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German grammar

German grammar is the study of grammar in the German language.

Declension

Every German noun is assigned one of three genders: masculine, feminine or neuter. Unlike English, which does not assign a gender to most nouns, the gender of a German noun and the gender of the thing to which the noun refers often differ. For example, in German, a stone (der Stein) is masculine, whereas a girl (das Mädchen) is neutral. It may appear strange to foreigners, but the gender of a noun mainly depends on its nominative ending, not on its real sex. "Mädchen", for example, is the diminutive form of an archaic feminine German noun die Maid, which meant "young woman", and diminutives ending in -chen always take the neutral gender. (The masculine equivalent of die Maid is der Junge ("young man"), and is still in common use with meaning equivalent to "guy, kid, lad, fellow". Its equivalent diminutive is the neutral das Jüngelchen, which implies the connotations of "sissy wimp".)

The German language has the singular and plural numbers.

The cases are the nominative, genitive, dative and accusative. The genitive case is becoming uncommon in modern informal speech. The case of a particular noun, and therefore the ending used for the noun, depends on the grammatical function of the noun in the sentence.

It is important to note that the inflected form of an adjective not only depends on its gender, but also on the kind of article used (or not used) with it, definite or indefinite.

Nominal (or Noun) Phrases

(The content of this section is not yet applicable for proper names.)

A German nominal phrase, in general, consists of the following components in the following order:
article, [cardinal number], [adjective(s)], [noun], [genitive attribute], [position(s)], [relative clause] [reflexive pronoun]

Of course, in most cases you won't be confronted with such complicated phrases; adjectives, cardinal numbers, genitive attributes, positions, relative clauses and emphasizers are always optional.

A nominal phrase contains at least a cardinal number, an adjective, a pronoun, or a noun. It always has an article, except if it is a indefinite plural noun or refers to an uncountable mass.

If the noun is uncountable, you should not use an article; otherwise, you will change the meaning of the sentence.

A nominal phrase can be regarded a single unit. It has a case, a number, and a gender. Case and number depend on the context, whereas the gender is determined by the main noun.

The word "selbst" or "selber" may be added in order to emphasize to the nominal phrase, but this is becoming increasingly uncommon in spoken German.

The genitive attribute

A nominal phrase may have a genitive phrase, for example to express possession. This genitive attribute may be seen as merely another nominal phrase in the genitive case which may hang off another nominal phrase.

In old German, the "genitive attribute" can be a possessive pronoun put into plural form. In modern German, this is uncommon; the corresponding possessive pronoun is used instead.

Position

A nominal phrase may contain a "position phrase"; this may be seen as merely another nominal phrase with a preposition (or postposition) or a pronominal adverb (See German grammar#Adverbial phrases).

Relative clause

A nominal phrase often will have a relative clause.

Nouns

A German noun has one of 3 specific grammatical genders (masculine, feminine, neuter) and belongs to one of three declensions. These features remain unaltered by inflection but must be considered in this process. The grammatical gender influences articles, adjectives and pronouns. Note that gender and sex differ in many cases, as mentioned above.

Number (singular, plural) and case (nominative, accusative, dative, genitive) must be taken into account in the process of declension.

(Declension tables to be inserted)

The declension can be more difficult than in other languages such as Latin; not only the word ending, but also the root may be altered by inflecting.

Some nouns only have a singular form (Singularetanta); other nouns only have a plural form (Pluraletanta)

Some words change their meaning when changing their number

Articles and article-like words

Articles have a feature called "strength", which influences the declension of the adjectives. There are strong articles, weak articles, and articles that have strong and weak cases. Sometimes this feature is not constant in daily use.

The inflected forms depend on the number, the case and the gender of the corresponding noun. Articles have the same plural forms for all three genders.

Definite article [the] (strong)

	male	female	neuter	plural
nominative	der	die	das	die
genitive	des	der	des	der
dative	dem	der	dem	den
accusative	den	die	das	die

Indefinite article [a, an](mixed)

	male	female	neuter	plural
nominative	ein	eine	ein	---
genitive	eines	einer	eines	---
dative	einem	einer	einem	---
accusative	einen	eine	ein	---

The indefinite article doesn't have a specific plural form (like English, but unlike Italian); there are several article words for this need. In most cases, however, these plural forms are left out. This is quite similar to English

Other articles and article-like words

There are several other article-like words, corresponding to "this", "that", and "the same" with their own declensions. The articles are officially called pronouns, although these words are treated like articles.

