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Easy German step-by-step: master high-frequency grammar for German proficiency--fast! PDF

402 Pages·2015·16.529 MB·English
by  SwickEdward
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Easy German STEP-BY-STEP Master High-Frequency Grammar for German Proficiency—FAST! Ed Swick Swick_FM.indd 1 10/31/2014 1:54:54 PM Copyright © 2015 by McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher, with the exception that the program listings may be entered, stored, and executed in a computer system, but they may not be reproduced for publication. ISBN: 978-0-07-184045-3 MHID: 0-07-184045-1 The material in this eBook also appears in the print version of this title: ISBN: 978-0-07-184047-7, MHID: 0-07-184047-8. eBook conversion by codeMantra Version 1.0 All trademarks are trademarks of their respective owners. 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Under no circumstances shall McGraw-Hill Education and/or its licensors be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, punitive, consequential or similar damages that result from the use of or inability to use the work, even if any of them has been advised of the possibility of such damages. This limitation of liability shall apply to any claim or cause whatsoever whether such claim or cause arises in contract, tort or otherwise. I should like to thank my dear friend Stefan Feyen for all his help and suggestions. Swick_FM.indd 3 10/31/2014 1:54:54 PM This page intentionally left blank Contents Preface ix 1 Pronunciation and Cognates 1 The Alphabet 1 Step 1: Consonants 4 Step 2: Vowels 10 Letter Combinations 13 Consonants 14 Vowels 15 Step 3: Cognates 18 2 Gender and heißen 21 German Gender 22 Step 1: Masculine 22 Step 2: Feminine 28 Step 3: Neuter 31 Heißen 33 3 Nominative Pronouns, der-Words, and the Verb sein 39 German Personal Pronouns 40 Step 1: Third Person Pronouns and Gender 40 Step 2: Der-Words 44 The Verb sein 48 4 Ein-Words, haben, and the Present Tense 55 Ein-Words 55 Kein 58 Step 1: Possessive Adjectives 58 Step 2: The Verb haben 61 Present Tense 64 v Swick_FM.indd 5 10/31/2014 1:54:55 PM vi Contents 5 Irregular Present Tense and werden 73 Irregular Present Tense 73 Step 1: Irregularities Formed with an Umlaut 75 Step 2: Irregularities Formed with a Shift from -e- to -i- 78 Step 3: Irregularities Formed with a Shift from -e- to -ie- 80 Conjugation of werden 82 The Impersonal es 84 6 Accusative Case: Direct Objects and Prepositions 91 Accusative Case 91 Step 1: Direct Object Nouns 92 Step 2: Direct Object Pronouns 96 Step 3: Prepositions 98 Masculine Plurals 101 Mastery Check 1 108 7 Regular Past Tense and Interrogative Words 111 The Past Tense 111 Step 1: The Past Tense Suffix -te 112 Step 2: Adverbs for the Past Tense 115 Forming Questions 117 Step 3: Feminine Plurals 121 8 Irregular Past Tense and Neuter Plurals 127 Irregular Past Tense 127 Step 1: German Irregular Past Tense 128 Step 2: Numbers, the Year, and Age 132 Using fragen 138 Neuter Plurals 139 9 Dative Case and More Irregular Past Tense 145 Dative Case 145 Step 1: Dative Case in German 146 Haben, sein, werden in the Past Tense 154 Step 2: Wissen and kennen 156 10 Dative Expressions and Conjunctions aber, oder, und, and sondern 163 The Dative Case 163 Step 1: More Dative Verbs and Dative Expressions 164 Conjunctions 168 Step 2: Können und müssen 171 Swick_FM.indd 6 10/31/2014 1:54:55 PM Contents vii 11 Regular Present Perfect Tense 181 The Present Perfect Tense 181 Step 1: Haben and Regular Past Participles 182 Step 2: Sein and the Present Perfect Tense 186 Ordinal Numbers and Prefixes 190 Step 3: Ordinal Numbers 190 Step 4: Inseparable Prefixes 192 12 Adjective Endings and Separable Prefixes 199 Adjectives 199 Step 1: Adjective Endings 200 Nominative Case Adjectives 