Tackle head-on all the hurdles that you find hard about learning German Practice Makes Perfect: German Problem Solver doesn't pretend that learning German is easy. Instead of covering the entirety of the language, it hones in on those areas where you might have difficulty--areas such as der vs. die vs. das , capitalization and punctuation, subject-verb agreement, determiners and adverbs of degree, and phrasal verbs. Features: A variety of extensive exercises for practice - Practical and high-frequency vocabulary - Answer key provided for reference and quick feedback Don't sweat those troublesome grammar areas any more! Practice Makes Perfect: German Problem Solver is your perfect learning tool for ironing out your troubles. Ed Swick taught German for 30 years. He is the author of Essential German Verb Skills and Practice Makes Perfect: German Pronouns and Prepositions . Ed Swick taught German for 30 years. He is the author of Essential German Verb Skills and Practice Makes Perfect: German Pronouns and Prepositions . Practice Makes Perfect German Problem Solver By Ed Swick McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Copyright © 2013 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All right reserved. ISBN: 978-0-07-179115-1 Contents Chapter One Determining gender and forming plurals Many who are learning German struggle with the seemingly illogical approach that the language takes when determining gender. This is particularly true for English speakers, who are accustomed to a simple method for assigning gender to a noun: If the noun refers to a male, it's masculine. If it refers to a female, it s feminine. And if it refers to an inanimate object, the noun is neuter. There are a few exceptions, but for the most part, gender in the English language is determined by the obvious sexual gender of a person or the fact that an object is inanimate. In small measure, German often considers males and females as masculine and feminine nouns, respectively. This is easy for an English speaker to understand. But it is the other ways of assigning gender to a noun that cause consternation. There often seems to be no rhyme or reason for why a noun is assigned a certain gender. But that is only what it seems . Let s look at the various patterns to German gender, which will help make sense of why a noun is considered masculine, feminine, or neuter. Knowing the right gender of a noun is important for speaking and writing correctly in German. If the wrong gender is used in a sentence, the speaker or writer will still be understood, but the sentence will seem awkward or sometimes even silly. Let's use a couple examples in English, in which the wrong pronoun is used. This is similar to what a German understands when the wrong article is used. The gender is wrong, but the message is understood. Question: "Is your mother at home?" Answer: "No, he's at work right now." Question: "Did your brother leave for school yet?" Answer: "No, it's taking a shower." There is no harm in making a gender error, but concentrating on the patterns that can help determine gender will aid you in increasing your accuracy in German. First, let's look at those masculine and feminine nouns that are of these two respective genders, because these nouns describe males and females. For example: Masculine nouns der Mann man, husband der Junge boy der Onkel uncle der Sohn son der Neffe nephew der Vater father der Löwe lion der Stier bull Feminine nouns die Frau woman, wife die Tante aunt die Tochter daughter die Schwester sister die Nichte niece die Mutter mother die Lowin lioness die Kuh cow ÜBUNG 1.1 In the blank provided, write the correct article for the gender of the given noun. For example: der Mann man 1 . ___________ Großvater grandfather 2 . ___________ Großmutter grandmother 3 . ___________ Bruder brother 4 . ___________ Henne hen 5 . ___________ Hahn rooster 6 . ___________ Hirsch stag 7 . ___________ Stute mare 8 . ___________ Schwager brother-in-law 9 . ___________ Schwiegermutter mother-in-law 10 . ___________ Stieftochter stepdaughter Neuter nouns are not exclusively inanimate objects in German. Many are, such as the following: Neuter nouns das Haus house das Dorf village das Buch book das Restaurant restaurant das Tischtuch tablecloth But other neuter nouns can refer to people, animals, and plants. Often these nouns are neuter because they have one of the neuter suffixes, - chen or - lein , which are used to form a diminutive. For example: das Mädchen girl das Räslein little rose das Kind child das Pferd horse das Schwein pig, swine ÜBUNG 1.2 In the blank provided, write the correct article for the gender of the given noun. For example: der Mann man 1 . ___________ Schägerin sister-in-law 2 . ___________ Hemd shirt 3 . ___________ Brüderchen little brother 4 . ___________ Bruthenne sitting hen 5 . ________