German conjugation
The German conjugation (from Latin coniugatio , connection ' ) deals with the inflection (inflection) of verbs in German grammar .
overview
As in all Germanic languages, the difference between strong verbs and weak verbs is significant.
In the secondary conjugation of verbs, German distinguishes between three persons (1st person, 2nd person and 3rd person) and two numbers (singular and plural). The verb is in PN congruence with the subject of the sentence.
The German language tends to prefer the use of auxiliary verbs over synthetic inflection. While this is perfectly normal for the passive and future tense, some suspect the slow dying out of the subjunctive or even the past tense.
Verb forms
Infinite verb forms (indefinite) do not indicate a person, time, number (singular, plural)
- Infinitive (nominal form): run, dance, eat, walk, name, look ...
- Participle 1: running, dancing, eating, walking, calling, looking ...
- Participle 2: walked, danced, ate, walked, called, looked ...
Finite verb forms (certain): The ending of the verb changes when it is placed in persons. Personnel form indicates person, time, number.
- went: 2nd person / singular / indicative / simple past / active
- would come: 1st or 3rd person / plural / subjunctive II (simultaneity) / active
Tense forms
German knows only two proper tenses , namely the present and the past, with the help of which all tense forms are formed; however, some subjunctive forms deviate from the actual past tense derivation (see below).
Timeline of the present
- Present tense (currently at speaking time: I am writing. )
- Perfect ([Latin: "Completed"] now completed: I wrote. )
Timeline of the past
- Past tense (then current: I wrote. ) For Jacob Grimm , the past tense is the only real tense that German has. It is the classic narrative form of the past (epic past tense). In Northern Germany, the use of the past tense in everyday language is almost indispensable, but the perfect tense is increasing in use. In contrast, in southern Germany, Austria and Switzerland, with the exception of auxiliary and modal verbs, the perfect tense is used instead of the past tense, where the past tense would be common in northern Germany. The Alemannic dialects that are spoken as dialect in these areas do not know the past tense. In Austria, the use of the past tense is on the other hand increasing when telling stories in everyday language. Perhaps the usage of time in the north as in the south is influenced by transnational television.
- Past perfect (already completed at that time: I had written to him. )
- Double perfect ("I wrote to him"); the double perfect was created in the south of the German-speaking area to express prematurity when narrating in the perfect. It is only used colloquially and its use is considered ungrammatic in the written language.
- Double past perfect ("I had written to him"): The double past perfect is only used colloquially - and is rarely observed in this area too - and is considered incorrect in standard language.
Timeline of the future
- Future tense I (only up to date soon: I will write. )
- Future II (only completed at the specified time: I will have written tomorrow. )
- Future III (“I will have written her”): The double future II is hardly used even in today's everyday language and - like the double past perfect - is not accepted in standard language.
Areas of application of the tense forms
The most important form is the present tense. As a historical present tense, it can replace the past tense or perfect tense and often stands for the future tense I. In these cases, an adverbial of the time is often used as a supplement.
Proverbs are in the Gnomish present tense: "Arrogance comes before the fall."
Formation of the tense forms
The forms of the past tense past perfect and perfect are formed with the auxiliary verbs haben or sein and the past participle (past participle II). The simple past uses the stem of the infinitive.
The future tense is formed with the verb werden or (Future II) werden and haben or sein .
Past perfect, future II and future I are rarely used in spoken language. Some dialects do not know these tenses. Some dialects know the "plus plus quamperfect" or "double perfect" (e.g. he saw it). Southern German dialects have no past tense with the exception of the modal and auxiliary verbs. In Swiss German , there is absolutely no past tense. The Low German on the other hand knows all six tenses, the Futurformen with are (in Low: Sölen or Schoelen [ik sall / sound] ) are formed.
Diathesis / gender verbi
German distinguishes between active and passive . The genus verbi of the medium , which was found in some Indo-European languages, corresponds formally to active or is clarified by means of reflexive pronouns, and is also found in German (“The book reads well.”).
The passive voice is particularly important in formal German. It is formed from the auxiliary verbs werden or sein and the past participle and inverts the perspective of the active sentence. The patient becomes the starting point, the agent loses the subject role and can also be dropped, so that the “perpetrator” (without an addition such as “through” or “from”) remains unknown.
Example: The woman observed the accident. - The accident was observed (by the woman).
