German Grammar - Making Sense of German Sentences

I'd like to help you make some sense of German grammar, so your German reading practice will start to go a little smoother. If you are a beginner or even intermediate in German, and you want to improve your German language skills through reading, sooner or later, if you experience reading German in anyway like I have, you will get hung up some . At this point you may ask yourself, "why learn German"? and contemplate giving up on the German language. Just hang in there - help is on the way!

Let me help you in the next few posts with typical difficult German sentences. I've figured out some tricks to learning German over the years after banging my head on difficult, long sentences enough, so maybe I can spare you a little grief.

We are going to make sense out of a sentence (which I got from my World War 2 reading:

• Der für ein erneutes Minenunternehmen vorgesehene Tanker "British Emperor" erkannte im nördlichen Indik den Hilfskreuzer and funkte. Er wurde daher beschossen und versenkt.

The trick is to break the sentence down into its elementary parts:

1. Subject (Nominative case): Der Tanker "British Emperor"


2. Verb: Two verbs here - erkannte and funkte


3. Object of the verb (Accusative case) den Hilfskreuzer - object of erkannte


4. Adjective describing Subject: für ein erneutes Minenunternehmen vorgesehene *This is where I used to get stuck. This is how it works - If you look up vorsehen, it is a verb meaning to have intentions or plans for something, but here it is used as an adjective - its called a verbal adjective. "vorgesehene" is in the past participle form - its subject is Tanker. Have plans for what? - für ein erneutes Minenunternehmen - for a new mine-laying operation. In English it sounds literally like: The for a new mine-laying operation planned Tanker "British Emperor" or, to make it sound better in English - The Tanker "British Emperor" is planned for a new mine-laying operation.


5. Adverb: im nördlichen Indik - the action is taking place in the northern Indian Ocean.


6. Break down the sentence to its basic ingredients. Once you understand what is the subject, verb, direct object and indirect object, then add back the extra seasoning!


7. This is the broken down sentence: Der vorgesehene Tanker "British Emperor" erkannte den Hilfskreuzer und funkte.


8. Add back the extra seasoning: für ein erneutes Minenunternehmen, im nördlichen Indik

Now we just figured out this sentence. We won't go over the second sentence for now. Can anyone tell me what both sentences mean together and what just happened in this sea action?

The German Language as a Second Language

One of the best things I've ever done for myself was to learn a second language. The German language makes a great second language. Since I've been able to read, write and speak German, I've been able to enjoy a very wonderful culture in a way that I could not have experienced with just knowing English. Having German as a second language really comes in handy. Now I can read German books, stories and newspapers in German. I even have a subscription to a German newspaper. And if you ever watch World War II movies, its inevitable that there will be some dialog in German. Its really cool to be able to understand the German being spoken. As far as taking a vacation to Germany. Well, hey, I can just rattle off all day long in German with friends and people I meet.

Its not that hard to learn effective German. If you too want to enjoy the German language as a second language, Rocket German is the right place to get started in a jiffy! Give it a shot!

The German language gets easier and more fun each day I learn it. Now that I'm always hearing German, reading German and speaking German, the German language has become a way of life for me. If you are beginning your adventure with the German language, and get stuck on a certain point or difficulty (as happens with everybody), please feel free to ask me a question here on this blog. I've had an exciting adventure with the German language and would like to share it with others!

Auf Wiederhören!