German GrammarPod Podcast
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German GrammarPod explains the world of German grammar. Its aim is to be accessible to all levels of learner and to give you tips to help you achieve maximum effect for minimum effort.
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http://germangrammarpod.blogspot.com/
Relative Pronouns 2
germangrammarpod@yahoo.co.uk (Laura)Author: Laura
Mon, Aug 24, 2009
This podcast covers relative pronouns after prepositions and some other special cases.
To listen to this podcast directly on your computer, click here. 
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Relative Pronouns
germangrammarpod@yahoo.co.uk (Laura)Author: Laura
Sun, May 31, 2009
Relative pronouns link a noun or clause to a relative clause, like the relative pronoun which in I saw a film which made me laugh links the noun film to the relative clause which made me laugh. This podcast tells you the basics of how to use relative pronouns and relative clauses in German.
Tolisten to this podcase directly on you computer, click here.
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The Conditional 3
germangrammarpod@yahoo.co.uk (Laura)Author: Laura
Sun, Apr 26, 2009
This podcast is very very brief and contains just a note about a correction I've made to my first conditional podcast (if you've downloaded it after 26 April 2009, you've downloaded the already corrected version) and an additional useful sentence I hadn't previously inclued: I should have done something - ich hätte etwas tun sollen.
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The Conditional - Part 2
germangrammarpod@yahoo.co.uk (Laura)Author: Laura
Sun, Apr 19, 2009
This episode is about more of the really practical stuff you need to know about the conditional.
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The Conditional and Umlauts
germangrammarpod@yahoo.co.uk (Laura)Author: Laura
Sun, Apr 26, 2009
The conditional basically means sentences with a would. For instance, if I were rich, I would buy a house (or as it is for other speakers of English: if I was rich, I would buy a house). German has the verb würde which corresponds to would. For most verbs, you use würde plus the infinitive, but for haben, sein and the modal verbs you use a single-word conditional form of the verb.
This podcast also discusses umlauts - two dots over some vowels which change their sound in German.
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Word Order - Multi-Clause Sentences
germangrammarpod@yahoo.co.uk (Laura)Author: Laura
Sun, Nov 30, 2008
Simple sentences only have one clause, for instance I'm buying a sandwich. To make more complex sentences, you have to use more than one clause. An example of a sentence with two clauses is: I'm buying a sandwich because I'm hungry. In this sentence, I'm buying a sandwich is one clause and because I'm hungry is the second. Most long sentences have two or more clauses.
This podcast teaches you how to identify where one clause should end and another begin. It also teaches you what you need to know about German word order to construct your own multi-clause sentences. In particular it covers the conjunctions that often stand between two clauses and the impact they have on word order.
To listen to this podcast on your computer, click here.
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Word Order - Exceptions to the Standard Main Clause
germangrammarpod@yahoo.co.uk (Laura)Author: Laura
Sun, Jul 13, 2008
Word order has a highly complex set of rules in any language. So many, that I'm not convinced anyone has ever managed to write them all down for any given language. For pretty well every rule there is an exception, and there are even exceptions to exceptions.
This podcast focuses on the most productive rules about exceptions to standard word order, the ones that have a big effect on sentence structure and apply to lots of sentences. It also gives suggestions about what approach to take if you want to be right all of the time instead of most of the time (plus a guide to the level of effort that could take), or what to do to be right enough of the time to be fully understood, without attempting perfection (learning the most productive rules). It also gives some further detail on how standard word order works.
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Word Order in a Standard Main Clause
germangrammarpod@yahoo.co.uk (Laura)Author: Laura
Sun, Apr 06, 2008
German word order in a completely standard, neutral main clause is a follows:
* nominative subject,
* conjugated verb,
* accusative then dative pronoun,
* nouns with definite determiners, in the order dative, accusative
* most adverbials
* nicht – or other negation particles
* adverbials of manner
* nouns with indefinite determiners, in the order dative, accusative
* the complement, and finally
* any other verbs.
My podcast on German word order contains more information about what those terms mean, and also a more detailed version of word order. You can listen to the podcast directly on your computer by clicking here.
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The Pluperfect
germangrammarpod@yahoo.co.uk (Laura)Author: Laura
Sun, Jan 27, 2008
The pluperfect is the ich hatte es getan or I had done tense. You make the pluperfect in German by taking the perfect tense (the ich habe es getan tense) and changing the auxiliary verb (the habe or the bin etc.) into the simple past version of itself (hatte or war etc.). So instead of ich habe ein Eis gegessen – I have eaten an ice cream you get ich hatte ein Eis gegessen – I had eaten an ice cream. And instead of ich bin im Ozean geschwommen – I have swum in the ocean you get ich war im Ozean geschwommen – I had swum in the ocean.
