

Unit 2

                            
                                   in München Basic Sentences


II


                                 III  
   
   



                         

















                             Notes on Pronunciation

A. Long and short vowels.
    Practice Is
ihn    - in     Beet  - Bett   Staat - Stadt  bog  - Bock  
bieten - bitten beten - Betten wate  - Watte wohne - Wonne 
Lied   - litt   den   - denn_   Wahn - wann  lohte - Lotte 
mieten - mitten Sehne - Senne  bahne - banne Ofen  - offen 
Mus - muss    König - können    Hüte - Hütte 
Pute - Putte   Höhle - Hölle   fühle - fülle 
bucht - Bucht  böge - Böcke   müder - Mütter 
Muhme - Mumme Goethe - Götter   Lüge - Lücke 


B.	Diphthongs.
     Ask your instructor to say German Wein, then say English "wine". Notice that the duration of the German vowel combination is considerably shorter than the English.


C.	Post-vocalic r.
     Post-vocalic r. in German has a vowel-like sound. It does not sound like the English r.. Listen carefully to the following pairs of words and imitate them to the satisfaction of your instructor.



Practice 2:  
              
   mein      Haus  neu     
   Wein      Maus  neun    
   nein      auch  deutsch 
leider      glaube Leute   
   



Practice 3s
 Miete - Mieter    älter - Eltern  Gästen - gestern 
diese - dieser                                                    
  eine - einer Alte - Alter     Vetter - Vettern locken - lockern 
Liebe - lieber  bitte - bitter  Kinder - Kindern fetten - Vettern 
Ode - oder     welche - welcher                                   
     Note that the syllable with post-vocalic r is in every case slightly longer than the syllable without it. If you watch your instructor's lips carefully you may also see that they are slightly farther apart, his mouth slightly more open on this syllable.
     Now practice the following groups, first the long vowels and then the pairs of long and short vowels with post-vocalic r_, and finally the vowels followed by r and a consonant.



Practice 4:

hier sehr  Uhr  Ohr     her - Herr 
Bier mehr fuhr  Tor     wir - wirr 
wir  her   nur  Mohr  Star - starr 
Mark dort Herrn Furt      Wirt     
Park Dorf gern  Durst    First     
darf Wort herb  Wurm     Schirm    
hart Kork Kerl  Kurve    Birne     
D. Pre-vocalic r (voiceless).
     The pre-vocalic r differs from the post-vocalic r. Most speakers of German make the pre-vocalic £ with slight friction between the back of the tongue and the soft palate, the region back of the mouth near the uvula. This sound is very similar to the final sound in noch and nach. Practice the following groups


Practice 5:

                                                                  
noch                        lachen                  Dachau                   
doch                        pochen                  Bochum                   
nach                        tauchen                 Bucholz                  
auch                                                                         
Now try making the same sound right after the initial consonants in the      
following groupss                                                            


Practice 6:

                                                                  
Frau             Trost                   Prost                   Krone       
fragen          traute                   prall                   Kragen      
froh            treffen                  Preis                   krumm       
     You may find it necessary at first to whisper an extra syllable at the beginning of these words and pronounce Fochau, Tochost, pochall, Kochone, etc. Don't hesitate to try this if necessary.
 



                                Notes on Grammar (For Home Study)


A.	PRONOUNS - FORMS AND FUNCTIONS.


I. Forms.
     1.	In the following English sentences the pronouns are underlined. Note their forms.
             _I know him and he knows me. Do you know her? She knows you.
        Most English pronouns have two different forms: I-me. he-him. she-her, etc. Some, like the pronouns you and it, have only one form however.
     2.	Note the forms of the German pronouns in the following sentences.
          Verstehen Sie mich?	Do you understand me?
  Ja, ich verstehe Sie gut.	Yes, I. understand you well.
          Wie geht es Ihnen?	How goes it with-reqard-to-vou?
                                                                (How are you?)
 Er spricht englisch mit	He speaks English with me.
              mir.
        Some German pronouns have two different forms, like Sie and Ihnen above. Many German pronouns however have three different forms like ich, mich and mir above.
3. The following table gives the forms of the most common German pronouns:          
                     ' I' 1 we' 1 he' ' it'  ' she' 'they' 'you'  'who?1  'what?'   
a.  NOMINATIVE forms: ich wir er       es    sie    sie    Sie      wer   was       
b. ACCUSATIVE forms: mich uns ihn      es    sie    sie    Sie      wen   was       
c.     DATIVE forms : mir uns ihm     ihm    ihr    ihnen  Ihnen    wem   ---       
   ' me1                  'us' 'him'  ' it1  •her'  'them' ' you' ('whom? •)'what?' 
The English forms at the top of the table correspond to the set of                  
German forms above the line. Those at the bottom of the table corre¬                
spond to the two sets of German forms below the line. The pronouns                  
wer and was are used only in questions. The pronouns for familiar                   
address, du and ihr, will be taken up later.                                        



