CLEP German Language flashcards

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

doch as rejoinder

Used to contradict a negative statement or to insist: 'Du kommst nicht mit?' - 'Doch, ich komme.' It reverses the polarity of the previous statement and cannot answer a plain positive question this way.

stimmt / das stimmt

Agreement rejoinder meaning 'that's right'. It confirms a positive statement made by the other speaker and does not work as a contradiction of a negative statement.

Ach so!

Rejoinder showing sudden understanding or new information, roughly 'Oh, I see'. It signals that the speaker has just learned something, not that they agree or disagree.

Na klar!

Emphatic, informal agreement meaning 'of course, sure'. It fits offers, requests, and positive statements among friends and contrasts with formal 'selbstverständlich'.

Im Gegenteil

Rejoinder meaning 'on the contrary'. It rejects the previous statement and introduces the opposite fact, so it follows a claim the second speaker considers false.

Wieso denn?

Question rejoinder asking 'why is that?'. It follows a statement whose consequence surprises the listener and requests a reason rather than confirmation.

Separable verb in main clause

The prefix detaches and moves to the end of the clause: 'Ich stehe um sechs Uhr auf.' Missing the final prefix in listening changes the verb's meaning entirely.

Verb-final subordinate clause

After weil, obwohl, dass, wenn the conjugated verb goes to the end: 'weil er keine Zeit hat'. This signals reason, concession, or condition in dialogue.

Time sequencers in narratives

Adverbs like zuerst, dann, danach, plötzlich, schließlich order events. Questions about what happened first or last are answered from these markers, not from the main verbs.

wollte vs. hat gewollt

'Er wollte kommen' reports an intention ('he meant to come'); it does not state that he came. Listening items use this to test reported intention versus result.

Corrected numbers in speech

Speakers often revise a figure mid-sentence: 'um zwei, ach nein, halb drei'. The later, corrected number is the one the question targets.

Tone and intonation

Rising pitch marks a question or doubt; falling pitch marks a completed statement or decision. Intonation alone can distinguish an offer from a request in short dialogues.

Verbs with fixed prepositions

Many verbs require a set preposition and case: warten auf (acc.), sich interessieren für (acc.), abhängen von (dat.), sich freuen über (acc.). The preposition is not freely chosen.

Genitive prepositions

wegen, trotz, während, statt, innerhalb take the genitive in formal written German: 'trotz des schlechten Wetters'. Informal speech sometimes uses dative, but exams expect genitive.

Two-way prepositions

in, an, auf, über, unter, vor, hinter, neben, zwischen take accusative for direction or change of state and dative for fixed location: 'ins Kino' vs. 'im Kino'.

Coordinating vs. subordinating conjunctions

und, aber, oder, denn keep normal word order; deshalb, trotzdem, dann invert subject and verb; weil, obwohl, dass send the verb to the end.

Subjunctive II meaning

Forms like wäre, hätte, würde, könnte mark unreal conditions, wishes, or polite requests: 'Wenn ich Zeit hätte, würde ich kommen.' Indicative would state a fact.

Adjective endings after ein-words

After ein/eine/ein the adjective carries the gender marker: ein guter Wein, eine gute Idee, ein gutes Bier. After der/die/das the ending is usually -e or -en.

Relative pronoun case

The relative pronoun takes gender and number from the antecedent but case from its role in the relative clause: 'der Mann, den ich sehe' (accusative).

Consequence connectors

deshalb, daher, folglich, also introduce a result and force verb-second inversion: 'Deshalb geht er früher.' They contrast with concessive trotzdem and additive außerdem.

Fixed noun-verb collocations

Set phrases decide cloze answers: eine Rolle spielen, in Frage kommen, zur Verfügung stehen, einen Beitrag leisten, Kritik üben. Substituting a synonym breaks the idiom.

nicht vs. kein vs. nichts

nicht negates verbs and adjectives; kein negates nouns with ein or no article; nichts is a standalone pronoun meaning 'nothing'. Cloze gaps test which type the sentence needs.

Präteritum narrative tense

Written reports and stories use Präteritum (ging, sagte, war). A cloze passage in this tense rejects present-tense options unless a general truth is expressed.

Text type recognition

Anzeige (short, price, contact), Leserbrief (opinion, address to editor), Bericht (neutral facts), Broschüre (persuasive, headings). Identifying the type predicts the purpose question's answer.

Paraphrase distractors

Correct options restate the text in different words; options copying the text verbatim often distort the relation. Choose the paraphrase that preserves meaning and scope.

Evaluative language cues

Opinion questions hinge on words like leider, erfreulich, kritisch, meiner Meinung nach, hoffentlich. Neutral reporting verbs like berichten, mitteilen signal facts, not views.

Absolute scope words

alle, immer, nie, nur, ausschließlich make a statement absolute. Texts rarely support such claims, so options containing them are usually wrong in comprehension items.

Inference question stem

'Was lässt sich schließen?' asks for a conclusion drawn from two statements. The correct answer follows logically but is never written directly in the passage.

Comparative figures in text

Phrases like doppelt so viele, ein Drittel, gegenüber dem Vorjahr compare two quantities. Note which item is the baseline before choosing the answer.

Sie versus du consistency

Formal Sie and informal du cannot mix within one sentence or letter. An option that switches address mid-sentence is grammatically wrong regardless of meaning.

Umlaut minimal pairs

Vowel changes alter meaning: schon/schön, