Short passage. How's my grammar?

GerryRyan

Ok, I'm taking German for the L.C., at the minute I'm practising a few questions/Ausserungs on my own.
Here's a short answer for one of the questions, just seeing if my grammar is up to scratch, if someone could offer any help/suggestions.

Sollte man in Abitursjahr einen Teilzeitjob haben?

Ohne zweifel, ist Abitursjahr - ohne einen Job - ein ziemlich schwer Zeit. Ein Nebenjob bedeutet nur nebenbei zu lernen, aber Geld ist fur Schuler gross geschreiben.
Junge leute brauchen genugend Geld um auszugeben, uns so weiter. Heutzutage ist es ganz leicht, einen Teilzeitjob zu finden.

Meiner Meinung nach ist dass man sollte im Abiturjahr einen Teilzeitjob haben, als es macht man mehr selbstandig (independent)


Ok, not perfect I know - but would appreciate any constructive criticism.
Thanks in advance ...

lucille

hi,
i don't go trough it word by word, just give you some general hints:

-Note that nouns always start with a capital letter ("Leute, Zweifel").
-"Abiturjahr" requires an article (das), so here it would be "im (= in dem Abiturjahr". I don't know a proper rule, but I think every noun that's countable has an article - or what do the other Germans think???
-"Zeit" is female, therefore the adjective and the article have to agree ("eine schwere Zeit")

And then there are some phrases you used, which are always the same, so u can learn them off by heart:
It's either "Meiner Meinung nach (sollte...)"
or "Meine Meinung ist, dass (man....haben sollte)"
The first one sounds better, though.
And then you said "als es macht..." I guess you mean "as it makes...", "as" meaning "because" here, right? In German it has to be "da/ weil", so: "da es dich unabhängig macht."

Was that of any help or were you looking for more specific corrections?

mackerski

Also, don't forget that if you can't type an umlaut (and installing an additional keyboard layout will quickly allow you to), you have to put an 'e' after the vowel concerned:

fur -> fuer
Schuler -> Schueler

Finally, don't forget that, unlike in English, you can add 'er' to just about any adjective. So while you're free to say "mehr selbstständig" (not selbstandig, which is missing not only its umlaut, but also an "st"), "selbstständiger" is far better.

Edit: my mistake. Apparently either selbstständig or selbständig are valid. You do need the umlaut, though.

lucille

Well u can't really say "mehr selbständig", do u??? i wouldn't say so. "Mehr bunt", "mehr schön"?-doesn't work!!! But ur right, u can either say "selbstständig" or "selbständig". But i guess thatguy isn't really interested in hearing this all anyway...
what do think, does every countable noun require an article, mackerski?

mackerski

lucille wrote:

Well u can't really say "mehr selbständig", do u??? i wouldn't say so.

I never would. Just doesn't feel right. But I can't see how it's invalid. Bottom line, OP, don't do it, 'tis contrary to the idiom, and idiom is where the extra credit is.

lucille wrote:

what do think, does every countable noun require an article, mackerski?

Well, I didn't offer a view because mine would be an outsider view and I'd hate my imperfect theories to be propagated. I agree that Abiturjahr wants an article here, and countability is the only reason I can think of. Consider:

Das Abiturjahr ist ziemlich schwer. (BTW, I don't think it works well to relate "Jahr" to "Zeit")

Spielen macht Spass (uncountable, verb as noun)

Das Spiel war klasse (countable)

Bier ist lecker (uncountable, normal noun)

Das Bier ist lecker (countable, different meaning)

Plurals are funny, though:

Autos fahren schnell
and
Die Autos fahren schnell (different meaning, both valid, as in English)
but
Mein Auto fährt schnell (only works with article)


You have some other valid articleless situations, especially with proper nouns:

In München steht ein Hofbräuhaus (München requires no article - but is it countable anyway?)

