German: A Self-Teaching Guide, 2nd Edition, Revised and Updated

How to Use This Book vii

Introduction: German Sounds and Spelling 1

1 Greetings, Introductions, and Useful Expressions 11

Culture Notes 11

Dialoge (Dialogues) 12

Kommunikation (Communication) 13

Grammatik (Grammar) 16

1. Subject Pronoun 16

2. The Present Tense Form of Verbs 17

3. The Definite Articles: der, die, das 19

4. The Gender of Third-Person Pronouns 21

5. Using Adjectives and Adverbs 22

6. Present Tense of sein and haben 24

7. Verbs with Vowel Changes 25

Sprechen leicht gemacht 26

Wiederholung 27

Wortschatz 28

2 Numbers: Measurements, Currencies, Sizes, and Temperature

Culture Notes 32

Dialoge 34

Kommunikation 35

Grammatik 38

1. A Few Rules about Basic Word Order 38

2. Formation of Noun Plurals 40

3. The Accusative Case 41

4. The Indefinite Article 41

5. The Accusative of Personal Pronouns 44

6. Prepositions Requiring the Accusative Case 45

7. Negation with nicht 46

8. The Function and Use of Adverbs 48

Sprechen leicht gemacht 50

Wiederholung 51

Wortschatz 52

3 Food, Restaurants, and Eating 54

Culture Notes 54

Dialoge 56

Kommunikation 57

Grammatik 64

1. Giving Orders the Polite Way 64

2. The Function of Modals (Modal Auxiliaries) 65

3. Möchten Means “Would Like” (An Expression You Will Need) 66

4. Ordinal Numbers 67

5. Asking Indirect Questions 71

6. The Conjugation of wissen (to know) 72

7. More about Word Order 74

8. Compound Nouns 78

Sprechen leicht gemacht 78

Wiederholung 80

Wortschatz 81

4 Lodging, Hotels, and Overnight Accommodations 85

Culture Notes 85

Dialoge 86

Kommunikation 88

Grammatik 89

1. The Dative Case 89

2. Dative Ending for a Few Masculine Nouns in the Singular 90

3. Dative Endings for Nouns in the Plural 91

4. Dative Prepositions 92

5. The Dative Case of Personal Pronouns 92

6. Verbs That Require the Dative Case 93

7. Separable-Prefix Verbs 96

8. Word Order of Direct and Indirect Objects 98

9. Two-Way Prepositions 101

Sprechen leicht gemacht 103

Wiederholung 105

Wortschatz 106

5 Telling Time 108

Culture Notes 108

Dialoge 109

Kommunikation 112

Grammatik: Present Perfect Tense—an Overview 113

1. Regular (Weak) Verbs 114

2. Irregular (Strong) Verbs 114

3. Separable-Prefix Verbs 115

4. Inseparable-Prefix Verbs 116

5. Irregular Verbs Using haben as Auxiliary Verb 117

6. Regular Verbs Using sein as Auxiliary Verb 117

7. Irregular Verbs Using sein as Auxiliary Verb 118

8. Mixed Verbs 118

9. The Genitive Case 120

Sprechen leicht gemacht 121

Wiederholung 124

Wortschatz 125

6 Health Care 128

Culture Notes 128

Dialoge 129

Kommunikation 131

Grammatik 133

1. The Simple Past Tense 133

2. Reflexive Pronouns 138

3. The Use of als, wenn, wann 141

Sprechen leicht gemacht 142

Wiederholung 143

Wortschatz 144

7 Television and Radio 146

Culture Notes 146

Dialoge 146

Kommunikation 148

Grammatik 150

1. Possessive Adjectives (Pronouns) 150

2. The der words 152

3. Adjectives Used as Predicate Adjectives 152

4. Adjectival Endings 153

5. Adjectives Used as Nouns 157

6. Indefinite Adjectives 158

Sprechen leicht gemacht 159

Wiederholung 161

Wortschatz 161

8 Sports, Physical Education, and Recreation 163

Culture Notes 163

Dialoge 164

Kommunikation 165

Grammatik 166

1. The Comparative of Adjectives and Adverbs 166

2. The Subjunctive Mood 170

3. The Past Subjunctive 176

Sprechen leicht gemacht 178

Wiederholung 180

Wortschatz 182

9 Communication: Telephone, Post Office, Newspapers, Train Station, and Airport 184

Culture Notes 184

Dialoge 185

Kommunikation 188

Grammatik 188

1. Relative Pronouns 188

2. German Word Order in Main Clauses 195

3. German Word Order in Dependent Clauses 198

Sprechen leicht gemacht 198

Wiederholung 200

Wortschatz 201

10 Selbstbiographisches 204

Dialoge 204

Kommunikation 207

Grammatik 211

1. The Future Tense 211

2. The Passive Voice 212

3. Man as a Substitute for the Passive 215

Wiederholung 220

Wortschatz 221

Answers for Activities, Exercises, and Reviews 224

Reference Grammar 248

Wortschatz: Deutsch-Englisch 254

English-German Vocabulary 271

Index 278