  文档下载格式:pdf 上传:2022-6-21 22:16 阅读:7次 页数:285页 大小:1.66 MB|预览German An Essential Grammar - B. C. Donaldson.pdf内容摘要: German
An Essential Grammar
German: An Essential Grammar is a practical reference guide to the
core structures and features of modern German. Presenting a fresh and
accessible description of the language, this engaging grammar uses clear,
jargon-free explanations and sets out the complexities of German in short,
readable sections.
Suitable for either independent study or students in schools, colleges,
universities and adult education classes, key features include:
• focus on the morphology and syntax of the language
• clear explanations of grammatical terms
• full use of authentic examples
• detailed contents list and index for easy access to information.
With an emphasis on the German native speakers use today, German: An
Essential Grammar will help students to read, speak and write the language
with greater confidence.
Bruce Donaldson is Principal Fellow in the Department of German,
Russian and Swedish Studies in the School of Languages and Linguistics
at the University of Melbourne. He has been a prolific author of language
learning and teaching materials, including the following publications:
Mastering German Vocabulary (2004), Colloquial Afrikaans (2000),
Dutch: A Comprehensive Grammar (1997), Colloquial Dutch (1996) and
Colloquial Dutch 2 (2005).
Routledge Essential Grammars
Essential Grammars are available for the following languages:
Chinese
Danish
Dutch
English
Finnish
Modern Greek
Modern Hebrew
Hungarian
Norwegian
Polish
Portuguese
Spanish
Swedish
Thai
Urdu
Other titles of related interest published by Routledge:
Basic German: A Grammar and Workbook
By Heiner Schenke and Karen Seago
Modern German Grammar: A Practical Guide, Second Edition
By William Dodd
German
An Essential Grammar
Bruce Donaldson
First published 2007
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2006.
“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s
collection of thousands of eBooks please go to .”
© 2007 Bruce Donaldson
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means,
now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording,
or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Donaldson, B. C. (Bruce C.), 1948–
German : an essential grammar / by Bruce Donaldson.
p. cm. -- (Routledge essential grammars)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. German language – Grammar. 2. German language – Textbooks for
foreign speakers – English. I. Title. II. Series: Essential grammar.
PF3112. D66 2006
438.2⬘421--dc22
2006012912
ISBN 0-203-01858-3 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN10: 0–415–36603–8 (hbk)
ISBN10: 0–415–36602–X (pbk)
ISBN10: 0–203–01858–3 (ebk)
ISBN13: 978–0–415–36603–8 (hbk)
ISBN13: 978–0–415–36602–1 (pbk)
ISBN13: 978–0–203–01858–3 (ebk)
Contents
Introductionxi
Abbreviations xv
Chapter 1 Pronunciation1
1.1 Vowels 1
1.2 Diphthongs 3
1.3 Consonants 3
1.4 Stress 7
1.5 Regional variants8
Chapter 2 Spelling 9
2.1 Indicating vowel length9
2.2 Use of the Umlaut9
2.3 Use of capital letters10
2.4 Use of the hyphen 10
2.5 The new spelling11
2.6 The alphabet12
Chapter 3 Punctuation 13
3.1 Commas13
3.2 Colons with direct speech 15
3.3 Inverted commas/quotation marks 15
3.4 Exclamation marks 16
Chapter 4 Case17
4.1 Case endings on nouns 18
4.2 Other uses of the nominative case 20
4.3 Other uses of the accusative case 20
4.4 The genitive case 21 v
Contents 4.5 Other uses of the dative case 22
4.6 Nouns in apposition 23
4.7 Order of cases in paradigms 24
Chapter 5 Articles and other determiners25
5.1 The definite article25
5.2 Other determiners inflected like der/die/das29
5.3 The indefinite article30
5.4 Other determiners inflected like ein32
5.5 Indefinite pronouns used as determiners 32
Chapter 6 Nouns 33
6.1 Gender of nouns 33
6.2 Pluralization of nouns37
6.3 Diminutization of nouns 41
6.4 Names of towns42
6.5 Names of countries44
6.6 Feminizing agents 44
6.7 Adjectival nouns45
6.8 Compound nouns47
6.9 Nouns in apposition (see 4.6) 48
Chapter 7 Pronouns49
7.1 Personal pronouns 49
7.2 Possessives 58
7.3 Reflexive pronouns60
7.4 Demonstrative pronouns63
7.5 Interrogative pronouns63
7.6 Relative pronouns 64
7.7 Indefinite pronouns 69
Chapter 8 Adjectives75
8.1 Rules for inflection76
8.1.1 The der/die/das (weak) endings76
8.1.2 The ein/eine/ein (mixed) endings76
8.1.3 The unpreceded adjectival (strong) endings77
