Accusative Case: The case of the direct object. The case of objects of the prepositions: bis, durch, entlang, für, gegen, ohne, um, wider; also marks motion for objects of the "two-way prepositions" (q.v.).
Active Voice: see Voice
Adjective: A word that modifies, describes, or limits a noun or pronoun. See also Attributive Adjective. If the adjective is a Predicate Adjective (following the subject and joined by a form of "to be" or equivalent verbs), the adjective will be in the nominative case.
Adverb: A word that modifies a verb, an adjective, or another adverb.
Antecedent: The word, phrase, or clause to which a pronoun refers.
Anticipatory Da-Compounds: Da-Compounds (q.v.) which function as part of a subordinating conjunction, to join two or more clauses that are joined with an indefinite object, using a verb that needs a preposition to complete its meaning. E.g.: "warten auf" --> warten darauf, daß" = wait for [the fact, the situation] that.
Article: Definite (the = die, der, das) or Indefinite (a, an = ein, eine, ein). Preceding a noun in a sentence, an article will be marked for person, number, gender, and case.
Attributive Adjective: An adjective that precedes the noun it modifies. Preceding a noun in a German sentence, an attributive adjective will be marked for person, number, gender, and case. There are two kinds of endings: strong, or weak, depending on what kind of article (if any) precedes them.
Auxiliary Verb: A verb that helps in the conjugation of another verb (haben, sein, werden), to make it show an action past or future time, rather than in the present.
Case: The form of a noun, pronoun, or adjective which indicates its relationship to other words. The cases in German are: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative.
Clause: A group of words containing a subject and predicate. A main (independent) clause can stand along; a subordinate (dependent) clause can function only as part of a sentence containing at least one main clause. Main clauses, and clauses joined by coordinating conjunctions (q.v.) have normal German sentence word order; subordinate clauses have all of the verbs at the end of the clause.
Comparison: The change in the form of an adjective or adverb showing degrees of quality: positive (great), comparative (greater), superlative (greatest). If an adjective in the comparative or superlative is used attributively, to modify a noun, it will have an adjective ending marking person, number, gender, and case added to it (beyond the marker for comparison or the superlative).
Conjugation: The inflection or changes of form in verbs showing number, person, tense, mood, voice. To conjugate a verb, take the infinitive form, and then figure out if it is a Strong Verb or a Weak Verb (q.v.), before adding the appropriate ending.
Conjunction: A word used to connect words, phrases, or clauses. Coordinating conjunctions connect expressions of equal rank, with no change of word order in the clauses connected. Subordinating conjunctions connect expressions of unequal rank; the subordinate clause in German has all parts of the verb at the end of the clause.
Da-Compounds: A way to form contractions of prepositional phrases whose objects are inanimate (that is, NOT FOR HUMAN BEINGS). Remove the object of the preposition, and add "da" as a prefix to the preposition. Thus: "mit dem Buch = damit." See also Anticipatory Da-Compounds.
Dative Case: The case of the indirect object. The case taken by objects of the prepositions: aus, außer, bei, entgegen, gegenüber, gemäß, mit, nach, seit, von, and zu; also marks position for objects of the "two-way prepositions" (q.v.).
Declarative: Stating a fact or giving a command. A sentence that describes or declares its content as fact.
Declension: The change of form in nouns, pronouns, or adjectives indicating gender, number, and case.
Definite Article: die, der, das -- "the."
Demonstrative: Indicating or pointing out the person or thing referred to (this, that, these, those).
Der-Words: Words declined like the definite article, including: alle, beide, dieser, jeder, jener, mancher, solcher, welcher
Ein-Words: Words declined like the indefinite article, including: andere, einige, mehrere, viele, wenige; any combination with "ein" (e.g. "was für ein"); possessives (mein, dein, sein, ihr; unser, euer, ihr, Ihr)
Finite Verb: The inflected verb form (other than infinitive and participles) limited or marked as to person, number, and tense.
Gender: Grammatical property (masculine, feminine, neuter) of nouns or pronouns. In German: masculine = der; feminine = die; neuter = das.
Genitive Case: The case denoting possession. Also the case of objects of certain prepositions, including: (an)statt, außerhalb, infolge, inmitten, mittels, trotz, um . . . willen, während, and wegen.
Imperative: The mood of the verb expressing a command or directive.
Indefinite Article: In German: ein, eine, ein -- "a, an."
Indicative Mood: The mood which states a fact or asks a question.
Infinitive: The form of the verb that expresses the general meaning of the verb without regard to person or number.
