A Foundation Course in Reading German, 2017a
A Foundation Course in Reading German, 2017a
A Foundation Course in Reading German, 2017a
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Offl<strong>in</strong>e Textbook | A <strong>Foundation</strong> <strong>Course</strong> <strong>in</strong> Read<strong>in</strong>g <strong>German</strong><br />
https://courses.dcs.wisc.edu/wp/read<strong>in</strong>ggerman/pr<strong>in</strong>t-entire-textbook/<br />
Page 13 of 151<br />
12/8/2017<br />
The various forms of the articles, both def<strong>in</strong>ite and <strong>in</strong>def<strong>in</strong>ite, are important<br />
<strong>in</strong>dicators of the function a noun plays <strong>in</strong> a given sentence. Consider that <strong>in</strong> English<br />
we use only one form for all cases (“a”, “an”, “the”). This allows <strong>German</strong> to have a<br />
more flexible word order (syntax) than English. In English we usually beg<strong>in</strong><br />
sentences with the subject, e.g. “The dog has the ball,” and that English word-order<br />
rule is necessary for us to understand that “the dog” is the subject and “the ball” is<br />
what is be<strong>in</strong>g hit.<br />
However, <strong>in</strong> <strong>German</strong>, there is no expectation at all that the subject must come first<br />
(although it often does). These two <strong>German</strong> sentences share the same mean<strong>in</strong>g:<br />
Der Hund hat den Ball.<br />
Den Ball hat der Hund.<br />
The reader (and listener) does notice the word order, but first pays attention to the<br />
articles <strong>in</strong> order to understand the sentence. In this case the article der for Mann<br />
<strong>in</strong>dicates that der Mann must be the subject, and likewise the article den for Ball<br />
<strong>in</strong>dicates that den Ball must be the direct object. Chang<strong>in</strong>g the word order <strong>in</strong> English<br />
fundamentally changes the mean<strong>in</strong>g, but not so <strong>in</strong> <strong>German</strong>.<br />
Take another example: “Erst die Frau, dann den Mann beißt der böse Hund.” If you<br />
ignore the case signals given to you by the def<strong>in</strong>ite articles and rely on standard<br />
English word order, then you come up with the amus<strong>in</strong>gly ridiculous mean<strong>in</strong>g: “First<br />
the woman, then the man bites the bad dog.” In fact the sentence means “The bad<br />
dog bites the woman first, then the man.”<br />
Side note: A subtle difference <strong>in</strong> emphasis is expressed between the two variants of<br />
the first example above:<br />
Der Hund hat den Ball.<br />
The dog has the ball. [without a particular emphasis]<br />
Den Ball hat der Hund.<br />
The ball is what the dog has.<br />
[or:] The dog has the ball.<br />
[or:] The dog has this ball.<br />
Any of those four translations could be acceptable for the above two <strong>German</strong><br />
sentences, given no further context, but once you beg<strong>in</strong> work<strong>in</strong>g with longer<br />
passages that provide more context, your sensitivity to differences like this can help<br />
you make better sense of a text.