A Foundation Course in Reading German, 2017a

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12/8/2017
Many adjectives, particularly those expressing abstract ideas, can be formed into
neuter nouns according to the pattern which follows below. These adjectival nouns
get modified by adverbs rather than by adjectives, in agreement with the normal
relationship of adverbs to adjectives, including adverbial usages of words such as
viel (much) and nichts (nothing).
nichts Gutes
viel Interessantes
wenig Schönes
etwas Neues
nothing that (is / was) good
(much / a lot) that (is / was) interesting
little that (is / was) (beautiful / pretty / nice)
something that (is / was) new
The original adjectives, “gut,” “interessant,” “schön,” and “neu”, are capitalized and
appear (for our current purposes) with an –es ending. By Unit 4 you’ll learn to
recognize the other endings these adjectival nouns will get when they’re used in
genitive and dative cases. Just remember that adjectival nouns are spelled – and
take their own modifiers – as if they were modifying some (absent) neuter noun,
but otherwise they function as that neuter noun.
Unit: 3: Articles, simple past
1. Objectives
In this unit, in the context of simple sentences that involve all four German cases,
you will learn how to:
Identify and translate der-words and ein-words.
Decide whether a conjugated verb is in present tense or simple-past tense, and
use its endings to predict what the corresponding subject must be.
Locate the infinitive form of a verb in a dictionary given only its simple-past,
conjugated form.
Translate compound nouns, including when they appear in hyphenated lists of
related nouns.
Translate German number formats.
Unit: 3: Articles, simple past
2. Der– words