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

(it is 'danke für deine Hilfe', not 'Hilf', but it fits, 'Hilf!' would be imperativ. And it's 'Kannst du mir mit dem Imperativ helfen?')


Ok, I'll try

I'll best start with an example:

kommen (to come)

Komm! (come, 2nd person)
Kommt! (come, 2nd person plural)
Kommen Sie! (come, 2nd person complimentary)

The easiest is probably the last one, it's like normal 'Sie kommen' just turned around.
Singular leaves away the 'en' in most cases, plural adds an 't'.

like:
spielen, Spiel! Spielt! Spielen Sie! (play)
fangen, Fang! Fangt! Fangen Sie! (catch)
lachen, Lach! Lacht! Lachen Sie! (laugh)

and so on

In some cases the 'e' remains, like:

reden (talk)
Rede! Redet! Reden Sie!


and then there are words which change 'e' to 'i' in 2nd person singular

helfen (to help)
Hilf! Helft! Helfen Sie!
(like also: ich helfe, du hilfst)

essen (to eat)
Iss! Esst! Essen Sie!
(ich esse, du isst)

But you see that the other two stay the same.


Does that help or does it add to the confusion?

Hello Tavaron!
Thank you for your help! I hope it'll help me..and thank you for your correction! I'll write a German letter to you soon if I can, so you could correct me...

Take care,

Bis bald,

Dasha

you're welcome, if you have more questions don't hesitate to ask

bis bald

I'll try to anseer dasha's question from the Speaking Thread:

'Hallo!!

Oops! Kannst Du helfen Mir mit den unregelmaÿigen Verben???

******

Hello!
Oops! Can you help me with the irregular verbs?


Dasha'


What exactly do you want to know, Dasha?

I fear the irregular verbs you will have to learn. Each one seperately, because - as they are irregular - you can't form the past out of the present tense, etc.

irregular verbs are for instance

sein (be)
sein - war- gewesen
ich bin - ich war - ich bin gewesen (I am - I was - I have been)
du bist - du warst - du bist gewesen (you are)
er/sie/es ist - er war - er ist gewesen (he is)
wir sind - wir waren - wir sind gewesen (we are)
ihr seid - ihr wart - ihr seid gewesen (you are)
sie seind - sie waren - sie sind gewesen they are)

It's like in English or French or whatever, the only thing you can do is remember every single one. Repeating them over and over again.

Dasha
'Lieber Tav!

Danke schon!!
Was ist eine regelmassige Form?

***
Dear Tav!

Thank you so much!

What is 'regelmassige Form'??? Can you tell me about them?'


a regular verb woule be

sagen - sagte - gesagt
(say)

lachen - lachte - gelacht
(laugh)

lieben - liebte - geliebt
(love)

You see? You only need the first form and then add -te or ge-. They follow logically, while the irregulars don't.

it is NOT schwimmen - schwimmte - geschwimmt (regular), but schwimmen - schwamm - geschwommen (irregular). (to swim)

Hallo Tav!

Wie geht es Dir?

***

Hello Tav!
How are you?

Can you tell me about the difference between 'Starke' and 'Schwache' Verben?? Thank you!!!

Bis bald,

See you soon,

Dasha



P.s. Danke vielmals fur Deine Hilfe!!
***

Thank you so much for your help!

Well, that's basically what I explained in the last posts.


schwache Verben are always built up the same, with -te/-t and ge-
eg:
fragen - fragte - gefragt (ask)
lachen - lachte - gelacht (laugh)
most of them are regular verbs, but not for instance:
denken - dachte - gedacht (think)


starke Verben change vovels in the word
eg:
singen - sang - gesungen (sing)
schwimmen - schwamm - geschwommen
as you can see, here the -te/-t isn't used

Liebe Tav!
Vielan Dank!!! Du bist cool!!!

Bis bald,

***
Dear Tav!

Thank you so much! You're cool!

See you!

Dasha

gern geschen

you're welcome

Hallo Tavaron,

ich bin auf der Suche nach Lernhinweisen im Internet auf die folgende Adresse gestoßen:

http://www.d-seite.de/index.html

Könntest Du mir bitte sagen, was Du davon hältst?

***

Hello Tavaron,

I came across upon the following link while searching for learning hints in the internet:

http://www.d-seite.de/index.html

Could you to tell me, please, what you are thinking about?

Oh, ich denke man kann sicher etwas davon verwenden. Ein guter Fund.

Oh, I think one can certainly use something of that. A good discovery.

Ich bin Marinamer.
Sie ist Katz

Ich heisse Marinamer.
Ich bin füfundzwanzig Jahre alt.
Sie ist The Language Thing.
Sie ist vierzehn Jahre alt.

Mein Hund ist schön. (My dog is pretty.)
Sein Hund is nicht schön. (His dog is not pretty or His dog is ugly.)
Unsere Spiele ist dumm. (Our game is dumb or foolish.)
Dein Akzent ist Franzosisch. (Your accent is french-like. - referring to his, that's why I wrote Dein intead of Deine.)

hi

Thanks for joinning.

Please remember to translate *every* sentence.
Do you have any questions?

Hi Tavaron. I take a German course at home but it hasn't been all that satisfactory so maybe you can help me practice all the basic stuff and, if that's okay with you, I would really appreciate it if you could explain cultural aspects from Germany and the other German speaking countries.

I really love learning about culture and I feel that it helps me a lot especially in understanding behavior and things like jokes. Culture should be parted from language learning.

Right now in my course, we are learning about what we do in our free time (Freitzeit). This is what I do:

1. Ich gehe Fisch in León mit meinen Familie essen. (I go eat fish in León with my family.)
2. Ich höre meine Lieblingmusik im der Radio. (I listen to my favorite music on the radio.)
3. Ich esse ein Apfelkuchen mit meinen Freunden oder schauen ein Film.

I meant that CULTURE SHOULD NOT BE PARTED FROM LANGUAGE LEARNING, typo, sorry)

hi

I'll be glad to help you, and maybe you should also join the speaking thread to meet the others here.

First let me correct your sentences, in the first you have problems with the word order.
Ich gehe in León mit meiner Familie Fisch essen. (I go to eat fish in León with my family.)
Ich höre meine Lieblingsmusik im Radio. ('der' was too much here) (I listen to my favourite music on the radio.)
Ich esse einen Apfelkuchen mit meinen Freunden oder schaue einen Film. (the genders were wrong here, but genders are always hard to remember, I know) (I eat apple cake with my friends or watch a film.) Or did you mean that you watch a film with your friends? Then it would be 'oder wir schauen einen film' or 'oder wir sehen uns einen Film an'.