German Misc. Basics: Lesson 2
So far we have covered 4 verbs: sein, haben, sagen, and erwarten. Why not add a verb ending with -ieren?
The word for to study is studieren
?She studies|Sie studiert
?He studies|Er studiert
?It studies|Es studiert
?He has studied|Er hat studiert
Remember that -ieren verbs don’t add the ge prefix.
?She has studied it|Sie hat es studiert
The word for to drive is fahren
Fahren is a strong verb, or what I call a hard verb. So he/she/it, or simply 3rd person singular, uses the ä for the vowel change. Thus, fahren becomes fährt. Download the German keyboard if you haven’t done so already. Ä is located on the " key. Entering in German keyboard into Google should lead you into the right direction. Microsoft Word has virtually any language available, and you’ll be up and running in a matter of minutes.
?She drives|Sie fährt
?He drives|Er fährt
Fahren does its own thing for the past participle. Remember before I told you to use ge as a prefix if there are no inseparable prefixes and/or ending in ieren? Well, fahren uses gefahren as the past participle, not gefährt. Thus, you would say Er ist gefahren.
If you recall from the last lesson, one can’t just always use haben as the auxiliary. For reading purposes it’s fairly simple, as one doesn’t have to think about whether or not to use haben or sein as the auxiliary. Say you come across this:
Er ist in Amerika gestorben
Gestorben is the past participle of sterben. Sterben means to die. Now, from reading this, one wouldn’t think, oh, this means he is died in America. Rather, one would logically think He has died in America or He died in America. So for reading purposes or in passive learning, this issue of whether or not to use haben/sein isn’t terribly vital.
However, one should be aware of a few rules which may help you for speaking or writing purposes.
1. Transitive verbs use haben. This means verbs taking a direct object.
2. Verbs of motion use sein
3. Change of physical state use sein, such as the example above with sterben.
4. Some verbs will always take sein, so really it’s best to look up the verb in a dictionary to determine if it takes sein or haben.
?He has driven|Er ist gefahren
?She has driven|Sie ist gefahren
The word for to Frankfurt is nach Frankfurt
?He has driven to Frankfurt|Er ist nach Frankfurt gefahren
?She has driven to Frankfurt|Sie ist nach Frankfurt gefahren
?He says it|Er sagt es
?It has said it|Es hat es gesagt.
?She is awaiting|Sie erwartet
?He says nothing|Er sagt nichts
?It has driven to Frankfurt|Es ist nach Frankfurt gefahren
?He has driven to Frankfurt|Er ist nach Frankfurt gefahren
Now, let’s see what happens when you insert a direct object such as a car into the sentence Er ist nach Frankfurt gefahren.
The word for car is das Auto.
If you throw the car into the sentence, car becomes a direct object. What are you driving? The car! And recall one of the rules about haben taking transitive verbs. So, even though you are going through motion, fahren still is taking das Auto as the direct object.
?He has driven the car to Frankfurt|Er hat das Auto nach Frankfurt gefahren
?She has driven the car|Sie hat das Auto gefahren
?It has driven to Frankfurt|Es ist nach Frankfurt gefahren
?He has driven to Berlin|Er ist nach Berlin gefahren
?He has driven the car to Chicago|Er hat das Auto nach Chicago gefahren
?She has driven the money to Frankfurt|Sie hat das Geld nach Frankfurt gefahren
?He has driven to Frankfurt|Er ist nach Frankfurt gefahren
?He is saying|Er sagt
?She has awaited|Sie hat erwartet
?She studies|Sie studiert
?He has studied|Er hat studiert
This is all for now.
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