…
Usages of er
er hat
he has
Er hat nicht viel Geld.
He doesn't have a lot of money.
Aber er hat viel Arbeit.
But he has a lot of work.
er arbeitet
he works
Er arbeitet viel.
He works a lot.
Er arbeitet sogar sehr viel.
He even works a whole lot.
Er arbeitet in einer Firma.
He works in a company.
Er ist im Auto.
He is in the car.
nicht
langsam
Firma
Er arbeitet ... viel.
Morgens steht er auf.
In the morning he gets up.
Er steht früh auf.
He gets up early.
er ißt
he eats
Let's try to use from now on the 'ß' for the double s- that's part of the fun.
btw. you can't use it in the word 'essen'. because the 2 s are not in the same syllable. You say 'es- sen'.
Er ißt sein Frühstück.
He eats his breakfast.
er geht
he goes
watch out:
if you add a time expression before this phrase, the two words change order. Isn't German a fun language:D
Er geht.- He goes.
Dann geht er. - Then he goes.
Morgens geht er.- In the morning he goes.
Dann geht er arbeiten.
Then he goes to work
Dann geht er essen.
Then he goes to eat.
Er ißt sein Mittagessen.
He eats his lunch.
Er ißt sein Mittagessen in der Kantine.
He eats his lunch in the canteen.
Still remember your Dativ?
in der Firma
in der Kantine
Dann arbeitet er wieder.
Then he works again.
Dann geht er nachhause.
Then he goes home.
Dann ißt er Abendbrot.
Then he eats supper.
Dann geht er schlafen.
Then he goes to bed
Dann steht er auf.
Then he gets up.
Dann ißt er Frühstück.
Then he eats breakfast.
Dann geht er arbeiten.
Then he goes to work.
Dann geht er essen.
Then he goes to eat.
Dann geht er wieder arbeiten.
Then he goes again to work.
Dann geht er wieder nachhause.
Then he goes home again.
Zuhause ißt er Abendbrot.
At home he eats supper.
Dann geht er wieder schlafen.
Then he goes to bed again.
Dann steht er wieder auf.
Then he gets up again.
Er weiß es.
He knows it.
Er weiß es und er ist unglücklich.
He knows it and he is unhappy.
Aber jetzt hat er eine Pause.
But now he has a break.
Er geht einen Kaffee trinken.
He goes to drink a coffee.
Er geht in ein Café.
He goes into a coffee shop.
Er geht in ein Café, um einen Kaffee zu trinken.
He goes into a coffee shop in order to drink a coffee.
Er setzt sich an einen kleinen Tisch.
He sits down at a little table.
an (at) is a preposition that can work with both dative and accusative case.
Accusative is the case of movement towards a direction.
an einen kleinen Tisch
is accusative
He is moving into a sitting position at the table.
Don't worry at this stage too much about the forms. We will tackle that later, but try to grasp the idea of when to use the accusative.
Er sitzt an einem kleinen Tisch.
He sits at a little table.
Now he finished the process of sitting down, he is situated at the table. We are no longer talking about the direction of a movement but about the location, where the man is at.
an einem kleinen Tisch
is Dative
When we want to describe a location, we use prepositions followed by a dative.
in einem Café
an einem Tisch
Er setzt sich an einen kleinen Tisch in der Ecke.
He sits down at a little table in the corner.
He is sitting down. (direction >accusative)
The table is standing in the corner (location>dative)
It would be a different case if we said:
He sits down in the corner.
In this case we would have a movement into the corner. >Accusative
Er setzt sich in die Ecke.
Er bestellt einen Kaffee.
He orders a coffee.
accusative (direct object)
zu ihm
at him
zu + Dative form of er
Ich trage das gleiche T-Shirt wie er.
I wear the same T shirt as he. The T-shirt is of the same brand and color
Ich trage dasselbe T-Shirt wie er.
I wear the same T shirt as he. We literally share a T-shirt
Er lächelt zurück.
He smiles back.
We could have used our new word hinüber. here:
Er lächelt zu ihr hinüber.
Er setzt sich zu der Frau.
He sits down with the woman.
we don't use 'with' (mit) here in German. It would mean that they both sit down together. Since the woman sits already, the man is sitting down 'to' the woman: zu.
Er ist ein bisschen schüchtern.
He is a little shy.
Er trinkt den Kaffee.
He drinks the coffee.
Er kauft das Auto.
He buys the car.
Er bezahlt das Essen.
He pays for the food.
Er gibt mir den Schlüssel.
He gives me the key.
Er gibt mir nicht den Schlüssel.
He doesn't give me the key.
position of nicht:
between the direct and the indirect object
Er bringt mir die Pizza.
He brings me the pizza.
Aber er ist nicht bei der Sache.
But he is not concentrated; But he is distracted.
Er ist ganz woanders mit seinen Gedanken.
He is completely elsewhere with his thoughts.
= Er ist mit seinen Gedanken ganz woanders
er denkt
he thinks
Er denkt immer wieder an die schöne Frau.
He thinks again and again about the beautiful woman.
Wird er sie wiedersehen?
Will he see her again?
Er hofft es.
He hopes so
Er hofft es sogar sehr.
He hopes very much for it.
Nur leider hat er ihre Adresse nicht.
Only unfortunately he doesn't have her address.
Er kennt nicht einmal ihren Namen.
He doesn't even know her name.
er hat sich nicht getraut zu ...
he didn't dare to + infinitive
Er hat sich nicht getraut zu fragen.
He didn't dare to ask.
Er hat auch nicht ihre Handynummer.
He also doesn't have her mobile number.
Er hofft es.
He hopes so.
Er wünscht es sich.
He wishes for it.
Er wünscht es sich so sehr.
He wishes so madly for it.
er muß
he has to
Er muß immerzu an die schöne Frau denken.
He can't help thinking all the time about the beautiful woman.
Er wünscht es sich so sehr.
He madly wishes for it.
Immer wieder blickt er zur Tür.
Again and again he glances at the door.
Traurig geht er zurück zur Arbeit.
Being sad he goes back to work.
Here traurig is used as an adverb, but it can be an adjective as well:
Der traurige Mann geht zur Arbeit zurück.
Test yourself: What does er mean?
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“How do German cases work?”
German has four grammatical cases: nominative (subject), accusative (direct object), dative (indirect object), and genitive (possession). The case determines the form of articles and adjectives. For example, "the dog" is "der Hund" as a subject but "den Hund" as a direct object.
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