Putting It Together
German Grammar 4
Chapter 12 · Putting It Together
🏛️ Putting It Together — Alles zusammen
This is the last chapter of German Grammar 4 and of the whole four-course German grammar track. It does three things: it lays the whole track on one page, it teaches a procedure for reading a long German sentence from the outside in, and it gives you an error clinic that mixes mistakes from all four courses. A recap closes the course.
The whole grammar track on one page
| Course | What it gave you | Key tools |
|---|---|---|
| German Grammar 1 | Sounds, nouns and the noun phrase | gender, plurals, the four cases, two-way prepositions, adjective endings |
| German Grammar 2 | The verb and the sentence | present tense, modals, separable and reflexive verbs, imperative, negation, word order, questions, subordinate clauses |
| German Grammar 3 | Time, possibility and voice | participles, Perfekt, Präteritum, Plusquamperfekt, future, Konjunktiv II, passive |
| German Grammar 4 | Pronouns, clauses and written German | pronouns, relative clauses, prepositional compounds, participles, Konjunktiv I, connectors, particles, word formation, formal style, idiom |
Reading a long sentence: seven steps
| Step | Do this | Tool from |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Find every finite verb: one per clause. The main clause has it in second position; subordinate clauses have it last. | German Grammar 2 (word order) |
| 2 | Cut at the commas and connectors. Which family is each connector (coordinating, subordinating, adverb)? | German Grammar 4 7 |
| 3 | Mark the relative clauses (a comma, der / die / das / was / wo, verb last) and the noun each one belongs to. | German Grammar 4 3 |
| 4 | Unpack any extended attribute between an article and its noun into a relative clause. | German Grammar 4 5 |
| 5 | For every pronoun, find the noun it stands for (gender, number) and its case (the verb or preposition). | German Grammar 4 1 and 2 |
| 6 | Check the mood and tense: sei / habe (reported speech), wäre / hätte (unreal), werden + participle (passive). | German Grammar 3, German Grammar 4 6 |
| 7 | Check the register: formal nouns and genitives, or spoken particles and contractions? | German Grammar 4 8, 10, 11 |
Worked example 1
Der Minister erklärte, die seit Jahren geplante Reform sei aus Kostengründen gescheitert.
| Step | Result |
|---|---|
| 1–2 | Main clause: Der Minister erklärte (finite verb erklärte, Präteritum). Then a comma and a reported clause with no conjunction: its finite verb is sei. |
| 4 | die seit Jahren geplante Reform = die Reform, die seit Jahren geplant wird (extended attribute, participle II). |
| 6 | sei … gescheitert = Konjunktiv I of sein + participle: reported past. The minister said: "Die Reform ist gescheitert." |
| 7 | aus Kostengründen is nominal style: "because of costs" (= weil sie zu teuer war). Formal register. |
Meaning: "The minister said that the reform, which had been planned for years, had failed for reasons of cost."
Worked example 2
Obwohl die Zeitung, die ich gestern gekauft habe, viel kostete, habe ich nichts Neues darin gefunden.
| Step | Result |
|---|---|
| 1–2 | Subordinate clause with obwohl (verb last: kostete), first in the sentence, so the main verb follows at once: habe ich. |
| 3 | Inside the obwohl-clause: die Zeitung, die ich gestern gekauft habe (relative clause, die = accusative, feminine; verb group gekauft habe last). |
| 5 | darin = in der Zeitung (prepositional compound for a thing); nichts Neues = "nothing new". |
Meaning: "Although the newspaper I bought yesterday was expensive, I found nothing new in it."
🗣️ In Use — Im Gebrauch
Read the exchanges aloud and run the seven steps on each sentence.
① A good book
② A formal request
③ A rumour
🩺 Error Clinic — Fehlerklinik
Each sentence has one mistake. Find it, say why it is wrong, and correct it. Then click to check.
1. Ich gebe ihm es.
Show answer
Ich gebe es ihm. Two pronouns: accusative before dative.
2. Alles, das ich weiß, ist das.
Show answer
Alles, was ich weiß, ist das. After alles, etwas, nichts the relative pronoun is was.
3. Ich freue mich über den Urlaub nächste Woche.
Show answer
Ich freue mich auf den Urlaub nächste Woche. Sich freuen auf is for the future; über for the present and past.
4. Sie sagten, sie haben keine Zeit. (in formal reported speech)
Show answer
Sie sagten, sie hätten keine Zeit. Haben in the plural looks like the indicative, so the Konjunktiv II is used.
5. Ich bleibe zu Hause, weil ich bin müde.
Show answer
…, weil ich müde bin. Weil sends the verb to the end.
6. Es regnet. Deshalb ich bleibe zu Hause.
Show answer
Deshalb bleibe ich zu Hause. Deshalb is an adverb in first position, so the verb is second.
7. Ich esse der gekochte Ei.
Show answer
Ich esse das gekochte Ei. Das Ei is neuter, and the neuter article is the same in the nominative and the accusative.
8. Das Haustür ist offen.
Show answer
Die Haustür ist offen. The last part of the compound, die Tür, gives the gender.
9. Wegen dem Wetter fällt das Fest aus. (in a formal letter)
Show answer
Wegen des Wetters fällt das Fest aus. In writing, wegen takes the genitive.
10. Sehr geehrte Herr Keller,
Show answer
Sehr geehrter Herr Keller, The salutation agrees with the masculine person: geehrter (a woman is geehrte Frau).
✏️ Try It Yourself — Übungen
Say the answer first, then click to check.
1. Join with a relative clause: Das ist das Buch. Ich habe über das Buch gesprochen.
Show answer
Das ist das Buch, über das ich gesprochen habe.
2. Report: Er sagte: „Ich habe keine Zeit.“
Show answer
Er sagte, er habe keine Zeit.
3. Nominal style: Weil es regnete, fiel das Fest aus.
Show answer
Wegen des Regens fiel das Fest aus.
4. Replace both nouns with pronouns: Ich schenke meiner Mutter die Blumen.
Show answer
Ich schenke sie ihr.
5. Say the same idea with obwohl and with trotzdem: Es regnet. Wir gehen spazieren.
Show answer
Obwohl es regnet, gehen wir spazieren. · Es regnet. Trotzdem gehen wir spazieren.
6. Build the compounds with their articles: die Schule + der Hof · die Geburt + der Tag.
Show answer
der Schulhof · der Geburtstag (linking -s- after Geburt).
7. What do these mean? Ich verstehe nur Bahnhof. · Sie hat das Handy bekommen.
Show answer
It's all Greek to me. · She got (received) the mobile phone. (bekommen is "to get", not "to become".)
🏁 Course Complete — Geschafft!
You have finished German Grammar 4, and with it the whole four-course German grammar track. Here is what these twelve chapters gave you.
| Chapters | What you can now do |
|---|---|
| 1–2 | Use the personal, possessive, reflexive, demonstrative, indefinite and interrogative pronouns, and order two pronouns correctly. |
| 3–4 | Build relative clauses in every case, and use prepositional compounds and fixed verb-plus-preposition phrases. |
| 5–6 | Read participles and extended attributes, and handle reported speech with the Konjunktiv I and II. |
| 7–8 | Choose the right connector and verb position, and understand modal particles and spoken German. |
| 9–11 | Take compound and derived words apart, write a formal letter in nominal style, and handle idiom, register, regional vocabulary and false friends. |
| 12 | Read a long sentence in seven steps and correct typical mistakes from all four courses. |