A Foundation Course in Reading German, 2017a

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Offline Textbook | A Foundation Course in Reading German https://courses.dcs.wisc.edu/wp/readinggerman/print-entire-textbook/ Page 11 of 151 12/8/2017 sentence, “Das Kind hat eine Krankheit,” as our example. In English this may be translated in three different ways, depending on the larger context of the statement: “The child has an illness,” “The child does have an illness,” or “The child is having an illness.” As you progress to translating sentences with more context provided, be sure to keep in mind that English present tense is more complicated than German, and thus you should consider which of the English options is the most suitable for each particular sentence. Furthermore, in a German present-tense sentence, time information might be provided that calls for a different English verb tense in your translation. For example: Das Kind hat ab morgen Fieber. The child will have a fever starting tomorrow. Das Kind hat seit gestern Fieber. The child has had a fever since yesterday. The additional time information “ab morgen” (starting tomorrow) or “seit gestern” (since yesterday) is the key to deciding whether a form of English present tense, English future tense, or English present-perfect tense is the appropriate translation of the German present-tense verb. German present tense never conveys a past, completed event. Therefore English past tense is never a translation option for German present tense. Note that in the second example above, which calls for English present-perfect tense, the child still has a fever in the present moment. Unit: 1: Basics 7. The Accusative Case of Nouns The concept of cases such as nominative and accusative, etc. is actually familiar to English speakers, although many are often not conscious of it. Note, for example, how our nominative pronouns “he” and “she” change to “him” and “her” when they are used in the accusative case. If you would like more explanation of the concept of cases (or other grammatical concepts), it often helps students to review English grammar using any English grammar reference book. In German, just as in English, the accusative case is used primarily for the direct objects of sentences. For example, in “They hit the ball,” the direct object is “the
Offline Textbook | A Foundation Course in Reading German https://courses.dcs.wisc.edu/wp/readinggerman/print-entire-textbook/ Page 12 of 151 12/8/2017 ball.” The German definite article changes in accusative case only for those direct objects which are masculine, as the following chart indicates: CASE MASCULINE FEMININE NEUTER PLURAL NOMINATIVE der die das die (SUBJECT) ACCUSATIVE den die das die (DIRECT OBJECT) Our sentence in German then is: Sie schlagen den Ball (They hit the ball). In vocabulary lists you will often see that Ball is listed as der Ball, which is its nominative-case singular form. Unit: 1: Basics 8. The Indefinite Article ein The German word for “a,” “an,” or “one” is ein, and like the definite article, the various endings it takes can help you identify case, gender, and number of the following noun phrase. Thus, taking the examples Tisch, Feder and Bett, we have in the nominative and accusative cases: MASCULINE FEMININE NEUTER PLURAL NOMINATIVE ein Tisch eine Feder ein Bett keine Tische ACCUSATIVE einen Tisch eine Feder ein Bett keine Federn There is no plural of ein, obviously, but to use kein- (“no”, “not a”) shows us that the -e ending on indefinite articles can indicate either a plural or feminine status. For example: keine Betten (no beds). Unit: 1: Basics 9. Word Order
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A Foundation Course in Reading German, 2017a

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