Listening and Reading Sotiri 28:03:2011

The Department Store

Continued and answering questions on text

Sotiri further listening exercises 25:03;2011

Sotiri, these are a continuation of the first text: Listen and note phrases you don't understand.


Number 1

Number 2

Final Part

The use of the CONDITIONAL TENSE in German 24:03:2011

Subjunctive II (Conditional)

This subjunctive mood is used to make statements that are contrary to fact, instead of factual statements that are made in the indicative mood.  There are two forms of the German subjunctive: Subjunctive II and Subjunctive I.  Subjunctive II or the general subjunctive is used with if...then (wenn... dann) statements and conditional sentences.  Subjunctive I or special subjunctive is a less common mood that is used with indirect discourse.

The present tense of Subjunctive II is derived from the imperfect tense of the indicative.  For weak (regular) verbs, the subjunctive II is identical to the imperfect tense.  For strong (irregular) verbs, the present tense of the subjunctive II takes the past tense stem of the imperfect, adds an umlaut where possible, and adds the following endings:

-e -est -e

-en -et -en

sein			haben			werden
wäre wärest wäre	wären wäret wären		hätte hättest hätte	hätten hättet hätten		würde würdest würde	würden würdet würden

Some exceptions include:

Imperfect	Subjunctive II
brachte dachte durfte konnte mochte sollte wollte mußte hatte wußte	brächte dächte dürfte könnte möchte sollte wollte müßte hätte wüßte

The past tense of Subjunctive II is derived from the past perfect tense of the indicative.  It is composed of a form of the subjunctive of sein or haben and a past participle.

Conditional sentences
These sentences are based on an if... then (wenn... dann) pattern in both English and German.  Dann can be omitted in these sentences also.  Remember that wenn is a subordinating conjunction, and forces the conjugated verb to the end of the clause.

Present Subj. II:  Wenn ich Zeit hätte, (dann) ginge ich ins Kino.  If I had time, (then) I would go to the movies.
Past Subj. II:  Wenn ich Zeit gehabt hätte, dann wäre ich ins Kino gegangen.  If I had had time, (then) I would have gone to the movies.

Wenn clauses may be introduced by a verb, and in this case, wenn disappears and dann may be replaced by so.

Kommt er heute nicht, (so) kommt er morgen.  If he's not coming today, then he'll come tomorrow.

A conditional sentence may begin with the dann clause as well; but dann is never used and the clause uses normal word order.

Wir trinken den Kaffee nicht, wenn er zu heiß ist.  We don't drink coffee if it is too hot.

Forms of würden + an infinitive
Würde and an infinitive translate to would + infinitive and is more common than the one word form in the dann clause.  Wenn clauses tend to avoid the würde construction, except with these eight verbs: helfen, stehen, sterben, werfen, brennen, kennen, nennen, and rennen.  These eight verbs use the würde construction in the wenn clause because the one word forms are archaic.  Moreover, conversational German tends to replace many subjunctive II forms of strong verbs with the würde construction.  However, this construction cannot be used with modal auxiliaries, haben or sein.

Wenn ich Zeit hätte,	dann ginge ich ins Kino. dann würde ich ins Kino gehen.	If I had time, I would go to the movies.
Wenn ich Geld hätte,	dann flöge ich nach Deutschland. dann würde ich nach Deutschland fliegen.	If I had money, I would fly to Germany

Sotiri Lesson 22:03:2011 - Indefinite article

German Indefinite Article
Masculine	ein Mann (a man)
Feminine	eine Frau (the woman)
Neuter	ein Brot (a bread)

Again, that’s not all; the form we went through above is only for the nominative case. Now let’s have a look at all the rest:

German Indefinite Articles
	masculine	feminine	neuter
Nominative case	ein	eine	ein	a, an
Accusative case	einen	eine	ein	a, an
Dative case	einem	einer	einem	to a, to an
Genitive cases	eines	einer	eines	of a, of an

Here are some examples:

Nominative: ein Mann ist hier (a man is here)

Accusative: Ich grüße einen Mann (I greet a man)

