in English :)Dust it!
To tell someone to do something, dust off the regular sentence Du trinkst kein
Bier — take away the du and the -st!
Du trinkst kein Bier. Trink kein Bier!
You drink no beer. Drink no beer!
Du bleibst bei mir. Bleib bei mir!
You stay with me. Stay with me!
You’ll sometimes see an -e added to the du command. Don’t worry, the
meaning is still the same! For example, you could say
either Geh! or Gehe! And both Trink! and Trinke! are totally okay.
Drink no beer!
If you’re telling a group of people to do something, just take the regular
sentence and drop the ihr.
Ihr trinkt kein Bier. Trinkt kein Bier!
You all drink no beer. Drink no beer!
Ihr bleibt bei mir. Bleibt bei mir!
You all stay with me. Stay with me!
Watch out!
Telling people what to do is usually straightforward, but here are a few things
to look out for!
If you use a stem vowel changing verb like lassen (ich lasse, du lässt, etc) you
don’t keep that ä!
Lass das!
Leave it!
If you want to tell someone to be good or not be silly, you’ll need these special
forms:
du Sei!
you (You) be!
ihr Seid!
you all (You all) be!
Sei kein Baby!
Don’t be a baby!
Literal: Be no baby!
Accusative prepositions
Accusative prepositions always trigger the accusative case.
Here are the most common ones: durch, für, gegen, ohne, um
Dative prepositions
Dative prepositions always trigger the dative case.
Here are the most common ones: aus, außer, bei, gegenüber, mit, nach,
seit, von, zu
Two-way prepositions
Two-way prepositions take the dative case or the accusative case,
depending on the context.
This is an unusual, but central part of German grammar.
If there's movement from one place to another, use the accusative case.
Die Katze geht in die Küche. (The cat walks into the kitchen.)
If there's no movement, or if there's movement within a certain place, use
the dative case.
Die Katze schläft in der Küche. (The cat sleeps in the kitchen.)
Die Katze geht in der Küche. (The cat walks within the kitchen.)
These prepositions can switch case: an, auf, hinter, in, neben, über, unter,
vor, zwischen
When not to think about location change
Two-way prepositions are very common in everyday speech, so it's a good
idea to practice them to fluency.
However, don't forget that for some prepositions, you don't have to
decide:
Durch and um will always be accusative, although they might signify an
activity without location change:
Das Kind rennt durch den Wald. (The child is running through the
forest.)
Die Stühle stehen um den Tisch. (The chairs are standing around the
table.)
Aus, von, zu will always be dative, although they might signify a location
change.
Er kommt aus der Küche (He comes out of the kitchen.)
Ich fahre zur Arbeit. (I go to work.)
Ich komme von der Arbeit. (I come from work.)
Other uses for two-way prepositions
Some verbs use one of these prepositions in a way that is not about location.
This is part of language change, where things get repurposed all the time.
Über will always trigger the accusative case:
an + das ans
an + dem am
auf + das aufs
bei + dem beim
in + das ins
in + dem im
hinter + das hinters
über + das übers
um + das ums
unter + das unters
von + dem vom
vor + das vors
zu + dem zum
zu + der zur
Sie diskutieren über den Krieg. (They discuss the war.)
When used with these verbs, vor will always trigger the Dative:
Er warnt vor dem Hund. (He warns about the dog.)
An, in and auf are more complicated: in some verbs, they trigger the
accusative, in others the dative. You'll just have to memorize these.
Er denkt an seinen Bruder. (He thinks of his brother.)
Er arbeitet an einem Film (He's working on a film.)
Ich warte auf den Bus. (I'm waiting for the bus.)
Der Film basiert auf meinem Leben. (The film is based on my life.)
Contractions
Some prepositions and articles can be contracted.
Wir gehen ins Kino (We go to the cinema.)
If you would use "that" in English, you would not use a contraction:
In das Kino gehe ich nicht! (I won't go into that cinema!)
Preposition at the end of a sentence??
An important part of German grammar is that some verbs can split off their
prefix. This often ends up at the end of a sentence. Some of these prefixes
look exactly like a preposition.