German distinguishes between the process passive, which semantically corresponds to the passives of most other European languages and which is usually formed with the auxiliary verb are , and the state passive with the auxiliary verb sein. This distinction is absent in many related languages. While the process passive expresses the course of the action, the state passive emphasizes the result of the action (see resultative ).
passive
The passive is the "offender" - averted statement form of the verb, also called suffering form. The German language distinguishes (at least) two passive forms:
- Process passive (VP)
- State passive (see resultative ) (ZP)
- the status of the recipient passive (RP) is controversial
Process passive
- I am seen (VP present tense)
- I was seen (VP past tense)
- I've been seen (VP perfect)
- I was seen (VP past perfect)
- I will be seen (VP-Future I)
- I will have been seen. (VP-Future II)
State passive (see resultative)
- The door is open (ZP present tense)
- The door was open (ZP past tense)
- The door has been open (ZP-Perfect)
- The door had been open (ZP past perfect)
- The door will be open (ZP future tense I)
- The door will have been open (ZP-Future II)
Recipient passive
- He gets the book taken away (RP present tense)
- He got the book taken away (RP simple past)
- He got the book taken away. (RP perfect)
- He had the book taken away. (RP-past perfect)
- He'll have the book taken away. (RP future tense I)
- He will have had the book taken away. (RP-Future II)
Colloquially, there are also formations with kriegen .
mode
In German there are the following modes :
- the indicative (reality form): "Paul is coming."
- the imperative (command): "Paul, come!"
- and the subjunctive (possibility form): "Paul come. Paul is coming. Paul would come. "
imperative
A distinction is made between imperative forms without personal pronouns (for example, go! Or goes! ) And substitute forms with personal pronouns, which are used as a substitute for imperative forms that do not exist ( let's go! Or go! ). Except for the 1st person plural, which linguistically represents an adhortative , all other forms are to be seen as a command to a person or group of people present, even if the imperative with the polite salutation "you" is syntactically addressed to the 3rd person and thus can also be interpreted as jussive .
In the singular, the inflected imperative in German corresponds to the verb form of the 2nd person singular without personal pronouns and without the ending "-st". In the plural, only the pronoun is left out: “you work” → “work!”; “You learn” → “learn!” In strong verbs with umlaut in the 2nd and 3rd person singular, the vowel change is omitted: “du run” → “run!”
Deviating from this pattern, the imperative forms for sein , will and know correspond to the infinitive without the ending “- (e) n”: “be! / Be!”, “Will! / Will!”, And “know! / Know (e) t! "
For verbs like “arithmetic” or “breathe”, in which an e is omitted from the root of the word (see arithmetic rule, breath), the imperative form with the ending “-e” - ie “calculate!” - is the only one possible variant. For verbs ending in “-eln” and “-ern”, an “-e” must also be added to the root of the word without the ending “-st”: “wander!”; In the verbs on “-eln”, the e in the root of the word can be omitted: “collect!” or “collect!” Strong verbs with a vowel change in the imperative cannot have an -e as an ending, it only says: “throw!”, “give ! ”,“ Eat! ”.
conjunctive
In general, the subjunctive describes the unreal: wishes, guesses, possibilities, etc. Ä. A distinction is made between two standard forms, in the relationship of which tense differentiation no longer plays a role today:
- Subjunctive I
- Future
Instead of the subjunctive I and II one uses - v. a. Colloquial - often the so-called "subjunctive substitute form" (also called "dignity form", "conditional" or subjunctive III, etc.).
One distinguishes the following forms in the subjunctive I:
- Subjunctive I of simultaneity (also: conjunctive present / present tense)
- Subjunctive I of prematurity (also: subjunctive past / perfect)
- Subjunctive I of Nachzeitigkeit (also: Konjunktiv Future; two variants: Subjunctive Future I and Future II)
The following forms are distinguished in the subjunctive II:
- Subjunctive II of simultaneity (also: Subjunctive past tense)
- Subjunctive II of prematurity (also: subjunctive past perfect)
- Subjunctive II of Nachzeitigkeit (also subjunctive future; two variants: subjunctive future I and future II)
Both in the subjunctive I and the subjunctive II the future tense is hardly used; instead of it one uses - as in the indicative - the present tense and possibly lexical means (tomorrow, in 3 years, etc.).
Formation of the subjunctive
The subjunctive I is basically derived from the infinitive stem of the verb (in some explanations one refers to the present stem; in this case, however, the modal verbs may have to be an exception), followed by the suffix -e- and the respective personal ending. In the 1st and 3rd person plural, suffix and ending are combined, in the 1st and 3rd person singular there is no personal ending.
Present word stem + e + personal ending
| 1.Pers.Sg. | come + e | I'm coming |
| 2.Pers.Sg. | come + e + st | you come |
| 3.Pers.Sg. | come + e | he's coming |
| 1st person pl. | come + e + en | we come |
| 2nd person pl. | come + e + t | you come |
| 3rd person pl. | come + e + en | they are coming |
The subjunctive II is basically derived from the past indicative of the verb. In weak verbs, the subjunctive II corresponds formally to the past tense indicative. It is formed from strong verbs by combining the preterital stem of the indicative with the suffix -e- and the respective personal ending (with the same exceptions and amalgamations as in the present subjunctive), with an umlaut added.