E92

Substantiven(nouns) müssen mit Großbuchstabe(capitals) beginnen. Es gibt einen Unterschied(difference) zwischen(between) Wörter, die mit Großbuchstabe beginnen, und Wörter, die ohne(without) Großbuchstabe beginnen. If you want to make a noun out of a verb, then you have to beginn it with a capital. For example, enden means to end, whereas if you say Ende you simply mean end.(Am Ende der Geschichte= at the end of the story, whereas if you say 'Der satz endet mit dem Wort ,,Stadt"', you're saying the sentence ends with the word 'city/town')
Es gibt einige Sachen über Deutsch, die ich nicht verstehe(that I don't get(get in the sense of undersatand)). Auf Deutsch man sagt ,,Was ist?", und das ist alles. Was genau(exactly) meint das? Ich weiß, dass buchstäblich(literally) es meint("what is") auf Englisch, aber "what is" ist Unsinn(nonsense) auf Englisch. Zum Beispiel, ,,wie bitte?" meint "how please?" nicht, sondern(but/rather) "pardon" auf Englisch. Auf Deutsch es ist normal, wenn man eine Frage mit,,oder?" endet. Gibt es eine andere Bedeutung für,,oder"? Ich weiß natürlich(obviously or of course, it means both of them), oder meint "or", aber ich möchte wissen, ob(if or whether) es eine andere Bedeutung gibt, wenn ,,oder " am Ende des Satzes steht(if "oder" is at the end of a sentence). Or is it just something they say that cant be said in English, like the way you just don't say the word 'just' the way I did in German.
Also es hört sich besser an (Well it sounds better), wenn man benutzt(uses) bequemer(more comfortable), intelligenter(more intelligent), schneller(faster), lustigstest (funniest)usw. Das ist was die Deutsche sagen.(Thats what the germans say) Thez normally say 'Meiner meinung nach' as well.

mackerski

E92 wrote:

whereas if you say 'Der satz endet mit dem Wort ,,Stadt"', you're saying the sentence ends with the word 'city/town')

Remember, though, to write "Satz", not "satz".

E92 wrote:

Auf Deutsch man sagt ,,Was ist?", und das ist alles. Was genau(exactly) meint das?

It means "What is it?", often in the sense of "what do you want?".

E92 wrote:

Auf Deutsch es ist normal,

Don't forget your inversion: Auf Deutsch ist es normal

E92 wrote:

wenn man eine Frage mit,,oder?" endet. Gibt es eine andere Bedeutung für,,oder"? Ich weiß natürlich(obviously or of course, it means both of them), oder meint "or", aber ich möchte wissen, ob(if or whether) es eine andere Bedeutung gibt, wenn ,,oder " am Ende des Satzes steht(if "oder" is at the end of a sentence). Or is it just something they say that cant be said in English, like the way you just don't say the word 'just' the way I did in German.

It's an idiomatic usage, arguably bordering on slang. It's the more usual way (at least in S. Germany) of saying "nicht wahr", and corresponds to other sentence endings in other languages that can form an interrogative from a normal sentence. In French you can add ", non?", and even in English you encounter "isn't it?", "right?", "yeah?", "eh?". If it seems strange to use the word "or", try thinking of it as "or not?".

E92 wrote:

Also es hört sich besser an

Also hört es sich besser an. Though I probably wouldn't say it that way.

E92 wrote:

(Well it sounds better), wenn man benutzt(uses) bequemer(more comfortable), intelligenter(more intelligent), schneller(faster), lustigstest (funniest)usw. Das ist was die Deutsche sagen.(Thats what the germans say) Thez normally say 'Meiner meinung nach' as well.

Es hört sich aber besser an, x, y, z zu verwenden. So sprechen die Deutsche.

E92

Danke für deine Hilfe. Yeah I thought that ,,auf Deutsch es ist normal" sounded wrong when I posted it last night, but wasn't sure. Yeah I know of course I should have written Satz with a capital s, it was a typo error. About ,,Was ist" they're great for saying it in Germany. I didn't realise it could mean what do you want, I was thinking did they mean what is wrong when they ask that question. About 'oder' at the end of a sentence, I was thinking, and you said it for me that it was the usual way for a German to say 'nicht wahr' at the end of a sentence. They say 'oder' in North Germany too. Btw, I think 'selbständig' sounds a lot better(and easier) to say than 'selbstständig'. They normally say von dem or von der these days instead of des or der(genitive) I think as well too, though I don't remember hearing that when I was there last year.

mackerski

E92 wrote:

About ,,Was ist" they're great for saying it in Germany. I didn't realise it could mean what do you want, I was thinking did they mean what is wrong when they ask that question.

As far as I can work out, you'll encounter "was ist?" just about anywhere you could say "what?" in English (which BTW is also not a gramatically complete sentence).

E92 wrote:

Btw, I think 'selbständig' sounds a lot better(and easier) to say than 'selbstständig'.

In practice, you pronounce both the exact same (easy) way.

E92 wrote:

They normally say von dem or von der these days instead of des or der(genitive) I think as well too, though I don't remember hearing that when I was there last year.

The decline of the Genetive case in favour of the Dative is very much a slangy (or, you could argue, dialect-driven) phenomenon. Unlike most of the common-usage examples we've encountered in the thread so far, you shouldn't be tempted to drop the Genetive in written (or even examined spoken) speech. A highly regarded book on this matter (that I've yet to read) is Der Dativ ist dem Genitiv sein Tod, whose own title illustrates a typical genetive-dropping circumlocution.