8.1.4 Adjectival endings after indefinite pronouns78
8.1.5 Indeclinable adjectives 78
8.2 Comparative of adjectives and adverbs 79
vi 8.3 Superlative of adjectives and adverbs 81
8.4 Predicate adjectives followed by a prepositional object 83
Chapter 9 Adverbs86 Contents
9.1Adverbs that are also adjectives86
9.2Comparative and superlative of adverbs87
9.3Intensifying adverbs87
9.4Adverbs of time 88
9.5Adverbs of place and direction 100
9.6Adverbs of manner and degree 102
9.7Interrogative adverbs102
Chapter 10 Verbs105
10.1 Formation of tenses106
10.1.1 The present tense 106
10.1.2 The future tense111
10.1.3 The imperative113
10.1.4 The imperfect tense 115
10.1.5 The perfect tense 120
10.1.6 The pluperfect tense127
10.1.7 The future perfect tense128
10.1.8 The conditional tense 128
10.1.9 The conditional perfect tense 129
10.2 Modal auxiliary verbs131
10.2.1 Double infinitive constructions 135
10.2.2 Modals used with perfective infinitives 138
10.3 The subjunctive138
10.3.1 The subjunctive I 139
10.3.2 The subjunctive II141
10.4 The passive145
10.5 The infinitive 151
10.5.1 Characteristics of the infinitive 151
10.5.2 Rules for the use of zu with infinitives152
10.5.3 Use of um . . . zu before infinitives 153
10.5.4 Double infinitive constructions (see 10.2.1)154
10.5.5 The infinitive used as a noun 154
10.6 Participles154
10.6.1 Present participles 154
10.6.2 Past participles155
10.6.3 Use of present and past participles in extended
adjectival phrases (see 7.6.4) 155
10.7 Progressive tenses 156
10.8 Reflexive verbs157 vii
Contents10.9Verbal prefixes157
10.9.1 Verbs with separable prefixes (separable verbs) 157
10.9.2 Verbs with inseparable prefixes (inseparable
verbs)159
10.9.3 Verbs with variable prefixes (separable or
inseparable verbs)160
10.10 Verbs followed by prepositional objects161
10.10.1 Use of prepositional adverbs before
subordinate clauses169
10.11 Transitive and intransitive verbs170
10.11.1 Use of sein and lassen with intransitive verbs 171
10.11.2 Intransitive verbs and the passive 172
10.12 List of irregular verbs172
10.12.1 Alphabetical list of irregular verbs 178
Chapter 11 Conjunctions183
11.1 Coordinating conjunctions 184
11.2 Subordinating conjunctions185
11.3 Conjunctions introducing infinitive clauses 192
11.4 Correlative conjunctions193
Chapter 12 Prepositions195
12.1 Prepositions that take the accusative case196
12.2 Prepositions that take the dative case199
12.3 Prepositions that take both the accusative and the
dative case 207
12.4 Prepositions that take the genitive case210
12.5 Contraction of prepositions with the definite article 213
12.6 How to translate ‘to’ into German 214
Chapter 13 Numerals217
13.1 Cardinal numerals 217
13.2 Ordinal numerals219
13.3 Fractions 221
13.4 Arithmetic/calculation222
13.5 Age 222
13.6 Money 223
13.7 Telling the time223
13.8 Dates 225
13.9 Weights 226
viii
13.10 Measurement227 Contents
13.11 School marks/grades228
Chapter 14 Negation230
14.1 Position of nicht (not) and nie(mals) (never) 230
14.2 Notes on negatives232
Chapter 15 Common German abbreviations 237
Appendix 1: List of countries, inhabitants and
adjectives/languages238
Index252
ix
Introduction
There are numerous German grammars on the market, so why this one?
This book has been written specifically with the needs of the intermediate
learner at secondary or particularly tertiary level in mind. It is intended
to be used as a reference grammar, which does not mean that it is utterly
comprehensive, but it does cover everything that might be called ‘essential’
knowledge for someone who has reached the intermediate level.
So what constitutes the intermediate level? That depends of course, but it
would certainly apply to anyone who has completed an elementary course
in German at a university, i.e. people who are in their second or third year
of tertiary German, having started it at university without having done it at
school. Students at advanced secondary level, however, would also qualify
as intermediate and will thus find this book pitched at their needs, as will
those teaching themselves who are progressing beyond what one might call
beginners’ level. Once you have mastered the contents of this book, you
will have reached a point in your learning of German where you are able
to express yourself at quite a sophisticated level. Needless to say, you will
also need to be concentrating on building up your vocabulary – grammar
is useless on its own.