Preterite word stem + e + personal ending
| 1.Pers.Sg. | came + e (+ umlaut) | I came |
| 2.Pers.Sg. | came + e + st (+ umlaut) | you would come |
| 3.Pers.Sg. | came + e (+ umlaut) | he would come |
| 1st person pl. | came + e + en (+ umlaut) | we would come |
| 2nd person pl. | came + e + t (+ umlaut) | you would come |
| 3rd person pl. | came + e + en (+ umlaut) | they would come |
The compound tenses (formally corresponding to the indicative perfect, past perfect, future I and future II) are "transferred" to the subjunctive I or II by using the auxiliary verb (to have / to be / to be) according to the basic rule (derivation from the infinitive resp. Present stem or from the past tense form).
| 3.P.Sg. AI Perf. | he had come |
| 3.P.Sg.KI Fut.I | he will come |
| 3.P.Sg.KI Fut.II | he would have come |
| 3.P.Sg.KII Plusqu. | he would have come |
| 3.P.Sg.KII future tense I | he would come |
| 3.P.Sg.KII FutureII | he would have come |
If the subjunctive II is in harmony with another form of the same (or another) verb, the stem can be changed due to the likelihood of confusion; however, these special forms usually do not adhere to certain educational rules. Examples:
- "Help": past tense "(I) helped" → actual subjunctive II: "(I) help" → consonance with the 1st pers. Sg. Present tense of the verb (I help) → Future "(I) would help "
- "Scold": past tense "(I) schalt" → actual subjunctive II: "(I) peel" → consonance with past tense forms (1st and 3rd person sg.) Of "peel" → subjunctive II "(I) schölte "
However, both forms are possible in some cases (as for example in "stand". "(I) stands " or "(I) would ").
The compound tenses (formally corresponding to the indicative perfect, past perfect, future I and future II) are "transferred" to the subjunctive I or II by using the auxiliary verb (to have / to be / to be) according to the basic rule (derivation from the infinitive resp. Present stem or from the past tense form).
| 3.P.Sg. AI Perf. | he had come |
| 3.P.Sg.KI Fut.I | he will come |
| 3.P.Sg.KI Fut.II | he would have come |
| 3.P.Sg.KII Plusqu. | he would have come |
| 3.P.Sg.KII Fut.I | he would come |
| 3.P.Sg.KII Fut.II | he would have come |
As with the indicative, many Germans tend to use the respective present tense for the future, so that the subjunctive II future tense I became more or less “meaningless” and “converted” to the so-called “subjunctive substitute form” (dignity form, subjunctive III, conditional) could.
Use of the subjunctive
The subjunctive I is basically used to express:
- fulfillable wishes in a sophisticated speech
- " Be noble , helpful and good!"
- Requests to a third person
- "God save the king!"
- especially the polite form of address in the third person plural
- " Be so good, go ahead!"
- (rarely) instructions in manuals etc. Ä.
- " Take four eggs ..."
The subjunctive I is mainly used in the reproduction of indirect speech , especially in press releases to distance yourself from the truth of a statement.
- "The Chancellor said there were no new tax increases." (= She did say that, but we don't know if it's true.)
The subjunctive II basically expresses the following:
- unreal, conditionally possible or speculative facts and unreal wishes
- "If I have more money would have , could I buy a house."
- Reproduction of indirect speech when the subjunctive I cannot be distinguished from the indicative
- "Peter said the kids would be home at 6 o'clock."
Substitute forms of various kinds are increasingly replacing the subjunctive I and II in everyday language, but also more or less strongly in written language (sometimes this is an individual question or a question of style):
- The subjunctive I is replaced by its equivalents in the indicative (possibly with the addition of lexical means such as: alleged, presumably, possibly ...) or by the "dignity form"
- "He heard I was always nice been ." → "He heard I 'm supposed to be always nice been ." → "He heard I would be nice to be ."
- The subjunctive II is replaced by the "dignity form"
- "He said they were writing it." → "He said they would the writing ."
In addition, many old subjunctive forms are being replaced by the "dignity form", especially in:
- formal equality of subjunctive and indicative form (subjunctive II of weak verbs)
- "I said " (indicative = subjunctive) → "I would say "
- Presence of parallel and / or outdated forms of the subjunctive II
- "I throw " ↔ "I throw " → "I would throw "
(The outdated subjunctive II forms go back to outdated past tense forms of these verbs.) Synthetic subjunctive forms are still strongest in those strong verbs in which the subjunctive II can still be recognized without doubt in all persons through umlaut (e.g. I. would come, you would come, he would come etc.).
The status of the “form of dignity” is controversial in linguistics. While some reject it as overly “popular” and accept it only to a very limited extent, others regard it as a “subsidiary form” (within the subjunctive II) and still others as an independent “modern form”, which step by step the old forms (apart from fixed expressions ) will replace. Something similar took place and / or takes place z. B. in the sister languages of German, Danish and English.