Negation of the indefinite article [no, not a](weak)

	male	female	neuter	plural
nominative	kein	keine	kein	keine
genitive	keines	keiner	keines	keiner
accusative	keinen	keine	kein	keine
dative	keinem	keiner	keinem	keinen

Close demonstrative article-like pronoun [this, these](strong)

	male	female	neuter	plural
nominative	dieser	diese	dieses	diese
genitive	dieses	dieser	dieses	dieser
accusative	diesen	diese	dieses	diese
dative	diesem	dieser	diesem	diesen

Distant demonstrative article-like pronoun [that, those](strong)

	male	female	neuter	plural
nominative	jener	jene	jenes	jene
genitive	jenes	jener	jenes	jener
accusative	jenen	jene	jenes	jene
dative	jenem	jener	jenem	jenen

Interrogative and relative article [which](strong)

	male	female	neuter	plural
nominative	welcher	welche	welches	welche
genitive	welches	welcher	welches	welcher
accusative	welchen	welche	welches	welche
dative	welchem	welcher	welchem	welchen

Possessive "article-like" pronouns

The "possessive pronouns" are another group of pronouns that are treated like articles. All the kinds of possessive "articles" have a mixed strength. They have the same gender and number as the corresponding noun, whereas their stem indicates the kind of possessor.

(table of possessive "articles" of personal pronouns to be inserted)

There are possessive pronouns derived from the definite article and derived from the interrogative article. Their forms are only determined by the gender and number of the speaker. They have the same forms for all cases of the possessed word, but they cannot be used in the genitive case.

Definite possessive (mixed) [of the]

	male	female	neuter	plural
nominative	dessen	deren	dessen	deren
genitive	---	---	---	---
dative	dessen	deren	dessen	deren
accusative	dessen	deren	dessen	deren

Interrogative possessive (mixed) [of what]

	male	female	neuter	plural
nominative	wessen	wessen	wessen	wessen
genitive	---	---	---	---
dative	wessen	wessen	wessen	wessen
accusative	wessen	wessen	wessen	wessen

In old German, a genitive noun can be used instead of a possessive pronoun.

Cardinal numbers

Cardinal numbers are always placed before any adjectives. If the number is not very high, it is usually not combined with an indefinite plural article like "einige" or "mehrere".

If you use a cardinal number, you must use the plural form of the nominal phrase, in contrast to languages like Turkish.

Whereas there is a cardinal number meaning "one" in English, Germans use the indefinite article instead. The difference is expressed by the intonation.

Adjectives

For the inflection of adjectives, the case, number and gender of the nominal phrase must be considered along with the article of the noun.

Like articles, adjectives use the same plural endings for all three genders.

Participles may be used as adjectives and are treated in the same way.

In contrast to Latin, adjectives are only declined in the attributive position (that is, when used in nominal phrases to describe a noun directly). Predicative adjectives are not declined and are indistinguishable from adverbs.

There are three degrees of comparison: positive form, comparative form and superlative form. In contrast to Latin or Italian, there is no grammatical feature for the absolute superlative (elative).

Strong inflection

If the article is "weak" or if there is no article at all, the adjective has the following "strong" endings:

	male	female	neuter	plural
nominative	-er	-e	-es	-e
genitive	-en	-er	-en	-er
dative	-em	-er	-em	-en
accusative	-en	-e	-es	-e

Weak inflection

If the article is "strong", for example the definite, the adjective has the following "weak" endings:

	male	female	neuter	plural
nominative	-e	-e	-e	-en
genitive	-en	-en	-en	-en
dative	-en	-en	-en	-en
accusative	-en	-e	-e	-en

Mixed inflection

The mixed inflection is used, for example, with the indefinite article.

	male	female	neuter	plural
nominative	-er	-e	-es	-e
genitive	-en	-en	-en	-er
dative	-en	-en	-en	-en
accusative	-en	-e	-es	-e

Criteria for inflection

This topic is complex, and this section is still under construction

Strong inflection: If there is no article at all or if the noun is preceded by non-inflectable words like "ein bißchen", "etwas" or "viel"

Weak inflection: If the article is inflected, for example the definite article. The definite article may hide by melting together with a preposition.

