High German
High German, or Hochdeutsch, (the stage is called New High German) is the name of the standard form of Modern German. It is a West Germanic and is related to Low German, Dutch, and Anglo-Saxon/Modern English. Today it is the official language of Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Liechtenstein.
| High German HochDeutsch | |
| Spoken in: | Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Liechtenstein (Deutschland, Schweiz, Österreich, Liechtenstein) |
| Conworld: | Real world |
| Total speakers: | 105 million |
| Genealogical classification: | Indo-European
|
| Basic word order: | SVO, OVS/V2 |
| Morphological type: | inflecting |
| Morphosyntactic alignment: | nominative-accusative |
| Writing system: | |
| Created by: | |
| unknown | 1800-Present C.E. |
Outline of the History of High German
High German has 4 primary written stages, similar to English. The four stages are as follows:
- Old High German
- Middle High German
- Early New High German
- New High German
The last stage is the Modern German of today.
Difference between High and Low German
High German differs from other West German languages such as Low German, English, and Dutch in that High German when through the High German Consonant Shift. The High German Consonant Shift (or HGCS) is the sound shift where;
- Non-geminated voicless stops became fricatives,
- Geminated, nasal-adjacent and liquid-adjacent voiceless stops became affricates,
- Voiced stops became voiceless stops, and finally
- All interdental fricatives (/ð/ and /θ/) became the dental stop and/or Alveolar stop /d̻/ and /d/.
The last stage was shared by Low German and Dutch.
All of these stages occur in the Highest of High German dialects, but Standard High German does not have all of them. The shift of /k/>/kx/ in stage 2 did not occur in the standard, although it did in Upper German dialects, such as Southern Bavarian. Also the only part of stage 3 which actually became part of standard High German was /d/>/t/. The other two happened only in the Highest of High German or Upper German dialects
Orthography
High German is written with the Latin alphabet. It has extra letters which represent some of the sounds of the German language, which are not otherwise found in the Latin alphabet. These include Ö ö, Ü ü, Ä ä, ß.
Phonology
Consonants
| Consonants | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bilabial | Labiod. | Alveolar | Post-alv. | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||||||||||
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ | |||||||||||||
| Plosive | p | b | t | d | k | g | ||||||||||
| Fricative | f | v | s | z | ʃ | (ʒ) | ç | x | h | |||||||
| Affricate | pf | ʦ | ʧ | (ʤ) | (kx) | |||||||||||
| Approximants | j | |||||||||||||||
| Trill | r | |||||||||||||||
| Lateral Approximant | l | |||||||||||||||
- The diagraph ch is /x/ after a back vowel, and /ç/ elsewhere.
- v and f are (usually) both pronounced /f/, and w is pronounced /v/.
- /ŋ/ occurs as ng and /ŋk/ is nk.
- sch is pronounced /ʃ/. tsch is pronounced /ʧ/.
- Initially s is pronounced /z/ before vowels, and /ʃ/ before a consonant (such as st and sp).
- j is pronounced /j/.
- The spellings tz and z are pronounced /ʦ/.
- ß and ss are pronounced /s/.
- German has final devoicing. This means that all voiced consonants with voiceless forms become those voiceless forms, at the end of the word.
Vowels
| Vowels | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Front | Central | Back | ||||||||
| Unround | Rounded | Unrounded | Rounded | |||||||
| High | iː - ɪ | yː - ʏ | uː - ʊ | |||||||
| Mid | eː - ɛ | øː - œ | ə | oː - ɔ | ||||||
| Low | aː/a | |||||||||
| All entries are: Tense - Lax | ||||||||||
- In order to form the long version of a vowel, add -h after the vowel or in rare cases double the vowel, although that is more common in Low German and Dutch.
- Final e is pronounced /ə/.
- ü is pronounced /yː/, /ʏ/.
- ö is pronounced /øː/, /œ/.
- ä is pronounced /eː/, /ɛ/.
Diphthongs
- eu and äu are pronounced /ɔʏ/, /ɔɪ/.
- ei and ai are pronounced /aɪ/.
