Hello my dears! 2
It is me again, Alex, the master of main clauses (MC) and subordinate clauses (SC). 3
No, just kidding! 4
This is a short lesson regarding SC. 5
These two lessons, I already mentioned it, are not so important for you. 6
You do not need to participate actively. 7
There will also be no exercises. 8
I just want to offer you some ideas, 9
what German grammar could be about. 10
And if you want to study German linguistics later in life, 11
then I am sure you will go deeper into the matter. 12
The SC 13
SCs can also be categorized in relation to their link 14
to other sentences. 15
This was the last sentence of the last lesson. 16
And here we will be dealing exactly with this. 17
There is the indirect speech, the infinitive clause, the conjunctional clause, the participle clause, 18
and the relative clause. 19
All these five are related to 20
how this clause is linked to other sentences. 21
The relative clause is a little special, because there is this relative pronoun. 22
We go there in a second. 23
Indirect speech is especially important in journalism. 24
Thus I hope that... 25
Hopefully indirect speech is used in serious daily newspapers. 26
It is simply more professional, when I talk to you, 27
And the next day I am telling a friend, what we were talking about. 28
It then simply sounds better, if it is expressed in the indirect speech. 29
I will show it to you in a sec by an example. 30
We usually use verbs like SAGEN, BEHAUTEN, FRAGEN... (say, state, ask) 31
We then use a special form, 32
which is called conjunctiv 1 - conjunctiv 2 we already know. 33
That is polite speech. 34
And conjunctiv 1 enables us to express something more indirect. 35
Here you have an example. 36
You talk to a friend or your wife for instance. 37
And your wife tells you: 38
The Arrogance is the best insurance in the world. 39
And the next day you tell a colleague, 40
what the wife said last night. 41
In indirect speech it is as follows: 42
Meine Frau sagte gestern Abend, die Arroganz SEI die beste Versicherung der Welt. (same meaning) 43
This SEI is Konjunktiv 1, and this expresses something indirectly. 44
So not: Die Arroganz ist die beste Versicherung. 45
Meine Frau sagte gestern, die Arroganz SEI die beste Versicherung der Welt. (same meaning) 46
One can also say: 47
My wife said yesterday: Die Arroganz IST die beste Versicherung der Welt. 48
But then, in order to be correct, one has to 49
set it in quote signs. 50
This is how children speak. 51
You simply show, that you can think more abstractly, when 52
one uses the conjunctiv 1. 53
It is simply a higher lever, and it is important to me, 54
if you - right from the start - 55
- if you want, you have the possibility to 56
to express yourselves intellectually according to you social rank. 57
How to switch from direct to indirect speech? 58
Well, we use the already known 59
conjunctive 1. 60
Maybe we will do an extra lesson for it. 61
But at the beginning it is not that important. 62
Theoretically you will not need the indirect speech. 63
You can always use the direct speech. 64
Except someday you would like to climb up the social ladder. 65
One must think logically with the indirect speech, 66
because we sometimes need to change the pronomina. 67
And the time, too. 68
Example: 69
Mama said: 70
And then direct speech, so quote signs. 71
„Wir haben gestern Abend nett italienisch gegessen.“ (Last night we went out having good Italian food.) 72
Indirect it becomes: 73
Sie sagte, Sie haben am Vortag nett italienisch gegessen. (same meaning) 74
GESTERN does not work anymore. 75
You yourself say it the next day. 76
Thus we use AM VORTAG (the day before) - seen from mamas perspective. 77
And of course: Mama uses US, because she participated. 78
But you as the story teller use THEY, because you did NOT participate. 79
So the 1st plural becomes the 3rd plural. 80
I simply wanted to draw the attention... 81
It is also possible to turn questions and orders into indirect speech. 82
But this we maybe do in another module. 83
The infinite clause 84
This happens quite often. 85
My favourite example: Ich arbeite um zu leben. (I work in order to live). 86
This UM ZU is usually the sign, that it is an infinitive clause. 87
This is why I wrote it that way. 88
And the infinitive clause has an infinitive construction at the end. 89
The IC often comes after certain constructions or certain words. 90
And in most cases the IC refers to the subject of the MC. 91
