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Connectors 4: Question Words
In the module Connectors 1, you learned about different types of connectors of clauses: coordinating and subordinating conjunctions as well as adverbs. In this module, you will learn about one specific type of connectors: question words. They are used to form indirect questions to ask for information in a more polite way than with direct questions. Many indirect questions consist of a main clause such as Ich möchte wissen…, Weißt du…, Ich frage mich…, Ich weiß nicht…, Kannst du mir sagen… and of another clause connected to the main clause with a question word such as wer, wo, was, wann, wie. Activity 1 First, let’s review the meaning of some frequent…
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Connectors 3: before and after in German
The words bevor and vorher (‘before’) and nachdem and danach (‘after’) were among the connectors that we reviewed in the module Connectors 1. Additionally, vor can also mean ‘before’, and nachher and nach can also mean ‘after’. It is important to know that all these vor-words and nach-words cannot be used interchangeably. They are used in distinct contexts, perform distinct functions, and express slightly different meanings. Activity 1 bevor – vorher – vor Read corpus examples below. Pay attention to what words follow the bolded connectors, and to the position of the bolded verb. If you find the text hard to read, you can click on the image to get…
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Connectors 2: doch
In the module Connectors 1, you have learned that there are three main types of words that connect German clauses: coordinating conjunctions, subordinating conjunctions, and connecting adverbs. The connector type affects the word order in the German sentence, especially the position of the verb. One of the frequently used connectors is doch (‘still, but, however, yet’). Let’s explore examples with doch using Das Digitale Wörterbuch der Deutschen Sprache (DWDS), a large electronic collection of German texts known as a corpus. Below you will see two images that show example sentences. They are presented in form of a concordance – stacked lines of examples with the search words bolded and centered. Read…
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Connectors 1
In this module, you will review the usage of German words that connect clauses. These include coordinating and subordinating conjunctions as well as adverbs. It is important to distinguish these three types of connectors because they affect the position of the verb in a clause. Activity 1 First, let’s review the meaning of some frequent German conjunctions by matching them with their English equivalents. If needed, you can consult the online dictionary LEO. Activity 2 Now, let’s explore examples with these conjunctions using Das Digitale Wörterbuch der Deutschen Sprache (DWDS), a large electronic collection of German texts known as a corpus. Below you will see two images that show example sentences.…