Die Präpositionen

There are so many similarities between German and English but there are some differences, and I am going to pick on die Präpositionen.
One of the differences is that prepositions can take the dative or they can take the accusative and some take both. The dative answers the question where, and indicates position e.g. in der Schule means in school. If you want to use in to mean into or to then the article that follows in is accusative. Wie komme ich in die Innenstadt means how do I get to the centre of the city? So Er geht in die Küche means he goes into the kitchen. Er ist in der Küche means that he is already there and answers the question where.

Bis bald

More talk about school

The problem with writing a blog is that you will read my subsequent thoughts after the initial blog, so you might want to read yesterday's blog first!

Once you have learnt your school subjects and said what you are good at and what you are bad at, then you can answer the question welches Fach gefällt dir am besten? The answer could be mein Lieblingsfach ist Mathematik or any of the other subjects.

If you are asked to describe the schoool uniform then the question could be beschreibe mir deine Schuluniform or magst du deine Schuluniform? Then you need your uniform vocabulary and throw in some adjectives.After that re-use those opinion words and you are talking like a German.

Bis bald

Welche Fächer studierst du?

There are so many perfect cognates, words that are exactly the same in English and in German. You don't need a dictionary for der Wind ist warm or die Bank ist modern. With school subjects you know der Sport and you will recognise the near cognates die Chemie, die Physik, die Biologie, und die Mathematik.

Even when the word is exactly the same, you still have to learn the pronunciaton. If you say the word 'geography' you will hear a lot of different accents from within the United Kingdom. If you go to Germany you will have to learn the German pronunciation. You will have to learn some school lessons like die Erdkunde which is geography and history is die Geschichte, but you should be able to guess that die Informationstechnik is IT.

If you want to say I am good at... you say ich bin gut in... You can always say nicht gut for the negative version but you have the choice of saying ich bin schlecht in... so now you can answer the question welche Fächer studierst Du?

Bis bald

Das Boot

Das Boot is not a German boot but the German for 'the boat'. If you watch the 1981 film called Das Boot you may be disappointed if you are a fan of boats because it is about a submarine - das Unterseeboot oder das U-Boot. It is a film that looks at the boredom and the horrors of war and it is unusual to look at World War II from the German side.

There are some heroics and a lot of intentional boredom in the film but it is worth watching. It has a strong anti-war theme and it tells us about human nature. Purely from a technical point of view it is worth knowing that it took two years to film and actors grew natural beards to fit in with the plot. It was also extremely expensive to film, partly because of the duration of the filming, and partly because of the technical difficulties involved with submarines. they did film different versions and there is even a version in English as all the main actors speak English!

By the way, if you want to say the boots then you say die Stiefel.

Bis bald

Word order 2

When you have a few things going on in a sentence there is a strict word order. We have seen that whenever you have a modal verb the second verb is always in the infinitive and always at the end of the sentence.

All the expressions in a sentence can be divided into expressions of time manner or place and all these expressions must come in that order within the sentence. This happens when it is a simple sentence like ‘Herr Gradwell kommt jeden Abend müde nach Hause’. The time is the evening, and he comes home in a tired manner to a place called home.

It is the same word order even if someone else thinks about what is happening – Seine Frau denkt , dass er jeden Abend müde nach Hause kommt. In sentences with modal verbs there is still the same word order in German. Er muss am Donnerstag mit dem Bus nach Lancaster fahren. When you are translating into German, don’t forget to check the order by remembering the words 'time, manner, place'. Thursday is the time, by bus is the manner and Lancaster is the place.

Make up your own sentences and think about the word order. It doesn’t have to have a modal verb in the sentence or a subordinate clause. This order works for every sentence.

Bis bald

Delilah again

After writing out the lyrics for the Plain White Ts song I thought that there may be an older generation just waiting to learn German by singing Tom Jones' Delilah. So here it is.

Ich sah das Licht in der Nacht, das ich an ihren Fenster führte,
Ich sah die flackernden Schatten der Liebe auf ihren Blinden
Sie war meine Frau
Während sie mich betrog, passte ich auf und ich war wahnsinnig

Meine meine, meine, Delilah
Warum, warum, warum, Delilah
Ich könnte sehen, dass das Mädchen nicht gut für mich war
Aber ich war wie ein Sklave verloren,
den kein Mann freigeben könnte

Bis bald

Hey there Delilah

I like the idea of learning a language by singing. You are allowed to sing to yourself but don't start talking to yourself as it is seen as strange. So here is the first verse and chorus of Hey There Delilah by the Plain White Ts. All you have to do now is sing.

Hey Delilah
Wie ist es so in New York City?
Ich bin tausend Meilen entfernt
Aber du siehst trotzdem wunderschön aus
Ja du siehst wunderschön aus
Der Time Square leuchtet nicht so hell wie du,
Ich schwöre, es ist wahr

Hey Delilah
Mach dir keine Sorgen wegen der Distanz
Ich bin sofort bei dir, wenn du alleine bist
Höre dir dieses Lied einfach nochmal an
Und Schließe deine Augen
Höre meine Stimme, Sie ist ich
Es ist meine Maske
Ich bin an deiner Seite

Oh das ist was du mit mir machst
Oh das ist was du mit mir machst
Oh das ist was du mit mir machst
Oh das ist was du mit mir machst
Was du mit mir machst

Bis bald