Basically, where you would use the pluperfect in English, you also use it in German. There's one exception to this though. Where you are referring to a situation that started in the distant past, but which is still ongoing at a point in the nearer past that you are talking about, although you'd use the pluperfect in English, in German you'd use the simple past. For instance: Since I had lived in Munich, I had been visiting him every Saturday = Seitdem ich in München wohnte, besuchte ich ihn jeden Samstag.
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The Simple Past
germangrammarpod@yahoo.co.uk (Laura)Author: Laura
Mon, Dec 31, 2007
The simple past - also known as the preterite or the imperfect tense - is equivalent in form to the English I did form (ich tat es). The way that regular verbs form their simple past is by a or being inserted into the present tense ending. For instance ich kaufe - I buy becomes ich kaufte - I bought and du kaufst - you buy becomes du kauftest - you bought.
The German simple past is mainly used in written German, where it can express most past tenses expressed in English by either the I have done or the I did forms. It also crops up in spoken German, where it is preferred over the perfect tense for the auxiliary verbs (particularly haben and sein) and the modal verbs (müssen, sollen, mögen, können, dürfen, wollen) and also - in Central and Northern Germany - for some other common verbs.
To listen to my podcast on your computer, click here.
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When to Use the Perfect Tense
germangrammarpod@yahoo.co.uk (Laura)Author: Laura
Tue, Jul 21, 2009
This podcast is about when to use the perfect tense. The perfect tense is the ich habe es getan tense and corresponds in form to the I have done it tense in English. But the rules on when you use the tense are rather different in German. The German one is often interchangeable with the simple past tense (the ich tat es tense), whereas in English, past tenses are usually not interchangeable with each other.
As a rule of thumb, Germans use the perfect tense to express the past tense in spoken German, except with certain verbs and except in certain situations. The verbs with which the perfect tense is usually not used (apart from for situations for which the perfect tense is the preferred tense) are the auxiliary verbs, modal verbs and, in Central and Northern Germany, also certain other common verbs. These are used in the simple past instead.
If you'd like to listen to this podcast on your computer, you can do so by clicking here.
I've put a list of which verbs aren't generally used in the perfect tense on my geocities site, where I put grammar tables and transcripts of the episodes: http://sites.google.com/site/germangrammarpod/past. The website also includes a table showing the information I've given in my podcasts so far about when to use which tense.
It's always tricky to describe when a tense should be used in a foreign language, and there's a lot of seemingly contradictory information out there. To compile this episode, I mainly used German-language Wikipedia:
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfekt and
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pr%C3%A4teritum
which, slightly disturbingly, both seem to have been rewritten since I used them for information (although a native speaker did recommend the sites at the time I used them, so at least one native speaker did think they were supplying correct information as they were).
I also used the book Hammer's German Grammar and Usage (in my case the second edition). Here's a link to the fourth edition on Amazon: Hammer Grammar, although I recommend any edition of it that you can get your hands on.
I also liked the information in about.com on this topic: http://german.about.com/library/verbs/blverb_past.htm
Download File - 19.0 MB
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Past Tenses: How to Use The Perfect
germangrammarpod@yahoo.co.uk (Laura)Author: Laura
Mon, Oct 22, 2007
The perfect tense is one of three German past tense forms. It's also the one that's most commonly used in spoken German, so very useful to learn. The perfect tense is a compound tense. This means it uses two verbs: an auxiliary (or helper) verb and a main verb. Most of the time, the auxiliary verb is haben, which means to have. But for some verbs, especially intransitive verbs of motion and intransitive change-of-state verbs, the auxiliary verb is sein, which means to be. The main verb then shoots along to the end of the clause and appears in the form of a past participle. As a rule of thumb, you create the past participle of a verb from its infinitive by adding a ge- on the beginning, and sometimes you switch the or the on the end for a . Two examples of how you make a perfect tense sentence are:
Ich habe ein Eis gegessen - I have eaten an ice cream
Ich bin in die Schule gegangen - I've gone to school
You can listen to this podcast directly on your computer by clicking here.
