Books and Articles by Anne Fox

All languages have ways of showing what role a noun plays in a sentence. In English, a noun’s position in the sentence tells you how it’s being used. In German, the endings on the adjectives and articles that accompany the noun, which are based on case, tell you the noun’s function in the sentence. Here’s a quick overview of the German cases and the relationship they have with nouns, articles, and pronouns.

Getting your hellos and goodbyes straight in German is a matter of keeping in mind how well you know someone. If you’re on formal terms — in other words, if you’re addressing one or more people with Sie (zee) (you, formal) — then you have one set of expressions. When you’re on du (dooh) (you, informal) terms of address, you go with conversational expressions.

You may find yourself describing people you know as your friends, even if you aren’t in close contact with them. In the German-speaking world, people have more distinct boundaries between those they consider as Freunde (froyn-de) (friends) and those they describe as Bekannte (bê-kân-te) (acquaintances). For many Germans, Freunde are part of a smaller, tighter knit circle than those you may include in your group of friends.

You should know that talking at great length about your family is a far less popular pastime in Germany than in the United States, perhaps because Germans place a lot of value on privacy. Even so, you need to know how to talk about family, just in case the topic ever comes up. In the United States, discussing family, die Familie (dee fâ-mee-lee-e), is a great way to get to know someone.

Read the following German conversation with a grain of salt — and a smile. It gives you an idea of how many English words have slid into German. However, you're not likely to overhear this many examples of mixed language in a single conversation. In this scenario, two friends, Claudia and Jana, meet on the street.

A far greater number of Germans live in apartments, either rented or owned, than do North Americans, and great value is placed on being able to own a single-family dwelling. Land and construction materials are very costly, so German living quarters tend to be smaller and more energy efficient than their North American counterparts.

The first part of your greeting in German is a basic hello. How you say hello depends on what time of day it is. The following list includes both the standard, formal expressions for saying hello and the more casual, informal expressions: Guten Morgen! (gooh-ten mor-gen!) (Good morning!) This is the standard, formal greeting you use in the morning (until about noon).

Some German verbs that you use to describe your daily actions have an unusual construction. They’re the equivalent of reflexive verbs in English. Verbs in this group use a reflexive pronoun like myself or ourselves to emphasize the information about who is carrying out the action of the verb. When you say, “Cats wash themselves very thoroughly,” you’re using the reflexive pronoun themselves together with the verb wash to talk about what cats do.

You’re in Interlaken, in der Schweiz (in-têr-lâ-ken in dêr shvayts) (Interlaken, in Switzerland) and you want to know what time it is. You have four choices: Look at your own watch; look at the nearest clock tower (most are absolutely stunning) and find out just how accurate the Swiss are in keeping time (very!