11/9/2023 0 Comments Imperative german grammar![]() Subjunctive II exists in only two tenses: present and past, but there are two ways to form the present subjunctive, one formal (one-word form based on simple past of the verb), one informal (würde + infinitive). German Subjunctive II corresponds much more closely to the Conditional mood in these languages (used for saying what you would do or would have done) than to the Subjunctive mood, which is used in these languages primarily in conjunction with certain verbs expressing beliefs, desires and uncertainties (and corresponds to some extent to the Subjunctive I in German in this respect). Important note for those of you who have learned Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, or Rumanian: In these languages, you will have learned about the Conditional and the Subjunctive moods. ![]() ![]() If someone just says “subjunctive,” they usually mean Subjunctive II, not Subjunctive I Gives wishes and hypotheticals, not the facts. What would happen, what would have happened, what you wish would happen, what you wish would have happened–the “counterfactual” mood. Werden + infinitive: Ich werde gehen: I will go 2a. Hatte/War + past participle: Ich war gegangen: I had gone įuture: what will happen Past Perfect : what had happened before something else in the past happened: only rarely used especially with bevor and nachdem! Haben/Sein + past participle: Ich bin gegangen: I went, I was going Present : what happens, what is happening Indicative: what is happening, what happened, what will happen. You will not be tested (in German 221/231 or below) on Subjunctive I, but a brief description is given here to help you recognize it. We will not concern ourselves here with the imperative, but it is important that you understand the difference between the indicative and subjunctive moods. Whereas we expect you to learn five tenses of the indicative (Present, Perfect, Narrative Past, Past Perfect and Future, you only need to distinguish between two tenses of Subjunctive II: Present subjunctive and past subjunctive. ![]() what someone else said (and, by extension, what s/he thought, believed, etc.) Subjunctive I is used to report indirect speech, i.e.Normally, if someone speaks about “the subjunctive,” they mean Subjunctive II. Subjunctive II expresses hypothetical and “counterfactual” statements (“what if,” “I wish,” “I would,” “I could” etc.).subjunctive–for stating possibilities, conjectures, “what if,” what someone else said, thought or believed."Haben" turns into "hab" and "habt," so to translate "Have patience!" to an anxious child, you'd say "Hab geduld!" "Werden" changes to "werde" and "werdet.In addition to the various tenses, verbs can exist in three moods: "Sein" becomes "sei" in the second-person singular and "seid" in the plural. Three common auxiliary verbs, "sein," haben" and "werden," meaning "to be," "to have" and "to become," don't follow any particular pattern. To say "let's read," for example, you'd say "lesen wir." "Let's drink," a useful phrase at the local pub," translates to "trinken wir." Auxiliary Verbs Though you can't give yourself an imperative in German, you can use the mood when speaking collectively for a group of people as in "let's sing" or "let's walk." This is one very easy: Just add the word "wir," after the infinitive of the verb. Similarly, "arbeitet" means "you (plural) work" and can be either imperative or present indicative. Thus, you would say "studiert" whether you wish to order a group of people to study or just observe that they are currently studying. Happily, second-person plural imperatives are easy to conjugate because they are identical to the the standard second-person plural present tense conjugation. Unlike in English, German verbs change conjugations in the second person when the speaker is addressing more than one person. To change "änderst," or "you change," into a command, chop off the "st" ending and add an "e" to create "ändere." Second-Person Plural "Liest," meaning "you read," becomes an imperative by dropping the t and saying "Lies!" Infinitives ending in "m" and "n" are a bit tricker. For example, the word "studierst" means "you study." To change this from an observation to a command, drop the "-st" ending and say "studier!" Second-person singular verbs ending in "s," "z" or "x" follow a similar pattern. To conjugate most verbs in the imperative singular, simply chop off the ending of the normal second-person present tense version of the word.
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