german_sentence_builder

5. Esel / Pferd
6. lesen / oder
7. glauben / dass
The colon
Just as is done in English, German uses a colon to introduce a concept or idea and to introduce a
list of things. For example:
Einstein hatte die Welt mit einem neuen
Begriff erstaunt: seine Relativitätstheorie.
Unter seinen beliebtesten Werken sind:
die fünfte und die neunte Sinfonien.
A colon is also used to introduce direct speech or discourse:
Plötzlich sagte Martin: „Ich liebe dich
nicht mehr.“
Dann fragte sie ihn: „Liebst du eine
andere?“
Quotation marks
Einstein astounded the world with a new
concept: his theory of relativity.
Among his most beloved works are: the fifth
and the ninth symphonies.
Suddenly Martin said, “I don’t love you
anymore.”
Then she asked him, “Do you love someone
else?”
Perhaps you noticed in the previous two examples that the initial German quotation marks are
located on the line, and the final quotation marks are located above:
above the line
„Ich liebe dich nicht mehr.“
on the line
“I don’t love you anymore.”
This also occurs when a single quotation mark is required inside another quoted phrase. For
example:
The semicolon
Dann sagte er: „Ich habe ‚Buddenbrooks‘
nie gelesen.“
Then he said, “I’ve never read Buddenbrooks.”
Semicolons are used only rarely in German. Where you might use a semicolon in English, in German
a comma is preferred. But there are instances when a writer would use a semicolon in order
to indicate a pause greater than what a comma would imply:
In Bonn kann man mit einem Fahrschein
der Straßenbahn einmal umsteigen;
in Berlin kann man mehr als einmal
umsteigen.
In Bonn you can make one streetcar transfer on
one ticket; in Berlin you can transfer more
than once.
Punctuation 151