   II.	Functions.
     

 1.	The NOMINATIVE form: In German, as in English, the basic sentence structure is an ACTOR-ACTION pattern: somebody doing something. The ACTOR is called the SUBJECT of the sentence, and in German a pronoun designating the ACTOR always has the NOMINATIVE form.
Ich verstehe sehr gut.  _I understand very well.          
Er wohnt ganz in meiner He lives quite near me.           
Nähe.                                                     
Wir wollen gerade essen We're just planning to go and eat 
gehen.                                                    
     
 2.	The ACCUSATIVE form: In many sentences in both English and German there is another element, the GOAL or OBJECT of the action, the person or thing toward which the action is aimed. In German a pronoun designating the OBJECT of an action is usually in the ACCUSATIVE form.
Können Sie mir seine      Can you give me his address?       
Adresse geben?                                               
Sie müssen ihm Ihren Pass You have to show your passport to  
zeigen.                   him.                               
Wie geht es Ihnen?        How are you? (How goes it with-re- 
                          gard-to-you?)                      
Gefällt es Ihnen in       Do you like it in Munich? (is it   
München?                  pleasing to you in Munich?)        
Der Koffer gehört mir     The suitcase doesn't belong to me. 
nicht.                                                       
Ich kenne ihn sehr qrut. I know him very well.              
Verstehen Sie mich?      Do you understand me?              
Wir treffen sie dort.    We're meeting them (or her) there. 
     

 3- The DATIVE form: The third form of the German pronoun is used to
         designate the INTERESTED BYSTANDER, the person to whom or for whom or with regard to whom the action of the sentence is being performed. In some cases this is referred to as the INDIRECT OBJECT.
     

4.	Another use of the DATIVE form is illustrated by the following sentences you have learned:
           Sprechen Sie englisch	Do you speak English with her?
             mit ihr?
Ich fahre oft mit ihm	I often ride home with him,
             nach Hause.
        The DATIVE forms ihr and ihm are used here because they follow the word mit, and that's all there is to it. Any pronoun that follows mit has the DATIVE form, always and without fail. This has nothing to do with the INTERESTED BYSTANDER usage; it's something entirely different.


B.	The Principle of Substitution.
     

1.	Languages, like automobiles, are made up of replaceable parts; but the part you substitute must fit the frame into which it is put. For example, in the frame Er kennt mich 'He knows me', the Accusative form mich may be replaced only by other Accusative forms — that is, forms from the same horizontal line in the table of pronoun forms as mich, the line labeled 'ACCUSATIVE forms'.
Er kennt mich. He knows me. 
     uns       US           
     ihn                him 
      es                 it 
     sie                her 
     sie       them         
     Sie                you 
     wen?      who (m)?     
     

2.	Similarly, Dative forms must be replaced by other Dative forms, and Nominative forms by other Nominative forms.
I, you, we, they sing   do  (no ending) 
he, it, she      sings does (ending -s) 
                                        


C.	VERB FORMS AND FUNCTIONS - THE PRESENT I. Forms.
     

1. In German, and in English, when you substitute one Nominative form for another, that is, change the SUBJECT in a sentence, you sometimes have to change the form of the verb as well. The subject and the verb have to fit together. Note the following English forms:


2. All but a very few German verbs have the following forms:
ich                    komme  gebe  (ending -e)  
er, es, sie            kommt  gibt  (ending -t)  
wir, sie ('they'), Sie kommen geben (ending -en) 
Ich gehe oft ins Kino    I often go to the movies 
mit ihr.                 with her.                
ihm                                           him 
ihnen                    them                     
Kennen Sie Herrn Becker? Do you know Mr. Becker ? 
wir                      we                       
sie                      they                     
     Note that German verbs have a special form with the pronoun ich. Otherwise the pronouns and verbs are grouped as they are in English: er, es. sie occur with one verb form just as 'he, it and she' and wir, sie, Sie with another verb form just as 'we, they, you.' Notice that the vowel in the STEM of geben appears as i. in the er-form: er gibt. This is something like the English says or does /sez, duz/ versus say or do, except that in German the vowel-change is shown even more clearly in the writing system. There are several verbs in German that have this kind of irregular er-form, but unfortunately there is no simple way of determining which verbs they are. They are not very numerous however, and we'll point them out to you as we encounter them.
  