Mixed Inflection: Actually it is not a separate inflection. It is used when the same article may have an inflected ending in one case, but not in another case.

The endings are applicable to every degree of comparison.

The positive form

The uninflected basic positive form is equal to the root of the adjective. So the positive form of the adjective is quite simple to build, you take the stem of the adjective and attach the corresponding ending to it.

The comparative form

The basic comparative form consists of the stem and the suffix "-er". Inflected, the corresponding adjective ending is attached.

The superlative form

This basic form is little bit more complicated. You attach the suffixes "-st" and "-en" to the root, and the word "am" [an dem] is put before it.

When inflecting the basic superlative form, you remove the "am" and the suffix "en". Then you add the conventional adjective ending.

Pronouns

Pronouns of the first person refer to the speaker; those of the second person refer to an addressed person. The pronouns of the third person may be used to replace nominal phrases. These have the same gender, number and case as the original nominal phrase. This goes for other pronouns, too.

pronoun [position(s)] [selber|selbst] [relative clause]

In German, a pronoun may have a position under certain circumstances. First and second person pronouns usually do not, except in poetical or informal contexts.

In the German of today, pronouns do not have a genitive form. Instead, you usually use the corresponding possessive article (see German grammar#The genitive attribute).

In formal, archaic German, there are genitive objects, just like accusative and dative objects. Since the personal pronoun does not have a genitive form, the third person genitive plural of the possessive pronoun is applied in those cases. These forms are bracketed.

The emphasizers "selber" and "selbst" have a slightly different meaning than if used with nominal phrases. They normally emphasize the pronoun, but if they are aplied to a reflexive pronoun, they emphasize its reflexive meaning.

Personal pronouns

Singular forms

	1st person	2nd person	3rd person
			masculine	feminine	neuter
nominative	ich	du	er	sie	es
genitive	(meiner)	(deiner)	(seiner)	(ihrer)	(seiner)
dative	mir	dir	ihm	ihr	ihm
accusative	mich	dich	ihn	sie	es

Plural forms

	1st person	2nd person	3rd person
nominative	wir	ihr	sie
genitive	(unserer)	(eurer)	(ihrer)
dative	uns	euch	ihnen
accusative	uns	euch	sie

The third person plural is used for formal speaking; it can address a single person (then capitalized in written German) as well as multiple persons.

Pronouns derived from articles

To replace a nominal by a pronoun that is derived from an article, you use the declined form corresponding to the gender, case and number of the nominal phrase. Note that these pronouns do not have a genitive case; instead, you use a possessive article with the corresponding noun.

Although the pronoun form and the article form are the same in most cases, there are sometimes differences.

	male	female	neuter	plural
nominative	der	die	das	die
genitive	(dessen)	(derer)	(dessen)	(derer)
dative	dem	der	dem	denen
accusative	den	die	das	die

Reflexive pronouns

There are also reflexive pronouns for the dative case and the accusative case. In the first and second person, they are the same as the normal pronouns, but they only become visible in the third person singular and plural. The third person reflexive pronoun for both plural and singular is: "sich":

Reflexive pronouns can be used not only for personal pronouns:

Relative clause

A pronoun may have a relative clause under certain circumstances that still are to be explained. (See German_grammar#relative clauses).

Adverbial phrases

Native adverbs

Many adverbs are not derived from an adjective. Often they have very important meanings. For example, "nicht", "leider" or "gerne".

Accusative nouns with adverbial meaning

To be written

Adverbial forms of adjectives

Adverbs are rather simple to form, at least in comparison to other languages. An adverb is simply the uninflected form of the adjective (or participle). This holds for the positive, comparative and superlative forms.

