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| German grammar |
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An adverb is a word that modifies the meaning of a verb, and an adverbial phrase is a combination of words that perform the same function. The German language includes several different kinds of adverbial phrases.
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| German grammar |
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An adverb is a word that modifies the meaning of a verb, and an adverbial phrase is a combination of words that perform the same function. The German language includes several different kinds of adverbial phrases.
Many adverbs are not derived from an adjective. Often they have very important meanings. For example, nicht, leider or gerne ("not", "unfortunately", "gladly").
The duration or the spatial extent of a verb's action can be expressed by a nominal expression in the accusative case.
Das Kind malte die ganze Zeit Bilder ("The child was painting pictures all the time")
Adverb formation is simpler in German than in most other languages. An adverb is simply the uninflected form of the adjective (or participle). This holds for the positive and comparative forms. The superlative is formed with the preposition am and the ending -en, e.g. am schönsten "most beautifully". Only a limited number of adverbs have a special elative form ending in -stens, e.g. schnellstens ('as fast as possible'), bestens ('very well').
The adverb can be used to describe actions, adjectives or other adverbs. Comparative and superlative forms are unusual in the last two situations.
In English, adverbs are usually distinguished from adjectives by the ending -ly. In German, they may be distinguished by their lack of declension, because adjectives in attributive position must be declined. Compare:
Unlike English, the German language distinguishes adverbs which qualify verbs or adjectives from those which qualify whole sentences. For the latter case, many German adjectives form a special adverb form ending in -erweise, e.g. glücklicherweise "luckily", traurigerweise "sadly" (from Weise = way, manner).
In the following two example sentences, the adverb lustig "funnily" qualifies the verb, while lustigerweise "funnily" qualifies the whole sentence:
As in the above example, English usually expresses the difference by placing the adverb which qualifies a sentence, in the beginning. In German, it can be placed in the beginning or elsewhere in the sentence.
A prepositional phrase consists of a nominal phrase and an adposition (a preposition, postposition, or circumposition). The case of the nominal phrase can be accusative or dative. Some prepositions always take the accusative case and some always take the dative case. Students usually memorize these because the difference may not be intuitive. A third group of prepositions, called two way prepositions, take either the accusative case or the dative case depending on the phrase's exact meaning. If the statement describes movement across a boundary then the phrase is accusative. Other situations, including movement within a confined area, take the dative case. For example:
Note that prepositions do not always have a locative meaning; they can also be modal or temporal adverbs, for example.
Prepositional phrases, being adverbial, may be used to describe actions and adjectives. They can also be attributes of a nominal phrase.
In some cases, the preposition and the article of the nominal phrase may or must elide together. This is similar to Italian.
A real position can be substituted by a pronominal adverb.
Pronominal adverbs may be preceded by an adverbial clause. See below.
Besides prepositional phrases and pronominal adverbs, there are also adverbial clauses. They can be applied to actions as well as to nominal phrases and pronominal adverbs.
Such a sentence can also completely replace a position or pronominal adverb. ("The previous sentence needs to be clarified by someone knowledgeable")
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