Sunday, September 18, 2011

11 September 2011 we reviewed the alphabet and pronunciations of the sounds because this was what the student wanted.

18 September we went through Die Drei Faulen again. Special points of interest were how to find the subject and verb and, in the case of modal auxiliaries, the need to look for an infinitive after the verb. Dependent and independent clauses and word-order were discussed, because of their relevance for finding the verb and subject. In particular we discussed conditional statements, since there are several in the story (which unfortunately does not strictly follow current rules of word-order).

protasis - "if" part of a conditional clause
apodosis: "then" part of a conditional statement.
In German, the protasis of a conditional statement is a dependent or subordinate clause. Dependent clauses in German alway have the conjugated verb at the end of the clause.
That is the PROPER way.
(Not always observed in Grimm, or in poetry.)
For independent clauses, there are two word-orders so far as position of the subject and verb are concerned.
If there is a dependent clause before the subject and verb of an independent clause, the verb comes before the subject.
The apodosis of a conditional statement is an example of that.
As an aid to remembering that das Messer = the knife: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QXJ3OXWaOY