German Writing Using expressions to organize ideas If you feel that your German writing assignments sound choppy

or stilted, try incorporating some of the following expressions to make your writing more flowing. Expressions for Organizing Facts/Ideas Listing Facts/Ideas First of all, first - zunchst, erstens Secondly, thirdly - zweitens, drittens (see Numbers) besides - auerdem then - dann incidentally brigens further - darber hinaus above all - vor allem lastly, finally - letztendlich, schlielich Introducing/Stating Examples For example - zum Beispiel (z.B.) I would like to give an example - ich mchte ein Beispiel anfhren

Referring to point/example - dabei sei auf Punkt/Beispiel hingewiesen namely - und zwar Clarifying a point In other words - Mit anderen Worten, anders ausgedrckt This signifies particularly... - Dies gilt besonders fr... This means - Dies bedeutet To Summarize/Conclude In a nutshell- Im Groen und Ganzen In a word- Kurz und gut In conclusion - zum Schluss To conclude, one can say - Zusammenfassend lsst sich sagen, dass..

How to Write a Letter in German

Probably for most of you, letter-writing via snail mail is almost non-existent in your life. Except for professional related purposes or for those few older relatives who may not have internet access, you most likely depend on e-mail for

written communication. Taking this in consideration, the following information may be used for either traditional letters, postcards or e-mail. Letter Basics: The most important aspect of letter-writing in German is to determine whether it will be a formal or a casual letter. In German, there are far more stipulations when writing a formal letter. Not adhering to these formalities, you risk sounding rude and impertinent. So please keep the following in mind when writing a letter. Opening Greeting : These standard formal greetings can be used for business correspondence or with anyone with whom you would normally address as Sie. (See German Polite You) Formal: Sehr geehrter Herr., Sehr geehrte Frau..., Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren, If you are writing to someone with a professional title such as a doctor or a lawyer, then include it in the opening greeting: Sehr geehrte Frau Rechtsanwltin Neubauer Sehr geehrter Herr Doktor Schmidt Casual: Lieber., (This is the equivalent to "dear" and

used only for close male relatives or friends. Liebe., (Same thing as above, except used for females.) Unlike English, the word that follows your greeting begins with a small letter. Liebe Maria, ich bin so froh Note: The more modern way is to end the greeting in a comma, however you may come across the oldfashioned pre-computer/e-mail way of putting an exclamation point at the end of the greeting: Liebe Maria!

Personal Pronouns: It is extremely important to choose the appropriate personal pronoun. Not doing so, may make you sound impolite. For a formal letter, you will address the person as Sie, with the obligatory capital S at all times (other forms are Ihr and Ihnen, see German Polite You) Otherwise, for a close friend or relative, you will address them as du. Note: If you by chance peruse books on letter-writing published before 2005, you will notice that du, dir and dich are capitalized as well. That's the former rule prior to die neue Rechtschreibungsreform, when all personal pronouns used for addressing someone in a letter were capitalized.

Letter Body: To get ideas for general polite conversation, see the Common Greetings and Courtesies and Thank You and You're Welcome articles. Otherwise here are a few phrases that may be useful: Ich wei, dass ich schon lange nicht geschrieben habe I know that I haven't written in a long time... Ich war so beschftigt in letzter Zeit,... I was so busy lately... Vielen Dank fr deinen Brief. Ich habe mich sehr darber gefreut. Thank you very much for your letter. I was very happy to receive it. Ich hoffe, dass Sie einen herrlichen Sommer verbracht haben. Ich hoffe, dass du einen herrlichen Sommer verbrachst hast. I hope you've had a wonderful summer. Ich hoffe, dass du dich besser fhlst. Ich hoffe, dass Sie sich besser fhlen. I hope you are feeling better. Mein Freund hat mir deine/Ihre E-mail Adresse gegeben. My friend gave me your e-mail address. Ich wrde gerne wissen... I would like to know.

