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

My confusion was due to the verb being at the end of the sentence. In English we don't say "you would have them the day before to cook!"

I'm so lost. *pulls out a map to help her find herself*

Hallo alle. Frohe Ostern!

Hello Everyone. Happy Easter!

Hello Danielle!
Don’t worry, just ask if you have questions.

I’ll post the lecture about “comparison” later this week. It’s kind of finished, but I’m not too happy with it.

Wünsche allen frohe Ostern!
Happy Easter to everyone!


katkodl

I'm sorry for the delay!
My following post will be a lesson about comparison. It's not complete - I have no grammar books, and I don't trust in WWW sources, and yeah, I'm pretty busy at the moment.

If you have questions just ask. If you find there's something wrong or missing in my lecture please let me know and I'll fix it.

COMPARISON

Let’s go for an example to get started:

oft – öfter – öftest / am öftesten
often – more often – most often

Note: “öftest” is very formal and obsolete. That’s why I’ll leave it out throughout my explanations. I’ll only teach you its equivalent, “am öftesten”.


schön – schöner – am schönsten
pretty – prettier - prettiest

alt – älter – am ältesten
old – older - oldest

groß – größer – am größten
big – bigger – biggest

klein – kleiner – am kleinsten
small – smaller – smallest

großartig – großartiger – am großartigsten
great – greater - greatest

leise – leiser – am leisesten
silent – more silent – most silent



Please note: we NEVER use “mehr“ (more) to express comparison.

You have to add “er” for the first "Steigerungsform" (öfter, schöner, älter, größer…)
When a word ends with an “e” you only need to add an “r” for the first “Steigerungsform”, as in “leiser”.

Add “(e)sten” for the second “Steigerungsform”. Don’t forget about the “am” that is preceding it.

Why “esten” instead of “sten” in some cases?
That’s due to the German pronunciation. While “nst” (as in “am schönsten”) is a common combination of letters in German, “tst” is not – therefore you have to say “am öftesten”, and not “am öftsten”.

When the word you want to compare ends with “ß” you needn’t add another s, just add “ten” as in “am größten”).


I’m afraid there is no pattern in “o” changing into “ö”, “a” into “ä” or even “u” into “ü”.


Usage:

than = als

Ich bin kleiner als du.
I am smaller than you (are).

Ich bin am kleinsten (von allen).
I am the smallest (of all).

Sie ist schöner als ich.
She is more beautiful than I am.

Sie ist am schönsten (von allen).
She is [the] most beautiful [one] (of all).

Ich mag am liebsten Katzen.
(Ich mag Katzen am liebsten.)
(If you want to emphasize „cats“: Katzen mag ich am liebsten.)
I like cats best.

Ich mag am wenigsten Spinnen.
(Ich mag Spinnen am wenigsten.)
(If you want to emphasize „spiders“: Spinnen mag ich am wenigsten.)
I like spiders least.

Ich mag Katzen lieber als Spinnen.
I like cats better than spiders.

Ich mag Spinnen weniger als Katzen.
I like spiders less than cats.



I’m sure I’ve forgotten about the one or other rule… If something doesn’t add up to you please ask. If it occurs to you that I’ve forgotten about something (important) please let me know and I’ll include the missing information.


If you want to form sentences I will correct them for you.

Am I enterd into the german beginners thread now. Ok I have done as you said.

Es heist Ratkodl.

Its name is ratkodl.
Tim Clamp

Hello Tim Clamp!

That's a nice sentence!
Please note:
"Es heißt Ratkodl".
I suppose you don't have the letter "ß" on your keyboard, instead of "ß" you can write "ss":
"Es heisst Ratkodl".

Instead of ö, ä and ü you may write "oe", "ae" and "ue" by the way.

Thank you for your information. Am I now on the beginners thread. Somebody ( I think her name was kat) told me to register for the beginners thread in german and do the same in latin. Have I done this for german. if I hoave now to do it for latin.
Tim Clamp

Yes, you've now (by posting here) subscribed to this thread.

Hallo Tim Clamp, willkommen bei den deutsch Anfängern

Hello Tim Clamp, welcome to the 'German beginners'

Hallo Tim Clamp!

(I don't really have to translate "hallo", do I?)

Ich werde dich melden und dann sehen wir's!

I'll yikes you and we'll see!

*stürzt sich aus dem Fenster*

*jumps out of the window*

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!

Ach!

Hey Tim you're definitely in the right place. What would be a good thing to do, is to go back to the start of this thread and read through what's happened....mainly the LONG posts which are the lessons. Then you can practice bits as you read them and ratkodl will be happy to correct them for you.

Just ignore all the bits where I tried to teach the lesson

Actually it might do all of us good to go back and write a paragraph say, using what we've learned so far...yes that includes you Dani

Kat

Noooo, not me. I've had enough German for one week, as I was behind in my German work and had to do 4 weeks of it to catch up this week. Nya. Last night I even had a dream where people around me kept talking in German and I was trying to get the jist of what they were saying. Too... much.... German.... *dies*

You'll never learn it well if you approach it like that. Do you get tired of talking and writing in English?? I suspect not if you had only done as much as you have of German this week

True... I don't get tired of English... but I like things I'm good at.

Then you've got to get good at German! And that's impossible without practice.

But... it's evil with the homeschooling I don't have other students at my level to do the conversations with and stuff... and typing it isn't really the same... you know...? Baaah...