h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

OKAY!!!!

We're going to be starting on cases around about now! So I'm going to give us all a quick recap of noun cases in English so that we can do them easily in German. It's actually easier in German than English.

This is shamelessly stolen from the lovely echomikeromeo in the Latin Department.

Nominative: the subject of the sentence, the thing doing the action. For example, in the sentence 'Dani likes tables', Dani would be the subject, and therefore in the nominative case. The nominative form is generally the one listed in the dictionary.

Genitive: possessive, used when something belongs to someone. In the phrase 'Katkodl's table', 'Katkodl's' would be a genitive form.

Accusative: direct object, the recipient of the action. The direct object in 'Kath likes tables' would be 'tables', since it receives Kath's liking.

Dative: Can be used in different ways, but its most common use is as an indirect object - an indirect recipient of the action. In the sentence 'Ruth gave a table to Jeff', 'Jeff' is receiving the recipient, and therefore is an indirect object and is in the dative case.


Those are the BASIC noun cases we're going to cover. Are there any questions at this stage?

Kats

Just one thing:
The correct order is…

nominative (der Nominativ - 1. Fall)
genitive (der Genitiv - 2. Fall)
dative (der Dativ - 3. Fall)
accusative (der Akkusativ - 4. Fall)

*grins 'cause she actually understood all that, she thinks*

Jolly good...Katkodl will be going over it in German next...

So that's things like der, die, den etc. Get your notepad and different coloured pens out...cases are beastly as far as I'm concerned.

We have definite and indefinite articles in German:


definite articles singular (1st case):
der (the – male) (der Hund – the dog)
die (the – female) (die Katze – the cat)
das (the – neuter) (das Haus – the house)


definite articles plural (1st case):
die (the – male) (die Hunde – the dogs)
die (the – female) (die Katzen – the cats)
die (the – neuter) (die Häuser – the houses)


indefinte articles singular (1st case):
ein (a – male) (ein Hund –a dog)
eine (a – female) (eine Katze – a cat)
ein (a – neuter) (ein Haus – a house)


There is no plural form of the indefinite article:
Hunde – dogs
Katzen – cats
Häuser – houses


Sentences:

Der Hund ist groß. – The dog is huge.
Die Katze ist schön. – The cat is beautiful.
Das Haus ist rot. – The house is red.


Die Hunde sind groß. – The dogs are huge.
Die Katzen sind schön. – The cats are beautiful.
Die Häuser sind rot. – The houses are red.


Dort sitzt ein Hund. – There is sitting a dog.
Dort sitzt eine Katze. – There is sitting a cat.
Dort ist ein Haus. – There is a house. (Houses don’t sit, huh?)


Dort sitzen Hunde. - There are sitting (some) dogs.
Dort sitzen Katzen. - There are sitting (some) cats.
Dort sind Häuser. - There are (some) houses.



Would you like to form some sentences, or do you need more input (vocabulary)?

Der Hund ist loss.
Die Hunde sind dick.
Ein Hund ist hinter mich.
Hunde sind nett.

The dog is wrong.
The dogs are fat.
A dog is behind me.
Dogs are nice.

loss doesn't mean anything. Make that falsch.

correction:
Mein Hund ist hinter mir.
(mir: 3rd case - we haven't talked about that yet.)

Your 1st cases were all fine!

Bin ich die einzige Anfaengerin?

Am I the only learner?



****
Mein Zimmer ist gross. Es gibt viele Bucher und am ein Wand sitzt ein Klavier. Es gibt auch am das Klavier Bucher. Der Schreibtisch ist alt, und hat viele Kratzen. Kindern liebt mein Zimmer, weil es viele zu sehen hat. Auch gibt es viele Dinge da ein Geraeusch machen, das Klavier, ein Saxaphon, eine Klarinette, und das Fernsehen.

*~*~*~*~
My room is big. There are many books and on one wall sits a piano (I think I accidently said it actually sits ontop of the wall ). There are also books on the piano. The desk is old and has many scratches. Children love my room because it has lots to see. Also there are many things that make a noise, the piano, a saxaphone, a clarinet and the television.

At least that's what it should say. Sorry it's so boring but I've forgotten everything and it's rather worrying me so I want to step up learning again.

