Search Results
Weibliche Substantive im Deutschen erkennen: Teil 3 – Detecting German feminine nouns: part 3 Posted by Sandra Rösner on Jan 18, 2012
Why are some nouns in German masculine, others feminine, and still others neuter? I am probably not the only one who is asking this question. And to make things worse: there isn’t any logical explanation for that. I pondered over that question quite a long time to give you, at least, a more or less…
German ordinal numbers in use: Choosing the proper gender, grammatical case, and number (pt. II) Posted by Sandra Rösner on Nov 11, 2011
In my last post I discussed what adjectival endings you have to use when you use a noun with a definite article. Remember that ordinal numbers are grammatically nothing else than adjectives. That is, when you embed an ordinal in your sentence you have to modify it like any other adjectives. In this post I…
German ordinal numbers in use: Choosing the proper gender, grammatical case, and number (pt. I) Posted by Sandra Rösner on Nov 9, 2011
Ordinal numbers are not as common as cardinal numbers. But you need to use them whenever you express things that occur in an order or series. For example, in a hotel you may discover that your room is on the eighth floor. To properly use ordinals in German, you have to consider that ordinal numbers…
German ordinal numbers in use: Choosing the proper gender, grammatical case, and number (pt. I) Posted by Sandra Rösner on Nov 9, 2011
Ordinal numbers are not as common as cardinal numbers. But you need to use them whenever you express things that occur in an order or series. For example, in a hotel you may discover that your room is on the eighth floor. To properly use ordinals in German, you have to consider that ordinal numbers…
“I have no …” – Negations with “kein/keine/keinen/etc.” Posted by Sandra Rösner on Oct 18, 2010
When someone is asking you in German for a particular noun, for example, when you are asked if you have or posses something, e.g. time, a brother, a sister, children, a pen, etc., you have to use a declined form of the word kein in order to negate your statement. For example, when I ask…
WHO is doing that to WHOM with WHAT and WHOSE is it at all? – The four German cases Posted by Sandra Rösner on Aug 6, 2010
Most learners of German seem to struggle with the language’s grammar cases. In this post I am going to explain why these cases exist and what they mean. The crucial element of every sentence is the verb, since it names a particular action. In this action, there are always specific subjects and objects (nouns) involved…