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25. Grammar - Imperative, Reflexive verbs and reflexive pronouns, Adjectives declension


Imperative

There is way to issue commands in most languages and it is called Imperative. In German language Imperative is relatively simple. Typically you issue commands to people you are communicating with, so Imperative for 1st person singular (I), 3rd person singular (he/she,it) and 3rd person plural (they) are not used.

If you want to tell a person you are familiar with (du, 2nd person singular) to do something, you form the imperative by using the verb stem (you remove the ending -en). You can also add -e to the verb stem, and you that if the verb without stem sounds bad. This is the case, for example, for verbs ending on -ieren. Here are some examples:

GermanEnglish
Geh!Go!
Gib mir die Tasche!Give me the bag!
Sei leise!Be quiet!
Studiere!Study!

Another situation when you issue commands is to a group of people (ihr, 2nd person plural). You just use the present form of the verb for 2nd person plural. Here are some examples:

GermanEnglish
Geht!You all go!
Gebt mir das Geld!You all give me the money!
Seid leise!You all be quiet!

For a 1st perons plural (wir), you just use infinitive with "wir". For example "Schlafen wir!" means "Let us sleep!".

For a polite form (Sie), you just use infinitive with "Sie". For example "Schlafen Sie!" means "You sleep!".

Reflexive verbs and reflexive pronouns

Another thing related to verbs is that some of the verbs can be used with a reflexive pronoun. In English a similar situation would be the one illustrated with the following sentence: "I am washing myself ...". In German the verb "waschen" (to wash) can be used with or without reflexive pronoun, you can wash yourself but you can also wash a car.

Also, in some cases if you use a verb with reflexive pronoun the verb changes its meaning. For example, "versprechen" without a reflexive pronoun means "to promise", but with reflexive pronouns it means "to mispeak".

Additonally some verbs in German have to be used with reflexive pronouns. Some of the verbs that are exclusively reflexive are listed in the table below.

VerbMeaningExample
freuento be gladEs freut mich hier zu sein. (I am glad to be here.)
beeilento hurry upWir müssen uns beeilen. (We have to hurry up.)
langweilento be boredIch langweile mich. (I am bored)
ausruhento relaxIch ruhe mich nachmittags aus. (I am relaxing in the afternoons.)
vorstellento imagineIch stelle mir eine Stadt ohne Autos vor. (I imagine a city without cars.)

The pronouns used with reflexive verbs are called reflexive pronouns. Here is the list of reflexive pronouns in accusative and dative:

Personal pronounReflexive pronoun (A)Reflexive pronoun (D)
ichmichmir
dudichdir
er/sie/essichsich
wirunsuns
ihreucheuch
siesichsich
Siesichsich

Adjectives used as attributes

This is a complex thing to learn. For me it was probably the single most complex thing at the beginning. Different rules apply in different situations and you must know the gender of the noun. You will just need to gain experience by consuming content in German to learn this, or it would be better to say, to "feel" these rules as natural. In order to help you, you can find the tables that show how to use adjectives as attributes in different situations. The table is displayed for the three cases we have learned so far, nominative, accusative and dative.

If in front of the adjective you find a definite article (der, die, das,...), the definite article "carries" the information about the gender, number and the case. The rules are the simplest:

masculinefeminineneuterplural
N-e-e-e-en
A-en-e-e-en
D-en-en-en-en

If in front of the adjective you find an indefinite article ein, negation article kein:

masculinefeminineneuterplural
N-er-e-es-en
A-en-e-es-en
D-en-en-en-en

If in front of the adjective there is no article, the adjective has to "carry" all the information about the gener, number and the case. The suffixes resemble the most the suffixes for declension of definite articles:

masculinefeminineneuterplural
N-er-e-es-e
A-en-e-es-e
D-em-er-em-en





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