Intermediate German For Dummies,

Need to brush up on your German? Intermediate German For
Dummies is your key to success in becoming confident in both
written and spoken German. It gives you the straight talk and
nitty-gritty detail that will see you successfully through any
major or minor roadblocks to communicating in German.

This friendly, hands-on workbook is loaded with practical
examples and useful exercises so you can practice how native
speakers use the language. From vocabulary and numbers to juggling
tenses, you'll get a clear understanding of the nuances of
German style and usage that will have you writing and speaking in
no time. Plus, you'll find multiple charts that provide
conjugations for all types of German verbs. You'll get up to
speed with German grammar, master essential differences between
German and English language usage, and be able to communicate
effectively when traveling or conducting business. Discover how
to:

• Use fundamental German grammar, from nouns, adjectives, and
  adverbs to pronouns, prepositions, and conjunctions

• Select and conjugate German verbs correctly

• Understand the importance of grammatical gender in German

• Avoid the most common writing mistakes

• Use numbers and express dates and times

• Name countries and nationalities in German

• Expand your German vocabulary exponentially

• Get comfortable with the subjunctive

• Combine verbs with confidence and competence

If you're heading to any German-speaking country, sharpen
your German-language skills the fun and easy way with
Intermediate German For Dummies.

Autorentext
Wendy Foster was born in Connecticut and grew up in Scituate, Massachusetts. While studying in France, she traveled around Europe, and became curious about the German language and culture. After graduating with a teaching certificate and a degree in French, she decided to return to Europe to study German. Her love of the Alps inspired her to live in Munich, where she spent 30 years. During that time, she studied German, completed her MA in French at Middlebury College in Paris, and later learned Spanish in Spain. Her professional experience includes teaching Business English, German, French, and intercultural communication skills, as well as writing and translating. She recently returned to her New England roots, where she works from her home overlooking a spectacular salt marsh that constantly beckons her to go kayaking, walking, bird watching, and swimming.

Zusammenfassung
Need to brush up on your German? Intermediate German For Dummies is your key to success in becoming confident in both written and spoken German. It gives you the straight talk and nitty-gritty detail that will see you successfully through any major or minor roadblocks to communicating in German. This friendly, hands-on workbook is loaded with practical examples and useful exercises so you can practice how native speakers use the language. From vocabulary and numbers to juggling tenses, you'll get a clear understanding of the nuances of German style and usage that will have you writing and speaking in no time. Plus, you'll find multiple charts that provide conjugations for all types of German verbs. You'll get up to speed with German grammar, master essential differences between German and English language usage, and be able to communicate effectively when traveling or conducting business. Discover how to:

• Use fundamental German grammar, from nouns, adjectives, and adverbs to pronouns, prepositions, and conjunctions
• Select and conjugate German verbs correctly
• Understand the importance of grammatical gender in German
• Avoid the most common writing mistakes
• Use numbers and express dates and times
• Name countries and nationalities in German
• Expand your German vocabulary exponentially
• Get comfortable with the subjunctive
• Combine verbs with confidence and competence
  If you're heading to any German-speaking country, sharpen your German-language skills the fun and easy way with Intermediate German For Dummies.

Inhalt

Introduction 1

About This Book 1

Conventions Used in This Book 1

Foolish Assumptions 2

How This Book Is Organized 2

Part I: The Building Blocks of German 3

Part II: Getting Started Now: Writing in the Present 3

Part III: Fine Tuning Your Writing with Flair 3

Part IV: Looking Back and Ahead: Writing in the Past and the Future 3

Part V: The Part of Tens 3

Part VI: Appendixes 3

Icons Used in This Book 4

Where to Go from Here 4

Part I: The Basic Building Blocks of German 5

Chapter 1: Assembling the Basic Tools for German Sentences 7

Grasping German Grammar Terms 7

Conjugating verbs and understanding tenses 8

Getting gender, number, and case 9

Understanding word order 10

Grammar terms that describe words, parts of words, and word groupings 10

Identifying Parts of Speech 11

Finding Meaning through Context 13

Using a Bilingual Dictionary 14

Making the right choice (at the bookstore) 14

Performing a word search 15

Answer Key 17

Chapter 2: Sorting Out Word Gender and Case 19

Rounding Up Grammatical Genders 19

Identifying German genders and figuring out which one to use 20

Corralling plurals 22

Lassoing indefinite articles 24

Missing absentee articles 25

Calling All Cases: The Roles Nouns and Pronouns Play 26

Identifying the four cases 26

Eyeing the similarities and differences 27

Putting Pronouns in Place 29

Personal pronouns 29

Relating to relative pronouns 30

Demonstrating demonstrative pronouns 32

Answer Key 34

Chapter 3: Laying the Foundations of German 37

Doing the Numbers 37

Counting off with cardinal numbers 37

Getting in line with ordinal numbers 40

Was Ist das Datum? Expressing Dates 42

On the Clock: Expressing Time 44

Naming Countries, Nationalities, and Languages 46

Eyeing German-speaking countries 46

Grammatically speaking about countries, nationalities, and languages 47

German neighbors and trading partners 48

Answer Key 50

Chapter 4: Building Your Word Power 51

Working With Word Combinations 51

Spotting compound nouns 52

Describing picture compound nouns 54

Checking out verb combinations 55

Grasping Word Families and Word Categories 56

Working with word families 56

Picture that! Working with word categories 58

Streamlining Word Storage 60

Recognizing cognates and near cognates 60

False friends: Bad buddies 62

Answer Key 64

Part II: Getting Started Now: Writing in the Present 67

Chapter 5: Grasping the Present Tense 69

Simplifying Subject Pronouns and Their Relationship to Verbs 69

Making sure “you” dresses for the occasion: The formality of du/ihr and Sie 70

Distinguishing among sie, sie, and Sie 71

Getting Your Verbs in Shape: Present-Tense Conjugations 73

Agreeing with the regulars 73

Conjugating verbs with spelling changes 75

Conjugating the irregulars haben and sein: To have and to be 78

Using the Very Versatile Present Tense 81

Answer Key 83

Chapter 6: Are You Asking or Telling Me? Questions and Commands 85

Inverting Word Order for Yes/No Questions 85

Gathering Information with Question Words: Who, What, Why, and More 87

Checking Information: Tag! You’re It, Aren’t You? 90

Combining Question Words: Compounds with Wo- 91

Making Choices: Asking What Kind of . . .? 93

Using the Imperative: Do It! 95

Giving orders 95 Requests and suggestions: Looking at q...