A Foundation Course in Reading German, 2017a

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12/8/2017
ein hart gekochtes Ei
the hard-boiled egg
die gestern gekochten Eier
the eggs boiled yesterday
mein brauner, schon gepackter Koffer
my brown suitcase, already packed
These complex noun phrases are a good opportunity to see the value in first
marking off where each noun phrase begins and ends before attempting to translate
a long sentence. It simplifies your task to know that everything inside a noun
phrase can only be modifying the noun, not anything outside of the noun phrase.
Remember that you can easily see which are adverbs and which are adjectives by
simply noting which have adjective endings and which do not.
Unit: 7: Perfect tenses and participles
7. Participial Phrases
Both present and past participles are used in participial phrases.
Example using a present participle:
Im Garten spielend, sang das Kind.
Playing in the garden, the child sang.
Example using a past participle:
Immer an die Musik interessiert, ging der Student oft in die Oper.
Always interested in music, the student went to the opera often.
Note that the participle is functioning (and is located in final position) as if it were
the main verb in a subordinate clause. Here’s how you could diagram the syntax of
the above participial phrases:
Verb: spielend
Predicate (a prepositional phrase): im Garten