German 030: Kapitel 8 Review (Deutsch Heute)
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Housekeeping
Der Winter ist bald vorbei, nicht wahr? Was habt ihr für den Sommer vor?
Ihr habt sehr gut gearbeitet und es bleibt nur ein wenig zu tun.
The midterm will cover Kapitel 5-8. There is no separate quiz on Kapitel 8,
but the Kapitel 8 homework is due at the midterm. Tschüs.
Kapitel 8
Genitive Case
•With people’s names possession is shown by -s (Giselas Kind)
•With common nouns possession is shown by the Genitive case
Formation:
Masculine & Neuter monosyllabic nouns-> add -es to the noun:
Die Mutter des Kindes ist hier.
The mother of the child is here
The child’s mother is here.
•more than 1 syllable: add -s to the noun:
Die Mutter des Mädchens ist hier.
N-nouns will take -n/-en instead of -s/-es (this happens in every case but
the nomin. sing.)
-articles, der-words and ein-words end in -es (cf. previous examples)
Formation:
Feminine nouns-> no noun ending, but articles etc. take -er:
German 030: Kapitel 8 Review (Deutsch Heute)
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Das Kind dieser Frau heißt Erich.
This woman’s child is called Erich.
The child of this woman is called Erich.
Whose = Wessen: Wessen Fahrrad ist das?
Possessive adjectives are ein-words: Das ist das Buch meines Vaters.
Formation
Plural nouns-> the noun ends as in the nominative plural, and articles etc.
take -er (as in the feminine):
Die Mutter dieser Kinder heißt Karin.
The mother of these children is called Karin.
N.B. The bottom line is this: if you can say “of” [the mother of this boy etc.],
then use the genitive. This can also be expressed in English by
apostrophe-s: This boy’s mother
*von + dative can also show possession (the meaning is the same as
when the genitive case is used):
Das ist das Kind von diesem Mann.
That is the child of this man (this man’s child).
* von + dat. can also indicate a work of art produced by someone: ein Buch
von Heinrich Böll (proper n.: invariable)
a book by H. Böll (Böll’s book)
Genitive of Time (eines Tages: one day / some day)
*For a definite point in time we use the acc.: Nächsten Montag
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German 030: Kapitel 8 Review (Deutsch Heute)
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Predicate adjectives: Subj. + is/was etc + adj.:
Er ist klein
The key issue here is that the adjective is to the right of the verb “to be” and
no noun follows the adjective. The adjective tells something about the
subject [er].
Predicate adjectives are invariable (take no endings and don’t agree with
the noun/pronoun they modify)
Attributive adjectives precede a noun:
Das ist ein kleines Kind
Here the noun Kind is the predicate while the adjective “kleines” merely
modifies the predicate, i.e., expresses one of the child’s attributes
(smallness).
We could also say: Das kleine Kind spielt Fußball.
The three charts in your textbook show adjective endings for all 4 cases
depending on what kind of word precedes the adjective.
1. Adj. preceded by indef. article or ein-word (mein, dein, ihr...)
2. Adj. preceded by def. article or der-word (diese, jede, welche, manche,
solche)
3. Unpreceded Adjectives
Let’s take an example:
Ich kenne dies___ klein___ Junge__ .
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German 030: Kapitel 8 Review (Deutsch Heute)
How do we determine what endings to put into the blanks. First we look at
the noun (Junge). This is because the adjective (klein__) and the der-word
(dies__) will depend on the noun’s function.
So what is the noun’s function in the sentence? It is the direct object, i.e.,
accusative case.
Then we consider the gender of the noun. It’s masculine. So now we
know that on one of our charts will have to look up the masculine column
and the accusative case.
Finally, we have to see what kind of word precedes the adjective (klein__).
It’s a der-word. Now we know what chart to turn to. Presto!
Ich kenne diesen kleinen Jungen (the -en at the end of Jung
because this is an n-Noun)
is there
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•Ordinal numerals (first, second, third)
Cardinal numerals (one, two, three)
Ordinal numerals are adjectives
Formation: add -t to cardinals 1-19 and -st to 19+
-there are some stem changes (see list in book)
-once you have the ordinal stem (with -t or -st), you add the appropriate
adjective ending based on the three charts in the chapter:
Das ist das dritte Mal (That is the third time [see der-word chart in Kap. 8]).
Dates
•Der Wievielte (Tag) ist heute?-> nomin. {“Tag” never used}
German 030: Kapitel 8 Review (Deutsch Heute)
•Den Wievielten (Tag) habe wir heute?-> accus.
•Letter headings: Den dreizehnten Januar 3221 (accus.)
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