German All-In-One for Dummies [With CD (Audio)] (Paperback)

Introduction 1

Book I: Getting Started with German 7

Chapter 1: Warming Up to German Basics 9

Chapter 2: Handling Numbers, Times, Dates, and Measurements 31

Chapter 3: Meeting and Greeting: Guten Tag! 53

Chapter 4: Talking about Home, Family, Friends, and Daily Life 77

Chapter 5: Talking Telecommunications, Business, and Current Events 97

Chapter 6: Shopping Simplified 119

Chapter 7: Dining Out and Buying Food: Guten Appetit! 137

Book II: Speaking German on the Go 165

Chapter 1: Locating Places 167

Chapter 2: Going Out on the Town 185

Chapter 3: Planning a Pleasure Trip: Gute Reise! 203

Chapter 4: Finding a Place to Stay: Gute Nacht! 227

Chapter 5: Getting Around 243

Chapter 6: Handling Emergencies: Hilfe! 263

Book III: Assembling the Grammatical Foundations for Communication 281

Chapter 1: Laying Out the Basics to Build Sentences 283

Chapter 2: Sorting Out Word Gender and Case 307

Chapter 3: Dealing with the Here and Now: The Present Tense 331

Chapter 4: Asking and Answering Questions 353

Chapter 5: Describing and Comparing with Adjectives and Adverbs 379

Chapter 6: Modifying Verbs with Helpers: The Modal Auxiliaries 411

Chapter 7: Instructing and Commanding: The Imperative Mood 429

Chapter 8: Sorting Out Separable- and Inseparable-Prefix Verbs 445

Book IV: Building Detail and Precision in Your Communication 463

Chapter 1: Tying Ideas Together with Conjunctions and Relative Pronouns 465

Chapter 2: Specifying Relationships with Prepositions 479

Chapter 3: Using Reflexives and Other Verb Combinations 493

Chapter 4: Conversing about the Past: The Present Perfect and Past Perfect 507

Chapter 5: Narrating the (Simple) Past: Fact and Fiction 525

Chapter 6: Looking to the Future (And Avoiding It) 537

Chapter 7: Describing Your Mood: Summing Up the Subjunctive 549

Book V: The Appendixes 563

Appendix A: Verb Tables and Case Charts 565

Appendix B: German-English Mini-Dictionary 587

Appendix C: English-German Mini-Dictionary 599

Appendix D: Fun & Games 611

Appendix E: About the CD 655

Index 659