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Grammar

Short lessons with tables, examples with Otti and his friends, and a few gaps to fill. A lesson takes five minutes.

Level C1

  1. Guesses with werden: Sie wird den Zug verpasst haben
    Werden doesn't only look ahead. Er wird jetzt zu Hause sein is a guess about now, and the Futur II, Sie wird den Zug verpasst haben, is a guess about the past. Wohl, sicher or vermutlich show how sure you are.
  2. Unreal comparisons: Er tut, als hätte er nichts gehört
    With als ob, als wenn or just als and the Konjunktiv II you compare reality with something that isn't true: Er tut, als hätte er nichts gehört. After als ob the verb goes to the end; after a bare als it comes straight after als.
  3. The Konjunktiv I beyond reported speech: Man nehme…, Es lebe…
    The Konjunktiv I does more than pass on what others say. It gives instructions in old recipes (Man nehme drei Eier), makes wishes in set phrases (Es lebe das Brautpaar, Gott sei Dank) and sets up examples in maths and academic texts (Gegeben sei ein Dreieck). Today you meet it mostly in fixed phrases.
  4. Participle clauses: Am Bahnhof angekommen, rief Otti Frida an
    Am Bahnhof angekommen, rief Otti Frida an. A participle with its own words can replace a whole subordinate clause and say when, why or how something happens. It is good written style; in conversation you mostly hear it in set phrases like ehrlich gesagt.
  5. Prepositions of formal German: angesichts, infolge, zufolge
    You know aufgrund, dank and bezüglich from B2. Reports, contracts, academic texts and the news use many more: angesichts, infolge, mangels, kraft, hinsichtlich, zwecks, anlässlich, seitens and ungeachtet take the genitive, and zufolge follows its noun and takes the dative. In conversation a plain wegen, für or von is usually better.
  6. Connectors for precise German: zumal, sofern, es sei denn
    You know weil, obwohl, trotzdem and the two-part conjunctions from B1, and indem and sodass from B2. At C1 the finer ones join them: zumal, wohingegen, sofern, insofern (als), es sei denn, geschweige denn, indessen and nichtsdestotrotz. Each has its own word order and its own register.
  7. Although and even if: obgleich, selbst wenn, so … auch
    You know obwohl and trotzdem from B1. German has many more ways to say that something happens against the odds: obgleich and wenngleich, selbst wenn and auch wenn, so … auch, wie … auch and noch so, dennoch and allerdings. Each has its own shade of meaning and its own word order.
  8. Es and darauf before a clause: Es ist wichtig, dass …
    In Es ist wichtig, dass … and Ich freue mich darauf, dass … a small es or darauf points ahead to the clause that follows. Grammars call it a correlate. Learn which verbs need it, which can do without it, and when es disappears.
  9. Passive variants: Er bekommt den Vertrag zugeschickt
    You know the passive with werden from B1 and B2. German has a few more forms: bekommen puts the person who receives something first (Er bekommt den Vertrag zugeschickt), the passive without a subject names an activity (Hier wird nicht geraucht), and gehören + participle gives a strong opinion (Das gehört verboten).
  10. Word formation: Stadtklima, entsiegeln, Machbarkeit
    German builds long words from short parts you already know. Once you know how compounds, prefixes and suffixes work, you can guess most new words: Stadtklima, entsiegeln, Machbarkeit.
  11. Word order and emphasis: what comes first?
    You know that the verb comes second. At C1 you choose what comes before it, what stays in the middle and what may follow the end of the sentence bracket, and that is how you decide what a sentence stresses.
  12. Register and style: erhalten or kriegen?
    German sounds different in an email to a professor, in a talk and in a chat with friends. Learn the pairs that mark the register (erhalten and kriegen, wegen des and wegen dem, habe and hab) and choose the right one for each situation.