Need-to-Know English Grammar for Successful German Learning [Sentence Structure]

This entry is an extension of the first Need-to-Know English Grammar for Successful German Learning  [Parts of Speech]. You will need to understand the Parts of Speech before this entry will make much sense.

In this entry we will look at:

1. Parts of a Sentence
2. Types of Sentence Structures -and-
3. Types of Sentence Functions.

So, here we go!

1. Parts of a Sentence:

• SUBJECT
  • What is it? the noun performing the verb.
  • Examples: The scientist gave the potion to the robot.
  • Why do we care? In German, the position of a noun as the subject, object or indirect object directly affects which determiner you must use to to construct a grammatically correct sentence. You must identify which of these options your noun is acting as, and take the noun’s gender into account  in order to select the correct determiner. If your noun is the subject, the correct determiner will be the nominative case of the noun gender.
  • Additional Resources: The Tale of Mr. Morton
• OBJECT
  • What is it? the noun receiving the verb.
  • Examples: The scientist gave the potion to the robot.
  • Why do we care? In German, the position of a noun as the subject, object or indirect object directly affects which determiner you must use to to construct a grammatically correct sentence. You must identify which of these options your noun is acting as, and take the noun’s gender into account  in order to select the correct determiner. If your noun is the object, the correct determiner will be the accusative case of the noun gender.
• INDIRECT OBJECT
  • What is it? the to whom/for whom  of the verb.
  • Examples: The scientist gave the potion to the robot.
  • Why do we care? In German, the position of a noun as the subject, object or indirect object directly affects which determiner you must use to to construct a grammatically correct sentence. You must identify which of these options your noun is acting as, and take the noun’s gender into account  in order to select the correct determiner. If your noun is the indirect object, the correct determiner will be the dative case of the noun gender.
• PREDICATE
  • What is it? the rest of the sentence that isn’t the subject.
  • Examples: The scientist gave the potion to the robot.
  • Why do we care? No reason in particular that I can think of at this time.
  • Additional Resources: The Tale of Mr. Morton
• CLAUSE
  • What is it? the the smallest grammatical unit that can express a complete proposition. A typical clause consists of a subject and verb and sometimes other modifiers.
  • Examples: The scientist made the potion.
  • Why do we care? In German, clauses and the conjunctions and relative pronouns that connect them play games with verb/word order and word choice in a sentence.
• INDEPENDENT CLAUSE
  • What is it? a clause that can stand on its own as a grammatically correct sentence.
  • Examples: The scientist made the potion because he wanted to. Because he wanted to, the scientist made the potion.
  • Why do we care? In German, clauses and the conjunctions that connect them play games with verb/word order in a sentence. If the independent clause comes first, then the clause is constructed normally. If the independent clause comes after the dependent clause, the dependent clause is treated as the first “word” of a sentence and the verb of the independent clause comes right after the dependent clause’s comma. Here are the examples from above, in German: Der Wissenschaftler hat den Zaubertrank gemacht, weil er es wollte. Weil er es wollte, hat der Wissenschaftler den Zaubertrank gemacht.
• DEPENDENT/SUBORDINATE CLAUSE
  • What is it? a clause that cannot stand on its own as a grammatically correct sentence, usually includes a subordinating conjunction or a relative pronoun. These clauses generally perform (as a clause unit) a grammatical function of the sentence such as compose a noun, adverb or adjective.
  • Examples: The scientist made the potion because he wanted to. Noun Clause: The scientist was proud of what he created. Adverb Clause: When the potion was done, he gave it to the robot. Adjective Clause: The potion, of which he was proud, was given to the robot.
  • Why do we care? In German, clauses and the conjunctions that connect them play games with verb/word order and word choice in a sentence. The subordinating conjunction determines the verb/word order of the dependent/subordinate clause. I will expound on each of these conjunctions and their effects in a future post, but for now you can refer to this other author’s explanation. Dependent clauses that are made with relative pronouns require the writer/speaker to understand what part of speech that the clause is fulfilling and therefore which pronoun is grammatically proper to use (masculine, feminine, neuter, nominative, accusative, dative, genitive…). These relative pronouns can also affect word order.
• PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE
  • What is it? a cluster of words that are composed of a preposition, its object and any other modfiers of the object. They can modify nouns, verbs, other phrases or complete clauses.
  • Examples: The scientist with the potion walked towards the robot.
  • Why do we care? In German specifically, prepositions hold a lot of power over the noun case (which affects determiners and other parts of speech endings). Some German prepositions are always accusative, some are always dative, some are always genitive and some switch between accusative and dative based on the relation they describe.

