[Z]

Just want to rant about how much I despise German grammar

There are four cases. They are as follows:

Nominative
Accusative
Dative
Genitive

Each case has four 'genders' to deal with, they are as follows:

Masculine
Feminine
Neuter
Plural

There is a different word for "the" depending on which gender and case you are dealing with, this is as follows:

Masculine Feminine Neuter Plural
Nominative der die das die
Accusative den die das die
Dative dem der dem den
Genitive des der des der

When you are using each of these cases and the word "the", it means something slightly different:

Nominative - the
Accusative - (into) the
Dative - (in) the
Genitive - (of) the

So if you have a sentence like:

The lion bit the man on the arm and dragged him into the den of the pride

It would go like this:

Der Loewe biss den Mann auf dem Arm und zerrte ihn in den Bau des Rudels

(maybe, I'm already confused)

But sometimes they change the word order around because they have all these different words for "the" depending on the case and gender, so you can move stuff around and it still makes sense because you can deduce the case/gender of a word by looking at the word for "the" in front of it... for example:

Den Mann biss der Loewe

Still means "The lion bit the man" but in English that would read "The man bit the lion"...

I still haven't got my head around this stuff.

[Jake.]

Sounds pretty simple to me Greg, stop moaning and get studying

[MeMyselfAndI]

I loved studying German

[fingers]

It'll drive you barmy, look at me!

[Z]

There are so many rules

[fingers]

Originally Posted by Zee

There are so many rules

..and they bleedin' keep changing them! According to the Rechtschreibung
rules all nouns had to be capitalized, not any bloody more they don't!

[Z]

Originally Posted by fingers

..and they bleedin' keep changing them! According to the Rechtschreibung
rules all nouns had to be capitalized, not any bloody more they don't!

Are you fluent in German, fingers? I need help... with everything!! Haha

[Vicky.]

Sounds slightly like french. I never understood how some words were classed as masculine and others feminine.

[fingers]

Originally Posted by Vicky.

Sounds slightly like french. I never understood how some words were classed as masculine and others feminine.

My Mother-in-law in Germany used to have a dog (a bitch) but the dog is masculine in German and it drove me nuts when they all called her (the dog) he or him!!!

[fingers]

Originally Posted by Zee

Are you fluent in German, fingers? I need help... with everything!! Haha

I speak it very fluidly, the more fluids the better!

[Z]

Originally Posted by Vicky.

Sounds slightly like french. I never understood how some words were classed as masculine and others feminine.

Me neither. The German word for "girl" is neuter. How is the word for girl not feminine but the word for city is?! Bizarre

[fingers]

Originally Posted by Zee

Me neither. The German word for "girl" is neuter. How is the word for girl not feminine but the word for city is?! Bizarre

Frightening, innit!?

[Z]

Originally Posted by fingers

Frightening, innit!?

Don't even get me started on the two-way prepositions. I read something helpful about how to identify what's accusative and what's dative, but then putting it into practice I always feel lost... Argh!

[fingers]

[QUOTE=Zee;6404253]Don't even get me started on the two-way prepositions. I read something helpful about how to identify what's accusative and what's dative, but then putting it into practice I always feel lost... Argh![/QUOTE

Don't worry about it, just have another glass of Schnapps and slur your way through!

[Princess]

I thought you studied German in uni Greg? I'm a 1/16 German but know none so I'm so no help. I have some German friends on Twitter if you really need some help.

[Z]

Originally Posted by Princess

I thought you studied German in uni Greg? I'm a 1/16 German but know none so I'm so no help. I have some German friends on Twitter if you really need some help.

I do, that's the tragic thing

[Livia]

On the bright side, it's a fabulous language to use for swearing.

[Z]

Originally Posted by Livia

On the bright side, it's a fabulous language to use for swearing.

I had a friend who didn't pronounce her umlauts or her z's properly and as a result accidentally told a colleague that she stepped in a ***** when she meant to say puddle... dangerous, dangerous language...

My ex tells a story about how a friend had gotten two little pug dogs (der Mops, the plural would be die Moepse, which is also slang for boobs...) so that worked out quite well when asking to see the two little pugs.....

[Tregard]

"Ach! Das wagen phone ist ein... nuisance phone!"

[Tregard]

"Ach! Das wagen phone ist ein... nuisance phone!"

[Livia]

Originally Posted by Zee

I had a friend who didn't pronounce her umlauts or her z's properly and as a result accidentally told a colleague that she stepped in a ***** when she meant to say puddle... dangerous, dangerous language...

My ex tells a story about how a friend had gotten two little pug dogs (der Mops, the plural would be die Moepse, which is also slang for boobs...) so that worked out quite well when asking to see the two little pugs.....

Blurted out laughing... I will never look at puddles quite the same.

[fingers]

Originally Posted by Zee

I had a friend who didn't pronounce her umlauts or her z's properly and as a result accidentally told a colleague that she stepped in a ***** when she meant to say puddle... dangerous, dangerous language...

My ex tells a story about how a friend had gotten two little pug dogs (der Mops, the plural would be die Moepse, which is also slang for boobs...) so that worked out quite well when asking to see the two little pugs.....

Quite understandable, since

Pfütze {f}

Is one translation for puddle!

[fingers]

Originally Posted by Zee

There are so many rules

Have a look here, may be of some help.

> http://www.canoo.net/

I have hunger.

[Vanessa]

I did enjoy studying it at school, but it's a hard language to learn.