3. Two German verbs you have encountered show a very slight modification in the er-form. They are arbeiten and kosten.
er, es, sie	arbeitet	(connecting vowel -e- and ending -t)
     After a -t- (or a -d-) a connecting vowel -e- occurs before the ending -t so that the ending is heard distinctly.
     We have four verbs so far that exhibit the following pattern:
     There are three more verbs with the same pattern, making a total of seven in all. Notice that the English equivalents of the verbs listed above have no -s_ ending in the he form: He can, he may, he must, and he will (in the sense of he insists.)
 

 5- The following forms of haben "to have", sein "to be" and möchte(n) "would like to" complete the inventory:
ich           habe  bin   möchte 
er, es, sie    hat  ist   möchte 
wir, sie, Sie haben sind möchten 
     The patterns of the first two of these verbs are unique and are found in no other German verbs. The forms möchte and möchten are special forms which we will deal with somewhat later.
 

 6.	Here is a table of verb forms:
                A       B    (7)    (1)   (1)  special form 
ich           komme  treffe  kann   habe  bin  möchte       
er, es, sie   kommt  trifft         hat   ist               
wir, sie, Sie kommen treffen können haben sind ; möchten    
                                               1            
       ' can'         'may'      'must'   'want to'              
    'be able to' 'be allowed to' have to'                        
ich     kann          darf       muss       will     (no ending) 
er                                                               
es                                                               
sie                                                              
wir    können        dürfen      müssen    wollen   (ending -en) 
sie                                                              
Sie                                                              
     All verbs in German follow pattern A or pattern B except the nine indicated in the table and one more that is still to come.




II.	Functions.
   

1.	English uses a verb form with the ending -ing very freely: he's singing. we're waiting, it's raining. German has no corresponding form and uses the simple form of the verb for such expresssions.
he gives      er gibt  
he's giving            
he does give           
is he giving? gibt er? 
does he give?          
   

2.	For COMMANDS, German uses the verb form with the ending -en. followed by the pronoun Sie. The German form is like Biblical English: ‘Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel...'
Bitte sprechen Sie langsam. Please speak slowly.         
Zeiten Sie mir bitte Ihr    Show me your luggage Diease. 
Gepäck.                                                  
   

3.	Two verb forms can be used together in German or in English as a VERB PHRASE. Although German doesn't have verb phrases like is going or does believe, it has others, as follows:
Ich möchte gern Wasser     I'd like to have water.               
haben.                                                           
Können Sie mich gut        Can you understand me well?           
verstehen?                                                       
Darf ich Ihren Pass sehen? May I see your passport?              
Sie müssen zum Zoll gehen. You have to go to the customs office. 
      The second part of the German verb phrase comes at the end of the sentence, and is called the INFINITIVE. It is the form with the ending -en, but it never has a subject and is unaffected by any change of subject:
     Ich kann gehen. Wir können gehen. There is only one irregular infinitive in German: sein 'to be'; the infinitive of every other verb is the same as the wir-form.


III.	List of verbs in units 1 and 2: 1. Pattern A


arbeite  besuche  bleibe  gehe   
arbeitet besucht  bleibt  geht   
arbeiten besuchen bleiben gehen  
gehöre    glaube  heisse  kenne  
gehört    glaubt  heisst  kennt  
gehören  glauben  heissen kennen 
komme  (koste) sage  verstehe  wohne  zeige  
kommt  kostet  sagt  versteht  wohnt  zeigt  
kommen kosten  sagen verstehen wohnen zeigen 
esse  gebe  sehe  spreche  treffe  fahre  gefalle  
isst  gibt  sieht spricht  trifft  fährt  gefällt  
essen geben sehen sprechen treffen fahren gefallen 
Wo wohnen Sie?     Where do you live?        
Wo kommen Sie her? Where do you come from?   
Wo gehen Sie hin?  Where are you going (to)? 
     1.	Vto by itself means 'where?' in the sense of 'in what place?'. To give it the meaning 'where from?' the little word her is added; to give it the meaning 'where to?' the little word hin is added.
     2.	The position of hin and her is usually at the end of the sentence or question. They may occur alternately however at the beginning after wo. The writing system joins hin and her to the preceding question word or adverb. Woher? 'Where from?'; Wohin? 'Where to?'; dahin, dorthin
        'to there'








                                                                       

          

                

    
