small group of verbs intermediate between weak and strong:

denken – dachte – gedacht (to think),

bringen – brachte – gebracht (bring),

kennen – kannte – gekannt (to know, to be familiar),

nennen – nannte – genannt (to name),

rennen – rannte – gerannt (run, rush),

senden – sandte – gesandt (to send),

(sich) wenden – wandte – gewandt (to address).

They get in Präteritum and in Partizip 2 suffix -t, like weak verbs, but at the same time they change the root, like many strong ones.

For senden And wenden weak forms are also possible (although strong (with -A-) are used more often:

Wir sandten/sendeten Ihnen vor vier Wochen unsere Angebotsliste. – We sent you a list of proposals four weeks ago.

Sie wandte/wendete kein Auge von ihm. – She didn’t take her eyes off him (didn’t turn away).

Haben Sie sich an die zuständige Stelle gewandt/gewendet? – Have you contacted the appropriate (responsible) authority?

If senden has the meaning broadcast, A wenden – change direction, turn over, then only weak forms are possible:

Wir sendeten Nachrichten. - We conveyed the news.

Er wendete den Wagen (wendete das Schnitzel). – He turned the car (turned the schnitzel over).

Jetzt hat sich das Blatt gewendet. – Now the page has turned (i.e. new times have come).

There are several cases where the same verb can be both weak and strong. At the same time, its meaning changes. For example, hängen in meaning hang has weak forms, and in meaning hang - strong (and in general, in such “double” verbs, the active “double”, as a rule, has weak forms, and the passive one has strong forms):

Sie hängte das neue Bild an die Wand. – She hung a new picture on the wall.

Das Bild hing schief an der Wand. – The picture hung crookedly on the wall.

Hast du die Wäsche aufgehängt? -Have you hung up your laundry?

Der Anzug hat lange im Schrank gehangen. – This suit hung in the closet for a long time.

Verb erschrecken – weak if it means frighten, and strong if it means get scared:

Er erschreckte sie mit einer Spielzeugpistole. “He scared her with a toy gun.”

Sein Aussehen hat mich erschreckt. – His (appearance) frightened me.

Erschrecke nicht! - Do not scare!

Sie erschrak bei seinem Anblick. – She was scared when she saw him (literally: when she saw him).

Ich bin über sein Aussehen erschrocken. – I’m scared by his appearance (the way he looks).

Erschrick nicht! - Do not be afraid!

Verb bewegen could mean like move, set in motion(and then he is weak), so encourage(strong):

Sie bewegte sich im Schlaf. – She moved (i.e., tossed and turned) in her sleep.

Die Geschichte hat mich sehr bewegt. – This story really touched me.

Sie bewog ihn zum Nachgeben. – She prompted, forced him to yield (prompted him to yield).

Die Ereignisse der letzten Wochen haben ihn bewogen, die Stadt zu verlassen. “The events of recent weeks have prompted him to leave the city.

Verb schaffen - weak in meaning to work hard, to cope with something(by the way, the motto of the Swabians, and indeed the Germans in general: schaffen, sparen, Häusle bauen - to work, save, build a house) and strong in meaning create, create:

Er schaffte die Abschlussprüfung spielend. – He passed the final exam effortlessly.

Wir haben das geschafft! – We achieved it, we did it!

Am Anfang schuf Gott Himmel und Erde. – In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

Die Maßnahmen haben kaum neue Arbeitsplätze geschaffen. – These events did not create new jobs.

Perfect is the most commonly used past tense in the German language. His education needs to be learned first. After all, it is used in colloquial speech and everyday life. This is the tense you will almost always use when talking about the past in German.

Auxiliary verbs are used to form the perfect.haben orsein+ participle II(Partizip ll, 3rd form of the verb) semantic verb.

Auxiliary verbs haben orsein are not translated, they are only a variable part of the predicate. The meaning of the entire predicate depends on the meaning of the verb appearing in the form participles(Partizip ll, 3rd form of the verb), which is its unchangeable part and stands at the end of the sentence.

Ich habe diesels Buch gelesen. — I read this book.

Er ist early Berlin gefahren. — He came to Berlin.

Do not forget, Partizip ll comes at the end of the sentence, picture to remember:

So, to form Perfect, you need to conjugate the auxiliary verb haben orsein(it comes in second place in the sentence), form correctly participle II(Partizip ll, 3rd form of the verb) and put it at the end of the sentence.

The first difficulty: which auxiliary verb to choose?haben orsein? Let's figure it out!

First let's review the verb conjugationsseinAndhaben. You need to know these two signs by heart.

Verbs with " sein"

With an auxiliary verbseinused:

1. all intransitive verbs,denoting movement in space:
aufstehen, begegnen, fahren, fallen, fliegen, gehen, kommen, reisen, etc.

2. all intransitive verbs,denoting a change in state, a transition to a new phase of the process,for example: aufblühen, aufwachen, einschlafen, entstehen, werden, wachsen or sterben, ertrinken, ersticken, umkommen, vergehen, etc.

3. verbs sein, werden, bleiben, geschehen, passieren (happen, occur), gelingen (succeed)

Notes

1. Verbs fahren And fliegen can also be used as transitive. In this case they are conjugated with the verb haben:
Ich habe das Auto selbst in die Garage gefahren.
Der Pilot hat das Flugzeug nach New York geflogen.