Other than being a book pitched squarely at the needs of the intermediate
learner, what does this book offer its readers that other similar books may
not? It has been written by someone with nearly forty years of experience
in teaching German and Dutch at tertiary level, specializing in teaching
students in their second year of German at university. The author is all
too well aware of the shortcomings of the many textbooks available for
the learning of German – take for example the way in which nearly all
such books tackle German plurals. They nearly all fail to help the learner
see through to the underlying system and thus fail to illustrate that plural
formation is not nearly as arbitrary as it often appears to be to the newcomer
to the language. How many books, for example, in their first introductionxi
Introduction to plural formation, mention that Mann has a plural in Männer, but fail
to mention that there are only about ten masculine nouns in the entire
language that have a plural in ¨er, which is otherwise an ending limited
to neuter nouns? How many grammars tell you, to take another example,
that possibly no more than 10 per cent of German nouns are neuter? So, if
forced to guess a gender, it would be safer to assume the noun is masculine
or feminine before assuming it is neuter. These two examples are typical of
many of the underlying truths about German grammar that one discovers
only through learning and teaching the language. These are also things
which seldom strike the native speaker and why, at certain levels of learning
a language, one may be better off with non-native teachers – they have
been through the mill, as it were, which natives by definition have not. This
book contains numerous such insights into German, acquired over many
years of involvement with the language, both as a student and as a teacher.
The author has applied his insights and long experience in explaining the
intricacies of German to English-speaking people in as simple a fashion as
the often complex material permits. German is certainly not simple – but
then no language is – but it can be explained in a simpler, more palatable
fashion than many books do.
Learning German is a challenge, but the rewards are great. No language
other than English is of more use to you when travelling around
Europe. Not only are there many more Germans (82 million) than
there are French, Italians or Spaniards, for example, but the countries
of Austria, Switzerland and Luxembourg further swell those numbers
by several million native-speakers, not to mention the German-speaking
minorities living in Russia, Romania, Hungary, Italy, Belgium and
Denmark. All in all, the number of native-speakers of German living
in Europe is nigh on 100 million. But go travelling through eastern
Europe and you will be amazed at how well Poles, Hungarians and
even Latvians, for example, can speak German too; their German is
often much better than their English. Germany is an economic power
of enormous importance and lies both physically and philosophically
at the heart of the European Union. If you are interested in Europe and
seek to broaden your linguistic and cultural horizons, you need look no
further than German.
Other books you might refer to may use different names for several of the
grammatical concepts dealt with in this book. Particularly in the American
and British English-speaking worlds different terminology is often used
for various concepts. For this reason, where alternative terminology exists
xii for a given concept, it is briefly discussed before proceeding with the issue
under consideration and all grammatical concepts can be accessed under all Introduction
alternative names via the index.
There is an old German maxim: ohne Vergleich kein Verständnis (without
comparison, there is no understanding). The approach to German grammar
adopted in this book is strongly contrastive with English. English and
German are after all, as languages go, very closely related and have a great
deal in common. Look, for example, at the past tenses of irregular verbs
(trinken/trank/getrunken) and the forms and functions of modal verbs
(kann/muss/will). These are grammatical complexities that clearly stem
from a common source, namely the Anglo-Saxon invasion of Britain in the
fifth century ad. And then there is all that common vocabulary dating from
the same time, e.g. Mutter, Vater, Sohn, Tochter, Hund, Katze, Schwein etc.
All that the two languages have in common is a godsend to the learner,
but then there is so much that the two do not (or no longer, as is often the
case) have in common and this is where taking a contrastive approach can
be invaluable. However, in order to do so, you need to be aware of exactly
what the grammatical situation is in English with regard to a given issue.
There are issues of which a native-speaker is often unaware. This is all the
more so these days, when English at school level throughout the English-
speaking world seldom includes analysis of formal grammar the way it
used to. Generally speaking, this now means that the only people who
leave school or university with any formal knowledge of English grammar
are those who have learnt a foreign language and have therefore had to
comprehend the intricacies of English grammar in order to access those of
the foreign language being learnt. This is an added bonus in the learning
of a language like German. English and German are oh so similar and oh
so different. Unlocking the door to those similarities and differences is
something this grammar sets out to do.
This book is intended as a reference grammar of ‘essential’ German and, as
such, does not set out to be comprehensive, as previously mentioned. All
the important concepts of German grammar are dealt with in considerable
detail, with only minor exceptions and subtleties of grammar being left
uncovered. The advanced learner who has mastered the contents of this
book and who wishes to progress to a fully comprehensive reference
grammar of German is advised to consider M. Durrell’s Hammer’s German
Grammar and Usage (Arnold, London, 4th edition 2002).
German: An Essential Grammar only addresses grammatical issues, but
many of the intricacies of mastering German are more lexical than
grammatical in nature. The reader is referred to another work by the xiii
Introduction author of the current book in which such lexical problems are addressed,
namely B. Donaldson’s Mastering German Vocabulary – A Practical Guide
to Troublesome Words (Routledge, London/New York, 2004).
