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The Awful German Language
Questions to accompany Mark Twain’s essay “The Awful German Language.”
1.
How many teachers had died trying to teach German to Twain and his friend?
2.
How many parts of speech are there?
3.
What case are objects supposed to be in when they are resting or lying around?
4.
What case are objects supposed to be in when they are active or in motion?
5.
Why did the word “Regen” have to be in the genitive case in this sentence?
6.
Why are many German compound nouns not found in the dictionary?
7.
What does Twain suggest one should do to make German easier to read?
8.
What happens to verbs sometimes when newspapers are in a hurry to get their papers out?
9.
Where is the second half of a separable prefix verb in German?
10. How many meanings can the word “sie” have?
11. Complete the adjective endings in Twain’s examples:
Singular: Nominative -- Mein gut______ Freund, my good friend.
Genitive -- Meines gut______ Freundes, of my good friend.
Dative -- Meinem gut_______ Freund, to my good friend.
Accusative -- Meinen gut_______ Freund, my good friend.
Plural:
Nominative -- Meine gut______ Freunde, my good friends.
Genitive -- Meiner gut______ Freunde, of my good friends.
Dative -- Meinen gut______ Freunden, to my good friends.
Accusative -- Meine gut______ Freunde, my good friends.
12. How many adjectives are there in the German language?
13. Why is it a good idea to capitalize German nouns?
14. What pronoun is used for a turnip in German?
15. What German genders can be deduced for the following words from the Tale of the Fishwife?
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
g.
the hail
M/F/N
the fin
M/F/N
the lightning M / F / N
the flame M / F / N
the foot M / F / N
the neck M / F / N
the nose M / F / N
16. Which two German nouns seem to have an almost endless number of meanings?
17. What was successfully removed from a North German patient during surgery?
18. What does Twain like to trade, buy at auction or stuff and put in his museum?
19. What animal died in the story of the Mannheim fire?
20. Where is the English stress on the word “damit”? Where is the German stress?
21. Which language has more powerful words according to Twain: German or English?
22. Which English word is more powerful than the German word for “explosion” (Ausbruch)?
23. What is the best thing about the spelling of German?
24. How do Germans feel about repeating words in a paragraph?
25. What is the first thing Twain would abolish in the German language?
26. What should happen to the German verb in his opinion?
27. Why does Twain see a need to import English swear words into German?
28. What should happen to long compound words?
29. Which two words are the only German words Twain would keep?
30. According to Twain, how long does it take to learn
a.
b.
c.
English
French
German
31. Why should German become a dead language if it is not reformed?