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B1

Fortgeschritten

Auf B1 hört das Sprechen auf, aus einzelnen Sätzen zu bestehen. Eine Meinung wird begründet, eine Geschichte hat einen Anfang und ein Ende, ein Missverständnis lässt sich aufklären, ohne dass jemand hilft.

Fehler passieren weiter, aber sie stören das Verstehen nicht mehr. Das ist die Stufe, ab der eine Sprache im Beruf brauchbar wird.

Noch ohne Familie39

The four cases

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B1The genitiveWritten German uses it; spoken German mostly says von plus dative instead.B1Two objects in one sentenceThe person is dative and the thing is accusative — and which comes first depends on whether they are nouns or pronouns.B1How German usually avoids the genitiveSpoken German replaces the genitive with von plus dative, and writing does not.

Nouns: gender, plural, compounds

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B1Weak masculine nounsA closed group of masculines that takes -n in every case except one — and they are words you use daily.B1Turning verbs and adjectives into nounsAny infinitive can become a neuter noun, and any adjective can become one that still takes endings.B1The joints inside a compoundThe -s and -n that appear between the two halves of a compound, and what they are not.B1Borrowed words and their pluralsThe -s plural belongs to borrowed words, and Greek and Latin words keep their own endings.

Articles

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B1When German uses an article and English does notAbstract nouns, seasons, meals and parts of the body take an article — and professions lose one.

Pronouns

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B1man and esOne stands for anybody at all; the other stands for nothing and holds a position open.B1Relative and demonstrative pronounsThe same six words work as article, as relative pronoun and as a demonstrative that replaces a noun entirely.B1The many jobs of esA subject that stands for nothing, a placeholder that disappears, and the one construction every learner needs: es gibt.B1meins, deins, seinsWhen the noun is left out, the possessive takes the der-endings instead.

The verb: present tense and stem

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B1Verbs with a fixed prepositionThe preposition is part of the verb, and so is the case it takes — neither can be worked out.B1Verbs that are always reflexiveA group of verbs whose reflexive pronoun is not an object at all — it is part of the verb.B1Infinitives with zu, and withoutMost verbs need zu before a second infinitive; a short, closed list does not.B1The nine verbs that do bothA small group that takes the weak -t ending and changes its vowel anyway.B1Verbs with no real subjectWeather, states and feelings that happen to somebody rather than being done by them.

Tenses

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B1The PräteritumThe past tense of books and reports — plus six verbs that use it in speech.B1The Plusquamperfekthatte or war plus a participle — for what had already happened when something else did.

Modal verbs

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B1Modals with no second verbGerman lets a modal stand on its own when the missing verb is obvious.

Word order

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B1The sentence bracketThe verb opens the clause and something closes it — and everything else lives in between.B1The order of the middle fieldWhen several adverbials meet, German has a default order: when, why, how, where.

Subordinate clauses

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B1Relative clausesThe relative pronoun looks like the article, takes its gender from one clause and its case from the other, and can never be left out.B1Indirect questions and infinitive clausesA question inside a sentence stops being a question — and a clause with no subject of its own takes zu.B1Which conjunction moves the verbFive conjunctions change nothing at all; every other one sends the verb to the end.B1Saying what something is forTwo ways to give a purpose, and one rule decides which: whether both halves have the same subject.B1If: wenn and fallsTwo words for if, one of them also meaning when — and a third form that drops the word entirely.

Prepositions

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B1Prepositions that belong to a verbThe preposition is part of the verb, it fixes the case, and it almost never matches the English one.

Adjectives

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B1Adjective endingsOne principle instead of three tables: the ending appears where the article did not.B1Adjectives used as nounsGerman turns an adjective into a noun by capitalising it — and it keeps its adjective endings for ever.B1Adjective endings with no articleWith no article in front, the adjective takes over the article’s own endings.

Negation

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B1Where nicht standsLate for the whole sentence, directly in front of one word to deny only that.B1The other negative wordsOne negative per clause — German does not stack them, and each positive word has a negative twin.B1Negating a word rather than a sentenceFour ways to build the opposite of a word, and the difference between -los and -frei.

The passive

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B1The werden-passiveThe process, not the result — and the agent usually left out on purpose.

The subjunctive

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B1Konjunktiv IIThe form for what is not the case — and the reason German politeness sounds the way it does.B1When würde is the right choiceA ready-made subjunctive for every verb — used where the proper form would be unrecognisable, and not where it would not.

The finishing touches

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B1Which words take a capital letterGerman capitalises every noun — and the hard part is deciding what counts as one.B1Where the comma goesGerman commas are grammatical, not rhythmic: a clause boundary takes one whether or not anybody pauses.