12.1 Review of Phase 1 — Epoché
What this lesson reviews Everything from the first phase, tested rather than explained. Fifty-five lessons have taken you from the principle that German spelling predicts sound to the perfect tense, and this lesson asks whether the four things that actually matter have stuck: the verb in second position , the sentence bracket , the nominative against the accusative , and the two negators . Everything else in the phase was in service of those four. Prerequisites : 11.1 — and in practice the whole of the first phase, since the twenty sentences below draw on all of it. Work through it in order and score yourself at the end. If you fall below the line in one section, the section says which lesson to go back to. The second phase begins at 4.1 with the four cases, and that phase is the hardest in the course, so it is worth arriving at it with the word order already automatic. One note on what is not here. No dative, no genitive, no adjective endings, no simple past except the eight words that have one in speech. Those belong to the second phase, and if you find yourself reaching for them you are ahead of the book rather than behind it. Twenty sentences All twenty are real sentences from the corpus, and every word in them has appeared in this phase. Cover the right-hand column, read the German, and write your English. Then check. German English Heute ist Dienstag. [1] It's Tuesday today. Morgen ist Mittwoch. [2] Tomorrow is Wednesday. Heute nicht! [3] Not today! Ich habe Hunger. [4] I am hungry. Ich habe keine Zeit. [5] I haven't got time. Das ist kein Problem. [6] That is no problem. Wo ist das Buch? [7] Where is the book? Trinkst du Kaffee? [8] Do you drink coffee? Ich habe ein Buch. [9] I've got a book. Ich muss arbeiten. [10] I need to work. Heute muss ich arbeiten. [11] I have to work today. Ich kann heute nicht kommen. [12] I cannot come today. Er steht früh auf. [13] He's getting up early. Sie kommt mit. [14] She's coming with us. Kommt sie auch mit? [15] Is she coming, too? Gehen wir nach Hause. [16] Let's go home. Ich habe ein Buch gekauft. [17] I bought a book. Er hat das Buch gelesen. [18] He's read the book. Er hat das Buch nicht gelesen. [19] He did not read the book. Ich gähne, weil ich müde bin. [20] I am yawning because I feel sleepy. Before you score yourself, go back over the twenty with a different question. For each one, name the structure it demonstrates. Numbers 1, 2 and 11 put something other than the subject at the front and keep the verb second. Numbers 10, 11 and 12 open a bracket with a modal and close it at the end. Numbers 13, 14 and 15 fly a prefix to the end. Numbers 17, 18 and 19 build the perfect. Number 20 sends the verb to the very end of a subordinate clause. Numbers 5, 6, 12 and 19 show the two negators doing their separate jobs. Six more corpus sentences for a second dictation. All six are built on the same prepositional phrase; three of them close the clause with an infinitive and three do not. German English Ich gehe heute nach Hause. [21] Today I'm going home. Ich muss nach Hause gehen. [22] I need to go home. Kann ich nach Hause gehen? [23] Can I go home? Ich möchte heute nach Hause gehen. [24] I want to go home today. Er kommt morgen früh nach Hause. [25] He’s coming home tomorrow morning. Gehen Sie heute früher nach Hause? [26] Are you going home earlier today? Watch it A video on the subject of this lesson. Press it to play (playback connects to YouTube). "Pin it to the screen" lets you watch while you read. German for beginners (A1/A2) | Deutschtrainer: Spelling Deutsch lernen mit der DW (2:47, 2020) Dictation Five sentences to write from hearing, or — if you have no one to read them to you — to write from the English and then check against the German above. They were chosen because each one has a trap in the spelling rather than in the grammar. It's Tuesday today. (Watch the day name: German capitalises it, and ie is the long vowel of lesson 0.2.) I haven't got time. (Which negator, and does it come before or after the noun?) Where is the book? (The vowel of the noun is long, but nothing in the spelling marks it: learn it with the word.) He's getting up early. (Two words in German or one? And where does the prefix land?) I am yawning because I feel sleepy. (Comma before the conjunction, and the verb at the very end.) Read aloud Five of the twenty, chosen for the sounds of the first volume. Read them aloud twice each, slowly and then at speed, and check yourself against the list of things to watch. Trinkst du Kaffee? — the cluster at the end of the verb, and the doubled consonant marking a short vowel. Wo ist das Buch? — the initial consonant is [v], and the noun ends in the sound from 0.4. Ich habe ein Buch. — two different values of ch in one sentence: the front sound after i , the back sound after u . Ich gähne, weil ich müde bin. — one front rounded vowel and one long ä . Heute ist Dienstag. — final devoicing, so the g of Dienstag is said [k], and a glottal stop before ist . If you can say all five out loud without stopping, the sound volume has done its work. If one of them makes you hesitate, the number in the list points at the lesson. Find the mistake Five sentences, each with exactly one error. Four of the five are word order, because word order is what an English speaker gets wrong in German and the errors are systematic rather than random. Write the correct version and name the rule. Heute ich gehe nach Hause. Ich habe gesehen den Mann. Ich gähne, weil ich bin müde. Ich habe nicht Zeit. Er auf steht früh. Each of those is a mistake a native English speaker makes, and each comes from doing in German exactly what English does. The first keeps the English order after a front adverb; the second keeps the English habit of putting the object straight after the participle; the third keeps English word order after because ; the fourth uses the wrong negator because English negates with one word; the fifth treats a separable prefix like an English