Glossary

Akkusativ; one of the four cases used for declension. Indicates the direct recipient of the action expressed by the verb; answers the question wen? or was?

Compare: Nominative, Dative, Genitive

Handlungsverb; describes an action that is consciously performed by the subject.

Compare: Processual verb, Stative verb

Aktiv; a sentence in which the subject itself is "actively" doing something.

Compare: Passive

Adjektiv; describing words that modify nouns or pronouns. Adjectives tell us what something is like.

See also: Adverbial adjective, Attributive adjective, Predicative adjective

Adverb; adverbs describe verbs, adjectives or other adverbs; they give information about place, time, reason or manner. Adverbs are not declined.

Adverbiale Bestimmung; can consist of an adverb or a group of words and gives details about a place, time, reason or manner.

Adverbiales Adjektiv; another word for Adverb.

See also: Adverb

Adverbialsatz; type of subordinate clause used in place of an adverbial, usually introduced by a subjunction.

Adversativsatz; type of adverbial clause that expresses a contrast, often introduced by wohingegenwhereas.

Artikel; small word placed before a noun. Can be definite (der, die, das …) or indefinite (ein, eine …).

Attribut; an adjective, noun, possessive, location, time, or even an entire subordinate clause that gives more details about a noun. Answers the question which or which one?

Attributives Adjektiv; comes before a noun and is declined.

Compare: Predicative adjective

Attributsatz; a subordinate clause that answers the question which? or which one? by giving more details about a subject or an object (usually a relative clause).

Hilfsverb; the auxiliary verbs are: habento have, seinto be and werdento become. They form the compound tenses and the passive.

(compare: Full verb)

Kausal; causal adverbs introduce a reason or purpose.

Kausalsatz; adverbial clause that states a reason, introduced by weilbecause, dasince …

Entscheidungsfrage; a question without a question word, can be answered with yes/no.

Komparativ; when we add the ending -er to the basic form of the adjective; used in comparisons with als.

See also: Superlative

Verbalkomplex; a predicate that consists of multiple verbs, e.g. in multi-part verbs like einkaufen gehento go shopping, compound tenses, the passive voice and modal verbs.

Konzessivsatz; adverbial clause that expresses a limitation or an idea that stands in opposition to the main clause. Often introduced by obwohlalthough.

Konditionalsatz, if clause; adverbial clause that expresses a condition, introduced by falls, wennif.

Konjugation; when we change the verb to agree with the subject, tense, mood etc.

Konjunktion; linking words that connect main clauses.

Word order: conjunction + subject + conjugated verb + ...

(compare: Subjunction, Infinitive conjunction, Conjunctional adverb, Satzteilkonjunktion)

Konjunktionaladverb; an adverb that connects two clauses.

Word order: conjunction + conjugated verb + subject + ...

Konjunktionalsatz; a subordinate clause which is introduced by a subjunction.

See also: Subjunction

Konsekutivsatz; an adverbial clause that expresses a consequence, often introduced by dassthat or sodassso that.

Konsonant; a letter or sound that is not a vowel

(compare: Vowel)

Dativ; one of the four cases used for declension. Indicates the indirect recipient of the action expressed by the verb; answers the question wem?

Compare: Nominative, Accusative, Genitive

Deklination; changing the ending of a noun, article, pronoun or adjective according to the case.

See also: Nominative, Accusative, Dative, Genitive

Bestimmter Artikel; an article that refers to a specific noun, similar to the in English.

Demonstrativpronomen; refers back to or emphasises something previously mentioned.

Begleiter; word used before a noun to identify it more specifically or assign it a quality.

Akkusativobjekt, direktes Objekt; is the person or thing that directly receives the action of a verb. Ask wen? or was? to determine the direct object.

See also: Accusative

Direkte Rede; repetition of a statement in its original wording, indicated by a colon and quotation marks.

(compare: Indirect speech)

Feminin; grammatical gender of articles, nouns and pronouns.

See also: Gender, Neuter, Masculine

Finalsatz; adverbial clause that expresses an objective or purpose, introduced by damitso that.

Finites Verb; conjugated verb.

Vollverb; main verb that expresses an action, process or state and therefore carries the meaning of the sentence.

Compare: Auxiliary verb

Futur I; the future tense (werden + infinitive), used for intentions, plans, predictions, future events …

Futur II; completed future (werden + Partizip II + haben/sein), expresses an action that will have been completed at a certain point in the future.

Genus; shows whether a noun or pronoun is masculine, feminine, or neuter.

Compare: Masculine, Feminine, Neuter

Genitiv; one of the four cases used for declension; answers the question wessen? or weswegen?

Compare: Nominative, Accusative, Dative

Genitivobjekt; certain verbs and prepositions take a genitive object.

