Breakdown of Er lernt die Vokabeln auswendig.
er
he
lernen
to learn
der
who, which, that (relative pronoun; die, das)
die Vokabel
the vocabulary word
auswendig
by heart
Questions & Answers about Er lernt die Vokabeln auswendig.
How would I apply this lesson's grammar (the Gerundivum) to this sentence to say 'the vocabulary to be learned by heart'?
You form the Gerundivum using zu + the present participle of the verb, functioning as an adjective. Because auswendiglernen is a separable verb, zu goes between the prefix and the verb base, giving you: die auswendigzulernenden Vokabeln.
Is auswendig related to the German word for 'heart'?
No. While the English idiom is 'by heart', you cannot translate that literally into German. The adverb auswendig historically means 'turned outward'. You must use the specific separable verb auswendiglernen to express committing something to memory.
Why is it die Vokabeln (plural) here, rather than a singular mass noun like 'vocabulary' in English?
German treats a single vocabulary word as a countable noun (die Vokabel). When studying a list of words, you study die Vokabeln (the vocabulary items). To talk about vocabulary as a general, uncountable concept, German uses a different word: der Wortschatz or das Vokabular.
Since auswendig is an adverb, is auswendig lernen written as one word or two?
Under current spelling rules, it is treated as one word: auswendiglernen. It functions as a standard separable verb, which is why the prefix auswendig gets kicked to the end of the main clause here.
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