German Grammar has a variety of idiosyncrasies and differences from English. However, an English speaker that intends to read historical German records may focus on a few concepts that will allow them to understand (with a dictionary) the majority of what they read. Hence, this page selects a few valuable concepts but will not give you a good understanding of current spoken German. For further resources to learn German, see the German Grammar Resources page.
Articles and Gender
In English, we use the definite article 'the' with every noun, regardless of gender or case:
“The dog is nice.”
“I see the dog.”
“I gave it to the dog”
“That is the dog’s collar”
In German, Nouns have a few more rules related to them. First of all, every noun that you encounter will be capitalized, and every noun has a gender that corresponds to it which impacts which article you use with it. For example, Geld (money) is neuter, and in the nominative case we would attach the definite article das to it: das Geld.
The there are three different genders: masculine, feminine, and neuter. When you look up a German noun in a dictionary, there will be a lowercase gender indicator next to the word: either m, f, or n. In the example to the right, you see that Geld has 'n.' next to it, indicating that it is neuter. Additionally, a noun used in plural form has its own set of articles, replacing those you would have used for gender.
Case
The word's usage in the text, or its case, indicates which version of the word's gender-specific articles you use.
Consider the word Hund (dog). Its gender is masculine. It is used in the four different cases in the following example sentences (which correspond to the English examples above):
(Nominative) Der Hund ist nett
(Accusative) Ich sehe den Hund
(Dative) Ich gab es dem Hund
(Genitive) Das ist der Kragen des Hundes
There are a variety of rules and exceptions regarding the occurrence of the cases, but in general:
- Nominative is used when the noun is the subject of the sentence- it often comes first.
- Accusative is used when the noun is the direct object; i.e. the object that is being interacted with by the subject of the sentence.
- Dative is used for the indirect object- a noun that is neither the subject nor the direct object but is interacting in some way with them.
- Genitive is used to show possession, usually of the subject of the sentence.
Genitive is less used in spoken language, but often used in records.
When you know the case and gender of a noun, you then may refer to this table to find the correct definite article to place with it in the sentence.
A closer look at the Genitive Case
Like previously stated, you will see a lot of the genitive form throughout documents, especially as the scribes note the facts surrounding an individual. Take a look at these examples found in the headings of German church records.
Der words
The same endings used for the definite articles (the last two letters of each) are also used on "Der words;" words that act as definite articles. They are dies- (this), jen- (that), welch- (which), jed- (every), solch- (such), manch- (many a) and all- (all). See some usage in these examples:
Dieser Hund ist nett (this dog is nice)
Ich sehe jenen Hund (I see that dog)
Ich gab es jedem Hund (I gave it to every dog)
Das ist der Kragen dieses Hundes (That is the collar of this dog)
Der words are uncommon in the German records you will use.
Indefinite articles
Sometimes, instead of the definite article of 'the' one uses an indefinite article like 'that' or 'this'. These in German are ein (a), mein (my), dein (your: singular informal), ihr (your: singular formal), ihr (your: plural formal), euer (your: plural informal) kein (no), sein (his), ihr (her), ihr (their), ihr The different cases also impact suffixes given to these indefinite articles: see the examples using mein as the base indefinite article.
"Meiner Hund ist nett" (my dog is nice)
"Ich sehe deinen Hund" (I see your dog)
"Ich gab es seinem Hund" (I gave it to his dog)
"Das ist der Kragen eines Hundes" (that is the collar of a dog)
Prepositions
Prepositions in German change the case of the nouns associated with them. The prepositions you will see most are an (on, date) von or aus (from), in (in), mit (with), and um (at [time]). Here are some examples of them in actual records:
Translation: Barbara Surbeck born Baumann from Oberhallau
Translation: Katharina born Akker from Obertdorf
Translation: Michael Fetterer farmer in Babstadt
Literal Translation: in the church baptized:
Alternate Translation: in the church was baptized...
Translation: at 6 o'clock
Contractions
Similarly to English, German has some common contractions for the common prepositions as listed above.
In may be contracted with the definite article dem to form im, as the preposition in makes the following noun, Jahr (neuter in gender) take its dative definite article (dem).
