Help learning German

[coinlord]

Hallo,

First, 'an' was word yahoo bablefish gave me for 'in'.

Second: 'zu'.  why is it used like that?  I'm not sure I follow.  Or is it one of those things I should just accept?

In reviewing the 'word lists', I may have another question.  Using the example below,


"gehen --> ich gehe, ich ging, ich bin gegangen --> to go "

is this the german equivilant of "I will go, I am going, I have gone" ?

what about other conjugatiopns besides ich / I ?

Bitte,
Jack

[FH]

"gehen --> ich gehe, ich ging, ich bin gegangen --> to go "

is this the german equivilant of "I will go, I am going, I have gone" ?

No, it's "I go, I went, I've been going".

what about other conjugatiopns besides ich / I ?

Du gehst, du gingst, du bist gegangen: You go, you went, you've been going

Er/Sie/Es geht, Er/Sie/Es ging, Er/Sie/Es ist gegangen: He/She/It goes, ... went, ... has been going

All of the above without any warranty, it's been some while since I really knew about all of that. :/

[Napi96]

Hallo,

First, 'an' was word yahoo bablefish gave me for 'in'.

Second: 'zu'.  why is it used like that?  I'm not sure I follow.  Or is it one of those things I should just accept?

In reviewing the 'word lists', I may have another question.  Using the example below,


"gehen --> ich gehe, ich ging, ich bin gegangen --> to go "

is this the german equivilant of "I will go, I am going, I have gone" ?

what about other conjugatiopns besides ich / I ?

Bitte,
Jack

It's a pity that I can't tell you why to use "zu" in some ways... :-/ I think you have to learn these special forms...
You often say "zu" if you do something at the moment or you will do it(I hope that I'm right...)... ex: Ich gehe zum Einkaufen... Ich komme um zu lernen... Ich mag es nicht, zu lesen... | I'm going to shopping... I'm coming for learning... I don't like to read...

I hope there's an expert for german grammar out there... I think you should learn vocabulary and then learn the "zu"-staff^^

The conjugation of "gehen" looks like this:

Ich gehe
Du gehst
Er/Sie/Es geht
Wir gehen
Ihr geht
Sie gehen

English:

I go
You go
He/She/It goes
We go
You go
They go

and the verb "wohnen", 'coz you told us in your last post of "wohnen"...

ich wohne
du wohnst
er/sie/es wohnt
wir wohnen
ihr wohnt
sie wohnen

English:

I live (in)
you live (in)
he/she/it lives (in)
we live (in)
you live (in)
they live (in)

I hope I could help you with this try to conjugate other german verbs

And than translate:

Hi, how are you?
- I feel fine, what about you?.

It's just a short text for learning some important words You'll get it

[FH]

Here's a maybe interesting link for you
http://www.crossmyt.com/hc/linghebr/awfgrmlg.html

[coinlord]

FH,

I can only pray to a listening deity that Twain was mispeaking on the near complete lack of logic.  Otherwise I wonder if creating the German Language was meant as the first provocation, or was it an attack (dare I say war crime) in the Germanic people's plan to take over the world.

I can only hope that English is not so hard on students learning it.

Jack

[FH]

You should know that German is one of the hardest European languages to learn. English is rather simple compared to German, although English originated from some sort of German dialect (the Saxons brought the language to England).

[Fajeth]

Well in comparision with english, every language must look hard

english - even though i like it, because of it's simplicity - is just simple

[coinlord]

conjugated verbs, pt one:


<><><><><><><><>
Gehen  to go
Person         Singular            Plural
1st person      ich gehe         wir gehen
2nd person      du gehst         ihr geht
3rd person      er geht            sie gehen
         sie geht
         es geht
         Sie gehen         Sie gehen
<><><><><><><><><><>
Kommen  to come
Person         Singular            Plural
1st person      ich komme         wir kommen
2nd person      du kommst         ihr kommt
3rd person      er kommt         sie kommen
         sie kommt
         es kommt
         Sie kommen         Sie kommen
<><><><><><><><><><>
Lernen  to learn
Person         Singular            Plural
1st person      ich lerne         wir lernen
2nd person      du lernst         ihr lernt
3rd person      er lernt            sie lernen
         sie lernt
         es lernt
         Sie lernen         Sie lernen
<><><><><><><><><><>
Sprechen  to speak
Person         Singular            Plural
1st person      ich spreche         wir sprechen
2nd person      du sprechst         ihr sprecht
3rd person      er sprecht         sie sprechen
         sie sprecht
         es sprecht
         Sie sprechen         Sie sprechen

<><><><><><><><><><>
Schreiben  to write
Person         Singular            Plural
1st person      ich schreibe         wir schreiben
2nd person      du schreibst         ihr schreibt
3rd person      er schreibt         sie schreiben
         sie schreibt
         es schreibt
         Sie schreiben         Sie schreiben



