Ask the Teacher

**Diamat** · July 15, 2013, 04:44 PM

Feel free to ask any questions pertaining to the course material.

**Lord Thesaurian** · July 22, 2013, 09:51 PM

Will we be differentiating between the formal and informal tense? Int "Let's Talk," everyone seems to be using the familiar tense (I haven't studied German, but, being an enthusiast for foreign language, I did notice this). My attempts at writing German in the past have been less successful than speaking. In any case, will we be studying verb conjugations independently of the text? Perhaps I am a hopeless navigator, but all I see on the wiki are sample conversations.

Edit: What is the difference between the "I would like....." as in the "Ich hätte..." mentioned in the Wiki and "Ich möchte ein wasser."

**Bo1Bo1Sha3** · July 23, 2013, 02:10 AM

Do German tenses contain aspect information or is the difference merely the level of politeness? If so, what would be the purpose of each?

**Diamat** · July 23, 2013, 11:21 AM

Originally Posted by Legio_Italica

Will we be differentiating between the formal and informal tense? Int "Let's Talk," everyone seems to be using the familiar tense (I haven't studied German, but, being an enthusiast for foreign language, I did notice this). My attempts at writing German in the past have been less successful than speaking. In any case, will we be studying verb conjugations independently of the text? Perhaps I am a hopeless navigator, but all I see on the wiki are sample conversations.

Edit: What is the difference between the "I would like....." as in the "Ich hätte..." mentioned in the Wiki and "Ich möchte ein wasser."

You may choose to address me with either "du" or "Sie." Because we are on an internet forum, it would be awkward if everyone had to address me with "Sie." If this was a real life situation though, where I am the teacher in front of you, you would have to address me with "Sie." Students also would be addressed with "Sie" if they are of college age.

Verb conjugations mostly follow the text. I chose to teach you about regular -en verbs because there were two of those in this section, heißen and kennen. I try to stick with the textbook but expand a little on it, to help you better understand.

What do you mean all you see is sample conversations? You don't see the verb conjugations here?
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/German/..._%282._Teil%29
It's conjugating two important irregular verbs for you here, sein and haben. These are very common and must be learned.

About the hätten and möchten...this is subjunctive, a difficult grammatical form you don't have to worry about right now. In German, you can subjunctify every verb, in order to sound more polite, when reporting alleged things, or when talking about hypothetical situations. The reason why hätte was used is simply because it is more polite and formal. But if you were talking to someone close, möchte would be (would be, German: wäre, is subjunctive

) more appropriate. Also, hätte cannot be combined with verbs in the same way. For example: Ich möchte Tee trinken (I would like to drink tea) versus Ich hätte gern Tee (I would like some tea). In a restaurant, you would use "hätte," because möchten suggests what you are in a mood for while hätten (which is the subjunctive of "haben") suggests would you would like to have.

Originally Posted by Papashaw

Do German tenses contain aspect information or is the difference merely the level of politeness? If so, what would be the purpose of each?

Yes, German tenses are quite complex. However, you need not worry about tenses right now. Step by step. It would take me pages upon pages to explain to you every German tense.

**Lord Thesaurian** · July 24, 2013, 10:09 PM

Ah well there they are then

Thanks for the information!

**Legio** · July 25, 2013, 06:47 AM

Are you available to field questions about the practice problems in the textbook?

N.B. I don't know how to make the big SS thing so I am using a Greek beta. CLOSE ENOUGH.

In other language that I've studied, such as Attic Greek, one can sometimes write a definite article--without a noun--in order to refer to a person or group of people. Is this possible in German as well? Would a solitary 'die' be translated as 'men', 'woman', 'women', or 'things'?

Section 1.2, conjugation of heiβen. Are ich, du, etc. integral parts of the form--will we have to reproduce them when creating paradigms of the verb--or are they simply added to the page in order to facilitate the understanding that each form matches a certain number? The same goes for sein and haben.

Does German have noun cases or case endings apart from the Nominative, which is in 1.3?

Extension Module 1: can you use 'echt' as a question, e.g. Really? Echt?

Sent in Assignment One.

**Diamat** · July 25, 2013, 12:23 PM

Originally Posted by Chlοë

Are you available to field questions about the practice problems in the textbook?

If you have a question, go ahead and ask.

In other language that I've studied, such as Attic Greek, one can sometimes write a definite article--without a noun--in order to refer to a person or group of people. Is this possible in German as well? Would a solitary 'die' be translated as 'men', 'woman', 'women', or 'things'?

Yes, it is possible in German. For example:

Welche Frau meinst du? (which woman do you mean?)
Die da. (this woman there)

Note though, this is rude if the woman who is meant would hear you say this about her.

If you want to get into the nitty gritty, though High German does not have this, my dialect has something where you actually replace er/sie/es/sie with der/die/das/die. For example:
Ich kenne die nicht. (I don't know them)
This is incorrect in the German that I'm teaching you. You are supposed to say, "Ich kenne sie nicht."

Section 1.2, conjugation of heiβen. Are ich, du, etc. integral parts of the form--will we have to reproduce them when creating paradigms of the verb--or are they simply added to the page in order to facilitate the understanding that each form matches a certain number? The same goes for sein and haben.