- au is pronounced /aʊ/.
Grammar
The General Stuff
Gender and Number
Nouns, Adjectives, Articles, and to some extent Pronouns are all affected by Gender and Number. There are three genders and two numbers in High German. The three genders are Masculine, Feminine, and Neuter, and the numbers are Singular and Plural. Usually all forms of the Plural are the same, when it comes to adjectives and articles.
Case
In German, there are four cases, Nominative, Accusative, Genitive, and Dative. These affect articles, pronouns, adjectives, and nouns. The prepositions of German also affect whether an phrase is genitive, dative, or accusative.
Articles
There are definite articles and indefinite articles in German as well as in English. Articles are affected by case, gender, and number. The plural is the same across the genders.
Definite
| Cases | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Plural (all Genders) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | der | die | das | die |
| Genitive | des | der | des | der |
| Dative | dem | der | dem | den |
| Accusative | den | die | das | die |
Indefinite
| Cases | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Plural (all Genders) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | ein | eine | ein | meine† |
| Genitive | eines | einer | eines | meiner |
| Dative | einem | einer | einem | meinen |
| Accusative | einen | eine | ein | meine |
† There is no plural form of ein, but there are other indefinite article-style words that do, such as mein which means my.
Nouns
Gender is arbitrary in German, but Nouns referring to living being usually are the gender of that being. The ending of a noun is usually helpful in figuring out which gender a noun is, although it is not always the case.
Also, the first letter all German nouns is always capitalized.
Genders of Nouns
- Masculine
- Nouns ending with -en are usually masculine (that are not derived from verbs). Ex. Der Garten, der Norden.
- Nouns ending -er are usually masculine. Ex. Der Lehrer, die Amerikaner
- Nouns ending with -ismus are masculine. Ex. Der Feminismus, Der Kommunismus,
- Feminine
- To convert masculine nouns ending to feminine, add -in to it. Ex. Die Lehrerin, Die Freundin.
- Most nouns ending with -e. Ex. Die Frage, Die Straße,
- Nouns ending with -ion, -ik, -ie, -unft, -tät, -ei, -heit, -keit, -schaft, and -ung are almost always feminine. Ex. Die Logik, Die Magie, Die Universität, Die Vorlesung, Die Gesundheit, etc.
- Neuter
- Young living beings are Neuter. Ex. Das Kind, Das Lamm, Das Baby,
- The ending -chen and -lein are diminutives and are always neuter. Ex. Das Mädchen, Das Märchen.
-lein is used more in the south than in the north, so it's less common in the standard form of German.
- Metals and infinitive-nouns are always neuter. Ex. Das Gold, Das Metall, Das Singen, Das Essen,
Forming the Plural
The formation of the plural is different for many different nouns. The idea of the Umlaut is important in forming the plural as well.
- For monosyllabic words, the plural is usually for by adding -e in the masculine and feminine and -er in some neuter nouns.
- For Polysyllabic masculine and neuter nouns, many take no ending, but most others take -e as an ending.
- For most Polysyllabic feminine nouns that end with -e, -er or -el, the ending is -n or -en. If the ending is -in then the total ending is -innen.
- Foreign words (except those from Latin) and new words usually take the ending -s.
