Tuesday, October 22, 2019
Using German Participles as Adjectives and Adverbs
Using German Participles as Adjectives and Adverbs As in English, the past participle of a German verb may be used as an adjective or adverb. In English,à stolenà is the past participle of the verbà to steal. The wordà stolenà can be used as an adjective, as in: ââ¬Å"Thats aà stolenà car.â⬠Similarly, in German the past participleà gestohlenà (fromstehlen, to steal) can also be used as an adjective: ââ¬Å"Das ist einà gestohlenesà Auto.â⬠The only significant difference between the ways that English and German use the past participle as an adjective is the fact that, unlike English adjectives, German adjectives must have an appropriate ending if they precede a noun. (Notice the -esà ending in the example above. More about adjective endings inà Lesson 5à andà Adjective Endings.) Of course, it also helps if you know the correct past participle forms to use. A past participle such asà interessiertà (interested) can also be used as an adverb: ââ¬Å"Wir saheninteressiertà zu.â⬠(ââ¬Å"We watchedà interestedly/with interest.â⬠) Present Participles Unlike its English equivalent, the present participle in German is used almost exclusively as an adjective or adverb. For other uses, German present participles are usually replaced by nominalized verbs (verbs used as nouns) - à das Lesenà (reading),à das Schwimmenà (swimming) - to function like English gerunds, for instance. In English, the present participle has an -ingending. In German the present participle ends in -end:à weinendà (crying),à pfeifendà (whistling),schlafendà (sleeping). In German, ââ¬Å"aà sleepingà childâ⬠is ââ¬Å"einà schlafendesà Kind.â⬠As with any adjective in German, the ending must fit the grammatical context, in this case an -esà ending (neuter/das). Many present participle adjective phrases in German are translated with a relative clause or an appositive phrase in English. For example, ââ¬Å"Derà schnell vorbeifahrendeà Zug machte großen Lrm,â⬠would be, ââ¬Å"The train, which wasà quickly passing by, made a tremendous noise,â⬠rather than the literal, ââ¬Å"The quickly passing by train...â⬠When used as adverbs, German present participles are treated like any other adverb, and the English translation usually places the adverb or adverbial phrase at the end: ââ¬Å"Er kamà pfeifendà ins Zimmer.â⬠ââ¬Å"He came into the roomà whistling.â⬠Present participles are used more often in writing than in spoken German. Youll run across them a lot when reading books, magazines, or newspapers.
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