German Lessons

Here's yet another question:
When using possessive pronouns, do you go with the gender of the pronoun or the gender of the object being possessed? For example, if you're saying "for his sister," do you use the masculine declension of "his" or the feminine?
 
Für seine Schwester. Female. Für seinen Bruder. Male. So the object.
And maybe you should try watching Buffy in German, that might help you with the language.
 
Ich abschleissen Deutsch Lehrstunde Neun. Ich glaube, ich auffassen et besser. Allerdings, et bleibt schwierig.

I am probably talking like a 2-year-old.
 
Blondie Bear said:
Allerdings, et bleibt schwierig.
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Sorry, but you just almost made me fall off my chair laughing!

That sentence TOTALLY sounds like you come from around my neighborhood! (Nether Rhine region in North Rhine Westfalia) You should say "es", not "et" - replacing the "s" at the end of words with "t" is how people talk in my regional dialect! :lmao:
 
Tueuse de Vampires
Tueuse de Vampires
lol or you might call it dutch
Yep, you're definitely improving! You still have to split up the prefix and the stem in the composite verbs, however: "ich schließe Lehrstunde Neun ab", "ich fasse es besser auf".

I just didn't want to start critizing that again immediately, after killing your motivation last time, you know?
 
Those are composite verbs?

*sigh*

In my defense, my lessons haven't taught me those words yet; I had to look them up separately. And the dictionary didn't say anything about "ab" or "auf."

Stupid dictionary.
 
Blondie Bear said:
And the dictionary didn't say anything about "ab" or "auf."

Stupid dictionary.
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WTF? Please get another dictionary, fast! "auf" and "ab" are really common words, both as adverbs and as prepositions... and "auf und ab" is absolutely an everyday expression: "up and down", literally.

If it doesn't mention these words, the only use that dic has is as a paperweight!!! *stares in utter disbelief*
 
Okay, I just looked at the words again, and I'm getting what you mean. Therefore, the dictionary didn't not mention "auf" and "ab," but, being a dictionary and not a grammar primer, it didn't tell me that those need to be detached and shuffled around. And I haven't yet hit those points in the lessons. I'm just about through with "Book 1" (they're online, so calling it a "book" is a bit silly), so I'm assuming that the people who wrote these lessons find verbs like this a BIT advanced. I'll probably get to them in the next book. Which I should begin within the next week or so.

But in general, some rules that I was REALLY struggling with are starting to fall into place, and when I get something wrong I can usually see WHY it's wrong. So go me.
 
Ok, I get what you mean now. And those prefixes are a pain in the ass for foreign learners... because I only just noticed by thinking about it (you know, I usually just do it all naturally) that it isn't even a general rule that preposition-based verb prefixes detach and change position. Some don't detach, ever (e.g., can't really think of any word with "unter-" that would detach); some detach pretty much always (auf-, ab-, durch-, ein- << I think these should be all, or at least most, of them); and some, worst of all, detach in some cases but not others, "über-" being the prime suspect here.

Sorry for our language to be so darn complicated. :sigh:
 
InsaneMystic said:
some detach pretty much always (auf-, ab-, durch-, ein- << I think these should be all, or at least most, of them)
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Add "vor-", "nach-" and "aus-" to the list of those that should always detach.

(Yeah, thinks like this do work on my mind once you set them in motion. ^^ )
 
Great. I finally start to understand cases, possessives, and irregular verbs, and you throw something ELSE really confusing at me.

*sigh*

Practice, practice, practice.
 
I
InsaneMystic
hey, at least I'm trying hard to give you a COMPLETE list for reference. ;)
Well my suggestion would be to just learn everything in the order of your book. That way is probably least confusing. So just ignore this until they teach you about it in your book.
 
Blondie Bear, wie geht's mit deine Deutsch? Ich habe nicht Deutsch seit lange geschrieben, aber, aber, aber ... I want to refresh my German skills. They're rusty. Darf ich mit dir spielen?
 
I've kind of been slacking on the German lately because teaching and writing are taking up all my time. I did, however, get the gist of what you just said without looking anything up. 🙂 I'll try to make more time for studying German so we can (badly) converse in it, though, because that's probably just what I need, also. 🙂
 
I'm all for conversing badly in German. My German was school-good in 1996, but have been neglected since. I'd like to resurrect it, though, it's a beautiful language. I was reading "Erlkönig" again the other night, it is such a moving poem.
 
So, in the interest of bad German discussions. . . .

Ich bin sehr müde. Ich denke es ist weil das Wetter ist grau und bewölkt.

(I'm not very good with compound sentences yet, in case you can't tell. And syntax still occasionally confuses the bejezus out of me.)
 
Blondie Bear said:
Ich bin sehr müde. Ich denke es ist weil das Wetter ist grau und bewölkt.
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That was very good! The only mistake there is one that even many native speakers make colloquially!

To be perfect it should be "weil das Wetter grau und bewölkt ist". (all the damn change of verb position rules... I know German grammar is hell! :hug: )
 
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