German Workbook For Dummies

Introduction 1

Part 1: The Basic Building Blocks of German 7

Chapter 1: Laying the Foundations of German 9

Chapter 2: Assembling the Basic Tools for German Sentences 29

Chapter 3: Sorting Out Word Gender and Case 45

Chapter 4: Building Your Word Power 61

Part 2: Focusing on the Present 77

Chapter 5: Grasping the Present Tense 79

Chapter 6: Asking and Answering Intelligently; Giving Orders 97

Chapter 7: In the Mood: Combining Verbs with Modal Auxiliaries 121

Chapter 8: Sorting Out Separable- and Inseparable-Prefix Verbs 141

Part 3: Adding Flair to Your Conversations 159

Chapter 9: Sounding More Like a Native with Verb Combinations 161

Chapter 10: Adding Adjectives for Description 175

Chapter 11: Comparing with Adjectives and Adverbs 197

Chapter 12: Connecting with Conjunctions 217

Chapter 13: Your Preposition Primer 231

Part 4: Looking Back and Ahead: Talking about the Past and the Future 247

Chapter 14: Conversing about the Past: Perfecting the Present Perfect 249

Chapter 15: Narrating the (Simple) Past: Fact and Fiction 263

Chapter 16: Looking to the Future (And Avoiding It) 281

Part 5: The Part of Tens 293

Chapter 17: Ten Tips for Optimizing Your German 295

Chapter 18: Ten Pitfalls to Avoid in German 301

Part 6: Appendixes 307

Appendix A: Verb Charts 309

Appendix B: English-German Dictionary 319

Appendix C: German-English Dictionary 323

Index 327