April 10, 2009

(This is just a notice.)

I shall be taking a second year German course next term for credit, but in the interest of knowing what I already know from that course, here is a list of all the stuff I could find that will be in it, and perhaps how much of it I already know: In future posts, I may list updates for this.

-The genitive case
(see March 30th 2009 entry.)

-Proper Names in the genitive
I have seen plenty of these throughout all the games I've played and stuff I've read. To do this, place an s on the end of the noun as you would in English, but don't add any apostrophes, unless the last letter of the noun is an s as well (and don't add the extra s).

-Prepositions with the Genitive
I may have seen some of these, but I didn't pay attention to them much.

-Adjectives after a Definite Article, Adjectives after an Indefinite Article, and Adjectives without a preceding article
I have been trying to figure out how attributive adjectives work for awhile--now I wish I hadn't read those topics though--I think they've just given me a hint as to why they're sometimes different, even though it's the exact same noun in the exact same case.

-Superlatives
Add -ste on the end unless the last letter of the adjective is a t or s (then add -est) or an eszett (then just add the -te bit). Some adjectives are irregular (gut becomes best, viel becomes meist, and wenig becomes mindest)

-Attributive Adjectives in the Comparative (and Superlative)
I'm working on this. I did already know there was a difference though.

-Adjectival nouns
Another one that escapes my attention.

-Simple Past tense
I've seen these all over. Apparently, they're irregular. A few include gab, sah, geschah, aßt, dacht, traf, fand, etc.

-The conjunction als
Als can have several different meanings. As far as I can see, they mean, than (comparative), "when" or as. I am not entirely sure if its usage requires the verb to go to the end; that can be easily remedied by finding a few examples.

-Future tense
Use werden as the main verb, and then take the other verb and stick it on the end like an auxiliary.

-How long something lasts
Use dauern for time. I think zogen can also be used.

-Relative Clauses
Use definite articles to refer to the object you wish to describe in the relative clause (use the same gender of the object). The case of the article depends on what it's doing in the relative clause. The main verb goes at the end. If the relative clause requires who, where, how, whom or to whom, then use wer, wo, wie, wem or wesen respectively. Worüber, worauf, wo-(preposition), etc. may also be used, depending on meaning.

-The Interrogative Pronoun was für
I've seen this before. And someone told me what it was. I wish they hadn't though.

-Position of nicht
I haven't paid attention to this yet.

-noch nicht/noch kein(e) nicht, mehr/kein(e)...mehr
I believe that refers to "still not yet/none yet" and not anymore/none anymore or no more.

-da and -wo compounds (if that's what they're called)
Seen these too. Just take "da" + (preposition); if the preposition begins with a vowel, add "r" after "da". So, as I said in a previous entry, darüber, darauf, dahinter, darum, dafür, darin, etc. Same with "wo"; do the same as you would for "da", but use "wo" instead of "da". The difference between both is that wo is for question words. Ie, worüber is "about what", but darüber is "about that". I think you can only use the da compound in reference to something that's already been mentioned. That's only conjecture though. I cannot say what its exact usage is for besides relative clauses and a few other sentences in which English does not require them to be translated.

March 31, 2009

(The following have been deduced from Phoenix Wright: Trials and Tribulations.)


"These seeds of doubt in the heart of the judge.." (unfortunately, I don't remember the exact context of this sentence, so I can't really remember or figure out what exactly austreiben is. However, this sentence is one of many that confirm that Zweifel = doubt, and a verb based off of it, bezweifen, to doubt.)