Editing German language (section)

==Grammar==
[[German grammar]]
{{German grammar}}
German is an [[Fusional language|inflected language]] with three [[grammatical gender]]s; as such, there can be a large number of words derived from the same root, albeit, there are other languages that are much more inflected.

===Noun inflection===
[[German nouns]] inflect into:
* one of four [[Grammatical case|cases]]: [[nominative]], [[genitive]], [[dative case|dative]], and [[accusative case|accusative]].
* one of three [[grammatical gender|genders]]: masculine, feminine, or neuter. Word endings sometimes reveal grammatical gender; for instance, nouns ending in ''...ung'' (ing), ''...schaft'' (-ship), ''...keit'' or ''...heit'' (-hood) are feminine, while nouns ending in ''...chen'' or ''...lein'' ([[diminutive]] forms) are neuter and nouns ending in ''...ismus'' ([[-ism]]) are masculine. Others are controversial, sometimes depending on the region in which it is spoken. Additionally, ambiguous endings exist, such as ''...er'' ([[agent noun|-er]]), e.g. ''Feier (feminine)'', Eng. ''celebration, party'', ''Arbeiter (masculine)'', Eng. labourer, and ''Gewitter (neuter)'', Eng. thunderstorm.
* two numbers: singular and plural

Although German is usually cited as an outstanding example of a highly inflected language, the degree of inflection is considerably less than in [[Old German]] or in other old [[Indo-European languages]] such as [[Latin]], [[Ancient Greek]], or [[Sanskrit]], or, for instance, in modern [[Icelandic language|Icelandic]] or [[Russian language|Russian]]. The three genders have collapsed in the plural, which now behaves, grammatically, somewhat as a fourth gender. With four cases and three genders plus plural there are 16 distinct possible combinations of case and gender/number, but presently there are only six forms of the [[article (grammar)|definite article]] used for the 16 possibilities. Inflection for case on the noun itself is required in the singular for strong masculine and neuter nouns in the genitive and sometimes in the dative. Both of these cases are losing way to substitutes in [[Natural language|informal speech]]. The dative ending is considered somewhat old-fashioned in many contexts and often dropped, but it is still used in sayings and in formal speech or in written language. Weak masculine nouns share a common case ending for genitive, dative and accusative in the singular. Feminines are not declined in the singular. The plural does have an inflection for the dative. In total, seven inflectional endings (not counting plural markers) exist in German: ''-s, -es, -n, -ns, -en, -ens, -e''.

In the German orthography, nouns and most words with the syntactical function of nouns are capitalised, which is supposed to make it easier for readers to find out what function a word has within the sentence (''Am Freitag ging ich einkaufen.'' — "On Friday I went shopping."; ''Eines Tages kreuzte er endlich auf.'' — "One day he finally showed up.") This convention is almost unique to German today (shared perhaps only by the closely related [[Luxemburgish language]] and several insular dialects of the [[North Frisian language]]), although it was historically common in other languages such as Danish and English.

Like most Germanic languages, German forms noun [[compound (linguistics)|compounds]] where the first noun modifies the category given by the second, for example: ''Hundehütte'' (Eng. ''dog hut''; specifically: ''doghouse''). Unlike English, where newer compounds or combinations of longer nouns are often written in ''open'' form with separating spaces, German (like the other German languages) nearly always uses the ''closed'' form without spaces, for example: Baumhaus (Eng. ''tree house''). Like English, German allows arbitrarily long compounds, but these are rare. (''See also'' [[English compounds]].)

The longest German word verified to be actually in (albeit very limited) use is [[Rinderkennzeichnungs- und Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz|Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz]], which, literally translated, is "beef labelling supervision duty assignment law" [from Rind (cattle), Fleisch (meat), Etikettierung(s) (labelling), Überwachung(s) (supervision), Aufgaben (duties), Übertragung(s) (assignment), Gesetz (law)].

===Verb inflection===
Standard German verbs inflect into:
* one of primarily two [[Grammatical conjugation|conjugation]] classes, [[Germanic weak verb|weak]] and [[Germanic strong verb|strong]] (as in English). Additionally, there is actually a third class, known as mixed verbs, which exhibit inflections combining features of both the strong and weak patterns.
* three [[Grammatical person|persons]]: 1st, 2nd, 3rd.
* two [[Grammatical number|numbers]]: singular and plural
* three [[Grammatical mood|moods]]: [[Realis mood|indicative]], [[imperative mood|imperative]], [[subjunctive mood|subjunctive]]
* two [[voice (grammar)|voices]]: active and passive; the passive being composed and dividable into static and dynamic.
* two non-composed [[Grammatical tense|tenses]] ([[present tense|present]], [[preterite]]) and four composed tenses ([[perfect (grammar)|perfect]], [[pluperfect]], [[future tense|future]] and [[future perfect]])
* distinction between [[grammatical aspect]]s is rendered by combined use of subjunctive and/or preterite marking; thus: neither of both is plain indicative voice, sole subjunctive conveys second-hand information, subjunctive plus preterite marking forms the conditional state, and sole preterite is either plain indicative (in the past), or functions as a (literal) alternative for either second-hand-information or the conditional state of the verb, when one of them may seem indistinguishable otherwise.
* distinction between perfect and [[Continuous and progressive aspects|progressive aspect]] is and has at every stage of development been at hand as a productive category of the older language and in nearly all documented dialects, but, strangely enough, is nowadays rigorously excluded from written usage in its present normalised form.
* disambiguation of completed vs. uncompleted forms is widely observed and regularly generated by common prefixes (blicken - to look, erblicken - to see [unrelated form: sehen - to see]).