Dative: Ich gebe einem Mann ein Buch (I give the book to a man)

Genitive: Ich habe das Buch eines Mannes (I have the book of a man)

Simple reading text Sotiri 22.032011 Lesson

Simple reading and listening

German adverbs Sotiri Lesson 22.03.2011

Common German adverbs

One of the first things German-learners need to learn is that German and English often do things a little differently. Although English does have some reflexive verbs forms ("enjoy yourself"), German relies much more on the reflexive than English does. The grammatical term reflexive simply means that a verb's subject (the initiator of an action) is the same person as that verb's object (the person acted upon). The object "reflects" back to, or is a "reflection" of the subject. "We are enjoying ourselves" is a reflexive phrase. "We are enjoying them" is not—because the subject (we) is not the same person as the object (them). The word "reflexive" means the same thing in English and German grammar, but as we said, German uses reflexive verbs much more frequently.
One reason is that German uses reflexive verb phrases and expressions that may not be reflexive in English. Particularly when it comes to showing possession and referring to parts of the body, German prefers the reflexive. To express "he's washing his hands," German usually avoids the possessive sein (his) and uses the reflexive form "er wäscht sich die Hände"—in which the reflexive sich (himself) indicates whose hands are being washed. In English you can say "I'm shaving myself," but you usually just say "I'm shaving." In German "to shave" is a reflexive verb: sich rasieren. "I'm shaving" in German is ich rasiere mich—and such German verbs can't be used without the reflexive pronoun (here, mich/myself).
In English, reflexive pronouns always end with -self or -selves (myself, ourselves, herself). In German, the reflexive pronouns are identical to the regular accusative or dative (objective) pronouns (see Reflexive Chart and Reflexive Verb Glossary), with the important exception of sich, which is the reflexive form for the third person singular (er/sie/es), the plural sie (they) and the formal "you" (Sie). Because sich is used for more than one pronoun, you only need to learn a total of five accusative reflexive pronouns. All the reflexives are the same in the dative, except for ich/mir and du/dir. While selbst or selber (self) is sometimes used along with a reflexive pronoun, neither word can be used alone as a reflexive.
Although some German verbs are exclusively reflexive, most can be either reflexive or not. In some cases, the meaning of the reflexive form is very different from the non-reflexive form. In a German-English dictionary or verb guide, reflexive verbs are indicated by one of the following abbreviations, depending on the publisher: s. - sich - refl. The infinitive of a German reflexive verb is indicated with sich (s.): sich setzen (to sit down), sich interessieren für (to be interested in), sich erkälten (to catch cold). On the next page, you'll find a chart with all of the reflexive pronouns and a German-English list of many reflexive verbs.