If you’ve been looking for a challenge, you need look no further. You’ve
found it. Learning German is intellectually very rewarding and terrific fun.
It is like unravelling a complicated puzzle, one with an underlying code
that needs to be cracked. Penetrating the thoroughly logical system that
underlies the intricate weave of grammatical inflection that is the result of
gender and case, combined with a myriad of word order rules that are at
odds with what prevails in English, constitutes the challenge. Mastering
this system is a form of mental gymnastics beyond compare and constitutes
a feat that will give tremendous intellectual satisfaction as well as enabling
you to converse with 100 million Europeans in their own idiom rather than
lazily expecting them, as the overwhelming number of English speakers do,
to converse with you in your mother tongue. And it is an effort that you
will find is greatly appreciated and admired by German speakers.
About the author
Bruce Donaldson was born in Perth, Western Australia, in 1948. He did
honours in German at the University of Western Australia, his MA in
Old Germanic Languages at the State University of Utrecht and his PhD
on Afrikaans at the University of the Orange Free State in Bloemfontein,
South Africa. In 1973 he was appointed as lecturer in charge of Dutch
and Germanic historical linguistics in the then Department of Germanic
Studies at the University of Melbourne, from where he retired as associate
professor and reader in 2004. For the last twelve years of his career, after
the abolition of Dutch in 1992, he lectured in German, specializing in the
intermediate level. He is currently a principal research fellow in his former
department. He has written numerous monographs on Dutch, Afrikaans
and German language issues, most of which have been published by
Routledge. The author is interested in receiving constructive criticism for
the improvement of any future editions of this work and can be emailed at
bcr@unimelb.edu.au.
xiv
Abbreviations
⬎ produces, gives rise to
⬍ is derived from
acc.accusative
dat.dative
f.feminine
gen.genitive
lit.literally; literary
m.masculine
n.neuter
nom.nominative
pl. plural
pron. pronounced
sing. singular
s.o.someone
s.t.something
xv
Chapter 1
Pronunciation
German does not contain many sounds that are difficult for English
speakers to pronounce; ch, r and ü will probably prove the hardest to
conquer, but even these are soon mastered with practice.
The only reliable way of committing sounds to paper is via the International
Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), but only those studying linguistics as an academic
discipline are likely to have the IPA at their disposal and for this reason it is
not referred to here. This means, however, that phrasing such as ‘compare
the vowel in tray’ and ‘compare the vowel in lot’ has its limitations. Those
English words may well vary in the way they are pronounced depending on
where in the English-speaking world you live. Every care has been taken to
make comparisons which are valid regardless of whether you speak British
or American English, although the author is a speaker of the former, but
then the Australian variant thereof. For this and numerous other reasons
there is, of course, no substitute for getting assistance from a native speaker,
keeping in mind, however, that German is spoken over a very large area by
European standards and thus shows considerable regional variation in the
way it is pronounced. Some attempt to cover the prime regional differences
in pronunciation is made in 1.5. What should help in describing the sounds
of German without being able to resort to the IPA is the fact that this book
has, after all, been written for the intermediate level and so this chapter is
seldom going to have to serve the needs of the raw beginner. It is assumed
the vast majority of readers will already have some idea of how German
is pronounced.
1.1 Vowels
Most vowels in German have both a short and a long variant. Clearly
distinguishing between the two is very important. In German spelling two
1
1 consonants after a vowel will normally indicate it is short (e.g. Kamm
Pronunciation ‘comb’), whereas only one consonant indicates it is long (e.g. kam ‘came’)
(see 2.1).
a a is pronounced short in words like Hand, Mann and statt
– compare the vowel in ‘but’.
a is pronounced long in words like kam, Vater and zahlen
– compare the vowel in ‘father’.
ä ä is pronounced short in words like lässt, kälter and Männer
– compare the vowel in ‘bed’. It is identical to German short e.
ä is pronounced long in words like gäbe, Hähne and Väter
– compare the vowel in ‘hair’.
e e is pronounced short in words like Bett, Henne and Sekt
– compare the vowel in ‘bed’. It is identical to German short ä.
e is pronounced even shorter in words like Beruf, Tante and
zahlen where it is unstressed – compare the vowel in the first
syllable of ‘believe’ or the last syllable of ‘wooden’. In all words
ending in e like Schule and Kassette the e must be pronounced
and not merely dropped as in ‘cassette’. It is similar to the second
syllable in ‘rubber’ as it is pronounced in British English.
e is pronounced long in words like lesen, Planet and Tee
– compare the vowel in ‘tray’, but keep it pure, i.e. do not
diphthongize it at all.
i i is pronounced short in words like bitter, ich and Pilz
– compare the vowel in ‘pit’. In very few words such as Liga and
wider i is pronounced long – compare the vowel in ‘read’.
ieie is always pronounced long, e.g. liegen, lieh and sie – compare
the vowel in ‘fee’.
o o is pronounced short in words like Loch, Schloss and Stollen
– compare the vowel in ‘lot’.
o is pronounced long in words like Floh, rot and Ton – compare
the vowel in ‘post’, but keep it pure, i.e. do not diphthongize it at
all.