Well, it's complicated. In a sense, yes. But note that when shifting cases (which you don't need to worry about at this point), these pronouns change.

For example:
der Stift

Ich gebe dir den Stift (I give you the pen)
Ich meine den Stift, den ich dir gegeben habe (I mean the pen that I gave you)

Es geht mir gut (ich becomes mir)

German is very grammatical, so in one way or another, you will have to reproduce the entire verb paradigm.

Does German have noun cases or case endings apart from the Nominative, which is in 1.3?

German has four cases, each one with its own particularities. Please don't worry about this now. It would be impossible to explain to you at this point simply because you don't yet have the vocabulary and grammar background necessary to make sense of this. I know you want to know more

but have patience. You can always read up on Wikipedia about German cases if you want to.

Extension Module 1: can you use 'echt' as a question, e.g. Really? Echt?

Yes. A synonym for echt is "wirklich." You can also say, "wirklich?"

**Legio** · July 25, 2013, 12:46 PM

I've taken 4 years of Latin and 3 of Ancient Greek in various dialects, as well as Polish, so I'm just hoping that the case system isn't radically different in German, or I will be very confused. ;(

Thank you for answering all of my questions. I'm probably going to be the annoying one who never stops asking. :3

**Kaiser Leonidas** · August 01, 2013, 12:03 PM

This is probably a stupid question, but when it's not at the start of the sentence, is "sie" supposed to still be capitalised? I know it would need a capital if it was the first word of a sentence, but the Wikibooks thing and Google both seem to give it a capital letter all the time, even when it's in the middle of the sentence. Does it matter which way I write it, I automatically just wrote it normally but I'm starting to feel that may be wrong because of everything else giving it a capital letter.

Also, it there a quicker way to type umlauts or the double s (ß) symbols on an English keyboard? At the moment I'm relying on copy and pasting them from something else like the textbook or a quick google search.

**Derpy Hooves** · August 03, 2013, 01:01 PM

I'm guessing no, but I'll ask anyways. Does ß ever appear at the beginning of a word?

**Diamat** · August 03, 2013, 02:01 PM

Originally Posted by Kaiser Leonidas

This is probably a stupid question, but when it's not at the start of the sentence, is "sie" supposed to still be capitalised? I know it would need a capital if it was the first word of a sentence, but the Wikibooks thing and Google both seem to give it a capital letter all the time, even when it's in the middle of the sentence. Does it matter which way I write it, I automatically just wrote it normally but I'm starting to feel that may be wrong because of everything else giving it a capital letter.

Also, it there a quicker way to type umlauts or the double s (ß) symbols on an English keyboard? At the moment I'm relying on copy and pasting them from something else like the textbook or a quick google search.

You are supposed to capitalize "Sie" when you use it in the sense of "you (honorific)." For example, "Wie heißen Sie" (What is your name) versus "Wie heißen sie" (what are their names) versus "Wie heißt sie" (what is her name).

Yes, there is a quicker way, by setting your keyboard to German.

Originally Posted by ☩Lord Inquisitor Derpy Hooves☩

I'm guessing no, but I'll ask anyways. Does ß ever appear at the beginning of a word?

No, it does not.

**BM309K58SMERCH** · August 05, 2013, 05:29 PM

Sorry I wasn't able to finish the Test 1. I couldn't do it as I never had the time to fully concentrate on my studies, that's why my Assignment 2 performance is abysmal (I mistaken "Zeit" for "have a seat"?! Damn! How did I miss? I knew the word!).
I am so busy this week, and I am going to be busy next week as well until (probably) Sunday the 11th. We're preparing for Eid-al-Fitr and the celebrations after it, there will be myriads of guests every other day, and I cannot study and concentrate well while simultaneously thinking that a guest can visit at any given moment.

Is it okay if I can be excused? I might still visit TWC and keep checking on updates here, maybe even post on this forum or the M2TW Mod Workshop, but I will not be able to do my given assignments (or if I do, it will be terrible and mistakes-ridden).

Sorry for any inconvenience.

**Diamat** · August 05, 2013, 06:01 PM

Check PM.

**Legio** · August 08, 2013, 07:39 PM

Do German verbs have principal parts?

**Diamat** · August 09, 2013, 04:19 AM

Given the commonalities with English, yes. As I talked about in the informal chat, in English you would have the principal parts sing, sang, sung, while in German, similarly, you have singen, sang, gesungen.

**Derpy Hooves** · August 21, 2013, 03:18 PM

The Geburtstag lesson says that those adverbs go after the verb and subject, so then why in one of the practice things was the answer
Manchmal lesen sie am Freitag? I thought it was supposed to be Sie lesen manchmal am Freitag

**Diamat** · August 21, 2013, 04:44 PM

There are two ways to say it.

Am Freitag spiele ich Fußball.

Or

Ich spiele am Freitag Fußball.

Notice how the position of the verb and subject are all weird in the first version. Many of you, on your test, used the first construct ("Am Dienstag...") but then got confused about the word order, using the word order of the second version instead of the first. That's why it's easier to just use the second version at this point, meaning that the time expression should come after the subject and predicate.

"Ich mache am Freitag Hausaufgaben" is so much easier (in terms of word order) than "Am Freitag mache ich Hausaufgaben." You generally only use the second construct when you want to emphasize "on Friday."