indefinites words used to indicate how many of the noun there are without giving the
exact number: Einige Kollegen ‘a few colleagues’. Manche Studenten ‘some students’.
Viele Leute ‘lots of people’. See also determiner*.indicative mood the form of the verb* used to make unconditional statements (see
conditional*) or to ask questions: Die Arbeit war schon am Montag fertig ‘The work
was finished on Monday’. Wohnen Sie hier in der Nähe? ‘Do you live near here?’ See
also imperative mood* and subjunctive mood*.indirect object: see dative object*.infinitive the form of the verb* found in a dictionary: arbeiten ‘to work’. The infinitive
is also used in particular constructions, e.g. with a modal verb*: Wir müssen jetzt
arbeiten ‘We have to work now.’inseparable verb a verb* with an inseparable prefix: vergeben ‘to forgive’. The past
participle (see participle*) does not begin with ge-: Ich habe dir vergeben ‘I have
forgiven you’. See also separable verb*.interrogative any question word or phrase: Wo? ‘Where?’ Warum? ‘Why?’ Aus
welchem Grund? ‘For what reason?’intransitive verb a verb* which needs only a subject* to form a basic sentence: Sie
schläft ‘She is asleep.’ See also transitive verb*.irregular verb a type of strong verb* which changes its stem in the du and the er/sie/es
forms of the present tense, e.g. geben ‘to give’: ich gebe, du gibst, er gibt. See also weak
verb*.mixed verb a category of verbs*, small in number, that combine aspects of weak verbs*
and strong verbs*. See 33.6.modal particles words which signal the speaker’s attitude towards what he or she
is saying and help to involve the listener in what is being said. There is often no
direct English equivalent: Das hast du ja selber gesagt ‘You said that yourself
(after all)’.modal verb a verb* which can be used with another verb to modify the kind of
statement being made: Ich kaufe es ‘I buy it’ can be modified to Ich will es kaufen
‘I want to buy it’, Ich muss es kaufen ‘I have to buy it’, etc.mood: see imperative mood*, indicative mood*, subjunctive mood*.noun a word which names things, processes or concepts. In written German, all nouns
begin with a capital letter: der Brief ‘letter’, die Tiefe ‘depth’, das Schreiben ‘(act of)
writing’. All nouns in German have a gender*.number a word denoting whether a noun* or verb* is singular or plural: Ein Hund ‘one
dog’, but zwei Hunde ‘two dogs’. Du gehst ‘you (singular) are going’, but Sie gehen
‘you (plural) are going’.xvi
GLOSSARY