Noun Declensions
There are many different kinds of German Nouns. Here are a few fully declined ones:
Masculine:
| Cases | Tag 'Day' | Tage 'Days' | Apfel 'Apple' | Äpfel'Apples' |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | Der Tag | Die Tage | Der Apfel | Die Äpfel |
| Genitive | Des Tag(e)s | Der Tage | Des Apfels | Der Äpfel |
| Dative | Dem Tag(e) | Den Tagen | Dem Apfel | Den Äpfeln |
| Accusative | Den Tag | Die Tage | Den Apfel | Die Äpfel |
Feminine:
| Cases | Hand 'Hand' | Hände 'Hands' | Freude 'Joy' | Freuden 'Joys' |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | Die Hand | Die Hände | Die Freude | Die Freuden |
| Genitive | Der Hand | Der Hände | Der Freude | Der Freuden |
| Dative | Der Hand | Den Händen | Der Freude | Den Freuden |
| Accusative | Die Hand | Die Hände | Die Freude | Die Freuden |
Neuter:
| Cases | Schiff 'Ship' | Schiffe 'Ships' | Volk 'Folk, People' | Völker 'Folks, Peoples' |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | Das Schiff | Die Schiffe | Das Volk | Die Völker |
| Genitive | Des Schiff(e)s | Der Schiffe | Des Volk(e)s | Der Völker |
| Dative | Dem Schiff(e) | Den Schiffen | Dem Volk(e) | Den Völkern |
| Accusative | Das Schiff | Die Schiffe | Das Folk | Die Völker |
Personal Pronouns
First person:
| Cases | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative | ich | wir |
| Genitive | meiner | uns(e)rer |
| Dative | mir | uns |
| Accusative | mich | uns |
Second person:
| Cases | Singular Informal | Plural Informal | Plural/Singular Formal |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | du | ihr | Sie‡ |
| Genitive | deiner | eu(e)rer | Ihrer |
| Dative | dir | euch | Ihnen |
| Accusative | dich | euch | Sie |
‡The formal plural pronoun Sie is the same form as the 3rd person plural pronoun sie but is also always capitalized.
Third person:
| Cases | Mascu. Sing. | Fem. Sing. | Neut. Sing. | Plural |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | er | sie | es | sie |
| Genitive | seiner | ihrer | seiner | ihrer |
| Dative | ihm | ihr | ihm | ihnen |
| Accusative | ihn | sie | es | sie |
Possessive Pronouns
Attributively-used they agree with the noun they refer to in case, number and gender. They stand always in front of the noun.
| Cases | 1st Sg. | 2nd Sg. | 3rd Sg. masc. | 3rd Sg. fem. | 3rd Sg. neut. | 1st Pl. | 2nd Pl. | 3rd Pl. | 2nd Formal |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative Sg. m./n. | mein | dein | sein | ihr | sein | unser | euer | ihr | Ihr |
| Nominative Sg. f | meine | deine | seine | ihre | seine | unsere | eure | ihre | Ihre |
| Nominative Pl. | meine | deine | seine | ihre | seine | unsere | eure | ihre | Ihre |
| Genitive Sg. m./n. | meines | deines | seines | ihres | seines | unseres | eures | ihres | Ihres |
| Genitive Sg. f. | meiner | deiner | seiner | ihrer | seiner | unserer | eurer | ihrer | Ihrer |
| Genitive Pl. | meiner | deiner | seiner | ihrer | seiner | unserer | eurer | ihrer | Ihrer |
| Dative Sg. m./n. | meinem | deinem | seinem | ihrem | seinem | unserem | eurem | ihrem | Ihrem |
| Dative Sg. f. | meiner | deiner | seiner | ihrer | seiner | unserer | eurer | ihrer | Ihrer |
| Dative Pl. | meinen | deinen | seinen | ihren | seinen | unseren | euren | ihren | Ihren |
| Accusative Sg. m. | meinen | deinen | seinen | ihren | seinen | unseren | euren | ihren | Ihren |
| Accusative Sg. f. | meine | deinen | seine | ihre | seine | unsere | eure | ihre | Ihre |
| Accusative Sg. n. | mein | dein | sein | ihr | sein | unser | euer | ihr | Ihr |
| Accusative Pl. | meine | deine | seine | ihre | seine | unsere | eure | ihre | Ihre |
mein Haus - my house
deiner Frau - of your wife, to your wife
ihrem Buch - to her book
Predicatively-used they function as follows:
| Cases | 1st Sg. | 2nd Sg. | 3rd Sg. masc. | 3rd Sg. fem. | 3rd Sg. neut. | 1st Pl. | 2nd Pl. | 3rd Pl. | 2nd Formal |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Masculine Sg. | meiner | deiner | seiner | ihrer | seiner | unserer | eurer | ihrer | Ihrer |
| Feminine Sg. | meine | deine | seine | ihrer | seine | unsere | eure | ihre | Ihre |
| Neuter Sg. | meines | deines | seines | ihres | seines | unseres | eures | ihres | Ihres |
| Plural | meine | deine | seine | ihre | seine | unsere | eure | ihre | Ihre |
Dieser Baum ist meiner. - This tree is mine.