Ich arbeite um zu leben... 92
Here it is about: I live. 93
And thus: UM ZU LEBEN refers to the subject of the MC. 94
When do we use the IC? 95
After certain words like hoffen, drohen, glauben... (to hope, to menace, to believe) 96
I hope not the lose you. 97
For instance. 98
After certain adjectives, certain expressions: 99
For instance: in Betracht ziehen, überrascht, traurig... (to consider, surprised, sad) 100
We do not make exercises here, it is a wide field. 101
As soon as you are in Germany, you will hear how Germans talk. 102
Especially about this infinitive construction one does not need to know so much. 103
It is intuitive. 104
When we speak, nobody actively thinks about it. 105
Beware! There is the word HOFFEN or ÜBERRASCHT or IN BETRACHT ZIEHEN, 106
there I would have to set an infinitive construction. 107
No native speaker thinks this way. 108
I simply want you to know, that these things exist. 109
That is all. 110
Thus no exercises. 111
Conjunctional clauses are commenced by a conjunction. 112
We will be doing an extra lesson on it, 113
since conjunctions are so important. 114
SImply remember: there are conjunctional clauses. 115
And there are relative clauses - we mentioned that in the context of attribute clauses. 116
The relative clause always relates to the subject or object of the MC. 117
Peter, der da drüben steht, ist mein Bruder. (Peter, who stants over there, is my brother.) 118
This DER relates to PETER. 119
One can also say... 120
In this case the SC must stay in the middle. 121
You cannot say: 122
Peter ist mein Bruder, Komma, der da drüber steht. 123
This would mean something else. 124
So here we have: 125
The main clause is: Peter ist mein Bruder. 126
And the SC is: ...der da drüben steht. 127
You recognize this with the verb: it is at the end. 128
But since it is located directly beyond the subject, beyond PETER, 129
one instantly knows: 130
The SC relates to Peter. 131
It simply givees another attribute to the subject. 132
Peter is simply introduced a little bit more informative. 133
Das ist Bier, das mir in München so gut geschmeckt hat. (The beer I liked so much in Munich) 134
This DAS relates to the beer. 135
In this case it is not the subject, it is the object. 136
The relative pronoun can also relate to the object... 137
...das mit in München so gut geschmeckt hat. 138
It simply delivers another attribute to this part of the sentence, 139
to the one it relates on. 140
And for the relative clause we need the so called relative pronomina. 141
And these pronouns are distributed according to numerus, gender, and case. 142
As you see, there are – 4 times 4 – 16 different pronouns. 143
You can always choose between DER or WELCHER, WEN or WELCHEN 144
It is irrelevant. 145
Choose the one you like more. 146
I would work with DER, DIE, DAS, but is still remains your choice. 147
And here four examples for four cases. 148
Das ist der Mann, der Fußball spielt. (The man who plays football) 149
DER relates to DER MANN. 150
So the man is described a little more closely. 151
Das ist der Mann, dessen Frau ich.... (This is the man, whose wife I...) 152
I did not dare writing the whole truth. 153
Thus the sentence is incomplete. 154
But you understand the allusion. 155
Das ist der Mann, dessen Frau ich... and so on, and so on. 156
DESSEN is the genitive. 157
And dative: 158
Das ist der Mann, mit dem ich mich getroffen habe. (This is the man, with whom I met.) 159
So it is possible to do some dative, due to the MIT. 160
Das ist der Mann, den ich kenne. (This is the man I know.) 161
This is accusative then. 162
But all this is very... 163
I have only done it so you see, 164
how to adapt the relative pronoun to the case. 165
So here Genitiv, Dativ, Akkusativ 166
Then it is DESSEN, DEM, DEN, and so on. 167
The time will come when you will do it as if it were intravenously injected. 168
The relative clause is very important. 169
Thus I mentioned it in two lessons. 170
It is easy to describe - and better - the object or subject 171
of the MC by the means of a relative clause, 172
and not by the means of two MCs. 173
Well then my dears! 174
You have been brave again! 175
You survived this grammar lesson. 176
There are not many anymore, and then we 177
proceed to culture, history, and god knows what. 178
Take care and take a rest. 179
Do not learn too much at once. 180
Keep on enjoying learning German. 181
And see you next time.