Hello everyone,
It’s summer, it’s hot.
Time for a new episode of the hottest series of the year. No, I don’t mean My New Tool. Though that’s also a great series.
I mean it’s time for a new YourDailyGerman Learning Quiz. Or Quizzon, as I like to call them.
It’s basically a lesson, but in a the form of a quiz and the goal is to trick our brains into WANTING to learn things. Our brains are like cats. We’re like “Could you remember this about German cases?” and the brain is just like “Nah, I don’t think so. I think imma just do another circle on the thought carousel.”
But our brains also have giant egos, so if they fail at something, they’ll be like “Oh yeah?! It’s ON!” and they’ll really pay attention. I mean.. .for a second or so.
Anyway, so yeah, in the quizzon, we work through one topic with a series of questions that you can try to answer and we’ll discover the key points step by step along the way.
And today, we’ll do a quiz about:
The Use of Genitive in German
Yup, a dry topic. Mixes better with the heat then a juicy topic.
So if you’re ready, let’s jump right in.
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I feel good about getting the majority of them right. Maybe could have done a little better with a bit more thought. Honestly I don’t think genitive is really that difficult grammatically, what’s difficult is getting it right idiomatically. This quiz definitely is a step in the right direction for me.
I really enjoyed the quiz – it’s a great way to learn.
Q11 first answer:
‘Ich gebe das Buch meiner Schwester’
‘I give my sister the book’.
I thought the correct order to say this in German would be:
‘Ich gebe meiner Schwester das Buch’
i.e. dative (indirect object ‘sister’) before accusative (direct object ‘book’) when written out in full like this?
You’re right that your version would be kind of the most neutral default, but my version is fine as well.
It just means that I consider the sister the more important element, it’s my main news of the sentence, that I give the book TO HER.
i.e. dative (indirect object ‘sister’) before accusative (direct object ‘book’) when written out in full like this?
I recommend forgetting all these rules and reading my articles on word order. None of these rules are rules and breaking them doesn’t make a sentence wrong.
I got number 8 “wrong” because I’m pretty sure my coworkers would often use the Genitiv in the other two cases. I know they could be said with von, but I wouldn’t find Genitiv odd at my workplace. Of course, my coworkers are an odd bunch.
Wait, which of the other options do you mean?
– My brother’s computer is broken.
– Meines Bruders Computer ist kaputt.
– My boss’s sister is sick.
– Meines Chefs Schwester ist krank.
Or did you mean the “after” genitive?
– Die Schwester meines Chefs ist krank.
– Der Computer meines Bruders ist kaputt.
This can happen, I guess. I added a note that I mean the “English” Genitive to disambiguate.
The after one, that people actually use.
Yeah, it’s not like people don’t ever use it, but especially for masculine and neuter, it sounds kind of overcomplicated, at least to my ears. I feel like a snob when I do it, but I guess that varies. If you ENJOY using the form, all power to you, but if it just feels like more work, then feel free to go the von-way.
I got 9 right. I was really pleased to spot the “dir” in the last question – at first I thought you were offering two identical answers. Not impossible with your sense of humour!
It was a fun quiz.
Not impossible indeed. I sometimes have do have impulses to infuse a bit of absurd or subversion into the quizzes, but I don’t do it because it would mess with people’s score ust for the sake of a “meta-joke”. Answers do need to be clear and unambiguous or people will get frustrated :).
Minimal pair differences like that one little dir though… I love those! Glad you caught it!
9 of 11 correct. Khalil Gibran on teaching: “If he (the teacher) is indeed wise he does not bid you
enter the house of his wisdom, but rather
leads you to the threshold of your own
mind.” You’re already quite good at that, and your Quizzons are great vehicles.
Danke fuer das Kompliment :)
8 out of 11
Thanks a lot Emanuel for your kind help & support. God Bless.
Regards & Best Wishes,
Shaunak Kashikar
One thing that was confusing: In English, the addition or lack of an apostrophe would not be a spelling mistake, it would be a punctuation mistake.
So the problem with Maria’s Fahrad vs Marias Fahrad is a punctuation problem; the spelling of both is correct.
In the same vein, the answer Spelling for question 4 should be Punctuation, since spelling changes are already covered by Endings.
In German they’re both “Rechtschreibfehler”
8/11 :)
10/11 – I was fooled by “mein Bier”, because I think of possessives as being genitive, which apparently isn’t true for pronouns.
Precisely!
Possessive pronouns don’t mean possessive case.
My students confuse this concept very often.
Yeah, it’s a common mix-up.
