German Misc. Basics: Lesson 6

The words for to live are wohnen and leben. They differ in that wohnen means to reside somewhere, and leben means to be alive.

Recall that wo means where

?Where do you live?|Wo wohnen Sie?

?I live in Berlin|Ich wohne in Berlin

?Your aunt lives in Frankfurt|Ihre Tante wohnt in Frankfurt

?My aunt lives in Chicago|Meine Tante wohnt in Chicago

?My aunt is living|Meine Tante lebt

The word for still is noch

Verbs always take the second position, so if you wanted to say my aunt is still living you must put the verb in the second position(second position doesn’t mean second word!) You’ll get used to this as you progress through German.

?My aunt is still living|Meine Tante lebt noch

The word for now is jetzt

?I’m studying now|Ich studiere jetzt

Now try now before the verb

?Now I’m studying it|Jetzt studiere ich es

?Where does your aunt live?|Wo wohnt Ihre Tante?

You usually put the time before place

?My aunt lives in Berlin now|Meine Tante wohnt jetzt in Berlin

?The communist lives in Berlin now|Der Kommunist wohnt jetzt in Berlin

?You live in Frankfurt now|Sie wohnen jetzt in Frankfurt

?I have said it|Ich habe es gesagt

?I’m saying it now|Ich sage es jetzt

I’m going to introduce a rule about the order of pronouns and nouns. Just remember ADDA. Think ABBA but with Ds instead of Bs. ADDA is about the order of objects: Accusative pronoun--Dative pronoun and Dative noun--Accusative noun

The accusative for er is ihn

?I have expected him|Ich habe ihn erwartet

?She studies him|Sie studiert ihn

?You have studied him|Sie haben ihn studiert

?Your aunt has studied him|Ihre Tante hat ihn studiert

The word for gave is gab

Gab works for both 1st person and 3rd person singular. This is such a common verb that it’s important to learn its irregularies early on.

The dative er is ihm

Consider the sentence: Ich gab es ihm

You’ll notice that there are two pronouns. How is one supposed to know the order of the pronouns? Afterall, word order in German can get very erradict. This is where the ADDA rule comes into play. AD in ADDA says that accusative pronouns come before dative pronouns.

?He gave it to him|Er gab es ihm

?Your aunt gave it to him|Ihre Tante gab es ihm

?The communist gave it to him|Der Kommunist gab es ihm

Recall before how masculine nouns had der nominative and den accusative. It’s dem for the dative.

Consider the sentences:

Er gab ihn dem Kommunisten. This means He gave him to the communist

Er gab ihm den Kommunisten This means He gave the communist to him

Recall that der Kommunist is a weak noun, so all the endings are -en expect the nominative singular.

In the ADDA example we had just the pronouns. Now we have one pronoun and one noun. The pronoun always comes first, regardless of the case.

Here is a sentence with just 2 pronouns again

?Er gave it to him|Er gab es ihm

The DA in ADDA refers to the order of objects when it’s just nouns. When there are no pronouns, then order is dative then accusative

The dative for feminine the is der

?I gave the aunt the car|Ich gab der Tante das Auto

?I gave the aunt the money|Ich gab der Tante das Geld

?The capitalist gave the communist the money|Der Kapitalist gab dem Kommunisten das Geld

?Your aunt gave him the communist|Ihre Tante gab ihm den Kommunisten

?My aunt gave him it|Meine Tante gab es ihm

?I gave the aunt the communist|Ich gab der Tante den Kommunisten

Good, so now with ADDA we can figure out the order of objects. This is a lot to take in, so in the future lessons there will be many prompts in regards to the different cases. Who would’ve thought that dative feminine the would be der when der is masculine for the nominative case? It will take some getting used to.

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