Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
A. Possessive Adjectives
Review: We used “mein” und “meine” to express “my”. We use “mein” with masculine and neuter nouns and “meine” with feminine or plural nouns.
Usage: The possessive adjectives (my, your, his, her…) is used to express ownership (e.g. my shoes, your pencil, his daughter…)
Form: Just like an article, the possessive adjectives change their forms depending on the gender or number of the noun for which they express
possession.
Possessive Adjectives for Subject Nouns (additional -e for fem. and pl nouns):
Pers. Pronoun Pos. Adj. base form Masculine Neuter Feminine Plural
obligation (should buy), a necessity (must buy), an option/ability (could buy), etc. Thus, the modal verb changes or modifies the main verb’s meaning.
Conjugating modal verbs: no ending in ich-, er/sie/es-form; differing stem vowel in plural (+formal you) and singular forms
(can, to be able to, (to want to)[ similar (to like) (to have to) (to be supposed to) (may)
know how to) to “möchten]
meaning espresses ability, expresses desire, expresses a expresses expresses an Indicates permission
talent and asking intention to do liking/preference necessity to do obligation or or asking politely for
permission something something suggestion permission
du / Sie kannst / können willst / wollen magst / mögen musst / müssen sollst / sollen darfst / dürfen
ihr / Sie könnt / können wollt / wollen mögt / mögen müsst / müssen sollt / sollen dürft / dürfen
Note:
“not have to” implies that there no need to do something and means in German “nicht müssen”; e.g. “Ich muss nicht lernen” (I don’t have to study)
“must not” implies a strong warning not to do something and is expressed with “nicht dürfen”; e.g. “Ich darf nicht fernsehen” (I may/must not watch TV)