Imperfect

Hi Nathalie I see you have put out quite a lot of useful stuff on the 50 common verbs. I was wondering why you have excluded the imperfect or is it the simple past? Also I haven't really been given a satisfactory reason why you might use the imperfect or the perfect. I get the impression that the perfect is for describing a one-off event. e.g. At the end of Yr 13 I received a prize at the prizegiving ...whereas the imperfect could be something you used to do e.g. When I was at school I played rugby. Am I on the right track? I know this could be a big ask but would you be able to give us the imperfect conjugation of a few verb examples. Danke vielmals, alec.

Hi Alec, the imperfect is mainly used in written German and hardly used in spoken German. If you do hear it in spoken German it usually sounds posh and quite formal. If you were to hold an important speech you might choose to use the imperfect to emphasis the formal occassion. The imperfect is also called simple past because it only consists of one word. Officially the perfect is used for one-off events in the past that are not continuing in the present, however the spoken language doesn't always follow these rules. Here are some examples fragen = to ask ich fragte du fragtest er fragte sie fragte es fragte wir fragten ihr fragtet sie fragten denken= to think ich dachte du dachtest er dachte sie dachte es dachte wir dachten ihr dachtet sie dachten :D

Hi Nathalie Actually, that was REALLY helpful. Vielen Dank! I don't think I will be worrying about the imperfect too much for a while. But now that I look at my first sentence would I say ,,Das ist gewissen wirklich gut." or ,,Das war wirklich gut."? Two more quick questions: Is there a difference between das and dass when referring to that? Where is the starting speech marks on the german keyboard? I have set up a german keyboard option on the status bar but can´t find the ,, except by using commas. Alec

Dass vs das: I just ran across this earlier today when looking up "dass" in my DE-EN dictionary. Das = "that" when referring to something (such as "Was kostet das?") "Das" is the item you're referring you. Dass = "that" when used as a sentence conjunction - I hope that...; I know that... (such as "Ich hoffe, dass die Filme gefaellt dir."; "Ich weiß, dass du besser in Mathe bist als ich.") "Dass" links sentence clauses together by using the 2nd to elaborate on the first.

Hallo Nathalie Danke vielmal für das. Ich denke, dass ich verstehe deine Eklärung sehr gut. Also jetz ist das sehr klar. Ich habe mehr Fragen für Sie: Skipass seems to be pronounced like Sheepass in your audio lesson. Does the sk combination often have that sh sound? Sprechen sie "ring" aus wie "ring" oder "rink"? In the RG grammar lesson 1.3 (p4) it says "Wir wohnen in einem kleinen Häuslein" Why the -en ending on kleinen if einem is dative? Should not einem and kleinem be both dative following in? I noticed another example of this ) ..can´t remember where but ...bei seinem dritten Versuch. Why don´t seinem and dritten agree? Also.. Keine neuen Bücher. Bis später Alec

Sorry dkfreeman :oops: I thought I was replying to Nathalie but I've just noticed who replied to my questions. Thanks for your response. As I said, very helpful. :)

Hi Alec, in regards to "Ski fahren" or "Skipass": There aren't many words that start with "sk" in German, but all the one's I can think of are pronounced "S-K" and "Ski" is the only exception that I have come across. For example: Skrupel = scruple Skat = skat Skelett = skeleton Skandal = scandal Skala = scale "ring" is pronounced "ring" with a soft "g" at the end. :D

HI Nathalie Your responses are very helpful. Danke schön!! Is it possible that you could point me in the right direction for the following question or has it been dealt with somewhere in the grammar lessons or a previous forum. If so a reference would be helpful. Noch einmal, danke! In the RG grammar lesson 1.3 (p4) it says "Wir wohnen in einem kleinen Häuslein" Why the -en ending on kleinen if einem is dative? Should not einem and kleinem be both dative following in? I noticed another example of this ) ..can´t remember where but ...bei seinem dritten Versuch. Why don´t seinem and dritten agree? Also.. Keine neuen Bücher. Alec