Glossary of grammatical terms
adjectives Adjectives are words that provide more information about a
noun: ‘The CD is new’; ‘It is a fascinatingexhibition’.
adverbs Adverbs provide information about a verb: ‘This works well’;
‘He speaks slowly’.
articles There are two types of articles: the definite article ‘the’ (der,die,
dasetc.) and the indefinite article ‘a’/‘an’ (ein,eineetc.).
auxiliary verbs These are verbs such as haben,seinorwerdenwhich are
used to form tenses or the passive: Ichhabeeine DVD gekauft;Das
Hauswurde1905 gebaut.
cases Cases signal what function a noun plays in a sentence, i.e. whether
it is the subject (nominative), the direct object (accusative), the indirect
object (dative) or if it indicates ownership (genitive). Cases can also be
determined by prepositions and certain verbs.
clause A unit of words which contains at least a subject and a finite verb.
Examples: ‘I go’; ‘They go to work’. See also main clause, subordinate
clause, infinitive clause.
comparative The form of an adjective or adverb used to describe some-
thing that is ‘more than’ or ‘less than’ another. Examples: ‘bigger than’,
‘smaller than’.
compound nouns These are nouns which are made up of more than one
word. Combinations can be, for example, noun + noun: ‘bedroom’,
adjective + noun: ‘grandfather’.
compound tense A tense which is formed with more than one verb:
‘Ihave eaten’; ‘He will have arrived by then’.
conditional sentences They express conditions and consequences. Kon-
junktiv II is often used in conditional sentences: Wenn ich reich wäre,
müsste ich nicht arbeiten‘If I were rich I wouldn’t have to work’.
conjugation A system of changing the stem and ending of verbs which
can vary when linked with personal pronouns such as ich,du,er/sie/es
etc.
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