2. Verb schwimmen:
Er ist über den Kanal geschwommen. (= movement towards a specific goal)
Er hat zehn Minuten im Fluss geschwommen. (= movement in a confined space, without indicating the purpose of movement)

Verbs with " haben"

The rest of the verbs form the perfect withhaben:

1. all verbs, accusative case managers(=transitive verbs):
bauen, fragen, essen, hören, lieben, machen, öffnen, etc.

2. everything reflexive verbs:
sich beschäftigen, sich bemühen, sich rasieren, etc.

3. everything modal verbs :
dürfen, können, mögen, müssen, sollen, wollen.

4. Intransitive verbs,denoting continuous actions or states. These include:

a) verbs that combine with adverbs of place and time, but do not imply a change of place, state or movement in space:
hängen (= strong verb), liegen, sitzen, stehen, stecken, arbeiten, leben, schlafen, wachen, etc.

b) verbs that control the dative case and do not denote movement: antworten, danken, drohen, gefallen, glauben, nützen, schaden, vertrauen, etc.

c) verbs anfangen, aufhören, beginnen, denoting the beginning and end of an action.

In southern Germany, the verbs liegen, sitzen, stehen are used in the perfect with sein.

The components of the perfect have a single meaning and are not translated separately. Therefore, when you see the auxiliary verb haben or sein in a sentence, must be found at the end of the sentence second part complex shape (participle II) and translate them into one word - a verb in the past tense. When translating, you need to pay attention to the order of words.

For example: Mein Bruder ist nach Moscow gefahren. - My brother went to Moscow. - For translation you need to “go” to the end of the sentence, but “ist” is not translated.

In dictionaries and lists of basic forms, verbs that form the perfect with sein are usually accompanied by a special mark (s).

Examples of verb conjugation in the perfect:

arbeiten - to work

ich habe gearbeitet

du hast gearbeitet

er hat gearbeitet

wir haben gearbeitet

ihr habt gearbeitet

Präteritum used in a coherent narrative or description to express a completed, past action.

The peculiarity of all verbs in the form Präteritum is
1. lack of personal endings in 1st and 3rd lines. units h.
2. separable prefixes are separated and moved to the last place in the sentence.

Formation of the Präteritum form weak verbs:

Verb stem + suff. -(e)te + personal ending (except for 1st and 3rd units)

malen (mal-)				arbeiten (arbeit-)
ich	mal te	wir	mal te n	ich	arbeit ete	wir	arbeit ete n
du	mal te st	ihr	mal te t	du	arbeit ete st	ihr	arbeit ete t
er		sie	mal te n	er		sie	arbeit ete n
sie	mal te			sie	arbeit ete
es		Sie	mal te n	es		Sie	arbeit ete n

Strong verbs form the Präteritum form as follows:

Verb stem with modified root vowel + personal ending (except for 1st and 3rd units)

nehmen				gehen
ich	n a hm	wir	nahmen	ich	g i ng	wir	g i ngen
du	n a hmst	ihr	n a hmt	du	g i ngst	ihr	g i ngt
er		sie	n a hmen	er		sie	g i ngen
sie	n a hm			sie	g i ng
es		Sie	n a hmen	es		Sie	g i ngen

When forming Präteritum, as well as Perfekt of strong verbs, you should know the three main forms of the verb Infinitiv – Präteritum – Partizip II, eg.

kommen-kam-gekommen
gehen – ging – gegangen
schreiben – schrieb – geschrieben

The first form is the one already known to you, that is, the initial form of the verb, the second is the form of the verb in Präteritum in 1 or 3 liters. units h., from which all personal forms should be derived. And the third form will be needed to form another past tense Perfect. All three forms should be learned by heart, and they always appear in the table at the end of the dictionary.

In addition to strong verbs, the three forms of which are not formed according to the rules, there are several verbs that, when forming Präteritum, combine the features of both strong (changing the root vowel) and weak verbs (adding a suffix -te). These verbs include:

bringen – brachte
verbringen – verbrachte
kennen – kannte
brennen – brannte
nennen – nannte

and modal verbs, losing umlaut:

können – konnte
müssen – musste
Wollen – Wollte
mögen – mochte
sollen – sollte
durfen – durfte

And you should, of course, remember the 3 main forms separately auxiliary verbs:

sein – war – gewesen
haben – hatte – gehabt
werden – wurde – geworden

Exercises / ÜBUNGEN

1. Conjugate the verbs in Präteritum:

- warten - stoppen - sich kümmern - holen - versorgen - schenken - richten - gratulieren -

2. Read the following text and fill in the gaps with the verbs in Präteritum. Write down and learn 3 forms of these verbs.

3. Describe yesterday for the Muller farming family using the preterite. Refer to the table at the beginning of the article. Start your story, for example, like this:

Gestern begann der Tag für die Familie Müller wie immer sehr früh. Der Vater und die Mutter
standen um 6 Uhr auf…

4. Describe your own yesterday. What did you like (dislike) about it, what did you do in your working (free) time? Write at least 15 sentences.