While I was researching this podcast, I found a couple of particularly useful websites. Here are the English ones:
A description of when to use the different German past tenses:
http://german.about.com/library/verbs/blverb_past.htm
A description of how to use the German perfect tense:
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/German_Grammar:Verbs:Past_Tenses:Perfect_Tense
Exercises (particularly suitable for beginners) to practise using the perfect tense:
http://atschool.eduweb.co.uk/rgshiwyc/school/curric/German/Revision/German_Perfect_Tense/index.htm
And here are the German ones (two descriptions of when Germans say you should use the perfect tense and when the simple past (also known as the imperfect tense or the preterite)):
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pr%C3%A4teritum
http://home.schule.at/cometo/latein-griechisch/grammatikmerkblaetter/perfektimperfektverwendung.htm
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The future tense & the verb werden
germangrammarpod@yahoo.co.uk (Laura)Author: Laura
Sun, Sep 30, 2007
Hallo all,
It's been longer than I intended yet again, but I've finally managed to finish another episode of German GrammarPod. This episode is about the future tense and also about the verb werden in general.
The future tense is pretty simple in German. Most of the time you can just use the present tense form. But where this would be ambiguous, you add the verb werden (conjugated into one of its present tense forms) in the same way English adds the verb will to make the future tense.
Werden also has another couple of important uses. When used as a main verb instead of an auxiliary verb, then it means to become or a related verb. It also has another use as an auxiliary verb: instead of the future, it can be used to create the passive.
Whether it's being used to form the future or the passive can be seen from the form of the main verb that's used with it. When it's used to mean the future, then the main verb will be in the infinitive. If it's a passive, then the main verb will be in the form of a past participle.
To listen to the podcast directly on your computer, click here.
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The present tense
germangrammarpod@yahoo.co.uk (Laura)Author: Laura
Sat, Aug 18, 2007
The present tense is pretty simple in German: there's only one. So where English has to choose between Sarah is walking to work and Sarah walks to work, German has only Sarah geht zu Fuss zur Arbeit. However, whereas English only has two different forms of each verb in the present tense (apart from for the verb to be), e.g. walk and walks, have and has, German verbs have lots of different forms in the present tense (typically four or five), depending on which personal pronoun you're using. (Personal pronouns are words like I, you, we and they.) This podcast explains more about the present tense and the different forms the verbs you use in it take.
To listen to the podcast on you computer, click here.
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Cases: The Genitive Case
germangrammarpod@yahoo.co.uk (Laura)Author: Laura
Sun, Jul 26, 2009
The genitive case is used to indicate possession, like of or apostrophe-s ('s) does in English. However, apart from in formal, written texts (and in its version of adding 's, which is just to add an s to the end of proper nouns), German tends to avoid the genitive. Most of the time in spoken German, Germans use a von plus the dative instead of a genitive to mean of. The genitive is unusual in German, because as well as affecting determiners (words like the and a) and adjectives, it also affects nouns, adding an -s (or -es) to the end of neuter and masculine nouns.
To listen to my podcast directly on your computer, click here.
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The Dative Case
germangrammarpod@yahoo.co.uk (Laura)Author: Laura
Sun, May 06, 2007
The dative case is used for the indirect object (that's the noun or pronoun which is impacted indirectly by the action, as opposed to the one to which the action is done directly). The classic example is he gives me the book (er gibt mir das Buch), where the direct object is the book and the indirect object is me. The dative also follows certain prepostions (words like with, to and between). All determiners (that's words like the and a) change in the dative, although a couple of personal pronouns are the same as in the accusative. The most important ones to remember are ich (I) becomes mir (me) and du (you) becomes dir (you).
To listen to my podcast directly on your computer, click here.
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Cases: The Accusative Case
germangrammarpod@yahoo.co.uk (Laura)Author: Laura
Sun, Mar 18, 2007
The accusative case is used for the direct object (that's the noun or pronoun to which an action is done). It's like the shark in Peter ate the shark where shark is the noun that gets eaten. It also follows certain preopstions (words like for, through and without).
Only singular (i.e. not plural) masculine nouns change in the accusative. All the determiners and adjectives that stand before these always end in -en. The other nouns stay the same as in the nominative.
Some pronouns also change. The most important ones to remember are ich (I) becomes mich (me) and du (you) becomes dich (you). As you can see, that means that not all pronouns change in English to mark the object either.
If you want to listen to this podcast directly on your computer, click here.
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Cases: The Nominative Case
germangrammarpod@yahoo.co.uk (Laura)Author: Laura
Wed, Feb 28, 2007
This podcast is about cases, which are a way of showing what role the different words are playing in a sentence. German has four cases:
- Nominative
- Accusative
- Dative
- Gentitive
This podcast describes how cases work in general, then goes on to look at the nominative case in more detail. To listen to the audio file directly on your computer, click here. Or, if you'd like to subscribe to the podcast, click the link on the top left of this blog. 
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