====Verb prefixes====

The meaning of base verbs can be expanded, and sometimes radically changed, through the use of any number of prefixes. Some prefixes have a meaning themselves; the prefix '''''zer-''''' refers to the destruction of things, as in '''''zer'''reißen'' (to tear apart), '''''zer'''brechen'' (to break apart), '''''zer'''schneiden'' (to cut apart). Others do not have more than the vaguest meaning in and of themselves; the use of '''''ver-''''' is found in a number of verbs with a large variety of meanings, as in '''''ver'''suchen'' (to try), '''''ver'''nehmen'' (to interrogate), '''''ver'''teilen'' (to distribute), '''''ver'''stehen'' (to understand). 

Other examples include ''haften'' (to stick), '''''ver'''haften'' (to detain); ''kaufen'' (to buy), '''''ver'''kaufen'' (to sell); ''hören'' (to hear), '''''auf'''hören'' (to cease); ''fahren'' (to drive), '''''er'''fahren'' (to experience).

=====Separable prefixes=====

Many [[German verbs]] have a separable prefix, often with an adverbial function. In [[finite verb]] forms this is split off and moved to the end of the clause, and is hence considered by some to be a "resultative particle". For example, ''mitgehen'' meaning "to go with" would be split, giving ''Gehen Sie mit?'' (Literal: "Go you with?" ; Formal: "Are you going along"?; a closer equivalent in colloquial English would be "Are you coming with?").

Indeed, several [[parenthetic]]al clauses may occur between the prefix of a finite verb and its complement; e.g.
:''Er '''kam''' am Freitagabend nach einem harten Arbeitstag und dem üblichen Ärger, der ihn schon seit Jahren immer wieder an seinem Arbeitsplatz plagt, mit fraglicher Freude auf ein Mahl, das seine Frau ihm, wie er hoffte, bereits aufgetischt hatte, endlich zu Hause '''an''' ''.
A literal translation of this example might look like this:
:He '''-rived''' on Friday evening, after a hard day at work and the usual annoyances that had been repeatedly troubling him for years now at his workplace, with questionable joy, to a meal which, as he hoped, his wife had already served him, finally '''ar-''' at home.

===Word order===

Word order is generally less rigid than in Modern English. There are two common [[word order]]s: one is for main [[clause]]s and another for [[subordinate clause]]s. In normal affirmative sentences the ''inflected'' verb always has position 2. In polar questions, exclamations and wishes it always has position 1. In subordinate clauses the verb is supposed to occur at the very end, but in speech this rule is often disregarded.

German requires that a verbal element (main verb or [[auxiliary verb]]) appear second in the sentence. The verb is preceded by the [[topic-comment|topic]] of the sentence. The element in focus appears at the end of the sentence. For a sentence without an auxiliary this gives, amongst other options:

: ''Der alte Mann gab mir gestern das Buch.'' (The old man gave me yesterday the book; normal order)
: ''Das Buch gab mir gestern der alte Mann.'' (The book gave [to] me yesterday the old man)
: ''Das Buch gab der alte Mann mir gestern.'' (The book gave the old man [to] me yesterday)

: ''Gestern gab mir der alte Mann das Buch.'' (Yesterday gave [to] me the old man the book, normal order)
: ''Mir gab der alte Mann das Buch gestern.'' ([To] me gave the old man the book yesterday (entailing: as for you, it was another date))

The position of a noun in a German sentence has no bearing on its being a subject, an object, or another argument. In a [[sentence (linguistics)|declarative sentence]] in English if the subject does not occur before the predicate the sentence could well be misunderstood. This is not the case in German.

====Auxiliary verbs====
When an [[auxiliary verb]] is present, the auxiliary appears in second position, and the main verb appears at the end. This occurs notably in the creation of the [[perfect (grammar)|perfect]]. Many word orders are still possible, e.g.:

:''Der alte Mann hat mir heute das Buch gegeben.'' (The old man has given me the book today.)
:''Das Buch hat der alte Mann mir heute gegeben.'' (The book has the old man given me today.)
:''Heute hat der alte Mann mir das Buch gegeben.'' (Today the old man has given me the book.)

====Modal verbs====
Sentences using modal verbs place the infinitive at the end. For example, the sentence in Modern English "Should he go home?" would be rearranged in German to say "Should he (to) home go?" (''Soll er nach Hause gehen?''). Thus in sentences with several subordinate or relative clauses the infinitives are clustered at the end. Compare the similar clustering of prepositions in the following English sentence: "What did you bring that book which I don't like to be read to out of up for?"

====Multiple infinitives====
German subordinate clauses have all verbs clustered at the end. Given that auxiliaries encode [[future]], [[Passive voice|passive]], [[Modality (semiotics)|modality]], and the [[perfect (grammar)|perfect]], this can lead to very long chains of verbs at the end of the sentence. In these constructions, the past participle in ''ge-'' is often replaced by the infinitive.

''Man nimmt an, dass  der   Deserteur wohl  erschossen<sub>V</sub> worden<sub>psv</sub> sein<sub>perf</sub> sollte<sub>mod</sub>''<br />
One suspects that the deserter probably shot become be should<br />
("It is suspected that the deserter probably should have been shot")

The order at the end of such strings is subject to variation, though the latter version is unusual.

''Er wusste nicht, dass der Agent einen Nachschlüssel hatte machen lassen''<br />
He knew not that the agent a picklock had make let

''Er wusste nicht, dass der Agent einen Nachschlüssel machen lassen hatte''<br />
He knew not that the agent a picklock make let had

("He did not know that the agent had had a picklock made")