Konjunktiv I: Das musst du wissen! Deutsche Grammatik

Hello and welcome to the Lingster Academy! I am your German teacher Julia and today you will learn everything you need to know about the subjunctive 1. In short, in advance, you will find the subjunctive 1 mainly in texts, in the newspaper and in the news. From school you also know it as indirect speech. Here is an example. Julia says the subjunctive 1 is easy. Or Julia says that the subjunctive 1 is easy. You can either combine two main clauses or formulate a subordinate clause with that. Attention, then the verb comes to an end. By the way, today's video is part of my free workshop on the subjunctive 1 and 2. You can sign up via the link below this video. And if you want to learn the entire grammar, you can sign up for my complete grammar course and bring your German to a whole new level in a few months. You will find all the information in the description below this video and this week there is a great discount and a bonus course from me. But back to the subjunctive 1. There are only two times, the present, which also applies to the future, and the past. This is the same with the subjunctive 2 and a little easier for German learners. Look. Manuel said the food tasted good. Manuel said that the food tasted good. Eva said I went on vacation. Eva said she went on vacation. Eva said that she went on vacation. What do you notice? The past looks just like the perfect. You only change the auxiliary verb to have or be to have or be. The good news? Normally you only use the third person singular and plural, because you are talking about what another person said or other people. First the singular form. He says he is from Canada. He said he was from Canada. She says she has problems. She said she had problems. He says he will be 40 soon. He said he turned 40 yesterday. The plural is a bit strange, because sometimes the subjunctive forms look like the present. I will, you will, he will, we will, you will and they will. You see, only the second and third person are different, the rest is like the present. But we are only interested in the third person singular and plural, i.e. he, she, it and they. But since the third person plural, they will, looks like the present, we need another form, the subjunctive 2. It is called the replacement form, so to speak a substitution. That's why you first learn the subjunctive 2. And how does it sound here? So the twins say we will be 40 soon. The twins say they will be 40 soon. The twins said they turned 40 yesterday. By the way, you can check out all the forms on the website verbformen.de if you want. Ah, and another good news! You can speak German with others without any problems, without using the subjunctive 1. We native speakers almost never use it when speaking. The task of the subjunctive 1 is to repeat the statements or opinions of other people without you or another person agreeing to the statement. Take a look. The politician insures everything will be fine. If you hear something like that from a politician, you probably don't believe it. The person conducting the interview with the politician doesn't believe it either, so she distances herself from his opinion and uses the subjunctive 1. The politician insures that everything will be fine. We now understand that this is only the opinion of the politician. Here to the contrast without the subjunctive. The politician insures that everything will be fine. Now I understand that everything will really be fine and that his statement is true. Thank you very much, Mr. Politician. Here's another example. A journalist interviews an actress. She says, I'm going on a trip to India. The actress says she's going on a trip to India. Or in the past, the actress said she had made a trip to India. We don't know if she really made a trip, that's why the journalist uses the subjunctive 1 here. Attention, here again the forms. She does, she does. And the plural? They do, they do. You see, the forms look the same here again as the present and for this reason we use a replacement form, the subjunctive 2. They would do. Do you remember that most subjunctive 2 forms are formed with the infinitive? The actress says, my husband and I are going on a trip. She says her husband and she would go on a trip. She says that her husband and she would go on a trip. And now, attention, past tense. She said her husband and she would have gone on a trip. Why would and would not? Quite simply, the past is like the perfect and the auxiliary verbs are have or be, but not become. She says, I made a trip. So in the subjunctive would have. Or with be. She says, I went on vacation. She says she went on vacation. This may all sound a bit complicated now, but don't panic, you can practice that well and in principle they are always the same forms. But we'll look at a few more examples at the end, which are a bit more difficult, because they have modal verbs. Important, I always give you two structures. Once main clause and main clause and once main clause and subordinate clause with that, then the verb has to go to the end. He says he wants to move to Germany next year. He says he could study there. He also says he would have to learn a lot. The structure is exactly like the other examples, but you now have two verbs. Attention, if you want to say that in the past tense, then a verb is added, namely an auxiliary verb. And how do you form the perfect modal verb in the past tense? I have to or I have to be able to, so always with the auxiliary verb have. He says he could study in Germany. And now again attention in the subordinate clause, because all verbs are at the back. He said he could study in Germany. He also said he would have to learn a lot. The order of the verbs at the end of the sentence is always the same. Auxiliary verb, full verb, modal verb. And the last two verbs have to be in the infinitive. Uff, done! This is the subjunctive 1 in all its forms and colors. I hope you were able to learn something in this workshop. On Tuesday we'll see each other again on Zoom to practice the topic. And if you want to take your grammar to a whole new level and write better and speak better, then sign up for my complete grammar course. Yes, that's it again. I'll say goodbye, see you next video! Deine Julia!