ö ö is pronounced short in words like Löcher, Töchter and zwölf
– compare the vowel in ‘bird’, but keep it short.
ö is pronounced long in words like Flöte, Löhne and schön
– compare the vowel in ‘bird’ but with the lips as rounded as you
2can make them.
u u is pronounced short in words like Butt, Truppe and Zunge Consonants
– compare the vowel in ‘put’.
u is pronounced long in words like Buch, Fuß and gut –
compare the vowel in ‘food’ but with less lip rounding. Make sure
you clearly distinguish between this sound and long ü. This sound
is commonly pronounced too short by English speakers.
ü ü is pronounced short in words like fünf, Flüsse and Pfütze
– compare the vowel in ‘too’ but make it shorter and with the
lips as rounded and tightened as you can make them, as if trying
to whistle.
ü is pronounced long in words like fühlen, Füße and trübe
– compare the vowel in ‘food’ but make it longer and with more
lip rounding and tightening, as if trying to whistle.
1.2Diphthongs
German has only three diphthong sounds, i.e. ei, au and eu. English has
quite a few more.
eiei in words like Blei, Stein and Verleih is identical to the vowel
in ‘fight’.
aiai in words like Hain, Laib and Mai is identical in pronunciation
to ei and occurs in very few words.
auau in words like aus, Auto and Traum is very similar to the
vowel in ‘house’.
eueu in words like euch, Feuer and heute is identical to the
vowel in ‘boy’.
äuäu in words like enttäuschen, Kräuter and Schläuche is
identical to eu.
1.3Consonants
There are few problems lurking here for English speakers.
b b in words like Bein, Krabbe and loben is identical to that in
‘bed’. At the end of a word as in ab, Lob and ob a b is always
devoiced, i.e. it is pronounced as a ‘p’.
c c in words like Cicero and Mercedes (both foreign words) is
pronounced like a German z, i.e. as ‘ts’.3
1 ch ch in words like Bach, Loch, Buch and rauchen (i.e. after a, o,
Pronunciationu and au) is pronounced as in Scottish ‘loch’. The Germans call
this the ach-Laut, a hard sound.
ch in words like Blech, ich, lächeln, Schläuche, Löcher,
Bücher, welche, manche and durch (i.e. after e, i, ä, äu, ö, ü
as well as the consonants l, n and r) is a softer sound than when
it follows a, o, u and au, i.e. it is pronounced with the tongue
curved, hugging both the soft and hard palates. The Germans call
this the ich-Laut, a soft sound. It must be clearly distinguished
from the more guttural ach-Laut. The two ch sounds can
alternate within variations of the same word when it is inflected,
e.g. Buch (with the ach sound) and Bücher (with the ich
sound).
The combination chs is pronounced like English ‘x’, e.g. sechs,
Dachs, Fuchs. Compare sechs (6) with sechzehn (16) and
sechzig (60) where ch is pronunced as in Blech above.
The diminutive ending -chen is also pronounced with this soft
variant of ch.
ch at the beginning of loanwords is pronounced like 1) English
‘k’, 2) English ‘sh’ or 3) soft German ch, depending on the
source language, e.g. 1) Chaos, Chlor, Charakter; 2) Chance,
chauvinistisch, Chef; 3) Chemie, China.
ck ck, found in the middle and at the end of words, is pronounced
‘k’, e.g. lecker, Fleck.
dd in words like denken and Feder is pronounced as in
English.
At the end of a word as in Glied, Gold and Hand a d is always
devoiced, i.e. it is pronounced as a ‘t’.
ff in words like Frosch, Pfeffer and Schiff is pronounced as in
English.
gg at the beginning or in the middle of words, as in Gang, gießen
and fliegen, is pronounced as in English.
At the end of a word as in Tag, Teig and Zug a g is always
devoiced, i.e. it is pronounced as a ‘k’. However, the ending -ig is
pronounced like German ich, e.g. König and lustig (see 1.5).
hh at the beginning of a words, as in Haus, Horn and Hut, is
pronounced as in English. After a vowel it is not pronounced
4 but simply serves to show that the vowel is long, e.g. Floh,
sehen, Schuhe (see 2.1). Sometimes this h is superfluous Consonants
to pronunciation but spelling requires it, e.g. sieh and sie are
pronounced the same, as are liehst (⬍ leihen ‘to lend’) and liest
(⬍ lesen ‘to read’).
jj is pronounced ‘y’, e.g. Jahr, jeder, Joch.
j in French loanwords is pronounced like the ‘s’ in ‘leisure’, e.g.