The adverb can be used to

• describe actions
• describe adjectives
• describe other adverbs

Comparative and superlative forms are unusual in the last two situations.

Prepositional phrases

A prepositional phrase consists of a nominal phrase and a preposition or postposition. The case of the nominal phrase depends on the pre- or postposition and sometimes on its exact meaning. There are several ways to replace a position by another construction with the equivalent meaning.

Note that prepositions do not always have a locative meaning; they can also be modal or temporal adverbs, for example.

Prepositional phrases, being adverbial, may be used to describe actions and adjectives. They can also be attributes of a nominal phrase.

In some cases, the preposition and the article of the nominal phrase may or must elide together. This is similar to Italian.

Pronominal adverb

A real position can be substituted by a pronominal adverb.

Pronominal adverbs may be precified by an adverbial clause. See below.

Adverbial clause

Besides prepositional phrases and pronominal adverbs, there are also adverbial clauses. They can be applied to actions as well as to nominal phrases and pronominal adverbs.

You can replace a position or pronominal adverb by such a sentence completely, too. (The previous sentence needs to be clarified by someone knowledgable)

Verbs

German verbs may be classified as either weak, with a regular inflection, or strong, having a irregular inflection. There are less than 200 irregular verbs, and Germans tend to "weaken" them more and more.

Simple Infinitives

The infinitive consists of the root and usually the suffix "-en". There are a few verbs having another ending, mostly "-ern" or "-eln". The ending "-n" is regarded to be the suffix of those.

There are some verbs which have a permanent prefix at their beginning. The most common permanent prefixes found in German are "ver-", "ge-", "be-", "er-", "ent-" and "zer-".

The meaning of the permanent prefixes does not have a real system; the alteration in meaning can be subtle or drastic. The prefixes "ver-", "be-" and "ge-" have several different meanings. Verbs with "er-" tend to relate to creative processes, verbs with "ent-" usually describe processes of removing, and "zer-" is used for destructive actions.

Many verbs have a separable prefix that changes the meaning. The separable prefix is added at the beginning, before the permanent prefix.

In some cases these separable prefixes merge together with the infinitive; therefore, they are actually permanent prefixes. Unfortunately for the learner, there are even verbs that have a version with a separable prefix and another version with same prefix, but permanent.

Complex infinitives

Components and word order

You can also build complex infinitives, consisting of more than the original infinitive. They include objects, predicative nouns and adverbial information. These are packed before the original infinitive.

Word order is still to be explained

Pronoun objects are usually mentioned before nominal phrase objects; dative nominal objects before accusative nominal objects; and accusative pronoun objects before dative pronouns.

Native adverbs, like "nicht", "leider" or "gerne", are placed before the innermost verb (see Compound infinitives)

Objects

Objects are actually nothing more than nominal phrases or pronouns in a certain case.

Objects may only be described by native adverbs, not "normal" adverbs ("schnell", "leicht") derived from adjectives.

Comment: I don't know if "to give somebody the knife" is an idiom in English, but the german phrase "das Messer jemandem geben" has nothing to do with killing...

Predicative nouns and predicative adjectives

A predicative adjective can be the positive, comparative or superlative stem of a adjective, therefore it has the same form as the adverb. You may also use positional phrases or pronominal adverbs.

A predicative noun is a nominal phrase in the nominative case.

Take notice that, if the subject is singular, the predicative noun musn't be plural.

3rd person pronouns are handled like any nominal phrase when used in a predicative way.

1st person or 2nd person pronouns are never used as predicative pronouns.

Normally, you make an inversion, when using an definite pronoun as predicativum.

Adverbs

You can use any kind of adverbial phrase or native adverb mentioned above.

Compound infinitives

You can construct compound infinitives by the usage of modal verbs or auxiliary verbs. You put a new infinitive behind the main infinitive. Then this "outer" infinitive will be conjugated instead of the old "inner" infinitive. Sometimes you have turn the old infinitive into a passive participle.

Passive infinitive

There are two types of passive forms: static passive and dynamic passive. They differ by their auxiliary words. The static passive uses "sein", the dynamic passive is formed with "werden" (which has a slightly different conjugation from its siblings). In both cases, the old infinitive is turned into its passive participle form.