201 Accusative Case Adjectives 204 Step 2: Separable Prefixes 207 13 Irregular Present Perfect Tense and Prefixes 217 The Irregular Present Perfect Tense 217 Step 1: German Irregular Past Participles 218 Step 2: Haben, sein, werden, sterben 223 Step 3: Prefixes 227 Mastery Check 2 233 14 Genitive Case and Antonyms 237 Genitive Case 237 Step 1: German Possessives 238 Step 2: Containers 242 Step 3: Genitive Prepositions 244 Antonyms 246 Step 4: Opposites in German 246 Gehen 249 Step 5: Gehen and Infinitives 249 15 Future Tense and Modal Auxiliaries 255 The Future Tense 255 Step 1: German Future Tense 256 Modal Auxiliaries 263 Step 2: German Modal Auxiliaries 263 16 Dependent Clauses and Conjunctions 271 Dependent Clauses 271 Step 1: German Clauses 272 Subordinating Conjunctions 274 Step 2: Dass and ob 279 Swick_FM.indd 7 10/31/2014 1:54:55 PM viii Contents 17 Dative-Accusative Prepositions 283 Prepositions with More Than One Function 283 Step 1: Dative Case 284 Step 2: Inanimate Pronouns 287 Step 3: Accusative Case 289 Geography 293 Step 4: Die Welt (The World) 293 18 Comparative and Superlative 299 Comparative 299 Step 1: German Comparative Adverbs and Adjectives 301 Step 2: Irregular Comparatives 304 Superlative 306 Step 3: German Superlative Adverbs and Adjectives 307 Step 4: Irregular Superlatives 309 19 Imperatives and Double Infinitives 315 Commands 315 Step 1: The German Imperative 316 Double Infinitives 321 Step 2: Present Perfect and Future Tenses 321 Step 3: Helfen, hören, lassen, and sehen 324 20 Using All the Cases and All the Tenses 331 Cases and Declensions 331 Step 1: German Declensions of Nouns and Pronouns 332 Tenses 340 Step 2: Varieties in the German Tenses 340 Mastery Check 3 350 Appendix A: Fraktur Alphabet (1600–1940) 353 Appendix B: The Principal Parts of Irregular Verbs 355 Answer Key 369 Swick_FM.indd 8 10/31/2014 1:54:55 PM Preface This book is intentionally called Easy German Step-by-Step. It provides two important approaches for learning the German language. The first approach is to explain the makeup of the German language in as simple a form as pos- sible. Learning German or any new language does not have to be an arduous task. That is why this book is designed so the reader can move through the chapters at a comfortable rate and with ease. The second approach, which works perfectly with the first one, is to pro- vide small amounts of structure and vocabulary at a time. The reader is not burdened with long lists of words to memorize or complicated explanations of grammar. Instead, small doses are provided, which gradually develop into a broader knowledge of a topic. The reader goes through a chapter step by step and in time can forge the skills of a competent user of the German language. The topics of each chapter are initially explained as they relate to English. It is wise to understand a concept in one’s native language before attempting to learn and use it in a new language. It makes little sense to learn German past participles if one does not know what a past participle is in his or her own language. After a concept has been described, German examples of the concept are introduced. They are given in the context of simple sentences, and these sen- tences are always accompanied by their English translation. The reader needs to know what he or she is saying in German. Practice comes in two major ways: oral practice by reading sample sen- tences out loud and written exercises for applying one’s new knowledge with a bit of personal creativity. In addition, special explanations of some material will accompany practice. These explanations are meant to clarify concepts that are potentially confusing. An example in English would be the word few. ix Swick_FM.indd 9 10/31/2014 1:54:55 PM

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