German Workbook For Dummies

355 Pages·2022·14.57 MB·English

by  Wendy Foster

German
Workbook
by Wendy Foster
German Workbook For Dummies®
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ISBN: 978-1-119-98667-6 (pbk); 978-1-119-98668-3 (ebk); 978-1-119-98669-0 (ebk)
Contents at a Glance
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Part 1: The Basic Building Blocks of German . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
CHAPTER 1: Laying the Foundations of German . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
CHAPTER 2: Assembling the Basic Tools for German Sentences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
CHAPTER 3: Sorting Out Word Gender and Case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
CHAPTER 4: Building Your Word Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Part 2: Focusing on the Present . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
CHAPTER 5: Grasping the Present Tense . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
CHAPTER 6: Asking and Answering Intelligently; Giving Orders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
CHAPTER 7: In the Mood: Combining Verbs with Modal Auxiliaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
CHAPTER 8: Sorting Out Separable- and Inseparable-Prefix Verbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Part 3: Adding Flair to Your Conversations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
CHAPTER 9: Sounding More Like a Native with Verb Combinations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
CHAPTER 10: Adding Adjectives for Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
CHAPTER 11: Comparing with Adjectives and Adverbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
CHAPTER 12: Connecting with Conjunctions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
CHAPTER 13: Your Preposition Primer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
Part 4: Looking Back and Ahead: Talking about the Past and
the Future . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
CHAPTER 14: Conversing about the Past: Perfecting the Present Perfect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
CHAPTER 15: Narrating the (Simple) Past: Fact and Fiction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
CHAPTER 16: Looking to the Future (And Avoiding It) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
Part 5: The Part of Tens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293
CHAPTER 17: Ten Tips for Optimizing Your German . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
CHAPTER 18: Ten Pitfalls to Avoid in German . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301
Part 6: Appendixes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307
APPENDIX A: Verb Charts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
APPENDIX B: English-German Dictionary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319
APPENDIX C: German-English Dictionary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1
About This Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Conventions Used in This Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Foolish Assumptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
How This Book Is Organized . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Part 1: The Basic Building Blocks of German . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Part 2: Focusing on the Present . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3
Part 3: Adding Flair to Your Conversations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Part 4: Talking about the Past and the Future . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Part 5: The Part of Tens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Part 6: Appendixes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4
Icons Used in This Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Beyond the Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Where to Go from Here . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
PART 1: THE BASIC BUILDING BLOCKS OF GERMAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7
CHAPTER 1: Laying the Foundations of German . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Saying Hello and Goodbye . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Introducing yourself and others . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Keeping the conversational ball rolling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Figuring Out How Subject Pronouns Fit with Verbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Making sure “you” dress properly for the occasion: The formality of
du/ihr and Sie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Distinguishing among sie, sie, and Sie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Using gender-neutral pronouns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Doing the Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Counting off with cardinal numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Getting in line with ordinal numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Was Ist das Datum?: Expressing Dates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
On the Clock: Expressing Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Answers to “Laying the Foundations of German” Practice Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
CHAPTER 2: Assembling the Basic Tools for German Sentences . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Grasping German Grammar Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Conjugating verbs and understanding tenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Getting gender, number, and case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Understanding word order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32
Describing words, parts of words, and word groupings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Identifying Parts of Speech . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Finding Meaning through Context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Using a Bilingual Dictionary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Making the right choice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Performing a word search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Answers to “Assembling the Basic Tools for German Sentences”
Practice Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Table of Contents v
CHAPTER 3: Sorting Out Word Gender and Case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Rounding Up Grammatical Genders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Identifying German genders and figuring out which one to use . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Corralling plurals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Lassoing indefinite articles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Missing articles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Calling All Cases: The Roles That Nouns and Pronouns Play . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Identifying the four cases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Putting Pronouns in Place . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Using personal pronouns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Answers to “Sorting Out Word Gender and Case” Practice Questions . . . . . . . . . . . 58
CHAPTER 4: Building Your Word Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Working with Word Combinations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Spotting compound nouns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Describing picture compound nouns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Checking out verb combinations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Grasping Word Families and Word Categories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Working with word families . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Picture that!: Working with word categories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Streamlining Word Storage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Recognizing cognates and near cognates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
False friends: Bad buddies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Answers to “Building Your Word Power” Practice Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
PART 2: FOCUSING ON THE PRESENT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
CHAPTER 5: Grasping the Present Tense . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .79
Getting Your Verbs in Shape: Present-Tense Conjugations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Agreeing with the regulars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Conjugating verbs with spelling changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Conjugating the irregulars haben and sein: To have and to be . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Using the Very Versatile Present Tense . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Answers to “Grasping the Present Tense” Practice Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