Note that a complex infinitive cannot be turned into passive form, with an accusative object, for obvious reasons. This restriction does not hold for dative objects.

The only exceptions are verbs with two accusative objects. In older forms of German, one of these accusative objects was a dative object. This "dative object" is removed, whereas the "real" accusative object stays.

Perfect infinitives

The perfect infinitive is constructed by turning the old infinitive into the passive participle form and attaching the auxiliary verbs "haben" or "sein" behind the verb.

Note that the perfect infinitive of an intransitive verb is created the same way as the static passive infinitive of a transitive verb, which can be confusing.

You can also build perfect infinitives of passive infinitives, both static and dynamic. Since the passive is intransitive, having no accusative object, you have to use the auxiliary "sein"

"sein" is used as an auxiliary verb, when the verb is

• intransitive,
• indicates a movement from one place to another, or
• describes the alteration of a state

"haben" is used, when

• actually any other case, but could be described more specifically

Future infinitives

The future infinitive is more theoretical, because this infinite is only used in finite form. You keep the old infinitive, add the Prefix "ge-", and append the verb "werden".

The future infinitive can also be built by a perfect infinitive, which is used in the future perfect.

Infinitives with modal verbs

You put the modal infinitive behind the old (passive or perfect) infinitive, not changing any other word. Some modal verbs in German are: können, dürfen, müssen, brauchen, wollen, möchten, lassen.

Accusative cum infinitivum

Similar to Latin, there is an aci-construction possible. You put a certain infinitive behind the last infinitive, then add an accusative object before the inner complex infinitive.

The Infinitive with "zu"

The infinitive with "zu" has nothing to do with the gerundive, although it is created in a similar way. You just put the word "zu" before the infinitive, maybe before the permanent prefix, but after the separable prefix.

Conjugation

There are three persons, two numbers and two moods (indicative and conditional mood) to regard for conjugation. Although there are six tenses in German, you have only to know two of them to conjugate, as the other ones are compound tenses. There are three classes of conjugation in German: schwach, stark and gemischt.

Present (The endings are the same for each class)

	singular	plural
1st person	-e	-en
2nd person	-(e)st	-(e)t
3rd person	-(e)t	-(en)

The "(e)" is only added, if the root ends on "-d", "-t" or to be explained

( Table Preterite )

( Table Present Subjunctive )

( Table Past Subjunctive )

The other tenses are described in the Sentences section, because they include construction of sentences.

Imperative conjugation

There is an imperative for second person singular and second person plural, as well as for first person plural and second person formal. The root of the verb is never changed.

The endings for second person singular informal are: "-(e)", "-el" or "-le", and "-er(e)". The endings for second person plural informal are: "-(e)t", "-elt", and "-ert".

The imperative of second person plural and second person formal is equal to the infinitive

This subtopic is strongly related to the construction of German sentences, so you are strongly recommended to take a look at that section.

Verbal nouns and verbal adjectives

This section explains how to construct those forms from the main infinitive. The processes are the same both for simple and complex infinitives. For complex infinitives, you must ignore all the adverbial phrases and object phrases, they do not affect this process; except something else is mentioned.

Past participle

There are some irregularities to learn when creating the past participle form.

Generally, the prefix "ge-" is attached to the root of the verb, unless it has a permanent prefix or it is a foreign word ending in "-ieren" or "-eien"

For irregular verbs, the infinitive ending "-en" remains. But in most cases, the suffix "-t" is used.

The seperable prefix remains in place.

The past participles of modal and auxiliary verbs have the same form as their infinitives. But if these verbs are used alone, without an infinitive, they have a regular participle.

Infinitive with past participle of hören and fühlen

Present participle

To create the basic form of a present participle, you attach the suffix "d" to the infinitive of the verb.

Future participle or gerundive

A gerundive-like construction is fairly complicated to use. The basic form is created by putting the word "zu" before the infinitive. This is also the adverb.

The adjective is more complicated. Instead of the infinitive, you use the present participle, then decline it corresponding to gender, number, case and article of the nominal phrase.

