L E S S O N   T H R E E

 

GRAMMAR 3

 

3)      PRESENT TENSE OF HABEN (HAVE) - REGULAR VERBS

a)      Present Tense of haben. (Principal parts:  haben - hatte - gehabt) 

ich habe	wir haben
du hast	ihr habt
er hat	sie haben

 

Haben has mostly the verb-stem ‘hab-‘, but the ‘b’ is not present in all forms.  Haben is therefore considered irregular.

b)      The verb-stem.  For the vast majority of verbs, regular or not, the infinitive ends in ‑en.  The verb stem is formed by dropping the ‑en.  Examples:

infinitive	verb-stem
spielen	spiel-
lernen	lern-
arbeiten	arbeit-
studieren	studier-

 

c)      Regular (or weak) verbs.

i)        Principal Parts.
Listed below are the principal parts of some regular verbs.

spielen	spielte	gespielt
lernen	lernte	gelernt
arbeiten	arbeitete	gearbeitet
studieren	studierte	studiert

 

If you observe the stem vowel (or diphthong) of these principal parts, you will see that it does not change among the three forms.  Also, the past form and past participle can be predicted by formulating rules.

(1)   Formation of simple past form --  verb-stem + te

(2)   Formation of past participle --  ge + verb-stem + t
Exception  -- for  -ieren verbs  -- verb-stem + t
If the stem ends in a dental (-d or -t) or -n (like regnen), an -e- is inserted.

Examples of the Principle Parts, and Present Tense of regular verbs:

kaufen - kaufte - gekauft	arbeiten - arbeitete - gearbeitet
ich kaufe	ich arbeite
du kaufst	du arbeitest
er kauft	er arbeitet
wir kaufen	wir arbeiten
ihr kauft	ihr arbeitet
sie kaufen	sie arbeiten

 

ii)       The Present Tense endings are therefore:

singular			plural
ich	-e		wir	-en
du	-st		ihr	-t
er	-t		sie	-en

 

As mentioned above, if the stem ends in a dental, or certain consonants together with -n , an ‑e- is inserted.

VOCABULARY 3

 

der Bleistift (die Bleistifte) -  pencil	wer  who
das Buch (die Bücher) -  book	was  what
das Heft (die Hefte) -  notebook	etwas  something
der Kuli (die Kulis) -  ball-point pen	nichts  nothing
die Schule (die Schulen) -  school;	gelegentlich occasionally
in der Schule - at school, in school	gewöhnlich  usually
die Schultasche (die Schultaschen)  -	immer  always
school-bag	oft  often
Deutsch (neut.) German (lang.)	Friedrich (Fritz) Wandler

 

            arbeiten (arbeitete, gearbeitet)  work

            haben (hatte, gehabt)  have

            lehren (lehrte, gelehrt)  teach

            lernen (lernte, gelernt)  learn, study

            machen (machte, gemacht)  do, make

            spielen (spielte, gespielt)  play

            studieren (studierte, studiert)  study (at a university)

 

            die Schularbeiten machen  -  do homework (literally, “do the homeworks”), study

            (see also German Educational Terms in the Supplemental Material section)

 

 

PRACTICE 3

 

Wo ist Harry? --  Er ist gelegentlich in der Schule.  -- Ist Herr Moser in der Schule? --  Nein, er ist zu Hause.  -- Sind Frau Moser und die junge Frau Moser in der Schule?  -- Nein, sie sind immer zu Hause.

 

Wer ist jetzt in der Schule? --  Harry, der Lehrer und die Schüler sind jetzt in der Schule. Der Lehrer ist gewöhnlich da. Die Kinder sind oft da. Friedrich ist gelegentlich nicht da.

 

Wo sind die Eltern? --  Sie sind heute zu Hause.  Gewöhnlich arbeiten sie zu Hause.  Sie machen Schularbeiten nicht oft.  Wir lernen zu Hause und in der Schule.  Wir arbeiten immer.  Wir lernen etwas, nicht wahr?

 

Wolfgang, was hast du da? --  Ich habe Bücher und Bleistifte.  Ich lerne Deutsch.  Die Aufgaben sind sehr interessant.  -- Arbeitet der Lehrer auch? --  Ja, er arbeitet immer in der Schule.  Er lehrt Deutsch in der Schule.  Er lernt Deutsch zu Hause.  Gelegentlich spielt er zu Hause.