 Es freut mich sehr zu hren, dass ... I'm glad to hear that.... Vielen Dank fr deine/Ihre schnelle Rckantwort. Thank you very much for your quick response. More Phrases: See our articles on how to ask questions and terms of endearment. Concluding the Letter: Contrary to English, there is no comma after a concluding expression in German. Gru Helga As in English, your name can be preceded by a possesive adjective: Gru Dein Uwe You can use: Dein(e) -> if you are close to this person. Deine if you are female Ihr(e) -> if you have a formal relationship with the person. Ihre if you are female. Some other expressions for concluding are: Casual: Gre aus ...(city where you're from) Viele Gre Liebe Gre Viele Gre und Ksse

Alles Liebe Ciau (more for E-mail, postcards) Mach's gut (E-mail, postcards) More Formal Mit besten Gren Mit herzlichen Gren Freundliche Gre Mit freundlichem Gru Tip: Avoid writing Hochachtungsvoll or any form thereof - it sounds very old-fashioned and stilted.

E-mail Lingo Some people like it a lot, others despise it. Either way, email jargon is here to stay and helpful to know. Here's a few of the most common German ones. mfg - Mit freundlichen Gren vg - Viele Gre ld - Lieb' Dich lg - Liebe Gre gn8 - Gute Nacht hdl - Hab dich lieb On the Enveloppe: All names, whether it be people or a business should be addressed in the accusative. That's because you are either writing it "An (to)." someone or it is simply implied.

An Frau/Herr Frau/Herrn An die Firma (company)...

German Words
That Will Add Spice to Your Writing
Are you writing a German story for your class or your own pleasure and want to make it more interesting? One easy and quick way is to use more of a variety of German words other than sie sagte, er sagte (she said, he said) in your dialogue sections. Take a glance at the German word list below and see what you can use to spice up your writing. Please note that the verbs are written in German past tense as you would write it in your German story. A-M begann sie/er - she/he began bellte sie/er - she/he barked drngte sie/er weiter - she/he insisted further erklrte sie/er - she/he explained flsterte sie/er - she/he whispered fuhr sie/er mit zitternder Stimme fort - she/he continued with a tremulous voice gluckste sie - she clucked

grummelte sie/er - she/he rumbled, mumbled japste sie/er - she/he panted keifte sie/er - she/he nagged klagte sie/er - she/he complained knurrte sie/er - she/he snarled krchzte sie/er she/he croaked kreischte sie/er - she/he screeched, shrieked meinte sie/er - (meinen - to be of the opinion) he reckoned murmelte sie/er - she/he murmured N-Z raunzte sie/er - she/he grumbled rief sie/er - she/he cried out sagte sie/er scharf - she/he said sharply sagte sie/er steif - she/he said stiffly schlug sie/er vor - she/he suggested schluchste sie/er - she/he blubbered, sobbed stammelte sie/er - she/he stammered

stotterte sie/er - she/he stuttered sprach sie/er mit krchzender Stimme - she/he spoke with a raspy voice zischte er/sie - he/she hissed

Capitalization in German
The topic of German spelling reform (Rechtschreibreform) has been a hot topic of debate in recent years. Even before the current rules, issued in 1996, went into effect for schools and government entities in all the German-speaking countries in August 1998, there had been court cases and official protests. Despite a generally negative attitude from most Germanspeakers, the German media in Austria, Germany and Switzerland almost uniformly adopted the reforms in August 1999. With rare exceptions (FAZ in 2000), the reforms remain in effect today. The "complete implementation" of the rules went into effect on August 1, 2005. But in all the wrangling over how German should be properly spelled there has been one prominent sacred cow: the capitalization of all nouns. German is the only language in the world that requires the capitalization of ALL nouns. There are only a few fringe groups calling for German capitalization rules similar to those in most other languages. Headquartered in Zurich, the Bund fr vereinfachte rechtschreibung (note the spelling of the BVR's name, "Federation for simplified spelling") dates back to 1924. While there are a few rebels who write their German email like e.e. cummings, most German-speakers still cling to their sacred Groschreibung (capitalization). Although Kleinschreibung had its advocates, the framers of the 1996 German spelling reforms felt it was simply not politically feasible to call for the elimination of