Literal Translation: In the year one thousand eight hundred four and forty
Alternate Translation: In the year one thousand eight hundred and forty four
An may also be contracted with the definite article dem to form am, as the preposition an makes the following term (ordinal numbers are masculine) take its dative definite article (dem).
Translation: on 26th March 1843
Simple Past
The simple past is what we are familiar with in English with 'ed' endings or past tense verbs (with no helper verbs).
"The dog barked"
"The man walked with the dog"
"The dog ate his food"
It a form of past tense that you will encounter often in German records as it is most often associated with narration. Similar to simply adding 'ed' or using the past tense form of a verb in English, in German the verb remains in its usual place (see word order below) typically right after the subject but is changed to its simple past form; regularly adding a 't' before the conjugated ending, such as wandern (to hike) becomes wanderte or spielen (to play) becomes spielte. Irregular verbs typically have a vowel change, such as schlafen (to sleep) becomes schlief and essen (to eat) becomes ass.
The verb wohnen takes the simple past form, conjugated to its third person singular wohnte for this reference to where Johann Greif lived before this entry.
Translation: Johann Greif lived then and afterward at or near Glatt.
The verb sein takes its simple past form of conjugated to plural waren for this situation naming the baptism witnesses.
Translation: Witnesses were the named godparents: 1.) Alexander Heller 2.) Johannes von Ow.-
The verb sterben takes the simple past form, conjugated to its third person singular starb in this entry noting the death of M. Anna Derkmeister.
Literal Translation: Instetten the 10th March evening half 9 o'clock 1824. Died M. Anna Derkmeister from Instatten.
Alternate Translation: In Instetten on the evening at 8:30 on the 10th of March, 1824, M. Anna Derkmeister from Instatten died.
The scribe added a note to this familybook entry to say that the widow took all her children to North America. He used the simple past form of ziehen (to move or to pull): zog.
Literal Translation: On the 19 April 1849 moved the widow Bader with the whole family to North America.
Alternate Translation: On the 19th of April, 1849, the widow Mrs. Bader moved to North America with her family.
Simple Word Order
Generally, German word order is similar to English. It typically is (subject)(verb)(object). One notable rule is that when there are multiple verbs in a clause, all verbs after the first one are 'kicked' to the end of the clause. In practice, word order is much more complicated than that as different forms have different word order. Additionally, the scribes of the records that we use often leave out words or shorten statements, just use clauses or make other changes in their formats.
Passive Voice
Passive voice is when the subject of the sentence is receiving an action.
"The dog was given a bone"
"I was licked by the dog"
"The dog had been sleeping"
"The dog will jump over the fence"
In German, passive voice is constructed with the helping verb
werden
(to become) conjugated according to the subject and the past participle of the action verb.
Past Participles
A past participle is most often used with the present perfect (what you would use in conversation to indicate something that has happened) and the passive and is generally formed by adding the prefix 'ge' to the infinitival stem and adding 't' to the end. Similar to other verb usages irregular past participles are common and must be looked up. They can also be used as adjectives. Past participle forms are often used in German records- the most common of these are given in the below table.
Here are some examples of past tense passive voice. Note that the past participles used are the second verb and thus kicked to the end of the clause.
Literal Translation: Samuel Schmidt was on the 23 August 1907 in Grass-River Manitoba Canada born.
Alternate Translation: Samuel Schmidt was born in Grass-River, Manitoba, Canada on the 23rd of August, 1907.
Literal Translation: E. C. Renke was the 20 February buried.
Alternate translation: E. C. Renke was buried the 20th of February.
Final Example
Note many of the topics that were covered in this paragraph form marriage record. (interlinear transcription is not original).
Literal Translation: Friedrich Branding, by birth out of Lohe, county Nienburg, Kingdom Hanover and widow Margaretha Steinbrink born Bertels, born east St. Louis, were on the 6 December 1881 married.
Witnesses were: Heinrich Branding, Heinrich Schärmann, Frau Mathilde Branding, Frau Maria Schärmann.
Alternate Translation: Friedrich Branding, born in Lohe, Nienburg, Hanover was married to the widowed Margaretha Steinbrink (nee Bertels) who was born in east St. Louis on 6 December 1881.
The witnesses were Heinrich Branding, Heinrch Schärmann, Mathilde Branding and Maria Schärmann.