2. Types of Sentence Structures:

• SIMPLE SENTENCE
  • What is it? a sentence composed of a single independent clause.
  • Examples:  I smiled. The scientist made the potion.
  • Why do we care? It’s good to know.
• COMPOUND SENTENCE
  • What is it? a sentence composed of at least two independent clauses.
  • Examples: I smiled and the scientist made the potion.
  • Why do we care? In German conjunctions that connect clauses can play games with verb/word order and word choice.
• COMPLEX SENTENCE
  • What is it? a sentence that contains an independent clause and at least one dependent clause.
  • Examples: I smiled because the scientist made the potion.
  • Why do we care? In German conjunctions that connect clauses can play games with verb/word order and word choice. The subordinating conjunction determines the verb/word order of the dependent/subordinate clause.
• COMPOUND-COMPLEX SENTENCE
  • What is it? a sentence that contains two or more independent clauses and at least one dependent clause.
  • Examples: I smiled and the robot chortled because the scientist made the potion.
  • Why do we care? In German conjunctions that connect clauses can play games with verb/word order and word choice. The subordinating conjunction determines the verb/word order of the dependent/subordinate clause.

3. Types of Sentence Functions:

• DECLARATIVE SENTENCE
  • What is it? a sentence that makes a statement.
  • Examples: Robots move. Cheese is delicious.
  • Why do we care? It’s good to know.
• INTERROGATIVE SENTENCE
  • What is it? a sentence that poses a question.
  • Examples: How do robots move?
  • Why do we care? In German almost any sentence can be converted into a question by positioning the verb at the beginning of the sentence and placing a question mark at the end. Example: “Sie kommen nach Hause.” = You come back home. “Kommen Sie nach Hause?” = Are you coming back home?
• IMPERATIVE SENTENCE
  • What is it? a sentence that delivers a demand.
  • Examples: Move the robot. Listen up. Pay attention. Come with us. Come back home with us.
  • Why do we care? In German, the verb will come at the beginning of an imperative sentence, but so that it is not confused with being an interrogative sentence,e the verb form takes a slightly different form. Usually the root of the verb stays and the conjugation falls off of the end. Then the sentence is always punctuated with an exclamation mark at the end. Examples: Beweg den Roboter! Hör zu! Pass auf! Komm mit! Komm mit uns nach Hause!
• EXCLAMATORY SENTENCE
  • What is it? a sentence that expresses intense emotions.
  • Examples: I love watching robots move!
  • Why do we care? In German, the sentence will be punctuated with an exclamation mark at the end, but so that it is not confused with being an imperative sentence, the verb will maintain its ‘usual’ form and position as if it were a simple sentence.

So, now you know! Another thing that is vital to writing good sentences is understanding tenses and how they affect German word order and sentence structure. German verb tenses get me a bit tense, but I’ll do my best to lay them all out for you in an upcoming blog post. Until then, keep studying.

Need-to-Know English Grammar for Successful German Learning [Parts of Speech]

I learned more about English grammar in my German classes than I ever learned in any of my English classes.

The reason for this wasn’t because I only ever had horrible English teachers (quite the contrary! I still remember the preposition song set to the tune of “Yankee Doodle” my 6th grade Language Arts teacher made us learn that has served me well); the reason is because I was raised in an English-speaking society/household. Being immersed in the language and observing others around me since birth taught me that, “The dog brown I yesterday walked” wasn’t normal English sentence structure, and that the better answer would be, “I walked the brown dog yesterday.” I didn’t need to know any more about the rules of English grammar than what was accepted as understandable and ‘normal-sounding’ by my peers and what wasn’t. Listening to and reproducing grammatically correct sentences was way more efficient than spending my English classes mapping out sentence structures and understanding the linguistic reasons behind why “The dog brown I yesterday walked” is wrong. I already knew that it sounded wrong, so I wan’t going to say it; my school recognized that and instead spent the time I could have been mapping out sentence structures teaching me more vocabulary and poetic forms. For practicality’s sake, they made the right choice.  It wasn’t until I began learning German that I needed to give thought to how languages worked, piece by piece.

