Glossary
NOTE * indicates cross-reference to another entry in the Glossary
accusative object also known as the direct object, denotes the person or thing the
action of the verb* is being done to, and is in the accusative case in German: Sie kaufte
den Rock ‘She bought the skirt’.active also called the active voice: a grammatical construction in which the subject*
of a sentence performs the action of the verb*; the action usually affects a following
accusative object*: Er hat den Brief geschrieben ‘He has written the letter’. See also
passive*.adjective describes a noun*. It can be a simple description such as rot ‘red’, langweilig
‘boring’, or it can be a possessive such as mein ‘my’, unser ‘our’, Ihr ‘your’: Das ist ein
schöner Anzug ‘That’s a nice suit’. Hast du meine Jacke gesehen? ‘Have you seen my
jacket?’adjectival noun a noun derived from an adjective*, which has the usual adjective
endings: der Angestellte ‘(male) employee’, die Angestellte ‘(female) employee’,
die Angestellten ‘employees’.adverb indicates e.g. the manner in which something is done. It can consist of one
word or a phrase: schnell ‘quickly’, schlecht ‘badly’, am Abend ‘in the evening’, in der
Schule ‘at school’.auxiliary verb used in combination with the past participle (see participle*) to form
tenses* and the passive*. The German auxiliaries are haben, sein and werden: Habt
ihr es schon gemacht? ‘Have you already done it?’ Er ist noch nicht angekommen
‘He has not arrived yet.’ Sie wurden in der Stadt gesehen ‘They were seen in town’.case the function of nouns* or pronouns* in a German sentence is shown by a change
in their form or that of the determiners* and adjectives* used with them. The
nominative indicates the subject* of the verb*, the accusative indicates the accusative/
direct object*, the dative indicates the dative/indirect object*, and the genitive
indicates possession or the relationship between nouns. Prepositions* also require
certain cases to be used. See 16–21 (pp. 23–35).clause sub-section of a sentence containing a verb*. The main clause is that part of a
sentence which does not depend on any other element in the sentence for its meaning.
The subordinate clause depends on another clause, i.e. it cannot stand alone, and isxiii