Numerus; whether a noun or subject is singular or plural.

See Personal pronouns, Demonstrative pronoun

Imperativ; expresses commands, orders and requests. Can be used with du, ihr, Sie, wir.

Unbestimmter Artikel; an article which refers to an unspecified noun, similar to a or an in English.

See also: Definite article

Hauptsatz; a clause that can stand by itself without additional clauses.

Indikativ; the default mood for verbs; presents information as fact in a neutral manner.

Compare: Subjunctive

Indirektes Objekt, Dativobjekt; certain verbs and prepositions take an indirect object. Ask wem? to determine the indirect object.

In sentences with multiple objects, the indirect object is usually the person for whom the action is intended.

See also: Dative

Indirekte Frage; a question that appears as a subordinate clause introduced by ob or a question word. No question mark is used.

Reported speech, indirekte Rede; when we report what someone has said without repeating their exact words. No quotation marks are used and the verb is usually in the subjunctive.

Compare: Direct speech

Infinitiv; the basic, unconjugated form of the verb. Most German infinitives end in -en.

Infinitivsatz; subordinate clause that uses an infinitive with zu.

Infinitivkonjunktion; linking word that takes the infinitive.

Flexion; when the ending of a verb, article, noun, pronoun or adjective changes as a result of conjugation or declension.

Compare: Declension, Conjugation

Interrogativadverb; question words that ask about place, time, direction, manner, reason …

Compare: Adverb

Interrogativpronomen; question words that ask about the subject or object.

Intransitives Verb; verb that does not take a direct object.

Compare: Transitive verb

Lokaladverb; adverb of a place; indicates wo? or wohin?

Lokalsatz; adverbial clause that refers to a place or location; introduced by wo?, wohin? or woher?

Maskulin, männlich; grammatical gender for articles, nouns and pronouns.

See also: Feminine, Neuter, Gender

Gemischtes Verb; irregular verb that changes its stem and forms its past participle with ge...t.

Compare: Weak verb, Strong verb

Modaladverb; adverb of manner; answers the question wie?, wie sehr? or wie viel?

Modalsatz; adverbial clause that expresses manner, often introduced by indemby

Modalverb; a verb that changes the meaning of another verb to expresses ability, wishes, permission, etc. Always followed by an infinitive.

The modal verbs are: dürfento be allowed to, können to be able to, möchten, mögento like, müssen must/have to, sollenshould/be supposed to, wollento want

Modus; the mood reflects the speaker’s intention or attitude towards the information being presented.

German has three moods; the indicative (standard mood), the subjunctive (shows doubt, wishes, subjectivity, impossibility …), and the imperative (commands and orders).

See also: Indicative, Subjunctive and Imperative

Neutral, sächlich; grammatical gender of articles, nouns and pronouns.

See also: Masculine, Feminine, Gender

Nominativ, one of the four cases used to decline articles, nouns, pronouns and adjectives. Indicates wer? or was? in a sentence.

See also: Accusative, Dative, Genitive

Nicht trennbares Verb; a verb that contains a prefix which cannot be removed (be-, ent-, er-, ge-, etc.)

Compare: Separable verb

Nomen, Substantiv; a naming word. German nouns are declined and usually preceded by an article.

Objekt; the recipient of the action expressed by the verb. The object is a pronoun or a noun (together with any accompanying articles or adjectives) and appears in the accusative, dative or genitive.

Objektsatz; subordinate clause that acts as an object.

Ergänzungsfrage; a question with a question word.

Partizipialsatz; subordinate clause that contains the present or the past participle.

Teilreflexives Verb; a verb that has a different meaning depending on whether it is reflexive or non-reflexive.

Passiv; the focus of the sentence is the recipient of the action (the object); the person or thing performing the action (the subject) is unimportant, unknown, or obvious.

Compare: Processual passive, Statal passive

Partizip II; the third form of the verb, used to form compound past tenses as well as the passive.

Plusquamperfekt; expresses an action that took place prior to a certain point or second action in the past.

Personalpronomen; the pronouns ich, du, er, sie, es, wir, ihr, sie and their declined forms mich, mir, dich, dir etc.

expresses a multitude of something; nouns, articles, adjectives, verbs and pronouns can be used in the plural.

Compare: Singular

Höflichkeitsform, honorific; the name given to the Sie conjugation. Use this in formal contexts and with strangers.

Positive Form; the basic form of an adjective, often used in comparisons with (genau)so ... wie(just) as ... as.

Possessivartikel; stands in front of a noun and indicates possession/belonging. When used in place of a noun, it is technically a Possessive pronoun.

Possessivpronomen; pronoun indicating possession that is used in place of a noun. When used together with a noun, it is technically a Possessive article.

