object (of the verb) the person or thing affected by the action of the verb*, as distinct
from the person or thing responsible for the action (the subject*). See accusative object*
and dative object*.orthography the conventions for correct spelling and punctuation.participle a non-finite form of a verb*. The present participle is usually an adjective:
führend ‘leading’. The past participle is used in forming various tenses and signals the
completion of an action: Er hat es schon gemacht ‘He has already done it’. The past
participle can also have an adjectival sense: geteilt ‘divided’. See also finite verb*.passive also called the passive voice: a grammatical construction in which the person
or thing affected by the action of a verb* appears as the subject* of the sentence. For
example, the active* sentence Er hat den Brief geschrieben ‘He has written the letter’
can be expressed in the passive as Der Brief ist (von ihm) geschrieben worden ‘The
letter has been written (by him)’.person verbs have three persons, the first (singular: ich gehe; plural: wir gehen),
the second (singular: du gehst; plural: ihr geht, Sie gehen) and the third (singular:
er/sie/es geht; plural: sie gehen).preposition a word that describes where things are in time or space. German
prepositions always put the noun* or pronoun* into a case* other than the nominative:
unter dem Tisch ‘under the table’, für mich ‘for me’.prepositional phrase usually a phrase consisting of a preposition* linked to a noun*
or adjective* and noun: neben der neuen Tür ‘next to the new door’, im alten Haus
‘in old house’, dem Dom gegenüber ‘opposite the cathedral’.prepositional verb a verb* that forms an idiomatic unit with a particular preposition*:
glauben an (+ acc.) ‘to believe in sb. or sth.’.pronoun a word that stands in for and refers to a noun*. There are personal pronouns:
e.g. er, which means ‘he’ when referring to a noun like der Abteilungsleiter ‘head of
department’, and ‘it’ when referring to a noun like der Computer ‘computer’. Relative
pronouns introduce relative clauses (see clause*): Das ist eine Frage, die mich
interessiert ‘That is a question which interests me’. Reflexive pronouns are used with
reflexive verbs*. The possessive pronouns meiner, meine, meins; deiner, deine, deins,
etc. correspond to ‘mine’, ‘yours, etc. Demonstrative* pronouns point to something
specific: dieses Spiel ‘this game’, jene Frau ‘that woman’. Informally der/die/das also
act as demonstrative pronouns: Den haben wir heute nicht gesehen ‘We haven’t seen
him today.’reflexive verb a verb* that is used with a form of pronouns* known as reflexive pronouns
to indicate that the subject* and the object* of the verb are identical: Ich rasiere mich
‘I shave’. Some German verbs can only be used reflexively: Sie befindet sich in Bonn
‘She is in Bonn’.reported speech a way of showing that the words used by the speaker or the writer are
someone else’s. (See also direct speech*.) German uses a subjunctive* form of the verb*xvii
Glossary