Reference · module 36
Longer texts
Everything this module explains, on one page.
Knowing what you are reading
Recognise a text type from its first three lines.
- der Bericht reports, der Kommentar argues, die Reportage describes, die Anleitung instructs. Each announces itself in its first lines.
- A report uses the reported forms and names sources. A commentary uses ich or wir and adjectives of judgement. That difference is visible before you know the topic.
- Knowing the type tells you how to read. You read a Bericht for facts and a Kommentar for a position, and mixing them up is how people misquote each other.
The mistake you are about to make
Der Bericht sagt, die Lage ist ernst.
Der Bericht sagt, die Lage sei ernst.
Telling the text types apart is only half the skill. A Bericht marks other people's claims with sei; writing ist quietly makes the claim your own.
How a text is built
Find the argument in a page of prose.
- German paragraphs usually put the claim first and the evidence after. Reading only the first sentence of each paragraph gives you the argument.
- Signposts mark the turns: zunächst, darüber hinaus, andererseits, schließlich. They tell you whether the next paragraph adds, turns or concludes.
- darüber hinaus means moreover and is the commonest of them in written German. It always adds; it never contrasts.
The mistake you are about to make
Darüber hinaus das ist teuer.
Darüber hinaus ist das teuer.
A signpost takes the first slot rather than standing outside the sentence with a comma, so the verb comes directly after it.
Writing your own
Write a structured opinion in about a hundred words.
- Four paragraphs is the standard shape: the question, your position, the counter-argument, your conclusion. That structure alone earns most of the marks.
- Then check three things in your own text: are the verbs in the right position, do the adjective endings agree, and is every dass followed by a verb at the end.
- Those three account for most B2 mistakes, and all three can be found by rereading rather than by knowing anything new.
The mistake you are about to make
Ich schlage vor, dass wir treffen uns.
Ich schlage vor, dass wir uns treffen.
When you check your own writing, look at the end of every dass clause: the verb belongs there, and the reflexive pronoun sits just in front of it.
Where to go from here
Keep the language once the course ends.
- B2 means you can follow a discussion, read a newspaper and hold your own at work. It does not mean you are finished, and nothing does.
- What keeps a language is input every day and output every week. Twenty minutes of reading and one conversation beats an hour of grammar.
- And keep the review going. Everything in this course comes back on a schedule, which is the one thing a textbook cannot do for you.