Culture Shock! Austria - A Survival Guide to Customs and Etiquette

The German Language 229

in the English translation it would come in the centre.
For example:

Ich muss in die Schule gehen. (I must go to school.)

Ich hole dich um 4 Uhr ab. (I will pick you up at 4:00.)

Thus, one is forced to listen intently to what is said in order
to understand the meaning of a long drawn-out sentence. On
the other hand, it is a good means of teaching children to
listen. The problem for the student of the German language
is that when speaking, one cannot translate from one’s own
language, but instead must think in a whole different way. It
is an experience similar in many ways to playing the piano
for the first time.

The Many Different Cases

The declension of the cases of the German language is the
cause of many mistakes. The English language does not change
with the case being used, but German does. There are four
cases: nominative, accusative, genitive and dative. In each
case, the pronoun, adjective and noun change. For example:

Nominative Mein guter Freund My good friend

Accusative

Meinen guten

Freund My good friend

Genitive Meines Guten

Freundes

Of my good friend

Dative

Meinem guten

Freund To my good friend

Capitalising Nouns

One simple and seemingly easy rule is that all nouns are
capitalised. This would make any elementary student very
happy indeed. However, confusion sometimes arises when
you are not sure whether the noun is actually a person or a
thing. For example:

Die Rose ist eine Blume. (The rose is a flower.)