2.39 Archaic and literary forms you must read — Epoché
What you will be able to do Recognise the old forms that you will meet in many German texts written before about 1920, and in solemn or ironic modern German: ward , dünkt , buk , kömmt . Read the dative -e of masculine and neuter nouns: im Walde , dem Volke , im Hause . Understand verbs with a genitive object: Es bedarf keiner Worte ; Er schämt sich seines Körpers ; Gott erbarme sich unser! Read pronouns, conjunctions and forms of address of formal and older German: jener , derselbe , welcher , dieweil , Ihr and Er as polite or condescending address. Sentences from this lesson, before the explanation. Read the German aloud; all of them come back below. German English Sie schämt sich ihres Körpers. [1] She's ashamed of her body. Meiden Sie jenen Ort! [2] Stay away from that place. Womit kann man sich trocken halten, wenn es draußen regnet? [3] What can you use to keep yourself dry when it's raining outside? Er schämt sich nicht dafür, arm zu sein. [4] He is not ashamed of being poor. Ich kann mich noch gut an jenen Tag erinnern. [5] I remember that day well. Aus diesem Grunde kann ich nicht mit dir gehen. [6] For this reason, I cannot go with you. Sie backte drei Kuchen. [7] She baked three cakes. Prerequisites : 2.38 — you need the readings of this phase, especially 7.24 Reading , 7.26 Reading , 7.28 Reading and 7.32 Reading , the genitive from 4.8 Cases , and the past tense of strong verbs from 3.10 Verbs . The readings of this phase have shown you German from 1774 to 1929. Each lesson explained the old forms it contained, one by one. This lesson brings them together into a system, so that you can read any older text without a historical grammar. The good news is that the list is short. German has changed far less since 1800 than English has since Shakespeare: a modern reader understands Goethe without notes, as long as he knows a dozen old forms. Several of these forms are still alive in modern German, in fixed phrases, in solemn style and in jokes. The table below lists each form with its modern equivalent and the lesson of this phase in which you read it, so that you can go back and see it in its context. The patterns Old form Modern form Example Where you saw it ward wurde Sie ward rot. 7.26 Reading , 7.31 Reading mich dünkt , mir dünkt mir scheint Mich dünkt, er irrt sich. 7.26 Reading strong past: buk (the old form), frug (a literary fashion of the 18th and 19th centuries) backte, fragte Sie buk drei Kuchen. — umlaut in the present: kömmt kommt Er kömmt. 7.33 Reading dative -e no ending im Walde, dem Volke 7.29 Reading , 7.33 Reading genitive object accusative or preposition Ich entsinne mich dieses Planes. 7.26 Reading , 7.36 Reading genitive before the noun genitive after the noun des Pudels Kern 7.28 Reading Ihr , Euch (polite) Sie , Ihnen Was fällt Euch ein? 7.24 Reading , 7.30 Reading Er , Sie (to inferiors) Sie Woyzeck, Er hat keine Moral! 7.32 Reading welcher as relative pronoun der der Mann, welcher kam 7.36 Reading dieweil , indes während dieweil du fort bist 7.34 Reading , 7.37 Reading Two of these forms are not quite dead. The dative -e survives in fixed phrases: zu Hause , nach Hause , im Grunde , am Tage . The genitive object survives in formal style: Es bedarf keiner Worte , sich einer Sache schämen , jemandes gedenken . ward and dünkt are used today only for solemn or comic effect. In real sentences Old verb forms , now used for solemnity or humour. German English Er ward nie mehr gesehen. [8] No one ever saw him again. Sein Herz ward voll von Freude. [9] His heart filled with joy. Der Setzling ward zum Baume. [10] The sapling became a tree. Der Mann dünkt mich unehrlich. [11] The man strikes me as being dishonest. Mir dünkt, er ist nicht gottgefällig genug. [12] Methinks he is not godly enough. Sie buk drei Kuchen. [13] She baked three cakes. The dative -e . German English Die Vöglein schweigen im Walde. [14] The birds in the woods are silent. Ein Politiker sollte dem Volke dienen. [15] A politician should serve the people. Es blieb im Hause kein Auge trocken. [16] There wasn't a dry eye in the house. The genitive object. Note the old genitive pronoun unser , of us . German English Es bedarf keiner Worte. [17] No words are necessary. Er schämt sich seines Körpers. [18] He's ashamed of his body. Gott erbarme sich unser! [19] May God have mercy on us. Formal and old pronouns and conjunctions , and the contraction 's for es , which is everyday spoken German today. German English Meide jenen Ort! [20] Stay away from that place. Wer wird mich beschützen, dieweil du fort bist? [21] Who will protect me while you are away? Worum ging's? [22] What was it all about? Draußen ist's bequemer. [23] It's more comfortable outside. How English does it English changed more. A reader of English needs notes for Shakespeare: thou , thee , -eth , wherefore , many words that changed meaning. German literature of 1800 needs fewer, because the written standard was fixed later and changed less. The German forms of this lesson correspond to English archaisms of different ages: mich dünkt is exactly methinks , both from the same old verb; ward is the old form of wurde , English became ; dieweil is the while . Thou and Ihr . English once had a polite plural you and a familiar singular thou , and lost thou . German had a similar polite plural, Ihr , used to one person of higher rank, and replaced it in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries with Sie , the third person plural. In between, superiors addressed inferiors in the third person singular, Er and Sie , as the captain does to Woyzeck. When you read a historical text, the form of address tells you about the relationship between the speakers. The genitive object has no English equivalent form. English uses a preposition where old German uses a genitive: to be ashamed of , to have need of , to have mercy on . Modern German has replaced many genitive objects with prepositions too: sich an etwas erinnern rather than sich einer Sache erinnern