Reference · module 6
People and describing them
Everything this module explains, on one page.
Die Familie
Name the people in a family, one at a time and together.
- Die Mutter, der Vater, die Schwester, der Bruder, das Kind. Here the article follows the person: die for the women, der for the men — and das for a child, whoever that child is.
- Together they become die Eltern (the parents), die Geschwister (the siblings), die Kinder (the children). Every plural takes die, whatever article the word had on its own.
- Die Eltern has no singular anyone uses — one parent is der Vater or die Mutter. German does the same with Geschwister: the group has a word, the individual does not.
The mistake you are about to make
mein Elter
mein Vater
English says "a parent" when it does not matter which one. German has no singular of Eltern that anybody uses: you have to choose — der Vater or die Mutter.
Mein und dein
Say whose someone is — mine, yours, or a stranger's.
- Mein follows the noun, not you: mein Bruder because der Bruder, meine Schwester because die Schwester, mein Kind because das Kind. The -e appears only where the article was die.
- Dein is yours to a friend; Ihr, with a capital I, is yours to a stranger. It is the same split as du and Sie, and it takes the same endings as mein.
- And it changes exactly where der changes: Ich sehe meinen Bruder. Meine Schwester and mein Kind stay as they are, just as die and das do.
The mistake you are about to make
Ich sehe mein Bruder.
Ich sehe meinen Bruder.
Nothing at all changes in "I see my brother", so mein will sit still. It moves exactly where der moves: mein Bruder becomes meinen Bruder.
Mich, dich, ihn
Replace a person you have already named with one short word.
- When the person acted on has already been named, they shrink to one word: Ich sehe dich, du siehst mich. Mich and dich are simply ich and du on the receiving end.
- For he, she and it: ihn, sie, es. Only the masculine changes shape — er becomes ihn — which is the same rule as der becoming den, one floor down.
- For groups: uns (us) and euch (you, more than one). Sie keeps its form for they and for the polite you alike, so Ich sehe sie can mean either.
The mistake you are about to make
Der Tisch? Ich sehe es.
Der Tisch? Ich sehe ihn.
A table is "it" in English, so es comes out. German pronouns follow the article instead: der Tisch comes back as ihn, exactly as der becomes den.
Groß und klein
Describe a person in one sentence.
- Meine Schwester ist groß. After ist, an adjective changes nothing at all — no ending, no agreement, no exceptions. This is the one position where German adjectives are easy.
- The pairs worth having first: groß und klein, jung und alt, neu und alt, nett und unfreundlich. Un- turns a word into its opposite, much as it does in English.
- Sehr makes it stronger and stands in front: sehr nett. Nicht makes it negative and stands in front too: nicht nett. Both stay right beside the adjective.
The mistake you are about to make
Meine Schwester ist lang.
Meine Schwester ist groß.
Tall and big are separate words in English, so lang looks right for a person. German uses groß for both. Lang is for objects, and a lang person sounds stretched.
Und, aber, oder
Join two sentences into one without breaking either.
- Und, aber and oder join two whole sentences and change nothing about either one. Ich esse Brot und ich trinke Tee — the verb stays exactly where it already was.
- That is worth noticing now, because other joining words in German do move the verb, and they arrive later. These three are the safe ones to start with.
- Aber is but, oder is or. Ich möchte Kaffee, aber ich trinke Tee. A comma goes in front of aber; in front of oder it is optional.
The mistake you are about to make
Ich möchte Kaffee aber ich trinke Tee.
Ich möchte Kaffee, aber ich trinke Tee.
English leaves the comma out before but as often as not. German does not: the comma before aber is spelling rather than style, and leaving it out is an error.