Interrogative: Asking a question; also a word used for that purpose, such as: wo, wohin, woher, warum, wann, wer, was.
Modal Auxiliaries: Verbs which express the speakers' attitudes or feelings toward what s/he says: obligation, permission, ability, desire: dürfen, können, mögen, müssen, sollen, wollen. See also Subjective Use of the Modals, Mood.
Mood: The form of the verb showing the speakers' attitudes or feelings toward what he says: indicative, or subjunctive, in German. See also Modal Auxiliaries.
Nominative Case: The case of the subject and predicate noun or pronoun.
Number: The characteristic form of a noun, pronoun, or verb indicating one (singular) or more than one (plural).
Object: The word, phrase, or clause which receives the action of the verb (in German, in either the Accusative or Dative Cases).
Participle: A form of the verb (present or past participle) that is used as part of a compound tense or as an adjective or adverb. The present participle of a verb is formed by adding the suffix "-d" to the infinitive form: singen + d = singend (singing); it may be used as an adjective. The past participle of a Weak Verb (q.v.) is formed, in most cases, by adding "ge-" as a prefix and "-t" as a suffix to the stem of a verb: hören --> "ge+hör+t". The past participle of a Strong Verb (q.v.) will be irregular and must be looked up in a table of strong verbs. The past participle of either type of verb may also be used as an adjective.
Positive: See Comparison.
Passive Voice: See Voice.
Person: The characteristic of a verb or pronoun indicating whether the subject is the speaker(s) (first person; ich, wir), the person(s) spoken to (second person; du/Sie, ihr/Sie), or the person(s) spoken of (third person (er/sie/es, sie).
Phrase: A group of words functioning as a unit but not having a subject and predicate.
Predicate: The word or words in a sentence that state something about the subject of a sentence.
Prefix: A letter or syllable added to the beginning of a word.
Preposition: A word that relates a noun or a pronoun to some other element in the sentence. The objects of prepositions will be marked with an appropriate case ending.
Principal Parts of a Verb: The forms of the verb (infinitive, past, past participle) from which other forms of the verb can be constructed.
Pronoun: A word used in place of a noun, matching the noun in person, number, and case.
Relative Pronoun: A pronoun used as a Subordinating Conjunction, marked for the person and number of the antecedent and for the case corresponding to its function in the subordinate clause.
Separable Prefix Verb: A verb composed of a stem and a prefix that modifies the meaning of that stem; the prefix may stand apart from the inflected stem verb in a sentence.
Stem: That part of an infinitive or of a word obtained by dropping the prefix and/or the ending.
Strong Verb: A verb whose principle parts and inflected forms show vowel changes in the stem.
Subject: The word or word group about which something is asserted in a sentence or clause; in German, marked in the Nominative Case.
Subjective Use of the Modal Auxiliary Verbs: A use of the Modal Auxiliaries (q.v.) that assesses the truth claims that the speaker is willing to make toward what s/he says. dürfen, können, mögen, müssen, sollen, wollen. "Das muß wahr sein" = highest credibility ("has to be, must be"); "Das kann wahr sein" = next highest credibility ("can be"); "Das mag wahr sein" = ("may well be"); "Das darf wahr sein" = ("may be," usually in the subjunctive form, "might be": "dürfte"). "Das soll wahr sein" = "they (unspecified) say it's true"; "Er will klug sein" = "He claims to be smart."
Subjunctive: The mood which expresses conditions contrary to fact, wishes, doubts, or what is possible or reported on by others, rather than certain. Subjunctive 1 = special purposes subjunctive form, used in reporting; Subjunctive 2 = ordinary use subjunctive.
Suffix: A letter or letters added to the end or stem of a word.
Superlative: See Comparison.
Tense: The form of the verb showing the time or the action of state of being. The tenses mark past, present, and future TIME in various ways.
Two-Way Prepositions: Prepositions that take dative objects if the prepositional phrase expresses time or location; that take accusative objects if a direction or motion is indicated: an, auf, inter, in, neben, über, unter, vor, zwischen.
Umlaut: The modification of a vowel sound indicated by two dots over the vowel (ä, ö, ü); dieresis.
Verb: A word that expresses an action or a state of being; listed in the dictionary in the Infinitive form.
Voice: The form of the verb indicating whether the subjects acts (active) or is acted upon (passive). The passive verb is made using a form of the auxiliary verb "werden" plus the past participle of the main verb; the result must be marked for person, number, and tense.
Weak Verb: A verb with regular principle parts and inflected forms.
Word Order in Sentences: (basic rules only)
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