Journalist.
kk is pronounced as in English, e.g. Katze, Klasse, kommen.
ll in all positions is pronounced as in ‘light’ never as in ‘well’, i.e. it
is never a ‘thick l’, e.g. Lohn, Licht, wählen, wohl.
mm is pronounced as in English, e.g. Mann, Lämmer, Lehm.
nn is pronounced as in English, e.g. nein, Tonne, zehn.
ng ng is always pronounced as in ‘singer’, never as in ‘finger’, e.g.
Finger, lang, Sänger, Zeitung.
pp is pronounced as in English, e.g. Penner, Lippe, kaputt. At
the beginning of a word, where it is rare, it is lightly aspirated, as
in English.
pf pf is pronounced as the spelling suggests, i.e. both the p and the f
are articulated, but this can be hard for English speakers at
the beginning of a word, e.g. Pfeffer, Tropfen, Kopf (see pf
under 1.5).
ph ph is still used in some loanwords and is pronounced as an ‘f’, e.g.
Photograph, Philosophie.
qq always occurs in combination with u, as in English, and
together they are pronounced ‘kv’, e.g. Qualität, Quelle,
Quadratmeter.
rIn most of the German-speaking region r before a vowel is
pronounced by slightly trilling the uvula in the back of your
throat, but there are areas where, and individuals who, pronounce
it by trilling their tongue against their alveolar ridge, i.e. the ridge
of gum behind the top teeth, as in Italian. Either way r must be
trilled, which usually means most English speakers have trouble
with this sound, e.g. Reh, reißen, Brot, schreiben.
After a vowel an r is vocalized, i.e. it is pronounced as a vowel,
e.g. in er, mir and Uhr you pronounce the vowel as you 5
1would expect it to be pronounced and follow it by ‘uh’, as in
Pronunciationthe colloquial question form ‘huh?,’ i.e. air-uh, mee-uh, oo-uh.
The common ending -er is simply pronounced ‘uh’; alternatively
you could say it resembles the second syllable in ‘teacher’, but
imagine this being spelt ‘teacha’, e.g. Schuster (shoos-tuh). The
ending -ern is pronounced ‘airn’, not trilling the r, e.g. wandern
(vundairn).
Note how -er and -e differ in pronunciation at the end of words:
Mütter/Feuer (with ‘uh’), but Hütte/Treue (with the vowel in
the second syllable in British English ‘rubber’; in American English
this final ‘r’ is pronounced, but not in British English).
ss at the beginning and in the middle of a word is pronounced ‘z’,
e.g. sollen, lesen, Gänse. S at the end of a word is pronounced
‘s’, e.g. es, Gans, Glas. The spelling ss is always pronounced ‘s’
too, e.g. Flüsse, Guss, schoss.
ßß, which only occurs in the middle and at the end of words, is
always pronounced ‘s’, e.g. bloß, reißen, schießen. ß indicates
that any vowel preceding it is long (see 2.5).
sch sch is pronounced ‘sh’, e.g. Schule, fischen, Tisch.
sp sp at the beginning of a word is pronounced ‘shp’, e.g. spät,
Spaten, Spatz. This is also the case in compounds and derived
words where the sp is still seen as being at the ‘beginning’ of the
word, e.g. Aussprache, verspätet (⬍ spät).
In the middle of a word, however, sp is pronounced ‘sp’, e.g.
lispeln, Wespe.
st There are parallels here with the way sp is pronounced. At the
beginning of a word it is pronounced ‘sht’, e.g. Stadt, stehen,
stoßen. This is also the case in compounds and derived words
where the st is still seen as being at the ‘beginning’ of the word,
e.g. Ausstoß, Großstadt, verstehen (⬍ stehen).
In the middle and at the end of a word, however, st is
pronounced ‘st’, e.g. Gast, gestern, bist.
tt is pronounced as in English, e.g. Tag, rot, bitte. At the
beginning of a word it is aspirated, as in English.
In French loanwords ending in -tion, t is pronounced ‘ts’, e.g.
Nation, national.
6tsch tsch is pronounced like ‘tch’ in ‘butcher’, e.g. Deutsch,
Dolmetscher, Quatsch. It only occurs at the beginning in Stress
foreign words, e.g. Tschechien, tschüs.
v v is pronounced ‘f’ in true German words, e.g. Vater, von, Volk.
At the beginning of loanwords v is pronounced as in English, e.g.