Seines ist es nicht. - This isn't his.
Adjectives and Adverbs
Adjectives
German adjectives have different behaviours and patterns depending on whether there are articles or not, and whether those articles are definite or indefinite. Predicate adjectives take no endings.
Gut = Good
With Definite articles and demonstratives, so-called der-Words:
| Cases | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Plural (all Genders) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | Der gute Hund | Die gute Katze | Das gute Boot | Die guten Völker |
| Genitive | Des guten Hundes | Der guten Katze | Des guten Bootes | Der guten Völker |
| Dative | Dem guten Hunde | Der guten Katze | Dem guten Boot | Den guten Völkern |
| Accusative | Den guten Hund | Die gute Katze | Das gute Boot | Die guten Völker |
With the Indefinite articles and possessives, so-called ein-words:
| Cases | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Plural (all Genders) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | ein guter Hund | eine gute Katze | ein gutes Boot | Meine guten Völker |
| Genitive | eines guten Hundes | einer guten Katze | eines guten Bootes | Meiner guten Völker |
| Dative | einem guten Hunde | einer guten Katze | einem guten Boot | Meinen guten Völkern |
| Accusative | einen guten Hund | eine gute Katze | ein gutes Boot | Meine guten Völker |
Articles without articles of any form:
| Cases | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Plural (all Genders) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | guter Hund | gute Katze | gutes Boot | Meine guten Völker |
| Genitive | guten Hundes | guter Katze | guten Bootes | Meiner guten Völker |
| Dative | gutem Hunde | guter Katze | gutem Boot | Meinen guten Völkern |
| Accusative | guten Hund | gute Katze | gutes Boot | Meine guten Völker |
Adverbs
In High German, the change from an adjective to an adverb does not require an ending, as it would in Modern English or French. The adverb form is usually the same as the nominative masculine form of the adjective.
The Word Order for Adverbs usually follows a pattern of the ordering of 1. Time, 2. Manner, and 3. Place. This means Gut in German can mean both well and good. There are other words which are strictly adverbs, such as sehr, which means very.
Prepositions
Prepositions are classified by the cases that follow them. Some have the accusative case follow, some the dative, and some the genitive. However some take either accusative or dative, based on whether or not it is a there is motion involved.
Accusative
bis - until, as far as
durch - through, by means of
entlang - along, down
für - for
gegen - against, around
ohne - without
um - around
Dative
aus - out of, from, made of,
außer - at,
bei - at, near, with,
gegenüber von - opposite, across from,
mit - with
nach - to, after, according to,
seit - since, for a period of time,
von - from, of, by
zu - to
Accusative and Dative
an - on, to go to,
auf - on, to, in, at
hinter - behind,
in - in, into, to,
neben - next to, beside,
über - over, above, across,
unter - under,
vor - in front of, before
zwischen - between,
Genitive
anstatt - instead of,
statt - instead of,
trotz - in spite of
während - during
wegen - because of,
Conjunctions
There are different conjunctions which affect a sentence in different ways. Coordinating Conjunctions usually do not affect the word or of a German sentence, whereas Subordinating Conjunctions usually involve the transposed word order mentioned below.
Coordinating Conjunctions
aber - but
denn - because, for
oder - or
sondern - but, rather,
und - and
Subordinating Conjunctions
als, wann, wenn - when
bevor - before
bis - until
da - since,
damit - so that,
dass - that
ob - whether, if
obwohl - although
seit - since
während - while
weil - because
wenn - if
Verbs
Main Page: High German Verbs
German Verbs have two major subdivisions, Strong and Weak. German verbs are conjugated according to 3 persons, 2 numbers, 2 inflecting tenses, and 3 moods, although German is rather intermediate when it comes to verbal inflection. The German Strong Verbs often have some patterns and classifications which are used for identifying them.