 

Was hat der Lehrer? --  Er hat Bücher und Kinder zu Hause und Bleistifte, Kulis, Hefte und Schüler in der Schule.  -- Warum lernt Fritz Wandler nichts? --  Er ist sehr jung und spielt immer.  Er hat Bücher, Hefte und Schultaschen, aber er macht die Schularbeiten nicht. --  Warum arbeitet er nicht?  Warum ist er jetzt zu Hause?  Warum ist er nicht hier?

 

Translate into German:

1. Who is the teacher? 2. What does he teach?  3. Are the pupils in school now?  4. What are they studying?  5. We often study at home.  6. Wolfgang, where is the school?  7. The school is getting large, isn’t it?  8. The pupils are young.  9. A child is usually at home.  10. Miss Wandler, have you the books and notebooks at school?  11. She is always studying German.  12. We have ball-point pens and pencils.  13. Here is a ball-point pen.  14. Here is a pencil, too.  15. We have school-bags.  16. Here is a school-bag.  17. We learn something, but they learn nothing.  18. Are the pupils old or young?  19. The weather is getting cold, isn’t it?  20. What is a school?  21. Why isn’t Friedrich here ?  22. Where are the children?

 

SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL

German Educational Terms

 

Terms in German draw a sharp line between pre-college and college levels:

 

	elementary, secondary school	college, university, institute
the attendee	der Schüler; die Schülerin	der Student; die Studentin
to attend	besuchen; zur Schule gehen	studieren; auf die Üniversität gehen

 

The English verb ‘study’ requires a number of German interpretations:

• study -- to  be occupied with one’s homework:  die Schularbeiten machen
• study -- to  be occupied in school (as an activity):  lernen
• study -- to  prepare for a test or exam:  üben (practice)
• study -- to attend a college-level institution; to be a college student:  studieren
• study -- to  occupy oneself with something with unusual intensity:  studieren
• study -- to  learn a subject on one’s own:  ein Selbststudium machen

 

Quotation

Habe nun, ach! Philosophie,

Juristerei und Medizin

Und leider auch Theologie

Durchaus studiert mit heißem Bemühn.

Da steh’ ich nun, ich armer Tor!

Und bin so klug als wie zuvor; . . .

Wolfgang von Goethe

Surprise! Philosophy,

legalistics and medicine

and unfortunately even theology,

thoroughly studied with ardent fervor.

There stand I now -- poor fool, I --

And am no smarter than before; …

 

German Pronunciation 3

 

ENGLISH APPROXIMATIONS FOR VOCABULARY 3

 

BLEI-shtift, (see “Digraphs”below for Buch), heft, coolie, SHOO-leh, SHOOL-tah-sheh, doich, vayuh (say it as a single syllable), vahss, ETT-vahss, (n + German ich + ts), geh-LAY-gent-(l + German ich), geh-VÖÖN-(l + German ich), IMM-uh, awft, FREED-(r + German ich), frits, VAHN-dluh, AHR-beye-ten, HAh-ben, LAY-ren, LERN-en, SHPEE-len, shtoo-DEE-ren

 

CONSONANT SOUNDS

 

Help with pronunciation.

