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Abbreviation
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A shortened form of a word or phrase: etc. = usw.
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Absolute use
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The use of a transitive verb without an expressed object, as in: I didn’t realize
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Accusative
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The case of a direct object; some German prepositions take the accusative
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Active
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In the active form the subject of the verb performs the action: he asked = er fragte
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Adjective
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A word describing a noun: a red pencil = ein roter Stift
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Adverb
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A word that describes or changes the meaning of a verb, an adjective, or another adverb: she sings beautifully = sie singt schön
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Article
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The definite article, the = der/die/das, and indefinite article, a/an = ein/eine/ein, used in front of a noun
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Attributive
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An adjective or noun is attributive when it is used directly before a noun: the black dog = der schwarze Hund; farewell speech = Abschiedsrede
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Auxiliary verb
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One of the verbs – as German haben, sein, werden – used to form the perfect or future tenses and passive forms: I will help = ich werde helfen
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Cardinal number
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A whole number representing a quantity: one/two/three = eins/zwei/drei
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Case
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The form of a noun, pronoun, adjective, or article that shows the part it plays in a sentence; there are four cases in German – nominative, accusative, genitive, and dative
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Clause
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A self-contained section of a sentence that contains a subject and a verb
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Collective noun
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A noun that is singular in form but refers to a group of individual persons or things, e.g. royalty, grain
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Collocate
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A word that regularly occurs with another; in German, Buch is a typical collocate of the verb lesen
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Comparative
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The form of an adjective or adverb that makes it “more”: smaller = kleiner, more clearly = klarer
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Compound adjective
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An adjective formed from two or more separate words: selbstbewusst (selbst + bewusst) = self-confident
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Compound noun
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A noun formed from two or more separate words: der Flughafen (Flug + Hafen) = airport
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Compound verb
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A verb formed by adding a prefix to a simple verb; in German, some compound verbs are separable (an|fangen), and some are inseparable (verlassen)
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Conditional tense
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A tense of a verb that expresses what might happen if something else occurred: he would go = er würde gehen
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Conjugation
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Variation of the form of a verb to show tense, person, mood, etc.
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Conjunction
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A word used to join clauses together: and = und, because = weil
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Copula
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A verb, such as be or become, which links a subject and predicate
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Dative
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The case of an indirect object; many German prepositions take the dative
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Declension
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The form of a noun, pronoun, or adjective that corresponds to a particular case, number, or gender; some German nouns decline like adjectives, e.g. Abgeordnete, Kranke
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Definite article:
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the = der/die/das
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Demonstrative pronoun
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A pronoun indicating the person or thing referred to: this is my bicycle = das ist mein Fahrrad
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Direct object
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The noun or pronoun directly affected by the verb: he caught the ball = er fing den Ball
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Direct speech
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A speaker’s actual words or the use of these in writing
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Elliptical
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Having a word or words omitted, especially where the sense can be guessed from the context
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Ending
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Letters added to the stem of verbs, as well as to nouns and adjectives, according to tense, case, etc.
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Feminine
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One of the three noun genders in German: die Frau = the woman; die Bank = the bench
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Future tense
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The tense of a verb that refers to something that will happen in the future: I will go = ich werde gehen
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Gender
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One of the three groups of nouns in German: masculine, feminine, or neuter
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Genitive
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The case that shows possession; some prepositions in German take the genitive
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Imperative
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A form of a verb that expresses a command: go away! = geh weg!
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Imperfect tense
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The tense of a verb that refers to an uncompleted or a habitual action in the past: I went there every Friday = ich ging jeden Freitag dorthin
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Impersonal verb
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A verb in English used only with ‘it’, and in German only with ‘es’: it is raining = es regnet
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Indeclinable adjective
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An adjective that has no inflected forms, as German klasse, Moskauer
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Indefinite article:
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a/an = ein/eine/ein
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Indefinite pronoun
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A pronoun that does not identify a specific person or object: one = man, something = etwas
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Indicative form
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The form of a verb used when making a statement of fact or asking questions of fact: he is just coming = er kommt gleich
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Indirect object
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The noun or pronoun indirectly affected by the verb, at which the direct object is aimed: I gave him the book = ich gab ihm das Buch
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Indirect speech
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A report of what someone has said which does not reproduce the exact words
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Infinitive
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The basic part of a verb: to play = spielen
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Inflect
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To change the ending or form of a word to show its tense or its grammatical relation to other words: gehe and gehst are inflected forms of the verb gehen
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Inseparable verb
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A verb with a prefix that can never be separated from it: verstehen, ich verstehe
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Interjection
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A sound, word, or remark expressing a strong feeling such as anger, fear, or joy: oh! = ach!
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Interrogative pronoun
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A pronoun that asks a question: who? = wer?