Nomen agentis

The nomen agentis is constructed by removing the infinitive ending and replacing it by "-er" ( "-ler" or "-er(er)" respectively ). The nomen agentis is masculine by standard, for female actors the there are altered suffixes.

This form is very hard to build for complex infinitives, therefore it is unusual. Most of the time you do this, and that will not be often the case, you ensure that all object phrases and adverbial phrases are put before the nomen agentis.

Is there a more common English name for this form than nomen agentis?

Gerund

The normal gerund noun is generally the same word as the infinitive. The gerund does not have a plural, and its gender is neuter.

There is another kind of gerund that implies disapproval of the action. The ending of this form is "-erei" ( "-lerei" or "erei" ). It does not have a plural, and its gender is feminine.

Similar to the form presented above, you can put the prefix "ge-" (after the seperable prefix), if the verb doesn't have a permanent prefix, and attach the ending "-e" ( "-el", "-er" ). This noun indicates the same disapproval as the other one. It is a singularetantum, too, and it is masculine.

These forms are very hard to build for complex infinitives, therefore they are very unusual. Most of the time you do this, and you won't do that very often, you must ensure that all object phrases and adverbial phrases are put before the gerund noun.

Sentences

Tenses

Although there are six tenses in German, a student has actually only two tenses to learn, because the other ones are compound. They are actually quite similar to English constructions.

Conjugation includes three persons, two numbers, two moods and two tenses. The subjunctive mood is quite complicated to build; even many native speakers have problems with that matter. English native speakers should note that these tenses don't carry aspect information. There are no progressive tenses. "Das Mädchen geht zur Schule" may mean "The girl goes to school" as well as "The girl is going to school". A sentence like "Das Mädchen ist zur Schule gehend" is still correct, but nobody speaks this way (by the way, "Das Mädchen ist gehend zur Schule" is completely wrong). You must use an adverb to make a visible difference aside from the context.

Present

It is the present-conjugated form of the infinitive. The most important tense in German. You will mainly use "Präsens" for present progressive, as well as for historical past. It is also common to use it with a future meaning.

Preterite

It is the past-conjugated form of the infinitive. This past tense is mainly for written German and formal speech.

Perfect

It is the present-conjugated form of the perfect infinitive. The most important tense in spoken German to explain what happened in the past. Note that to express things like "I have been waiting for 3 hours now", present tense is used: "Ich warte jetzt schon seit 3 Stunden hier" (literally, "I wait now already since 3 hours here").

Pluperfect

It is the past-conjugated form of the perfect infinitive. It can be thought of the perfect form of the Preterite. Use it when you describe what had already happened in the past.

Future

It is the present-conjugated form of the future infinitive. Mainly for describing the future. This tense is used in spoken and written German, but Germans prefer the Präsens with future meaning instead.

Future perfect

It is the present-conjugated form of the future infinitive of the perfect infinitive. Used to refer to things that will have happened, that is be past, in the future. This tense is uncommon in spoken German.

In the third singular and plural conjugations future perfect can also be used to express an assumption and refers to something that is assumed to have happened in the past.

Er wird das Auto gekauft haben ("I assume that he has bought the car") Sie werden das Auto gekauft haben ("I assume that they have bought the car")

Moods

Indicative

Subjunctive

Main Sentence

If a verb has a separable prefix, this prefix is moved to the end of the sentence.

Statement

A normal statement is quite simple to build. First the Subject, then the conjugated verb, at last the rest of the infinitive without this verb.

If the conjugated verb has a separable prefix, this prefix stays at the end of the sentence.

Inversion

By an inversion you emphasize a component of the sentence: an adverbial phrase, a predicative or an object, or even an inner verbal phrase. The subject phrase is put directly behind the conjugated verb, and the component to emphasize is taken to the beginning.

Questions

Questions may be divided into yes/no questions, asking for the truthfulness of a statement, and specific questions, which ask for a concrete aspect of a statement.

Specific questions are similar to inverted statements. They begin with a question word, then there is the conjugated verb, maybe the subject next, and the rest of the sentence follows.

Yes/No questions

This kind of question is similar to the inversion: you put the inflected verb at the beginning of the (not inverted) sentence.