Katkat

I'm a learner too! *jumps up and down*

Well start churning out practice then!

corrections (post 369):

Mein Zimmer ist groß. (0 mistakes)
Es gibt viele Bücher und an der Wand steht ein Klavier. (Say rather „stehen“ instead of „sitzen)
Es gibt auch auf dem Klavier Bücher.
Der Schreibtisch ist alt und hat viele Kratzer.
Kinder lieben mein Zimmer, weil es so viel zu sehen gibt.
Es gibt auch viele Dinge die ein Geräusch machen, das Klavier, ein Saxophon, eine Klarinette und das Fernsehen. (das Fernsehen = television; der Fernsehapparat = the television)


That was pretty good! Some problems with the cases, but that's okay because we haven't talked about them yet.

***Ostern – Easter***
************************

der Palmsonntag – Palm Sunday

der Gründonnerstag – Maundy Thursday

der Karfreitag – Good Friday

der Karsamstag – Holy Saturday

der Ostersonntag – Easter Sunday

der Ostermontag – Easter Monday

der Osterhase (die Osterhasen) – Easter Hare (Easter Bunny)

das Ei (die Eier) – egg

das Osterei (die Ostereier) – Easter egg

Happy Easter! – Frohe Ostern!


das Schneeglöckchen (die Schneeglöckchen) – snowdrop

die Frühlingsknotenblume (die Frühlingskontenblumen) – spring snowflake

die Tulpe (die Tulpen) – tulip

die Narzisse (die Narzissen) – daffodil

das Veilchen (die Veilchen) – violet

der Krokus (die Krokusse) – crocus

die Primel (die Primeln) – primrose



Ich mag rote Tulpen. – I like red tulips.

Der Osterhase bringt Ostereier. – The Easter Hare brings Easter eggs.

Schneeglöckchen sind weiß. – Snowdrops are white.

Im Garten wachsen Primeln. – In the garden are growing primroses.

Veilchen sind klein. – Violets are small.



For everyone who’s celebrating: Happy Easter! - Frohe Ostern!





P.S.: if people (who live in areas where there isn't spring right now) want me to talk about fall please let me know.

Hallo katkodl, ich wünsche dir auch frohe Ostern. Gehst du noch Ostereier suchen ?

Hello katkodl, I wish you too, a happy Easter. Are you going to search Easter eggs ?

Hallo B’Elana! Frohe Ostern!

Ich glaube in meiner Familie herrscht das ungeschriebene Gesetz, dass jeder/jede der/die selbst noch keine Kinder hat, „Osternesterl“ suchen gehen muss. Zumindest versteckt meine Großmutter für uns noch jedes Jahr Osternester, auch für die fast 30jährigen!
Was ist mit dir?


Hello B’Elana! Happy Easter!

I think there is an unwritten law in my family that everyone who hasn’t children on his/her own yet, has to search for “Osternesterl”. At least my grandma hides Easter nests for us every year, even for those who are almost 30!
What about you?

Meine Eltern haben das nur gemacht, als wir noch klein waren. Ich habe es allerdings für meine Kinder auch all die Jahre gemacht.




My parents only did that when we were still small. But I have done it for my children during all those years.

Frohe Ostern!

Es gibt keine Narzissen in die Nahe von mich

Ich habe auch keine Ostereier, weil meine Eltern, daß ich zu alt bin denken.

****

Happy Easter!

There are no daffodils near me

I also have no Easter eggs because my parents think I'm too old.

katkat

corrections:

...in der Nähe von mir. ("mir" is 3rd case)

...weil meine Eltern denken, dass ich zu alt bin. (Only the word order was wrong. Keep in mind that "daß" is obsolete. Write "dass" in future.)


Vielleicht versteckt Mikey Ostereier für dich?

Maybe Mikey hides Easter eggs for you?

Ich denke nichts. Es wird amerikanische Schokolade sein und das ist nicht so gut
***
I don't think so. It will be American chocolate and that isn't so good

Katkat

correction:

Ich denke nicht. (Without the "s". Replacing the "das" with a "die" would sound better, but the "das" is okay in spoken language! )


Wie wär's mit echten Eiern?

What about real eggs?