Jack

[coinlord]

conjugated verbs, pt 2:


<><><><><><><><><><><>
Person         Singular            Plural
1st person      ich bin            wir sind
2nd person      du bist            ihr  sind
3rd person      er ist            sie sind
         sie ist
         es ist
         Sie sind            Sie sind
<><><><><><><><>
Arbeiten  to go
Person         Singular            Plural
1st person      ich arbeite         wir arbeiten
2nd person      du arbeitst         ihr arbeitt
3rd person      er arbeitt            sie arbeiten
         sie arbeitt
         es arbeitt
         Sie arbeiten         Sie arbeiten
<><><><><><><><><><>



bitte,
Jack

[Napi96]

okay... looks nice, but there are some mistakes in it...

Sprechen  to speak
Person         Singular            Plural
1st person      ich spreche         wir sprechen
2nd person      du sprichst         ihr sprecht
3rd person      er spricht         sie sprechen
         sie spricht
         es spricht
         Sie sprechen         Sie sprechen

and

Arbeiten  to go
Person         Singular            Plural
1st person      ich arbeite         wir arbeiten
2nd person      du arbeitest         ihr arbeitet
3rd person      er arbeitet            sie arbeiten
         sie arbeitet
         es arbeitet
         Sie arbeiten         Sie arbeiten

also

Person         Singular            Plural
1st person      ich bin            wir sind
2nd person      du bist            ihr  seid
3rd person      er ist            sie sind
         sie ist
         es ist
         Sie sind            Sie sind

[coinlord]

Hallo,

the suggested phrases:

Hi, how are you?
- I feel fine, what about you?.

Guten Tag, wie geht es Ihnen?
- Danke, gut.  Wie geht es Ihnen?

More tests?

Bitte,
Jack

[Napi96]

Hi

Hi, how are you?
- I feel fine, what about you?.

Guten Tag, wie geht es Ihnen?
- Danke, gut.  Wie geht es Ihnen?

I can´t say that it´s wrong, but   1.  "ihnen" is in german like "they" so you asked "How are they?".
                                                     2. "ihnen" can be singular when it´s in a polite form ( when you are speaking with  teachers or old people)
                                                     
So when you want to speak to your friends use:

Guten Tag, wie geht es dir?
-Danke, gut. Und dir?

Sorry for my english and I hope that you understand what I mean. 

No, no...

"Ihnen" means "You" (2 Pers. Sg.) like "Du", "Dir",...  you see that you write it with capital letters...

"ihnen" means "they"... you write it with "small" letters...

"Guten Tag, wie geht es Ihnen?
- Danke, gut und Ihnen?" is right... but you also can say "Guten Tag, wie geht es Dir? -  Danke, gut und Dir?"

[LordProtektor]

I can´t say that it´s wrong, but   1.  "ihnen" is in german like "they" so you asked "How are they?".

Nope. "Ihnen" can be "them or you".

                                                     2. "ihnen" can be singular when it´s in a polite form ( when you are speaking with  teachers or old people)

That's correct. You use it to unknown persons or persons of higher rank.

The German polite form has the exactly same grammar forms as the 3. plural form. English and French people use the 2. plural form as the polite pronoun! (Only in medieval German we also use the German 2. plural form for polite speaking. Which is not what you should do.)


It's quite easy. If it is the polite singular form it is a personal pronoun, if it is the plural form it is a possessive pronoun dativ form.

example:
a.) Ich habe zwei Brüder. Das Haus gehört ihnen.  - I have two brothers. The house belongs to them. (they are possessing something! (possessive pronoun))
edit: Michel is right. It is not a possessiv pronoun (which would be: 'Es ist ihr Haus/The house is theirs') but a dativ form.

b.) Hallo Herr Müller. Wie geht es Ihnen? - Hello Mister Müller. How are you? ("Ihnen" = Herr Müller (personal pronoun); also note that in this case Ihnen has a capital I in the beginning)




Singular:
Ich gehe - I go
Du gehst - you go
er/sie/es geht - he/she/it goes

Plural:
wir gehen - we go
ihr geht - you go
sie gehen - they go

The blue market forms are also the polite forms when talking to one person. In which case you would also write the German "Sie gehen" with a capital first letter. Like with the example above.

There's also one Impersonal 3rd singular person:
man geht - you go/one goes
in English the impersonal singular form can be 3rd or 2nd singular person.


But to be honest. READ READ READ and you will get a feeling about when to use what noun.

edit: this might also help you.

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personalpronomen
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Possessivpronomen

[Michel]

I am not quite sure if your example a) is really correct. I dont think "ihnen" can be a possessive pronoun. It is a personal pronoun: 3rd person plural Dativ.

[FH]

It is a personal pronoun: 3rd person plural Dativ.

sie
ihr
ihnen
ihnen