When I began learning German, with all of its “strange” grammar rules, my only frame of reference was English grammar– of which I didn’t understand the mechanics. Because I didn’t learn those grammar rules in English class, I had to learn them in my German class so I could decipher how German grammar functions.

There is at least one book out on the market that recognized this conundrum and tried to fill the void. I have never read it, so I can’t attest to whether or not it is worth your money– but I assure you the problem it is attempting to solve is real. That being said, I’m not trying to plug the entire gaping hole that is the void of English grammar comprehension. I’m instead going to explain the very basics you will need to know in order to get through my other posts without having a dictionary of grammatical terms pulled up in an adjacent window. Additionally, when relevant, my posts on each specific subject matter will go more in depth with additional grammar terms. For now, we’re just going to brush up on some vocabulary. Parts of speech in parentheses are classes of words that aren’t technically one of the 8 official parts of speech, but are necessary to understand other parts of speech, or are very closely related to one of the 8 official parts of speech. I have listed and explained them for your benefit.

One last thing before we get started! There is a magnificent resource for learning Grammar functions called “Schoolhouse Rock!” A group of people decided to use the catchiness of music and lyrics to educate students and help them better remember tricky subject matters. There is a whole section called “Grammar Rock!” For the parts of speech that have a “Grammar Rock!” song available, I have listed a youtube.com link under “Additional Resources.”