CHAPTER 6: Asking and Answering Intelligently; Giving Orders . . . . . . . . . . . .97
Inverting Word Order for Yes/No Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Gathering Information with Question Words: Who, What, Why, and More . . . . . . 100
Checking Information: Tag! You’re It, Aren’t You? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Using the Imperative: Do It! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Giving orders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Requests and suggestions: Looking at question-command hybrids . . . . . . . . . 108
Responding with No: The Difference between Kein and Nicht . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Negating with nicht . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Negating with kein . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Answers to “Asking and Answering Intelligently: Giving Orders”
Practice Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
vi German Workbook For Dummies
CHAPTER 7: In the Mood: Combining Verbs with Modal Auxiliaries . . . . . . 121
The 4-1-1 on Modal Verbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .122
Identifying modals: Assistants with attitude . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Understanding word order and modals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
May I?: Dürfen, the Permission Verb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
You Can Do It!: Können, the Ability Verb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
I Like That: Mögen, the Likeable Verb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
What Would You Like?: Möchten, the Preference Verb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Do I Have To?: Müssen, the Verb of Necessity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Should I or Shouldn’t I?: Sollen, the Duty Verb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
I Want to Be Famous: Wollen, the Intention Verb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Answers to “In the Mood: Combining Verbs with Modal Auxiliaries”
Practice Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
CHAPTER 8: Sorting Out Separable- and Inseparable-Prefix Verbs . . . . . . . .141
Looking at the Prefix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
Simplifying Separable-Prefix Verbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
Using separable-prefix verbs in the present tense . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Using separable-prefix verbs in the past tense . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
Using separable-prefix verbs in present perfect tense . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Investigating Inseparable-Prefix Verbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Answers to “Sorting Out Separable- and Inseparable-Prefix Verbs”
Practice Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
PART 3: ADDING FLAIR TO YOUR CONVERSATIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
CHAPTER 9: Sounding More Like a Native with Verb Combinations . . . . . . 161
Set in Their Ways: Grasping Idiomatic Verb Expressions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
In the Looking Glass: Reflecting on Reflexive Verbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
Self-ish concerns: Meeting the reflexive pronouns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .163
Identifying which verbs need to be reflexive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
Combining Verbs with Prepositions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
Identifying common combos in the accusative case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
Eyeing common combos in the dative case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
Answers to “Sounding More Like a Native with Verb Combinations”
Practice Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
CHAPTER 10: Adding Adjectives for Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
Organizing Adjectives: Opposites, Cognates, and Collocations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
Letting opposites attract . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
A family resemblance: Describing with cognates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
Traveling companions: Describing with collocations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
Helping Adjectives Meet a Satisfying End . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
Forming endings on adjectives not preceded by der- or ein- words . . . . . . . . . 184
Preceded adjectives: Forming the endings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
Using Possessive Adjectives: My Place or Your Place? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
Answers to “Adding Adjectives for Description” Practice Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
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CHAPTER 11: Comparing with Adjectives and Adverbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
Comparing Regular Adjectives and Adverbs: Fast, Faster, Fastest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
Comparing two things . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
Absolutely the most!: Discussing superlatives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
Considering common comparisons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
Adding the umlaut in regular comparisons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
Using Irregular Comparison Forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
Identifying Unique Adjective and Adverb Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
Adjectives that act as nouns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
Participles that function as adjectives or adverbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
Adverbs that modify adjectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
Answers to “Comparing with Adjectives and Adverbs” Practice Questions . . . . . . 212
CHAPTER 12: Connecting with Conjunctions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
Conjunctions and Clauses: Terminating Terminology Tangles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
Connecting with Coordinating Conjunctions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
Working on word order: Coordinating conjunctions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
Using coordinating conjunctions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
Connecting with Subordinating Conjunctions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
Using subordinating conjunctions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
Using the correct word order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
Answers to “Connecting with Conjunctions” Practice Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
CHAPTER 13: Your Preposition Primer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
Prepping for Prepositions: Basic Guidelines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
Getting the importance of case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
Understanding what it all means . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .233
Accusative, Dative, and Genitive Cases: How the Rest of the Phrase
Shapes Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
No finger-pointing: Accusative prepositions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
Dative prepositions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236
Genitive prepositions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
Tackling Two-Way Prepositions: Accusative/Dative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240
Answers to “Your Preposition Primer” Practice Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
PART 4: LOOKING BACK AND AHEAD: TALKING ABOUT
THE PAST AND THE FUTURE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
Conversing about the Past: Perfecting the 
CHAPTER 14:
Present Perfect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .249
Forming the Present Perfect with Haben . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
Forming the present perfect with regular weak verbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
Forming the present perfect with irregular weak verbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
Forming the present perfect with strong verbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254
Forming the Present Perfect with Sein . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256
Eyeing the Present Perfect: German versus English . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258
One for all: Representing three English tenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
Opting for the German present . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
Answers to “Conversing about the Past: Perfecting the Present Perfect”
Practice Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260
viii German Workbook For Dummies