First test Lesson 22.03.2011 TOEIC

First test

TOEIC online listening test 22.03.2011

Simple listening





Online listening test

Another listening test

Final test

Sotiri Reflexive verbs examples Lesson 22.03.2011

List of German reflexive verbs

One of the first things German-learners need to learn is that German and English often do things a little differently. Although English does have some reflexive verbs forms ("enjoy yourself"), German relies much more on the reflexive than English does. The grammatical term reflexive simply means that a verb's subject (the initiator of an action) is the same person as that verb's object (the person acted upon). The object "reflects" back to, or is a "reflection" of the subject. "We are enjoying ourselves" is a reflexive phrase. "We are enjoying them" is not—because the subject (we) is not the same person as the object (them). The word "reflexive" means the same thing in English and German grammar, but as we said, German uses reflexive verbs much more frequently. One reason is that German uses reflexive verb phrases and expressions that may not be reflexive in English. Particularly when it comes to showing possession and referring to parts of the body, German prefers the reflexive. To express "he's washing his hands," German usually avoids the possessive sein (his) and uses the reflexive form "er wäscht sich die Hände"—in which the reflexive sich (himself) indicates whose hands are being washed. In English you can say "I'm shaving myself," but you usually just say "I'm shaving." In German "to shave" is a reflexive verb: sich rasieren. "I'm shaving" in German is ich rasiere mich—and such German verbs can't be used without the reflexive pronoun (here, mich/myself).
In English, reflexive pronouns always end with -self or -selves (myself, ourselves, herself). In German, the reflexive pronouns are identical to the regular accusative or dative (objective) pronouns (see Reflexive Chart and Reflexive Verb Glossary), with the important exception of sich, which is the reflexive form for the third person singular (er/sie/es), the plural sie (they) and the formal "you" (Sie). Because sich is used for more than one pronoun, you only need to learn a total of five accusative reflexive pronouns. All the reflexives are the same in the dative, except for ich/mir and du/dir. While selbst or selber (self) is sometimes used along with a reflexive pronoun, neither word can be used alone as a reflexive.
Although some German verbs are exclusively reflexive, most can be either reflexive or not. In some cases, the meaning of the reflexive form is very different from the non-reflexive form. In a German-English dictionary or verb guide, reflexive verbs are indicated by one of the following abbreviations, depending on the publisher: s. - sich - refl. The infinitive of a German reflexive verb is indicated with sich (s.): sich setzen (to sit down), sich interessieren für (to be interested in), sich erkälten (to catch cold). On the next page, you'll find a chart with all of the reflexive pronouns and a German-English list of many reflexive verbs.

Sotiri first listening piece 21.03.211

Sotiri Monday class 21.03.2011 Prepositions

 (1) Prepositions which take the accusative and prepositions which can take either the accusative or dative depending on movement.


