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The grammar of the German language is quite similar to that of the other Germanic languages.Although some features of German grammar, such as the formation of some of the verb forms, resemble those of English, German grammar differs from that of English in that it has, among other things, cases and gender in nouns and a strict verb-second word order in main clauses.
Twain made his first unsuccessful attempt to learn German in 1850 at age fifteen. He resumed his study 28 years later in preparation for a trip to Europe. Upon his arrival in Germany, the fruit of his recent scholarship was attested to in the advice of a friend: "Speak in German, Mark. Some of these people may understand English."
When a modal verb is in use, the main verb is moved to the end of the sentence. For example: Ich kann das Auto fahren. ("I can drive the car.") Ich soll die Karten kaufen. ("I'm supposed to buy the cards.") Er muss der Mutter danken. ("He must thank the mother.") Note: danken is a dative verb which is why die Mutter becomes der Mutter.
In subordinate clauses, all verb forms occur at the very end. German requires a verbal element (main verb, modal verb or auxiliary verb as finite verb) to appear second in the sentence. The verb is preceded by the topic of the sentence. The element in focus appears at the end of the sentence.
German sentence structure is the structure to which the German language adheres. The basic sentence in German follows SVO word order. [1] Additionally, German, like all west Germanic languages except English, [note 1] uses V2 word order, though only in independent clauses. In dependent clauses, the finite verb is placed last.
The development of a new class of weak verbs that use a dental suffix (/d/, /t/ or /ð/) instead of vowel alternation (Indo-European ablaut) to indicate past tense. The vast majority of verbs in all Germanic languages are weak; the remaining verbs with vowel ablaut are the strong verbs. The distinction has been lost in Afrikaans.
German spelling and punctuation was changed in 1996 (Reform der deutschen Rechtschreibung von 1996) with the intent to simplify German orthography, and thus to make the language easier to learn, [18] without substantially changing the rules familiar to users of the language.
Kraft as in kraft paper, a strong paper used to make sacks; Kraft in German just means "strength" or "power" Plandampf, running a scheduled train service with historic steam locomotives, popular with railway enthusiasts. Volkswagen, literally "people's car"; brand of automobile; Zeppelin, type of rigid airship, named after its inventor