noun capitalization. As it was, they had quite enough controversy without adding Gro- und Kleinschreibung to the list. In a way, leaving the noun-capitalization rule largely untouched was a good thing for students of German. It certainly makes it easier to spot a noun (das Substantiv, das Hauptwort) in German, something that many students find difficult to do in their own language! The rules for capitalization in German are in fact no more complicated than those for English or most other languages, but there are some differences that a student of German should be aware of. These differences can be a source of interference problems for someone learning German. First of all, consider what must be capitalized in English but not in German: I/ich, American car/amerikanisches Auto and German wine/deutscher Wein (adjectives of nationality). Yes, it's a very short list! Going the other way, there is only one word (besides all nouns) that German capitalizes but English does not: Sie (the formal "you" and its variations, i.e., Ihnen, Ihr). Although many German speakers continue to capitalize the informal "you" forms (du, dich, ihr, euch, etc.) in a letter or email, under the new rules, the formal Sie is the only pronoun requiring capitalization. (A logical rule, since the capitalization of Sie expresses distance and formality versus the closeness and familiarity of du.) With the exception of German's all-noun capitalization, English capitalizes most of the same things that German does: Henry/Heinrich, First Union Bank/Deutsche Bank, Ms. Smith/Frau Schmidt (proper names, titles); Friday/Freitag, Juni/June (days of the week and months; many other languages don't, including French, Spanish and Italian), and the first letter in a sentence.

German capitalization rules only become a bit tricky (even for Germans) when it comes to details like am besten (superlative) versus zum Besten (superlative phrase) and some changes resulting from spelling reform (heute Morgen, Rad fahren, auf Deutsch, etc.). On the next page you'll find more examples and a closer look at the rules of German capitalizationand its history. German Capitalization Rules with Examples Comparing English and German Rules Capitalization > Part 1 | Part 2 | Quiz In most cases German and English capitalization rules are similar or identical. I have pointed out those similarities in Part 1. But here is a closer look at the most important differences: 1. SUBSTANTIVE (Nouns) All German nouns are capitalized. This simple rule was made even more consistent by the new spelling reforms. Whereas under the old rules there were exceptions in many common noun phrases and some verbs (radfahren, recht haben, heute abend), the 1996 reforms now require the nouns in such expressions to be capitalized (and set apart): Rad fahren (to ride a bike), Recht haben (to be right), heute Abend (this evening). Another example is a common phrase for languages, previously written without caps (auf englisch, in English) and now written with a capital letter: auf Englisch. The new rules make it easy. If it's a noun, capitalize it! The reformers of German spelling have been criticized for a lack of consistency, and unfortunately nouns are no exception. Some nouns in phrases with the verbs bleiben, sein and werden are treated as uncapitalized predicate adjectives. Two examples: "Er ist schuld daran." (It's his fault.) and "Bin ich

hier recht?" (Am I in the right place?). Technically, die Schuld (guilt, debt) and das Recht (law, right) are nouns (schuldig/richtig would be the adjectives), but in these idiomatic expressions with sein the noun is considered a predicate adjective and is not capitalized. The same is true of some stock phrases, such as "sie denkt deutsch." (She thinks [like a] German.) But it's "auf gut Deutsch" (in plain German) because that is a prepositional phrase. However, such cases are usually standard phrases that one can just learn as vocabulary.

2. PRONOMEN (Pronouns) Only the German personal pronoun "Sie" must be capitalized. Spelling reform logically left the formal Sie and its related forms (Ihnen, Ihr) capitalized, but called for the informal, familiar forms of "you" (du, dich, ihr, euch, etc.) to be in lower case letters. Out of habit or preference, many German speakers still capitalize du in their letters and email. But they don't have to. In public proclamations or fliers, the familiar plural forms of "you" (ihr, euch) are often capitalized: "Wir bitten Euch, liebe Mitglieder..." ("We bid you, dear members..."). Like most other languages, German does not capitalize the first-person-singular pronoun ich (I) unless it is the first word in a sentence.