• Consonants.
• These are not, or only slightly, affected by position.  The ones left uncommented are pronounced as in English.
• ‘f’, when seen as ‘pf’, both letters are pronounced
• ‘j’, sounds like English ‘y’
• ‘k’, when seen as ‘kn’, both letters are pronounced
• ‘l’
• ‘m’,
• ‘n’, if combined as ‘ng’, sounds as in English ‘singer’
• ‘p’, pronounced along with other consonants in combos like ‘pf’, ‘pn’, ‘ps’, however, the digraph ‘ph’ is pronounced as ‘f’.
• ‘q’, always occurs in the combination ‘qu’; sounds like English ‘kv’. Example:  bequem  (say ‘beh-KVAYM’)
• ‘r’, (see Lesson 1 and “Unstressed ’e’ ” in Lesson 2)
• ‘ss’.  Never in initial position, the ‘ss’ and ‘ß’ are both considered a double-s, and have the same s-sound as in the English letter ‘S’
  The ‘ss’ is used to follow short vowels, and the ‘ß’ is used to follow long vowels.  Examples:  das Wasser,  groß
• ‘t’
• ‘v’, in native German words, like english ‘f’. Examples:  vor, say ‘for’ (in front of,  before);  Hannover, pronounced ‘hah-NOH-fuh’.
  In forign borrowings German ‘v’ is often like English ‘v’, see Klavier below;  die Vase, say ‘VAH-zeh’ (vase);  but in final position it will devoice to ‘f’. Example:  das Motiv, say ‘moh-TEEF’ (motive)
• ‘w’, always like English ‘v’
• ‘x’
• ‘z’, always like English ‘ts’.  When two consonants are needed, to mark a preceding short vowel, ‘tz’, also pronounced like English ‘ts’, is used: putzen (to clean)
• Affected by position 
• ‘b’, when final in syllable, devoices to ‘p’
• ‘c’, occurs mostly in ‘ch’, ‘sch’, ‘ck’. In German, ‘c’ is seldom seen as an isolated consonant representing a single sound, as ‘k’ is the preferred  spelling.
  (Assimilated) foreign borrowings using ‘k’:
  Thus das Klavier, say ‘klah-VEEUH’ (piano), die Dekoration, say day-ko-rah-TSYOHN (decoration), die Republik, ray-poob-LEEK  (republic);  der Kaffee, say KAHF-fay (coffee). 
  Forign borrowings using ‘c’:
  Intially in a syllable, in front of ‘a’, ‘o’, or ‘u’, ‘c’ is pronounced like ‘k’, thus:  das Café, der Computer (pronounced as in English, say ‘com-PYOU-tuh); while initially, in front of ‘e’ or ‘i’ it is pronounced like ‘ts’, thus:  Celcius,  say ‘TSEL-zyous’ (Celcius);  das C, say ‘tsay’ (third letter of the alphabet)
• ‘d’, when final in syllable, devoices to ‘t’
• ‘g’, is ordinarily a hard ‘g’, except as noted below:
  When final in syllable, devoices to ‘k’.
  The combination ‘ng’, is explained under digraphs. 
  The ending ‘-ig’ is pronounced like the German subject pronoun ‘ich’.  Examples:  nötig (necessary), der König (king).
  The soft ‘g’ as in English gentleman, does not exist in German.  Thus:  germanisch, say ‘[hard]gayuh-MAH-nish (Germanic, Teutonic)
• ‘h’, when initial, like English ‘h’, elsewhere it is a marker placed after vowels to make them long
• ‘s’ when initial, like English ‘z’, elsewhere as in speaking the English letter ‘S’
  Exceptions:  The combinations ‘sp and st, when they begin a word, are pronounced ‘shp’ and ‘sht’.  spielen, say ‘shpee-len’ (to play);  streiten, say ‘shtreye-ten’ (to quarrel).
• Digraphs and trigraphs.  These letters represent a single sound, and function as if they were a single letter. 
• ‘ch’, see discussion of German ‘ich’ in Lesson 1.
  When preceded by ‘a’, ‘o’ or ‘u’ sounds like Scottish “Loch Ness Monster”.  Examples: ‘einfach’ (simple), ‘doch’ (however), ‘das Buch’
• ‘chs’, this trigraph, or combination, spells the sound of English ‘x’.  Example: der Ochse (ox), die Ochsen (oxen). 
  The ‘x’ itself is sometimes seen in foreign borrowings and persons’ names. 
• ‘ng’ always like English ‘singer’, never like English ‘anger’
• ‘ph’ sounds like ‘f’, Example:  das Photo, more recently spelled das Foto (photo)
• ‘sch’, always like English ‘sh’
• ‘th’, always like ‘t’
• ‘tsch’ is a combination found in words like deutsch (German) and tschechisch (Czeck) and sounds like English ‘ch’
• The glottal stop.
  For the musical ear, one can appreciate the occasional staccato note, or the end of a musical phrase, or the use of the rest.  German has something similar.  The glottal stop is a momentary cessation of sound made when the vocal cords are pressed together to stop the flow of air and then released.
• English example:  the exclamation “uh-oh”.
• German examples: 
  ’der Beamte’  -  say ‘beh [stop] AHM-tuh’ (civil servant)
  ‘gearbeitet’  -  say ‘geh [stop] AHR-beye-tet’ (worked)
  ‘das Ereignis’  -  say ‘DAHSS ayuh [stop] EYEG-nis’ (event)
  ‘beantworten’  -  say ‘be [stop] AHNT-vort-en’  -- to answer (a question)

 

This completes the three supplements on pronunciation. 

 

8/20/2009

German Lesson List

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