for this: e.g. an original sentence such as Ich bin krank ‘I am ill’ can be reported as
Er sagte, er sei krank ‘He said he was ill’.separable verb a verb* with a (stressed) separable prefix which appears separately from
the main part of the verb in some structures: Der Zug kam pünktlich an ‘The train
arrived on time’. See also inseparable verb*.strong verb a verb* which undergoes a change to its stem in forming the simple past:
wir singen ‘we sing’, wir sangen ‘we sang’. See also irregular verb* and weak verb*.subject (of the verb) usually a noun* or pronoun* which denotes the person or thing
doing the action expressed by the verb*. The subject agrees with the verb in number*:
Die Maschine läuft ‘The machine is running’, Die Maschinen laufen ‘The machines
are running’. See also object*.subjunctive mood a form of the verb* used to express an action, process or state which
is not actually in existence at the time of speaking. The subjunctive is mainly used in
reported speech* and in conditional sentences (see conditional*) such as Ich könnte
morgen kommen (, wenn du Zeit hast) ‘I could come tomorrow (if you have time)’.
See also imperative mood* and indicative mood*.superlative the form of an adjective used to denote the greatest intensity of a quality:
Das war die beste Lösung. ‘This was the best solution’. See also comparative.tense a finite form of the verb* (see finite verb*) which usually expresses whether
the action takes place in the present, past or future. German has six tense forms.
See 33.3 and 34.transitive verb a verb* which can have an accusative object*: Ich verstehe dich ‘I
understand you’. See also intransitive verb*.verb a word describing an action or state of being: wir schwimmen ‘we are swimming’,
sich waschen ‘to get washed’, sie war traurig ‘she was sad’.verbal prefix a prefix added to a verb* in order to create a new verb with a different
meaning. Verbal prefixes may be separable (ankommen ‘to arrive’) or inseparable
(vergeben ‘to forgive’). A few verbal prefixes can be separable or inseparable, with a
distinction in meaning: see 36. See also inseparable verb* and separable verb*.weak verb a regular verb* whose forms are completely predictable as they add standard
endings to the verb stem. See 33.4. See also irregular verb* and strong verb*.zero declension also sometimes called the ‘strong declension’: the pattern of adjective
endings before a noun when there is no preceding ein or der: italianischer Wein
‘Italian wine’, deutsches Bier ‘German beer’. See also declension following ein, etc.*
and declension following der, etc.*.xviii
GLOSSARY