Parts of Speech

• NOUN –
  • What is it? a word for a person, place or thing.
  • Examples: doctor, post office, dog.
  • Why do we care?  These are vital for German because all nouns are capitalized. Additionally, each noun in German has an assigned gender.
  • Additional Resources: A Noun Is A Person, Place Or Thing
• (PROPER NOUN) – 
  • What is it?  a noun representing unique entities.
  • Examples: Germany, Main street, the President
  • Why do we care? These become irrelevant in German as all nouns are capitalized.
• PRONOUN – 
  • What is it? a word that substitutes for a noun or noun-phrase
  • Examples: I, you, he, she, it, we, they, me, him, her, us, them.
  • Why do we care? These become vital for German verb conjugation.
  • Additional Resources: Rufus Xavier Sarsaparilla
• (REFLEXIVE PRONOUN) – 
  • What is it? a pronoun serves to show that the sentence’s subject also receives the action of the verb as the object.
  • Examples: myself, me, yourself, himself, herself, itself, yourselves, themselves.
  • Why do we care? There are many German verbs that require reflexive pronouns. Determining accusative or dative case is vital only for the correct reflexive conjugation of “I” and informal “you,” but each regular pronoun changes in reflexive situations.
  • Additional Resources: Reflexive pronouns explained by a different author.
• (RELATIVE PRONOUN) – 
  • What is it? words that relate groups of words to nouns or other pronouns and begin relative clauses (which I discuss in this other post).
  • Examples: that, who, whoever, whom, whomever, which, whichever, whose and of which .
  • Why do we care? These words require declension based on their case in the sentence as nominative, accusative, dative or genitive and gender.
  • Additional Resources: Relative pronouns explained by a different author.
• (INDEFINITE PRONOUN) – 
  • What is it? words that relate groups of words to nouns or other pronouns and begin relative clauses (which I discuss in this other post).
  • Examples: everybody, anybody, somebody, all, each, every, some, none, one. There are also other indefinite pronouns that double as determiners: enough, few, fewer, less, little, many, much, several, more, most, all, both, every, each, any, either, neither, none, some.
  • Why do we care? These words require declension based on their case in the sentence as nominative, accusative, dative or genitive and gender.
  • Additional Resources: Relative pronouns explained by a different author. Or another author still, with an extensive list of indefinite pronouns and their grammatical behavior in German.
• (DETERMINER) –
  • What is it? a word that indicates whether the noun is referring to a definite or indefinite object/element of a larger class.
  • Examples: There are four different classes of determiners:
    • articles = the/a/an
    • demonstratives = this/that
    • possessive = my/their; and
    • quantifiers = many/few/several.
  • Why do we care? These are much more complicated in German than in English, which I explain in detail in a different post. The determiner is fully dependent on the gender of the noun it is connected to, as well as that noun’s case– and this relationship determines the German word used for the determiner.
• ADJECTIVE – 
  • What is it? a word used to describe a noun or a noun-phrase.
  • Examples: big, fluffy, orange, round, recent.
  • Why do we care? These take on endings based on the gender of the noun it is connected to, as well as that noun’s case. Additionally, when you start introducing comparative/superlative adjectives to your sentences, the German word for your adjective may change.
  • Additional Resources: Unpack your Adjectives
• VERB – 
  • What is it? a word used to denote action, occurrence or a state of being.
  • Examples: bring, become, exist.
  • Why do we care? Most of German’s sentence structure is dependent on verbs. Each verb has a conjugation table that is navigated using its actor’s respective pronoun. There are also various tenses which can dramatically change the verb. These tenses are discussed in the second portion of this other post.
  • Additional Resources: Verb: That’s What’s Happenin’
• (AUXILIARY VERB) – 
  • What is it? also known as a “helping verb,” these are verbs that add functional or grammatical meaning to the clause in which it appears. They can denote tense or modality.
  • Examples: She is going home. That would be fun.
  • Why do we care? German tense is highly dependent on these verbs, and their placement in the sentence is crucial to sentence structure.
• ADVERB – 
• • What is it? a word that further describes a verb, adjective, adverbs, clauses or sentences. I can denote the manner, place, time, frequency, certainty or circumstances of the verb action.
  • Examples: quickly, quietly, recently, soon, together.
  • Why do we care? Be thankful for adverbs, because they are one of the few parts of speech that don’t rely on the noun’s gender and role in the sentence! They do play a part in sentence structure, seeing as they can describe the time or manner of action, and German sentences try to specify time, then manner, then the place of action. The only time adverbs get crazy is when you start with comparative/superlative forms of the adverbs, as the German word for your adverb may change.
  • Additional Resources: Lolly, Lolly, Lolly, Get Your Adverbs Here
• (PARTICIPLE) –
  • What is it? a verb used as modifier for a noun, noun phrase, verb or verb phrase. There are two kinds, present and past. Present participles usually end in “-ing.” Past participles usually end in “-ed.”
  • Examples: The beaming mother clapped, astounded by her son’s obvious talent.
  • Why do we care? In German specifically, prepositions hold a lot of power over the noun case (which affects determiners and other parts of speech endings). Some German prepositions are always accusative, some are always dative, some are always genitive and some switch betwee

  participles (including present and past) http://grammar.about.com/od/pq/g/particterm.htm