3. ADJEKTIVE 1 (Adjectives 1) German adjectives including those of nationality are NOT capitalized. In English, it is correct to write "the American writer" or "a German car." In German, adjectives are not capitalized, even if they refer to nationality: der

amerikanische Prsident (the American president), ein deutsches Bier (a German beer). The only exception to this rule is when an adjective is part of a species name, a legal, geographic or historical term; an official title, certain holidays, or common expression: der Zweite Weltkrieg (the Second World War), der Nahe Osten (the Middle East), die Schwarze Witwe (the black widow [spider]), Regierender Brgermeister ("ruling" mayor), der Weie Hai (the great white shark), der Heilige Abend (Christmas Eve). Even in book, film or organizational titles, adjectives are usually not capitalized: Die amerikanische Herausforderung (The American Challenge), Die weie Rose (The White Rose), Amt fr ffentlichen Verkehr (Office of Public Transportation). In fact, for book and movie titles in German, only the first word and any nouns are capitalized. (See the article on German Punctuation for more about book and film titles in German.) Farben (colors) in German can be either nouns or adjectives. In certain prepositional phrases they are nouns: in Rot (in red), bei Grn (at green, i.e., when the light turns green). In most other situations, colors are adjectives: "das rote Haus," "Das Auto ist blau."

4. ADJEKTIVE 2 (Adjectives 2) Substantivierte Adjektive & Zahlen Nominalized Adjectives & Numbers Nominalized adjectives are usually capitalized like nouns. Again, spelling reform brought more order to this category. Under the former rules, you wrote phrases like "Die nchste, bitte!" ("[The] Next, please!") without caps. The new rules logically changed that to "Die Nchste, bitte!" reflecting the use of the adjective nchste as a noun (short for "die

nchste Person"). The same is true for these expressions: im Allgemeinen (in general), nicht im Geringsten (not in the slightest), ins Reine schreiben (to make a neat copy, write a final draft), im Voraus (in advance). Nominalized cardinal and ordinal numbers are capitalized. Ordnungszahlen and cardinal numbers (Kardinalzahlen) used as nouns are capitalized: "der Erste und der Letzte" (the first and last one), "jeder Dritte" (every third one). "In Mathe bekam er eine Fnf." (He got a five [D grade] in math.) Superlatives with am are still not capitalized: am besten, am schnellsten, am meisten. The same is true for forms of ander (other), viel(e) (much, many) and wenig: "mit anderen teilen" (to share with others), "Es gibt viele, die das nicht knnen." (There are many who can't do that.)

When to Use s, ss or
I must admit it was hard for me let go of certain old spellings when the new German spelling reform first appeared in 1996. In particular I missed and had to get used to the changes of words with the sharp s (), such as da -> dass, bichen -> bisschen etc. For those of you who learned German after the spelling reforms - German spelling rules have been simplified! However, many German teachers would argue not enough. For instance, it is still difficult for beginner students to sort out when to use s, ss or in a German word. (In Switzerland, there is no such confusion, since the eszett () has been eliminated from Swiss-German for several decades.) The following is a run-down of when to use s, ss and the

infamous . But of course, beware of exceptions: A single s is used: At the beginning of words. der Saal (hall, room), die Sigkeit (candy, sweet), das Spielzimmer (playroom) Mostly in nouns, adjectives, adverbs and a few verbs when preceded and followed by a vowel. lesen (to read), reisen (to travel), die Ameise (ant), gesubert (cleaned) Exception Examples: die Tasse (cup), der Schlssel (key); some common verbs -> essen (to eat), lassen , pressen (to press), messen (to measure) After consonant -l, -m, -n, and -r, when followed by a vowel. die Linse (lentil), der Pilz (mushroom), rlpsen (to belch) Always before the letter p. die Knospe (a bud), lispeln (to lisp), die Wespe (wasp), das Gespenst (ghost) Usually before the letter t. der Ast (branch), der Mist (dung), kosten (to cost), meistens (mostly) Exception Examples: Verb participles whose infinitive form have a sharp -s. See rule #4. A double ss is usually written only after a short vowel sound. der Fluss (river), der Kuss (der Kiss), das Schloss (castle), das Ross (steed)

Exception Examples: bis, bist, was, der Bus Words ending in ismus: der Realismus Words ending in nis: das Geheimnis (secret) Words ending in us: der Kaktus An is used after a long vowel or dipthong. der Fu (foot), flieen (to flow), die Strae (street), beien (to bite) Exception Examples: das Haus, das Reis (rice), aus. Infinitive Verbs with ss or : When these verbs are conjugated, then these verb forms will also be written with either ss or , though not necessarily with the same sharp s sound in the infinitive form. reien (to rip) -> er riss; lassen -> sie lieen; kssen -> sie ksste