Ask for subject or object

In a normal question, you replace the subject phrase or object phrase with a corresponding interrogative pronoun, then move it to the beginning of the sentence, like an inversion. Theoretically, you must use the interrogative pronoun of "welcher, welche, welches" or a nominal phrase with the interrogative article.

But the usage of this pronoun implies that the speaker knows both the gender and number of the unknown object. So, practically, you replace these pronouns by short forms.

	person	thing
nominative	wer	was
genitive (object)	wessen	wessen
dative	wem	---
accusative	wen	was

Regardless of whether you use the full pronoun or the short form, the genitive case is practically only used for genitive objects. See Ask for Possessors

Ask for Predicative

You ask for a predicative with the either interrogative pronoun "Was" or, if knowing it is not a nominal phrase, "Wie".

You can also use other interrogative pronouns like "Wo".

It is possible to ask for the adverb of a predicative, if it is not a nominal phrase (and even for the adverb of the adverb etc.)

Ask for possessor

When searching for the possessor of a nominal phrase, you first act as if you would invert the corresponding statement, placing the noun with the unknown possessor at the beginning. Then give it the possessive interrogative article ("wessen" for all cases, genders and numbers). Of course, this nominal phrase may not have a genitive possessor.

Usage is the same for both unknown possessive articles as for unknown genitive possessors.

Ask for adverb

First the interrogative pronoun ("Wie"), then the conjugated verb, next the subject, then the rest of the sentence.

If the adverb describes another adverb or an adjective to be inserted

Ask for position or adverbial clause

Developing the question for an adverbial phrase may be slightly more complicated.

Theoretically, like the other specific questions, the unknown position is inverted to the beginning of the sentence. Whereas the pre- or post- position remains, the nominal part is replaced either by an interrogative pronoun or by a nominal phrase having the interrogative article.

Practically, the speaker will know neither the gender of the noun, nor the number of the noun, nor even the kind of preposition. So a short form is used instead in nearly every case. These short forms are also the only way to ask for an adverbial clause or for a proposition.

Some interrogative pronouns: Wo, Woher, Wohin, Wann, Wieso, Weshalb, Warum, Weswegen.

Commands

For a command you take the imperative form of the conjugated verb from the infinitive and put it at the beginning of the sentence followed by the corresponding personal pronoun. The separable prefix, if there is one, remains at its old place, separated.

The 2nd person plural pronoun is always omitted. In archaic language, or to emphasize who is ordered for the action, the 2nd person singular pronoun may be left.

There are imperative forms for first person plural and second person formal. You must move the infinitive to beginning of the sentence, separate the separable prefix before that, and place the personal pronouns "wir" or "Sie" directly after it.

Note that imperatives must have the same word order as yes/no questions.

Subordinate clauses

A subordinate clause is always incorporated in a main sentence (or another subordinal clause). In general, it begins with a special word, setting it into relation with the encompassing sentence. At next there can be the subject, at last there is the infinitive with the conjugated verb. Notice, that the conjugated verb remains at its position at the end.

This topic needs some adds

Clauses with dass

Subordinate clauses beginning with "dass" [thus, so, that] enable the speaker to use statements like nominal phrases or pronouns. These sentences are singular, neuter and either nominative or accusative.

Indirect questions with ob

Whereas the word "dass" indicates that the statement is a fact, "ob" starts an indirect yes/no question.

Specific indirect question

Relative clauses

The outer nominal phrase can be the subject(nominative case), direct object(accussative case), indirect(dative case) or a predicativ noun of the relative clause. The clause begins with a form of the definite pronoun( der/die/das ), or the interrogative pronoun( welchem/welcher/welches ), the rest words are put after it.

The outer nominal phrase can also be the possessor a noun inside. You attach a form the possesive pronoun "dessen" or "wessen" to the noun, a put it to the beginning of the relative clause.

Prepositions/Postpositions are attached to these phrases in the relative clause if necessary.

When to use der, welcher or was: to be added

Adverbial clauses

An adverbial clause begins with a conjunction, defining its relation to the verb or nominal phrase described.

Some examples for conjunctions: als, während, nachdem, weil