Prädikat; the verb component of a sentence; can consist of one or more verbs, e.g. compound tenses, the passive, modal verbs or compound verbs.

Prädikatives Adjektiv; comes after the verbs seinto be, werdento become and bleibento remain and is not declined.

Compare: Attributive adjective

Präfix; a syllable that is added to the beginning of a word to change its meaning.

Präposition; small words that link nouns and pronouns to other words. The give information about time, place, manner, etc.

Partizip I; verb form where the letter -d is added onto the infinitive; used as an adjective or in place of a clause.

Perfekt; the past tense (haben/sein + past participle), used when focusing on the result of a completed past action.

Präsens; expresses present and future actions.

Vorgangspassiv; a passive sentence that expresses an action.

Compare: Statal passive

Vorgangsverb; describes a process that is not consciously carried out; the subject has no active control over the action.

Compare: Action verb, Stative verb

Pronomen; replaces an already known or previously mentioned noun and thus avoids repetition. Pronouns are declined and agree with the noun they replace in terms of gender and number.

Reziprokes Verb; uses the reflexive pronoun with the meaning einander (each other).

Reflexivpronomen (sich); is used with reflexive and reciprocal verbs.

Reflexives Verb; a verb where the subject and the object are one and the same. Always used with a reflexive pronoun (sich) in the sense of myself, yourself, etc.

See also: Partly reflexive verb, Unreal reflexive verb, Reciprocal verb

Relativsatz; a clause that provides additional information about a noun from the previous clause. Always introduced by a relative pronoun and placed between commas.

Relativpronomen; a pronoun that introduces a relative clause; usually der/die/das… or welcher/welche/welches…

conjunction that introduces an adjective in a comparison.

Trennbares Verb; a verb with a prefix that is mobile; the prefix is separated from the main verb in certain conjugated forms.

Compare: Non-separable verb

Präteritum; past tense; mostly used in writing but also with modal verbs and certain others in everyday language.

expresses one item; nouns, articles, adjectives, verbs and pronouns can appear in the singular.

Compare: Plural

Zustandspassiv; a passive form that describes a state or result that occurs following a completed action.

Compare: Processual passive

Zustandsverb; a verb that expresses a state.

Compare: Action verb, Processual verb

Starkes Verb; irregular verb whose past participle is constructed with ge...en. Strong verbs often experience a vowel change in the present tense.

Compare: Mixed verb, Weak verb

Subjekt; the person or thing that performs the action of the verb. Appears in the nominative and is most often a noun (and its accompanying article and adjective).

See also: Nominative

Subjektsatz; subordinate clause acting as the subject of a sentence.

Subjunktion; linking word that introduces a subordinate clause.

Note: after a subjunction the verb comes at the very end of the phrase: subjunction + subject + ... + verb

Konjunktiv; grammatical mood that presents information with an element of fantasy, impossibility, doubt or subjectivity. Used in conditional clauses and indirect speech.

Konjunktiv I; the less common of the two subjunctive forms; used in idiomatic expressions and indirect speech.

Konjunktiv II; the more common subjunctive form; used for wishes, unreal conditional clauses and polite questions or statements.

Compare: Would-form

Nebensatz; a clause whose meaning is incomplete without a main clause. Note: the verb comes at the end of subordinate clauses when they are introduced by a subjunction (weil, als, dass …).

Nachsilbe; a syllable added to the end of a word to change its meaning.

Superlativ; compares one person or thing with all others in the same group/category; expresses the highest degree of a certain characteristic or quality. Usually introduced by am or the definite article.

Compare: Comparative

Silbe; singular unit of pronunciation; one unbroken sound usually made up of a vowel and surrounding consonants.

Temporalsatz; adverbial clause that expresses time; introduced by subjunctions like bevorbefore, nachdemafter, seitsince…

Transitives Verb; a verb that takes an accusative object; without this direct object its meaning is incomplete. Transitive verbs can be used in the passive.

Compare: Intransitive verb

Wechselpräpositionen; prepositions of movement and place that take the accusative when they express a direction but the dative when they express a location.

Umlaut; the letters ä, ö, and ü.

Unechtes reflexives Verb; a verb that has the same meaning in both its reflexive and non-reflexive forms.

Compare: Partly reflexive verb

doing words; verbs express actions, processes and states. They are conjugated and used in different tenses.

Vokal; a letter or sound that is not a consonant.

Compare: Consonant

Schwaches Verb; regular verb, the past participle is constructed with ge...t.

Compare: Mixed verb, Strong verb

Wortstamm; the root of the verb; find the stem by removing all endings and prefixes. We conjugate verbs and decline nouns by adding different endings to the word stem.

Würde-Form; in everyday language, würde + infinitive is more commonly used than the Subjunctive II (the meaning is the same).

Compare: Subjunctive II