German Grammar: Reviewed and Retold
Germany’s Cultural History from Siegfried to Today

German Grammar: Reviewed and Retold is a user-friendly grammar/workbook designed to give German learners a great basis to build an in-depth knowledge of spoken and written German.

Bridging the gap between grammar, storytelling, and culture, learners of the German language discover Germany?s cultural history as well as life in Germany today, while absorbing grammatical structures through reading and practice. This grammar is based on recent Second Language Acquisition (SLA) research and word frequency, to embed vocabulary and grammar into a language-specific cultural context. A key component of this approach is consistency and relevance, enabling students to apply grammatical structures to their language learning, as well as talking about the past, present, and future.

Aimed at ACTFL levels Novice (all) to Intermediate (middle)/CEFR A1 to B1, this is the perfect grammar for post-beginners, combining storytelling with grammar acquisition.

Table of Contents

The concept of this Grammar

Acknowledgements

1. Pronouns Die rote Karte
2. The many articles Siegfried und der Drache
3. Genitive case Die schwarzen Jäger
4. Adjectives Schiller und Goethe
5. Asking questions Himmelfahrt
6. Reflexive verbs Walpurgisnacht
7. Modal verbs Schuberts Schüchternheit
8. "möchten" and "mögen" Bettina und Beethovens Geheimnis
9. Separable prefix verbs Im Strandkorb
10. Two-way prepositions Der blaue Reiter
11. Commands Störtebeker ärgert die Hanse
12. Infinitive with "zu" Der Weihnachtsbaum
13. The verb "werden" Der blaue Engel
14. Passive voice Der Auftritt Udos
15. Simple past Hänsel und Gretel
16. Subjunctive Honeckers Theaterbesuch
17. Present and past perfect Die Deutsche Bahn
18. Conjunctions (for long sentences) Angie im Fitnesscenter
19. Conjunctions to begin a sentence with Helmut Schmidts Zigarette
20. Relative clauses Im Bürgerbüro

Appendix I: Prepositions usage "für"and "zu"

Appendix II: Verb conjugation

Appendix III: Answer key

Ulf Schütze is Professor of Second Language Acquisition at the University of Victoria. He has taught German language courses for over twenty-five years at five universities in Europe, North America, and Oceania. His research has been widely published in the areas of psycholinguistics, computer assisted language learning, as well as on the relationship between language and culture.

Lisa Süßenbach has a master’s degree in applied linguistics and is a PhD candidate at the University of Calgary. She has taught German at the University of Victoria, St. Mary’s University, and the University of Calgary since 2013. Her research focus, as well as her dissertation project, is on second language pronunciation attainment and the development of teaching materials for computer-assisted pronunciation training.