• (COMPARATIVE) – 
  • What is it? a word that quantifies the degree of the adjective or adverb, in comparison to another entity or group of entities.
  • Examples: bigger, more recent, less common.
  • Why do we care? Just like in English, an ended is added to the adjective or adverb, and sometimes there are specific prepositions involved.
• (SUPERLATIVE) – 
  • What is it? a word that quantifies the extreme embodiment of the base adjective or adverb.
  • Examples: biggest, most recent, least common.
  • Why do we care? Just like in English, an ended is added to the adjective or adverb, and sometimes there are specific prepositions involved.
• PREPOSITION – 
  • What is it? a word that expresses spatial or temporal relations. Usually relates nouns, adjectives or verbs.
  • Examples: above, through, in, before
  • Why do we care? These words are tricky in German (and every other foreign language) because they are not always directly translatable between English and German, Example: (English) I live with my aunt. (German) I live by my aunt. You will have to learn which ones to use when as you go. Additionally, in German specifically, prepositions hold a lot of power over the noun case (which we know affects determiners and adjective endings). Some German prepositions are always accusative, some are always dative, some are always genitive and some switch between accusative and dative based on the relation they describe. In my preposition post I list the accusative, dative, genitive and two-way prepositions for you.
  • Additional Resources: Busy Prepositions
• CONJUNCTION – 
  • What is it? a word that connects words, phrases or clauses.
  • Examples: There are three types
    • coordinating = and/but/for/nor/or/so/yet
    • correlative = either…or/not only… but (also)/neither… nor/both… and/whether… or/just as… so
    • subordinating = after/although/as/as far as/as if/because/before/even if/even though/if/ in order that/ since/so/so that/than/though/unless/until/when/whenever/where/whereas/wherever/while.
  • Why do we care? These words can have major roles in determining German sentence structure. German also has specific correlative pairs you will need to learn.
  • Additional Resources: Conjunction Junction
• INTERJECTION/EXCLAMATION – 
  • What is it? a word or phrase used to express emotion, followed by an exclamation mark. They are also words that interrupt the sentence at hand (such as filled pauses).
  • Examples: Yes! Oops! Ouch! Shh! um, yeah, uh.
  • Why do we care? German has its own words for these common interjections. They are functionally the same at their English counterparts.
  • Additional Resources: Interjections!
• (ONOMATOPOEIA) – 
  • What is it?  a word that phonetically imitates, resembles or suggests the source of the sound that it describes. Think animal noises.
  • Examples: oink, meow, squeak, boom, bang.
  • Why do we care? German, like most languages, has its own onomatopoeia words. They are functionally the same at their English counterparts.
• (AFFIX) – 
  • What is it? a morpheme that is attached to a word stem to form a new word. The same affix generally has the same effect on the word stems it is attached to.
  • Examples: There are 11 different types of affix, but the two most common types are the:
    • Prefix = an affix placed at the beginning of a word to form a new word. Ex: asymmetric. atypical. atheist. “a-” = not; misbehave. misrepresent. misspell.  “mis-” = bad/wrong. An extensive list of other English prefixes can be found here.
    • Suffix = an affix placed at the end of a word to form a new word. Ex:  biology. endocrinology. criminology. “-ology” = the study of; beautiful, wonderful, colorful. “-ful” = having the possession of the quality of that noun.
  • Why do we care? German has its own affixes and associated meanings. Affixes as a whole serve the same function as English affixes, but the ones used may not map directly to the German vocabulary. Ex: “beautiful” in English is an adaptation of the word “beauty”, with the suffix added, but the German word for “beautiful,” “schön” has no suffix attached, where as the word for beauty, “Schönheit” does have a suffix added. German suffixes in particular can have a direct connection with the gender of the noun. Ex: “-chen,” meaning “little” is always neuter.
• (PARTICLE) –
  • What is it? A particle is a word that does not fit into the conventional grammar categories. They perform definite grammatical functions, but lack definite lexical meaning.
  • Examples: The storm tore up my yard. She passed on the family heirloom to her grandchild. 
    
  • Why do we care? German uses particles as flavor words– they impart attitude, opinion or emphasis. Commonly used ones include: ja, halt, aber, denn, schon, and the imfamous “doch.” The more you hear these words used properly, the clearer their meaning and usage will become. Like in English, man particles are also re-purposed prepositions. Wikipedia explains:
    

    Aber, for example, is also the conjunction but. In Er ist Amerikaner, aber er spricht gut Deutsch, “He is American, but he speaks good German,” aber is a conjunction connecting two sentences. But in Er spricht aber gut Deutsch!, the aber  is a particle, with the sentence perhaps best translated as “What good German he speaks!”

So, there you have it! These are the building blocks for your future German sentences! The way that they relate to one another/interact with each other is the grammar. Think of it as a soccer game (because Germans LOVE soccer): The parts of speech are the players on the field, and you are the referee that has to determine the manners in which they can play with one another. Goalies are allowed to use their hands, but other players aren’t. There are special cases for each part of speech as well. If they break any of the rules of conduct, you blow the whistle and throw a flag. We’ll talk about these rules in detail in the coming posts. Hopefully they will help you with your grammar-learning… GOAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry. That pun was BEGGING to be played. I understand if you wish to bench me for that one. I hope you will continue reading despite my awful humor. : )