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Intransitive verb
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A verb that does not have a direct object: he died suddenly = er ist plötzlich gestorben
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Irregular verb
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A verb that does not follow one of the set patterns and has its own individual forms
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Masculine
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One of the three noun genders in German: der Mann = the man, der Stuhl = the chair
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Modal verb
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A verb that is used with another verb (not a modal) to express permission, obligation, possibility, etc., as German können, sollen, English might, should
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Mood
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The form of a verb which indicates whether the verb expresses a fact (indicative mood), a condition or a wish (subjunctive mood), a question (interrogative mood), or a command (imperative mood)
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Neuter
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One of the three noun genders in German: das Buch = the book, das Kind = the child
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Nominative
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The case of the subject of a sentence; in sentences with sein and werden the noun after the verb is in the nominative: that is my car = das ist mein Auto
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Noun
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A word that names a person or a thing
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Number
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The state of being either singular or plural
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Object
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The word or words naming the person or thing acted upon by a verb, as Buch in er las das Buch or ihm in ich traue ihm
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Ordinal number
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A number that shows a person’s or thing’s position in a series: the twenty-first century = das einundzwanzigste Jahrhundert, the second door on the left = die zweite Tür links
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Part of speech
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A grammatical term for the function of a word; noun, verb, adjective, etc., are parts of speech
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Passive
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In the passive form the subject of the verb experiences the action rather than performs it: he was asked = er wurde gefragt
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Past participle
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The part of a verb used to form past tenses: she had gone, er hat gelogen
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Perfect tense
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The tense of a verb that refers to a completed action in the past or an action that started in the past and is still going on: I have already eaten = ich habe schon gegessen; I have been reading all day = ich habe den ganzen Tag gelesen
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Person
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Any of the three groups of personal pronouns and forms taken by verbs; the first person (e.g. I/ich) refers to the person(s) speaking, the second person (e.g. you/du) refers to the person(s) spoken to; the third person (e.g. he/er) refers to the persons spoken about
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Personal pronoun
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A pronoun that refers to a person or thing: he/she/it = er/sie/es
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Phrasal verb
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A verb in English combined with a preposition or an adverb to have a particular meaning: run away = weglaufen
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Phrase
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A self-contained section of a sentence that does not contain a full verb
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Pluperfect tense
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The tense of a verb that refers to something that happened before a particular point in the past: als ich ankam, war er schon losgefahren = when I arrived, he had already left
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Plural
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Of nouns etc., referring to more than one: the trees = die Bäume
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Possessive adjective
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An adjective that shows possession, belonging to someone or something; my = mein/meine/mein
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Possessive pronoun
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A pronoun that shows possession, belonging to someone or something: mine = meiner/meine/meins
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Postpositive
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Placed after the word to which it relates, as in stock in the phrase items in stock
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Predicate
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The part of a sentence that says something about the subject, e.g. went home in John went home
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Predicative
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An adjective is predicative when it comes after a verb such as be or become in English, or after sein or werden in German: she is beautiful = sie ist schön
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Prefix
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A letter or group of letters added to the beginning of a word to change its meaning, as Ge - in Geschrei in German. The prefix can move from separable verbs (an|fangen), but stays fixed to inseparable verbs (verlassen)
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Preposition
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A word that stands in front of a noun or pronoun, relating it to the rest of the sentence; in German prepositions are always followed by a particular case, usually either the accusative or dative, but occasionally the genitive: with = mit (+ dative), for = für (+ accusative), because of = wegen (+ genitive)
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Present participle
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The part of a verb that in English ends in –ing, and in German adds –d to the infinitive: asking = fragend
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Present tense
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The tense of a verb that refers to something happening now: I make = ich mache
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Preterite tense
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The tense of a verb that refers to something that happened in the past: the car went very fast = der Wagen fuhr sehr schnell
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Pronoun
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A word that stands instead of a noun: he = er, she = sie, mine = meiner/meine/meins
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Proper noun
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A name of a person, place, institution, etc., in English written with a capital letter at the start; Germany, the Atlantic, Karl, Europäische Union are all proper nouns
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Reflexive pronoun
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A pronoun that goes with a reflexive verb: in German mich, dich, sich, uns, euch, sich, mir, dir
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Reflexive verb
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A verb whose object is the same as its subject; in German, it is used with a reflexive pronoun: du sollst dich waschen = you should wash yourself
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Regular verb
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A verb that follows a set pattern in its different forms
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Relative pronoun
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A pronoun that introduces a subordinate clause, relating to a person or thing mentioned in the main clause: the man who visited us = der Mann, der uns besucht hat
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Reported Speech
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Another name for Indirect speech
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Sentence
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A sequence of words, with a subject and a verb, that can stand on their own to make a statement, ask a question, or give a command
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Separable verb
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A verb with a prefix that can be separated from it in some tenses: anfangen, anzufangen, angefangen, but ich fange an, du fingst an
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Singular
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Of nouns etc., referring to just one: the tree = der Baum
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Stem
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The part of a verb to which endings are added; fahr- is the stem of fahren
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Subject
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In a clause or sentence, the noun or pronoun that causes the action of the verb: he caught the ball = er fing den Ball
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Subjunctive
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A verb form that is used to express doubt or unlikelihood: if I were to tell you that … = wenn ich dir sagen würde, dass …
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Subordinate clause
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A clause which adds information to the main clause of a sentence but cannot be used as a sentence by itself
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Suffix
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A letter or group of letters joined to the end of a word to make another word, as - heit in Schön heit
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Superlative
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The form of an adjective or adverb that makes it “most”: the smallest house = das kleinste Haus, most clearly = am klarsten
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Tense
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The form of a verb that tells when the action takes place: present, future, imperfect, perfect, pluperfect
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Transitive verb
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A verb that is used with a direct object: she read the book = sie las das Buch
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Verb
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A word or group of words that describes an action: the children are playing = die Kinder spielen
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