(2) Prepositions whihc always take the dative

(3) Looking at verbs that split and exercises to do at home

Irregular verbs - in simple past and in past perfect _Sotiri_18:03:2010

Irregular Verbs

Starke Verben - Strong Verbs - A-F
INFINITIV	PRÄTERITUM (Preterite)	PERFEKT (Past Participle)
A A A
anfangen  begin	fing an  began	angefangen  begun
ankommen  arrive	kam an  arrived	ist angekommen  arrived
anrufen  call up	rief an  called up	angerufen  called up
B B B
backen  bake	backte  baked	gebacken  baked
befehlen  command	befahl  commanded	befohlen  commanded
beginnen  begin	begann  began	begonnen  begun
beißen  bite	biss  bit	gebissen  bitten
bekommen  get, receive	bekam  got	bekommen  gotten
bergen  salvage	barg  salvaged	geborgen  salvaged
bersten  burst	barst  burst	geborsten  burst
betrügen  deceive	betrog  deceived	betrogen  deceived
biegen  bend	bog  bent	gebogen  bent
bieten  offer	bot  offered	geboten  offered
binden  tie	band  tied	gebunden  tied
bitten  request	bat  requested	gebeten  requested
blasen  blow	blies  blew	geblasen  blown
See the ablaut groups for learning the various patterns (a-ie-a, a-u-a, e-a-o, etc.) of German strong verbs.
bleiben  stay	blieb  stayed	ist geblieben  stayed
bleichen  bleach	blich  bleached	geblichen  bleached
braten  roast	briet  roasted	gebraten  roasted
brechen  break	brach  broke	gebrochen  broken
brennen*  burn	brannte  burned	gebrannt  burned
bringen*  bring	brachte  brought	gebracht  brought
*Both brennen and bringen are "mixed" verbs, combining elements of strong and weak verbs. For more see our Mixed Verbs page.
D D D
denken*  think	dachte  thought	gedacht  thought
*The verb denken is a "mixed" verb, combining elements of strong and weak verbs. For more see our Mixed Verbs page.
dreschen  thresh	drosch  threshed	gedroschen  threshed
dringen  force	drang  forced	gedrungen  forced
dürfen  may	durfte  was allowed	gedurft*  been allowed
*Used with an infinitive, as for all modals, the past participle is the infinitive dürfen: "Wir haben nicht gehen dürfen."
E E E
empfangen  receive	empfing  received	empfangen  received
empfehlen  recommend	empfahl  recommended	empfohlen  recommended
erfinden  invent	erfand  invented	erfunden  invented
erlöschen  extinguish	erlosch  extinguished	erloschen  extinguished
erschallen  echo, sound	erscholl  sounded	erschollen  sounded
erschrecken*  scare	erschrak  scared	erschrocken  scared
*This verb has both strong (passive) and weak (active) forms: "Ich habe ihn erschreckt." (I scared him.) and "Ich erschrak bei der Explosion." (I was startled/scared by the explosion.)
essen  eat	aß  ate	gegessen  eaten
F F F
fahren  travel	fuhr  traveled	ist gefahren  traveled
fallen  fall	fiel  fell	ist gefallen  fallen
fangen  catch	fing  caught	gefangen  caught
fechten  fence	focht  fenced	gefochten  fenced
finden  find	fand  found	gefunden  found
fliegen  fly	flog  flew	ist geflogen  flown
fliehen  flee	floh  fled	ist geflohen  fled
fließen  flow	floss  flowed	ist geflossen  flowed
fressen  gorge	fraß  gorged	gefressen  gorged
frieren  freeze	fror  froze	gefroren*  frozen
*The verb frieren takes the helping verb haben or sein, depending on its meaning. In most cases ("to be cold") it is "hat gefroren," but in the meaning of "to freeze, turn into ice," it is "Der Boden / Das Wasser ist steif gefroren." (The ground / water has frozen solid.) INFINITIV PRÄTERITUM (Preterite) PERFEKT (Past Participle)  G gären  ferment gor  fermented gegoren  fermented gebären  bear (child) gebar  bore geboren  born geben  give gab  gave gegeben  given gedeihen  flourish gedieh  flourished ist gediehen  flourished gefallen  be pleasing, like gefiel  liked gefallen  liked gehen  go ging  went ist gegangen  gone gelingen  succeed gelang  succeeded ist gelungen  succeeded gelten  be valid galt  was valid gegolten  been valid genesen  recover genas  recovered genesen  recovered genießen  enjoy genoß  enjoyed genossen  enjoyed geschehen  happen geschah  happened ist geschehen  happened gewinnen  win gewann  won gewonnen  won gießen  pour goß  poured gegossen  poured gleichen  resemble glich  resembled geglichen  resembled gleiten  glide, slide glitt  glided ist geglitten  glided glimmen  glow, smoulder glomm*  glowed ist geglommen*  glowed   *Also glimmte and hat geglimmt (weak) graben  dig grub  dug gegraben  dug greifen  grasp griff  grasped gegriffen  grasped  H haben  have hatte  had gehabt  had   For the complete conjugation of the verb haben in the present tense, see Lesson 4 of German for Beginners. halten  hold hielt  held gehalten  held hängen  hang hing  hung/hanged* gehangen  hung/hanged*   *The verb hängen is weak in transitive situations ("Er hängte das Bild an die Wand.") and strong in intransitive situations ("Das Bild hing an der Wand."). hauen  hew, hit haute*  hit gehauen  hit   *The strong past form hieb is used when the meaning is "struck (him) with a weapon." heben  lift hob  lifted gehoben  lifted heißen  be called hieß  named geheißen  named helfen  help half  helped geholfen  helped   See the ablaut groups for learning the various patterns (a-u-a, e-a-o, etc.) of German strong verbs.  