Thread: Learning German
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Old 09-04-2007, 04:01   #8
Talyubittu Talyubittu is offline
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Age: 32
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Alright, so lets start with the basics of verb conjugation for Nominative Case.

The imporant thing to remember when learning a foreign language - is that they do not operate like New Age English does. Your verbs in English have no definate ending to them. You can say "I Come From" and "You Come From" and it's correct both ways, because in Modern English - you do not change the ending of the verb you are using. If you did not understand that - please re-read until you do. It's crucial to understanding what is below. However - saying "Ich Komme Aus" (I come from) and "Du Komme Aus" (You come from) - is incorrect in German, because each verb has to have a different ending depending on if you use He, She, It, etc". If you are familiar with Russian or any other Slavic languages, this concept will be easy for you. Any time you use a Pro-noun (I, Me, You, etc) you will need to change the case ending on the verb (Run, dance, sing, etc) that you use. Here is a chart to help break it down, just ask if you have questions. I will bold the way you change the endings on verbs below so you have a visual image of how to format verbs so that they agree with their pronouns.


Quote:
In this chart we will be using the verb "To Come" or "Come From"
This verb is known as "Kommen"


Ich (I) komme
Du (You) - kommst
Er (He) - kommt
Sie (She) - kommt
Es (It) - kommt
Wir (We) - kommen
Ihr (You Pl.) - kommt
Sie (You Formal) - kommen
Sie (They) - kommen
All of these are ways to say "____ Comes (From)"

As you can see, the endings that are bolded show how you change the pronouns and the verbs so that they match each other to form a correct German sentence! You're well on your way to mastering German if you can understand this concept, so study and memorize it!

This is important becuase - any verb you use in German will function this way, with the exact same case endings, unless it is an irregular verb. And even irreular verbs have only small changes like removing an "e" from the forms of "Ich" and removing the t from "Er, Sie, Es"

Now - this may sound like a big jumble of random German words, but you really really will find this very simple after you memorize that chart and can plug in your knolwedge of German pronouns into all of this that I've typed!

If any of you are familiar with Shakespeare you'll recognize how English and German are similar.
Example: I know not = I don't know
Thou knowest not = You do not know

Do you see how the verb's ending changes when you use either "I" or "You" in Old English? - This is because English is a language that has many roots in German. So many things will be similar!

Please let me know if you've got any questions! I'll be happy to further explain!

Last edited by Talyubittu; 12-04-2007 at 22:29.
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