– Das ist mein Bier. (no Genitive)
– Der Preis meines Bieres war hoch. (Genitive)
In the second example, you have two belongings indicated… beer belongs to me (via article) and price belongs to beer (via Genitive)
Above all, if something doesn’t concern someone, “Das ist nicht mein Bier!”
8/11, which really surprise me as I thought it would be less than that.However, I didn’t understand how to rank the examples in question 10. and couldn’t get it to do anything. Did anyone else have this problem, or am I just an idiot?!
What device and browser were you using? Maybe I can recreate the problem.
Same issue here, Safari on macOs, the two buttons didn’t have any effect at all
Hi, what do you mean by “two buttons”?
The question is drag and drop basically. Did the dragging not work?
I guess I should add a short info that you have to drag and drop the options into order by tapping and holding and sliding
The drag and drop works, although it was not immediately clear from the question text. However, there are two buttons labelled “Student” and “Correct”, with an additional label saying “View answers”. Those two buttons have no effect when clicked.
I don’t know how to attach a picture here, so I’ll send it to you separately via email
Hallo,
Let’s correct some typos:
“when and how to use Genitive it like a native speaker” (when and how to use Genitive like a native speaker)
“are secretly bumbed about it” (are secretly bummed about it)
“any questions about any of this about Genitive” (any questions about any of this or about Genitive)
Q5: “You can see that e have” (You can see that we have)
Great quizzon, I failed one question because I dodn’t understand why one would not say “Mein Bruders Fahrrad”…
Bis bald!
In certain poetry, Genitive structures are used:
“In meinem Vaters Garten
Da stehen zwei Baeumelein…”
In meines Vaters Garten.
Tippfehler im Originaltext?
Na, du hast vielleicht Recht!
If at all, it would be ‘meines Bruders Fahrrad’ but it sounds really really theatrical in German.
10/11 but I also did c1 a few yrs ago, surprised anything stuck
Great quiz, but there were still tricky questions. I managed to get 94.12however. I really ike both the learning quizzes and the articles.
A useful and enjoyable quiz – thanks. Could I just point out one error of terminology? “My”, “your”, “their” etc. are not possessive pronouns. They are possessive adjectives. Possessive pronouns are words such as “Mine”, “yours” and “theirs”. They are words which stand in for a noun e.g. “That book is mine”, “Whose is this umbrella? It’s hers” etc.
“Wessen Regenschirm ist das? – Er ist ihrs.”
Er ist ihrer.
You’re confusing me today :).
Texting while driving is tricky, in more ways than one-:))
Mission accomplished! 6/11 :)
In his semi-humorous/serious treatment “Der Dativ ist dem Genitiv sein Tod”, author and linguist Bastian Sick dispassionately observed the gradual demise of the Genitive case in German over the past several decades.
I too notice among younger Germans a slow if steady decline in the not so subtle distinction between “Das ist der Hund meines Nachbarn.” vs. “Das ist der Hund von meinem Nachbarn.”
Generational to be sure, the infinitely more casual or spoken vernacular of the latter sentence (intended though to mean the same thing!) nonetheless sounds flat wrong to my older ears.
A more striking example, “Das ist ein Bild seiner Schwester.” vs. “Das ist ein Bild von seiner Schwester.” To me as a sixty-plus native speaker, the first sentence means the picture is one of the man’s sister, whereas the second indicates that it is the picture done by the man’s sister and their usage is NOT interchangeable.
Interessant. Ich verstehe was du meinst mit dem zweiten Beispiel.
Ist doch keine Haarspalterei hier! Bei den zweiten Beispielsaetzen sehe ich schon einen Bedeutungsunterschied.
“Das ist der Hund meines Nachbarn.” vs. “Das ist der Hund von meinem Nachbarn.”
Do you see a difference in meaning here or just in sound?
“seiner Schwester” vs “von seiner Schwester” … I have heard about the distinction you’re making before, but I don’t think it would hold up to wider scrutiny.
Also, we have the phrasing “ein Bild machen VON etwas”.
– Ich mache ein Bild von Maria, dann habe ich ein Bild von Maria.
I find it hard to believe that your brain would switch meanings for the second half.
In your example expression “ein Bild von etwas machen”, for some reason, its meaning is completely clear and obviously is natural, correct German.
Regarding the second example “Das ist ein Bild seiner Schwester.” vs “Das ist ein Bild von seiner Schwester.”, would there be any difference if we meant “picture portraying his sister” vs “picture belonging to his sister”? Or is that exactly the point @harald is making? My gut feeling says no, but I am not that much of an expert in German to be able to tell.