So when you see a "preposition" at the end of a sentence, try to combine it
with the verb. You might just have learned a new word :)
Sie macht die Lampe an. (anmachen means "turn on" here)
Ich denke nach. (nachdenken means "to think")
Pass auf dich auf! (aufpassen means "to take care")
Wann fährt der Zug ab? (abfahren means "to depart")
Nimm deinen Hut ab! (abnehmen means "to take off" in this context)
Unfortunately, the way Duolingo is built does not allow to selectively teach
German sentence structure. We hope this will change soon :)
Zu Hause vs. nach Hause
Zu Hause means at home, and nach Hause means home (homewards, not at
home). The -e at the end of zu Hause and nach Hause is an archaic dative
ending, which is no longer used in modern German, but survives in certain
fixed expressions.
Ich bin zu Hause. (I am at home.)
Ich gehe nach Hause. (I am walking home.)
Yes/No Questions
Questions can be asked by switching the subject and verb. For instance,
Du verstehst das. (You understand this.)
becomes
Verstehst du das? (Do you understand this?).
These kinds of questions will generally just elicit yes/no answers. In English,
the main verb "to be" follows the same principle. "You are hungry." becomes
"Are you hungry?".
In German, all verbs follow this principle. There's no do-support.
Asking a Question in German With a W-Word
There are seven W-questions in German:
English German
what was
who wer
where wo
when wann
how wie
why warum
which welcher
Don't mix up wer and wo, which are "switched"
Some of these will change according to case.
Was (what)
English preposition wo-
for what für wofür
about what über worüber
with what mit womit
If you ask was with a preposition, the two normally turn into a new word,
according to the following pattern:
If the preposition starts with a vowel, there will be an extra -r- to make it easier
to pronounce.
This wo- prefix does not mean "where".
Wer (who)
Wer is declinable and needs to adjust to the cases. The adjustment depends
on what the question is targeting.
If you ask for the subject of a sentence (i.e. the nominative object), wer (who)
remains as is:
Wer ist da? (Who is there?).
If you ask for the direct (accusative) object in a sentence, wer changes
to wen (who/whom). As a mnemonic, notice how wen rhymes with den in den
Apfel.
Wen siehst du? — Ich sehe den Hund.
(Whom do you see? — I see the dog.)
You will soon learn about the Dative case. You have to use wem then. And
there is a forth case in German (Genitive). You would use wessen here. This
corresponds to English "whose".
The endings look like the endings of der (but don't change with
gender/number):
case masc. Form of wer
nominative der wer
accusative den wen
dative dem wem
Welche(r/s) (which)
Welche- words are used to ask about for a specific item out of a group of
items, such as "which car is yours?".
This declines not only for case, but also for gender. The endings are the same
as for definite articles:
article welch*
der welcher
das welches
die welche
die (pl.) welche
den welchen
Wo (where)
In German, you can inquire about locations in several ways.
Wo (where) is the general question word, but if you are asking for a
direction in which someone or something is moving, you may use *wohin*
(where to).
Consider these examples:
Wo ist mein Schuh? (Where is my shoe?)
Wohin gehst du? (Where are you going (to)?)
Furthermore, wohin is separable into wo + hin:
Wo ist mein Schuh hin? (Where did my shoe go?)
The same goes for woher (where from):
Woher kommst du? (Where are you from)
might become
Wo kommst du her?
English German
where wo
where to wohin
where from woher
Wann (when)
Wann (when) does not change depending on the case. Wann can be used
with conjunctions such as seit (since) or bis (till):
Seit wann wartest du? (Since when have you been waiting?)
Bis wann geht der Film? (Till when does the movie last?).
Don't confuse wann with wenn which you learned in Conjunctions. Both
translate to "when" in English, but they have different functions in German.
Wann kommst du? (When are you coming?)
Ich schlafe nicht, wenn ich Musik höre. (I don't sleep when I listen to
music)
Warum (why)
Warum (why) is also not declinable. It will never change
endings. Wieso, Weshalb, and Weswegen can be used instead of Warum.
There's no difference in meaning.
Here is an example. All four following sentences mean "Why is the car so
old?".
Warum ist das Auto so alt?
Wieso ist das Auto so alt?
Weshalb ist das Auto so alt?
Weswegen ist das Auto so alt?
Wie viel vs. wie viele
Wie viel is used with uncountable or countable nouns (how much/how many),
and wie viele is only used with countable nouns (how many). Some people
think that "wie viel" can only be used with uncountable nouns, but that is not
true.
Wie viel Milch trinkst du? (How much milk do you drink?)
Wie viel(e) Tiere siehst du? (How many animals do you see?)