K kennen*  know kannte  knew gekannt  known   *The verb kennen is a "mixed" verb, combining elements of strong and weak verbs. For more see our Mixed Verbs page. klingen  ring klang  rang geklungen  rung kneifen  pinch kniff  pinched gekniffen  pinched kommen  come kam  came ist gekommen  come können  can konnte  could gekonnt*  could   *With an infinitive, the past participle is können: "Ich habe nicht gehen können." kriechen  crawl kroch  crawled ist gekrochen  crawled  L laden  load lud  loaded geladen  loaded lassen  let, allow ließ  let gelassen  let laufen  run lief  ran ist gelaufen  run leiden  suffer litt  suffered gelitten  suffered leihen  lend lieh  lent geliehen  lent lesen  read las  read gelesen  read liegen*  lie lag  lay gelegen  lain   *Do not confuse liegen (lie, recline, strong) and (sich) legen (lay, put, weak)! lügen  lie log  lied gelogen  lied  M mahlen  grind mahlte  ground gemahlen  ground meiden  avoid mied  avoided gemieden  avoided messen  measure maß  measured gemessen  measured misslingen  fail misslang  failed misslungen  failed mögen  like mochte  liked gemocht*  liked   *With an infinitive, the past participle is mögen: "Sie hat nicht gehen mögen." müssen  must musste  had to gemusst*  had to   *Used with an infinitive, as with all modals, the past participle is the infinitive müssen: "Wir haben nicht gehen müssen." (Preterite) PERFEKT (Past Participle) N nehmen take nahm took genommen taken nennen name nannte named genannt named P pfeifen whistle pfiff whistled gepfiffen whistled preisen praise pries praised gepriesen praised Q quellen gush quoll* gushed ist gequollen* gushed *Also has the weak forms quellte and hat gequellt. R raten advise riet advised geraten advised reiben rub rieb rubbed gerieben rubbed reißen tear riss tore gerissen torn reiten* ride ritt rode ist geritten ridden *The verb reiten is only used for riding an animal (e.g., horseback riding); to express "ride" in a transportation sense (bus, train, etc.), fahren is used. rennen run rannte ran ist gerannt run *The verb rennen is a "mixed" verb, combining elements of strong and weak verbs. For more see our Mixed Verbs page. riechen smell roch smelled gerochen smelled ringen wring rang wrung gerungen wrung rinnen flow rann flowed ist geronnen flowed rufen call rief called gerufen called S salzen salt salzte salted gesalzen/gesalzt salted saufen drink soff drank gesoffen drunk saugen suck sog* sucked gesogen* sucked * Also has the weak forms saugte and hat gesaugt. In technical use, only the weak form is used. schaffen create; accomplish, make schuf* created geschaffen* created *The strong forms schuf/hat geschaffen are used when the meaning is "created" ("Sie hat schöne Sachen geschaffen."). To express "accomplished" or "made it," the weak forms schaffte/hat geschafft are used: "Er hat es geschafft (ein Tor zu machen)!" scheiden depart; separate schied separated geschieden* separated *In the sense of "leave" or "depart" scheiden takes sein as a helping verb: "Karl ist aus dem Dienst geschieden." scheinen shine schien shone geschienen shone scheißen shit schiss shit geschissen shit schelten scold schalt scolded gescholten scolded schießen shoot schoss shot geschossen shot See the ablaut groups for learning the various patterns (a-u-a, e-a-o, etc.) of German strong verbs. schlafen sleep schlief slept geschlafen slept schlagen hit schlug hit geschlagen hit schleichen sneak schlich sneaked ist geschlichen sneaked schleifen polish schliff* polished geschliffen* polished *Although the strong form is preferred, schleifte and hat geschleift (weak) are also used. schleißen slit schliß slit geschlissen slit schließen close, lock schloss closed geschlossen closed schlingen gulp (down) schlang gulped geschlungen gulped schmeißen fling, toss schmiss flung geschmissen flung schmelzen melt schmolz melted geschmolzen melted schneiden cut schnitt cut geschnitten cut schrecken scare schrak/schreckte scared geschreckt/geschrocken scared schreiben write schrieb wrote geschrieben written schreien scream schrie screamed geschrien screamed schreiten step schritt stepped ist geschritten stepped schweigen be silent schwieg was silent geschwiegen been silent schwellen* swell, rise schwoll swelled ist geschwollen swollen *There are two forms of schwellen: (1) strong (above) for the sense of "to swell up/fill with wind," and (2) weak to "fill (something) up with wind/to swell (something) up." schwimmen swim schwamm swam ist geschwommen swum schwinden dwindle schwand dwindled ist geschwunden dwindled schwingen swing schwang swung geschwungen swung schwören swear schwur/schwor swore geschworen sworn