Vase, Veteran, Video, Violine.
v occurs at the end of some loanwords, in which case it is
pronounced ‘f’ (i.e. it is devoiced), but when v is no longer in final
position, it is pronounced ‘v’, e.g. aktiv, passiv, but aktive.
w w is pronounced ‘v’, e.g. Wasser, wir, Wurm.
x x, which is rare in German, is always pronounced ‘ks’, e.g. nix,
Xylophon.
y y is pronounced the same as long ü, e.g. typisch, Zylinder,
zynisch.
z z is pronounced ‘ts’, e.g. Polizei, zählen, zittern. Sometimes
it occurs together with t but the pronunciation is still ‘ts’, e.g.
Glotze, Platz, Spritze.
1.4 Stress
As a general rule the first syllable of a German word bears the stress, e.g.
ankommen, Bruder, Rathaus, Wörterbuch.
The verbal prefixes be-, emp-, ent-, er-, ge-, ver- and zer-, which are also
found in nouns derived from verbs, are never stressed (compare the stress in
‘believe’, ‘release’, ‘forgive’ in English), e.g. Bezug, empfehlen, entkommen,
erreichen, gestehen, Verkauf, zerbrechen. Some additional verbal prefixes
are not stressed, e.g. durchsuchen, vollenden, widersprechen, while others
are, e.g. anrufen, ausgehen, wiedersehen (see separable and inseparable
verbs 10.9.1 to 10.9.3).
Many foreign loanwords, usually of French origin, stress the final syllable
as in the source language, e.g. Agent, Akzent, Bäckerei, kaputt, Partei,
Pelikan, Philosoph, Planet, Satellit, Student. Loanwords ending in e stress
the second last syllable, e.g. Forelle, Garage, Kassette, Kusine.
Verbs ending in -ieren, mostly derived from French, are also stressed on the
second last syllable, e.g. buchstabieren, renovieren, studieren.
7
11.5 Regional variants
Pronunciation
As German is spoken over a very wide area and in several countries, there
is great variety in regional pronunciation. Some of these variations are
considered standard, not dialect; only these variants are dealt with here.
In the north of Germany long ä is pronounced ‘eh’, i.e. the same as German
long e, and thus the distinction between gäbe/gebe and nähme/nehme, for
example, is not made.
In the north of Germany many long vowels in closed syllables (i.e. those
ending in a consonant) are pronounced short, e.g. Glas, Tag, Zug.
In the north of Germany final g is pronounced like German ch (both ich-
and ach-Laut, depending on the preceding sound), e.g. Tag, Teig, Weg, zog,
Zug.
In verbs before the endings -t and -te/-ten etc. g is also pronounced in this
way, e.g. liegt, gesagt, legte, sagte; in standard German the g in these words
is automatically pronounced ‘k’ due to the influence of the following t.
In the north the ending -ung is often pronounced ‘oonk’, e.g. Zeitung,
Rechnung.
Over large areas of northern and central Germany pf at the beginning of
a word is likely to be pronounced ‘f’, e.g. Pfeffer, Pfund. If you are having
trouble pronouncing pf in such words, simply say Feffer and Fund and no
one will even notice you are not saying pf.
In southern Germany and Austria, sp and st are pronounced ‘shp’ and ‘sht’
in all positions, not just initially, e.g. bist, Australien, Wespe.
The reverse can occur in the far north of Germany where sp and st might
be pronounced ‘sp’ and ‘st’ in all positions, e.g. Stadt, spät.
In the south of Germany and in Austria k, p and t are commonly
pronounced in a way that makes them barely distinguishable from g, b and
d respectively, e.g. kaufen ⬎ gaufen, Parade ⬎ Barade, trinken ⬎ drinken.
8
Chapter 2
Spelling
Generally speaking, German is written as it is pronounced, each spelling
having only one possible pronunciation and each pronunciation being
written in only one way. There are very few exceptions to this, and they
are dealt with here.
2.1 Indicating vowel length
Vowel length is inconsistently represented in German spelling – compare
the following where all words contain the same long a, e, o or u sound
respectively: Saal, Stahl, Tal; Tee, Mehl, beten; Boot, Lohn, bot; Fuß, Schuh.
h is commonly used after a vowel to indicate that the vowel is long,
although this indication is usually superfluous, e.g. mahlen (to grind) and
malen (to paint), sieh (look) and sie (she/they). This is called in German a
Dehnungs-h (⬍ dehnen ‘to lengthen, stretch’).
In a minority of words a, e and o are doubled to show they are long, e.g.
Saal, Beet, Boot. Otherwise a single consonant following a, e and o usually
indicates that those vowels are long, e.g. Tag, Gen, Kot, Vater, beten, boten.
Conversely, a short vowel is usually followed by two or more consonants,
which may be the same or different, e.g. Männer, Pommern, sprechen,
fanden, Stadt, Wespe.