The infinitive of a verb is formed by adding -en to the end.
The imperative is formed, in the 2nd person singular informal by only the verb stem, the 2nd person plural informal is formed by adding -t to the stem. The 2nd personal formal is formed by adding -en to the stem and adding Sie afterwards. The "let's" or first person plural imperative is formed by adding -en and wir after words or, as in English, with the imperative of lassen and uns. Examples: Verb: Gehen - to go
Geh nach Hause!
Geht nach Hause!
Gehen Sie nach Hause!
Go home!
Gehen wir nach Hause. / Lass uns nach Hause gehen. (speaking to one person) / Lasst uns nach Hause gehen. (speaking to several persons) - let's go home.
Modals
There are a few verbs which are essential for German. These are called Modals or Modal Auxiliaries. There are 6 primary modals, and one which has a subjunctive form in common use. The latter would be Möchten which is the subjunctive of Mögen. The modal in the present tense is as follows:
| Present tense | ||||||||||||||
| Infinitive | dürfen may, to be allowed | können can, to be able, | müssen must, to have to, | sollen should, | mögen to like, | möchten would like, | wollen to want, | |||||||
| sing. | pl. | sing. | pl. | sing. | pl. | sing. | pl. | sing. | pl. | sing. | pl. | sing. | pl. | |
| 1st person | darf | dürfen | kann | können | muss | müssen | soll | sollen | mag | mögen | möchte | möchten | will | wollen |
| 2nd person | darfst | dürft | kannst | könnt | musst | müsst | sollst | sollt | magst | mögt | möchtest | möchtet | willst | wollt |
| 3rd person | darf | dürfen | kann | können | muss | müssen | soll | sollen | mag | mögen | möchte | möchten | will | wollen |
Auxiliaries
The most important auxiliaries are sein (to be), werden (to become, shall, will), and haben (to have). Sein and Haben are both used to form the Present Perfect tense, and Werden is used to form the Future tense.
| Present tense | ||||||
| Infinitive | Sein to be | Haben to have | Werden to become | |||
| sing. | pl. | sing. | pl. | sing. | pl. | |
| 1st person | bin | sind | habe | haben | werde | werden |
| 2nd person | bist | seid | hast | habt | wirst | werdet |
| 3rd person | ist | sind | hat | haben | wird | werden |
| Imperfect Tense | ||||||
| sing. | pl. | sing. | pl. | sing. | pl. | |
| 1st person | war | waren | hatte | hatten | wurde | wurden |
| 2nd person | warst | wart | hattest | hattet | wurdest | wurdet |
| 3rd person | war | waren | hatte | hatten | wurde | wurden |
| Perfect Form | ||||||
| sing. | pl. | sing. | pl. | sing. | pl. | |
| 1st person | bin gewesen | sind gewesen | habe gehabt | haben gehabt | bin geworden | sind geworden |
| 2nd person | bist gewesen | seid gewesen | hast gehabt | habt gehabt | bist geworden | seid geworden |
| 3rd person | ist gewesen | sind gewesen | hat gehabt | haben gehabt | ist geworden | sind geworden |
Present Tense
In the present tense, German verbs follow a common pattern. Quite a few verbs have change or umlaut the vowel in the second person informal singular and the third person singular. Verbs that end with an alveolar fricative or affricate have identical du-forms and er, sie, es forms. Verbs ending -d or -t insert an -e- in the du, ihr, and er, sie, es forms. Here are examples:
| Present tense | ||||||||
| Infinitive | Lernen To Learn | Antworten to answer | Heißen to be called | Fahren to drive, go | ||||
| sing. | pl. | sing. | pl. | sing. | pl. | sing. | pl. | |
| 1st person | lerne | lernen | antworte | antworten | heiße | heißen | fahre | fahren |
| 2nd person | lernst | lernt | antwortest | antwortet | heißt | heißt | fährst | fahrt |
| 3rd person | lernt | lernen | antwortet | antworten | heißt | heißen | fährt | fahren |
Perfect Tense
The present perfect is used in High German in the same senses that English uses the Simple Past and the Perfect tenses. For weak verbs, in order to form the Present tense, first a form of haben (or sein) must be used, and at the end of the clause comes the verb. For the verb, ge- must be attached to beginning of the stem and -t must be attached to the end. In many strong verbs, ge- is still often attached, but sometimes -en is the ending. Also many strong verbs involve a vowel stem change as well.
