XIX. Subjunctive and Conditional. Conditional Sentences XXI. Inseparable Compounds. Wissen. Optative and Ad XXII. Separable Compounds. Possessive Pronouns XXIV. Modal Auxiliaries. Lassen. Es gibt, Es ist. Impersonal 117 123 130 . 185 ESSENTIALS OF GERMAN Introduction ALPHABET 1. The German alphabet, like the English, consists of twenty-six letters. The German letters differ considerably from the Roman forms employed in English. German Form German ah Б Α f tsay day ay eff g gay i C DEFGH NOPA n p q r f Hh W w f kah L m 3 3 NOTE. For the German script see the Appendix. 1 2. It will be noticed that capital I and have the same form: J. If a vowel follow it is, if a consonant I: Irrtum = Irrtum, mistake; Jahr = Jahr, year. 3. Of the two signs for s, 3 is used at the end of a word or syllable except before p; elsewhere f is used: sagen, to say; lesen, to read; Haus, house; Hausvater, housefather; Häuschen (= Häus-chen), little house; Bleistift (= Bleistift), lead-pencil; Schicksal (= Schick-sal), fate; Wespe, wasp. For ß and ss see § 5. 4. Certain combinations of letters are printed as one character with slight changes in form: sz; ch (tsay-hah′) = ch; if (tsay-kah′) = ck; ß (ess-tŝet′) = (tay'-tset) = tz. = 5. Double s is represented in German by either ß or ss; is used medially after a long vowel or a diphthong, finally, and before t. Elsewhere ss is used. This difference in use is frequently important in determining the quantity of vowels, medial ß being always preceded by a long, ss by a short vowel: Straße, street; Preußen, Prussia; daß, that; er läßt, he lets; Wasser, water; Messer, knife; lassen, to let. When German is written in English script ss or sz may be used for ß. PRONUNCIATION e in ie (= long i), there Thus Knabe (K+nabe), 6. With the exception of h when it indicates the length of a vowel (§ 7, b) and of are in German no silent letters. boy; Gnade (G+nade), mercy. Vowels 7. QUANTITY. The following rules will in most cases determine the quantity of a German vowel: (a) A vowel followed by a double consonant (i.e. one and the same consonant doubled) is invariably short: Mann, man; Neffe, nephew; kommen, to come. (b) A vowel is long when followed by h or when doubled. Ah that thus follows a vowel is silent: Hahn, cock; Sohn, son; Haar, hair; Meer, sea. NOTE 1. Long i is usually written ie. For f as indicating length of vowel see § 5. NOTE 2. According to the old orthography in words beginning with t the has a sign of length was written not after the vowel, but after the t. According to the new orthography, adopted in 1901 and followed in this book, these words, when not of foreign origin, are now written without h: Tal, valley; tun, to do; Tür, door; instead of Thal, thun, Thür, which had thitherto been the accepted spelling. (c) An accented vowel at the end of a syllable (compare § 14) is long: Blu-me, flower; Fe-der, pen; Va-ter, father. (d) In general a vowel followed by one consonant is long, by two or more consonants short, but to this rule there are a number of exceptions. Long: gut, good; rot, red; stets, always. Short: Bant, bench; Geld, money; das, that. In the paradigms and vocabularies of this book quantity will in all doubtful cases be marked by the signs. (long) and (short), and the student should take care from the outset to pronounce the vowels with the correct quantity. It will be seen that long and short vowels |