Starke Verben - Strong Verbs - Se-Z INFINITIV PRÄTERITUM (Preterite) PERFEKT (Past Participle) Se sehen see sah saw gesehen seen sein be war was ist gewesen been For the conjugation of sein in the present tense, see Lesson 4 of German for Beginners. senden* send, transmit sandte sent gesandt sent *In the sense of "transmit" or "broadcast" only the weak forms sendete and hat gesendet are used. The weak forms may also be used in the sense of "send." sieden boil sott/siedete boiled gesotten boiled singen sing sang sang gesungen sung sinken sink sank sank ist gesunken sunk sitzen* sit saß sat gesessen sat *Do not confuse sitzen (sit, strong) and (sich) setzen (set, weak)! sollen should, ought to sollte should gesollt* should *With an infinitive, the past participle is sollen: "Ich habe nicht gehen sollen." spalten split spaltete split gespalten/gespaltet split speien spew spie spewed gespien spewed spinnen spin spann spun gesponnen spun sprechen speak sprach spoke gesprochen spoken sprießen sprout spross sprouted gesprossen sprouted springen jump sprang jumped ist gesprungen jumped stechen stab, sting stach stung gestochen stung stehen stand stand stood gestanden* stood *In some southern German and Austrian dialects, stehen takes sein as a helping verb: "Er ist im Eingang gestanden." stehlen steal stahl stole gestohlen stolen steigen climb stieg climbed ist gestiegen climbed sterben die starb died ist gestorben died stieben fly about stob flew about ist gestoben flown about stinken stink stank stank gestunken stunk stoßen push, bump stieß pushed gestoßen pushed streichen strike, paint strich struck gestrichen struck streiten argue stritt argued gestritten argued See the ablaut groups for learning the various patterns (a-u-a, e-a-o, etc.) of German strong verbs. T tragen carry, wear trug wore getragen worn treffen meet traf met getroffen met treiben move, drive trieb drove getrieben* driven *In the sense of "drift" or "float" treiben takes sein as a helping verb: "Das Eis ist den Fluss entlang getrieben." triefen drip triefte/troff dripped getrieft dripped trinken drink trank drank getrunken drunk trügen be deceptive trog was deceptive getrogen been deceptive tun do tat did getan done U überwinden overcome überwand overcame überwunden overcome V verderben spoil verdarb spoiled verdorben spoiled verdrießen annoy verdross annoyed verdrossen annoyed vergessen forget vergaß forgot vergessen forgotten verlieren lose verlor lost verloren lost verschleißen wear (out) verschliss wore (out) verschlissen worn (out) verzeihen forgive verzieh forgave verziehen forgiven W wachsen* grow wuchs grew ist gewachsen grown *In the sense of "to wax" (skis, etc.), wachsen is weak: (wachste and hat gewachst). waschsen wash wusch washed gewaschsen washed weben weave wob/webte wove gewoben/gewebt woven weichen* yield wich yielded ist gewichen yielded *In the sense of "to soften" (up), weichen is weak: (weichte and hat geweicht). weisen indicate wies indicated gewiesen indicated wenden turn wandte* turned gewandt* turned *Also wendete and gewendet (car, hay, etc.). werben recruit warb recruited geworben recruited werden become wurde became ist geworden* become *As a helping verb in the passive voice: worden, as in "Ich bin oft gefragt worden." (I have often been asked.) werfen throw warf threw geworfen thrown wiegen weigh wog/wiegte weighed gewogen/gewiegt weighed winden twist wand twisted gewunden twisted wissen* know wusste knew gewusst known *The verb wissen is a "mixed" verb, combining elements of strong and weak verbs. For more see our Mixed Verbs page. - For the complete conjugation of wissen in all tenses, see wissen in our conjugation tables. wollen want to wollte wanted to gewollt* wanted to *With an infinitive, the past participle is wollen: "Ich habe nicht gehen wollen." wringen wring wrang wrung gewrungen wrung Z zeihen accuse zieh accused geziehen accused ziehen pull zog pulled gezogen pulled zwingen compel zwang compelled gezwungen compelled