Most Verbs take haben as the auxiliary verb, but verbs of motion and select others take the verb sein as the auxiliary.
| Present Perfect Tense | ||||||||
| Infinitive | Lernen To Learn | Antworten to answer | Heißen to be called | Fahren to drive, go | ||||
| sing. | pl. | sing. | pl. | sing. | pl. | sing. | pl. | |
| 1st person | habe gelernt | haben gelernt | habe geantwortet | haben geantwortet | habe geheißen | haben geheißen | habe gefahren | haben gefahren |
| 2nd person | hast gelernt | habt gelernt | hast geantwortet | habt geantwortet | hast geheißen | habt geheißen | hast gefahren | habt fahren |
| 3rd person | hat gelernt | haben gelernt | hat geantwortet | haben geantwortet | hat geheißen | haben geheißen | hat gefahren | haben gefahren |
Imperfect
The Imperfect tense in High German is used more as a written tense than as a spoken one, although a few key words are used more often in speech as well, such as the Modals and Auxiliaries. The Imperfect tense is used to describe something that happened a while in the past. It differs greatly from the Romance and Slavic Language idea of Imperfect. It is used in telling stories of things that happened a long time ago.
| Imperfect tense | ||||||||
| Infinitive | Lernen To Learn | Antworten to answer | Heißen to be called | Fahren to drive, go | ||||
| sing. | pl. | sing. | pl. | sing. | pl. | sing. | pl. | |
| 1st person | lernte | lernten | antwortete | antworteten | hieß | hießen | fuhr | fuhren |
| 2nd person | lerntest | lerntet | antwortetest | antwortetet | hießest | hießt | fuhrst | fuhrt |
| 3rd person | lernte | lernten | antwortete | antworteten | hieß | hießen | fuhr | fuhren |
Word Order
German word order is fairly unique and has particular features with which a learner must become acquainted. The normal order is SVO, and occasional OVS, because German has a structure know as V2 or 2nd Position Verb rule, as described here:
| "...I find German to be the strangest in the area of syntax. German has several interesting word order issues. Now a simple German sentence can be SVO. But German, as well as most other Germanic language such as Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, and Dutch, follow what I call the 2nd Position Verb rule. This states that no matter where the objects and subjects move, the conjugated verb or Finite verb stays in the second position. So this means that SVO or OVS are very common. Here is an example, You can say in German: Ich sehe den Himmel. (I see the sky.) or |
However, German and Dutch both have a unique trait in having something called Transposed or Dependent Clause word order. This type of word order only occurs inside dependent clauses, and what happens is that the inflected or finite verb is sent to the end. It is described as this:
| "Now the pattern that Dutch and German have, but is not really shared with the other Germanic languages, is the movement of the conjugated verb to the end of a dependent clause. This might seem strange at first, but one must learn to notice it. An example would be: Der Mann, den ich gestern sah, ist gelassen. |
Another interesting feature is the movement of the Infinitives and Past Participles to the end of the sentence. This is a trait that written German got from Latin, and then it became common in spoken German as well. It also leads to idioms such as Ich kann Deutsch. (Lit. I can German, but means, I can speak German) which comes from the expression Ich kann Deutsch sprechen. In the cases of Transposed word order, the inverted verb goes after the infinitives and participles.
Sources and External Links
An Introduction to Basic Word Order by Timothy Patrick Snyder
Stern, Guy, and Everett Bleiler. Essential German Grammar. Mineola, New York. Dover Publications inc, 1961.
Dippmann, Gerda, and Johanna Watzinger-Tharp. A Practical review of German Grammar. New Jersey, Prentice-Hall inc. 2000.
Page written by Timothy Patrick Snyder.