2.2 Use of the Umlaut
German only uses one diacritic, the Umlaut. It appears in printed matter
as two dots over the vowel, but in handwriting is best written as two short
strokes, not dots. Umlauts are only possible on the vowels a, o, u and the
diphthong au, which are all vowel sounds pronounced in the back of the 9
2 mouth. For historical reasons, in derived forms of words containing a, o,
Spelling u or au, the vowel is brought further forward and/or higher in the mouth
and this is reflected in the spelling by umlauting these vowels. This is best
illustrated by comparing the singular with the plural of certain nouns, e.g.
Bach ⬎ Bäche, Loch ⬎ Löcher, Buch ⬎ Bücher, Bauch ⬎ Bäuche (compare
‘goose ⬎ geese’). In the examples given, the change in vowel also causes a
change in pronunciation of the ch from the hard to the soft variant.
2.3 Use of capital letters
All nouns are capitalized, e.g. Bruder, Mutter, Sofa.
Adjectives of nationality are not capitalized, but nouns are, e.g. eine
deutsche Frau (a German woman), Sie ist Deutsche (She is a German).
‘To write with a capital/small letter’ is expressed by the verbs groß- and
kleinschreiben, e.g.
Er kann Deutsch; hier wird ‘Deutsch’ großgeschrieben.
He speaks German; here ‘Deutsch’ is written with a capital letter.
Beethoven ist ein bekannter deutscher Komponist; hier wird
‘deutsch’ kleingeschrieben.
Beethoven is a well-known German composer; here ‘deutsch’ is written
with a small letter.
Because, for historical reasons, modern German uses the word for ‘they’ as
the polite form of address, to distinguish between ‘they/them/to them/their’
and ‘you/to you/your’ the latter are all written with a capital letter, i.e.
Sie/Ihnen/Ihr.
2.4 Use of the hyphen
Compounds are seldom hyphenated as in English, where we often vacillate
between using a hyphen in a given compound, writing it as two words
or writing it as one word, e.g. Wohnzimmer (lounge-room, lounge room,
loungeroom), Küchentür (kitchen door), spottbillig (dirt cheap). There
is no limit to how long such compounds can be in German, e.g.
Gerichtsberichterstatter (legal correspondent, lit. court report compiler).
When a hyphen is used, as in an Sonn- und Feiertagen (on Sundays and
10holidays) and auf- und zumachen (to open and shut), it is understood that
this stands for an Sonntagen und Feiertagen and aufmachen und zumachenThe new
and saves repeating the second part of the compound.spelling
2.5 The new spelling
German reformed its spelling (Rechtschreibung) in 1998 for the first time
in almost a hundred years. The reform, called die Rechtschreibreform, has
aroused a great deal of controversy. Although all government agencies,
schools and publishers adhere to the new recommendations, many
individuals refuse to do so, and of course anything published prior to 1998
is in the old spelling. The differences are, however, minimal.
By far the most important change to the spelling in 1998 was in the use
of ß, called either scharfes s or ess tset (i.e. German for ‘sz’, as the symbol
is derived from a long s and a z in old German printing and handwriting).
Under the new rules ß is only used after long vowels and diphthongs, e.g.
schießen, Spaß, stoßen, draußen, fleißig, scheußlich. Thus the spellings
Schoß and schoss, Fuß and Fluss indicate to the reader that there is a
difference in vowel length. Sometimes ß and ss alternate within a word
family, indicating the length of the vowel, e.g. schießen (to shoot), schoss
(shot).
Under the old spelling ß was used after long vowels, as now, but also at the
end of words, regardless of the length of the preceding vowel, and before
the verbal endings -t and -te/-ten, e.g. schoß, Fluß, paßt, mußte are now all
schoss, Fluss, passt, musste.
The only other important spelling change relates to the use of capital letters
where a certain inconsistency had evolved. It was decided that any word
that can possibly be perceived as a noun should be capitalized, something
which had previously been somewhat inconsistent, e.g. auf deutsch ⬎ auf
Deutsch, heute abend ⬎ heute Abend.
The other changes are so trivial as not to warrant mention here, but if at
times you see inconsistencies in spelling (e.g. wieviel/wie viel ‘how much’,
radfahren/Rad fahren ‘to cycle’), the chances are you are witnessing the
differences between the old and the new spelling. Just take note whether
your dictionary, any other textbook you are consulting or book you are
reading was printed pre or post-1998. This book does of course observe
the new spelling.
11
22.6 The alphabet
Spelling
The com 第1页 / 共285页 第2页 / 共285页 第3页 / 共285页 ©版权说明： 本文档由用户提供并上传，收益归属内容提供方，若内容存在侵权，请进行举报或认领！ |
发表于 2022-6-21 22:16:20
