4 SECTION II. GRAMMATICAL RULES. THERE are in German nine parts of speech: the article, the substantive, the adjective, the pronoun, the verb, the adverb, the preposition, the conjunction, and the interjection. There are three genders in German: the masculine, feminine, and neuter. CHAPTER I. THE ARTICLE. (1.)-There are two articles in German: the definite article, der, die, das, the; and the indefinite article, ein, eine, ein, a or an. (Rule 2.) CHAPTER II. DECLENSION OF SUBSTANTIVES. (I.)-SINGULAR. (3.)—All neuter substantives, and most masculine substantives take "g" in the genitive, or, for the sake of euphony, "es;" in the latter case, the "e" is kept in the dative. das Feld, the field N. der Reffel, the kettle G. des Kessels, of the kettle D. dem Keffel, to the kettle A. den Kessel, the kettle. (4.)-A few substantives that originally terminated in "en" keep this termination in all cases, being declined like Kessel; but throw the "n" away in the Nominative; for instance, der Name, des Namens, den Namen, the name. In the same manner is declined der Buchstabe, the letter. (5.)-A great number of masculine substantives take "n" or "en" in the Genitive, and keep this termination in all cases of the singular and plural; such are: All names of persons and animals terminating in ""; most names that are derived from foreign languages denoting a male being, as: der Student, der Protestant, etc.; all substantives given in the 9th lesson. N. der Affe, the monkey der Bär, the bear des Bären, of the bear dem Bären, to the bear den Bären, the bear. (6.)—Feminine nouns do not vary in the singular:— G. der Mutter, of the mother (II.)-PLURAL. (7.)-Most substantives of one syllable take "e" in the plural. Every dative takes "n" besides. If the radical vowel of any substantive be "a", "o", "u' or "au", it changes in the plural generally into "ä”, G. der Hände, of the hands A. die Hände, the hands. (8.)-Some substantives of one syllable form the plural by adding "er". Those substantives that terminate in "thum" follow the same rule. Der Wurm, the worm, plur. die Würmer; der Irrthum, the error, plur. die Irrthümer.-The substantives given in the 12th lesson follow the same rule. (9.)—Those substantives that form the cases of the singular by adding "n" or "en" keep these terminations in the plural. Feminine nouns terminating in “e”, "el", "er" add likewise "n" in the plural, except die Mutter and die Tochter, which are in the plural die Mütter and die Töchter. (10.)-Substantives terminating in: "ei", "heit", "in", "feit" and "ung" form their plural by adding "en"; likewise those substantives given in the 14th lesson. Those nouns terminating in "in" double the "n" in the plural; for instance, die Freundin, the female friend, plur. die Freundinnen. (11.)-Those masculine and neuter nouns that terminate in "el", "en", "er" do not change in the plural; but their radical vowel is modified. OF PROPER NAMES. (12.)-Proper names in the singular, if they are declined. with an article, are invariable. If they are declined without an article, they take an "3" in the genitive, except those feminine names that terminate in "e", which take "ens" in the genitive and "en" in the dative. Names of towns and countries are generally declined without an article, except die Schweiz, die Türkei, etc. (13.)-PLURAL.-Masculine names take "e" and feminine names take "n" or "en". ON THE FORMATION OF FEMININE NOUNS AND DIMINUTIVES. (14.)-In forming the feminine from a masculine noun, the termination "in" is added to the latter, unless the masculine terminates in "e", in which case the "e" is left out and "in" is added to the rest. The radical vowel is generally modified. (15.)-In forming a diminutive from a noun the termination "chen" or "lein" is added to the word, unless it terminates in "e" or "en" in which case "e" or "en" is left out, and the proper termination added to the rest. The radical vowel is generally modified. All diminutives are neuters. CHAPTER III. ON THE DECLENSION OF ADJECTIVES. (16.)-In the two sentences "the beautiful flower" and "the house is high," beautiful is said to be the attribute to flower and high the predicate to house. (17.)—The adjective employed as predicate is invariable. The adjective employed as an attribute always precedes its substantive, and is declined in three different ways according as it is joined to the definite article, the indefinite article, or without any article whatever. used (18.)-a. If an adjective is preceded by the definite article, by dieser, this; jener, that; welcher, which; mancher, many or one; jeder, every, each; it takes "e" in the nom. sing. and in all other cases "en," except in the acc. sing. of the fem. and neut. which are like the nominative. Singular. Masculine. N. der gute Freund, the good friend N. die guten Freunde, schönen Frauen, hohen Häuser G. der guten Freunde, schönen Frauen, hohen Häuser D. den guten Freunden, schönen Frauen, hohen Häusern A. die guten Freunde, schönen Frauen, hohen Häuser. (19.)-b. If an adjective is preceded by the indefinite article by fein, no, or a possessive pronoun, it takes in the nominative the terminations er, e, es for the masc. fem. and neuter respectively; and in all other cases en, except in the acc., sing., fem. and neut., which are like the nom. Singular. Masculine. N. mein guter Vater, my good father Feminine. N. meine gute Mutter, my good mother Neuter. N. mein gutes Kind, my good child The plural is formed in the same way as in the last rule. |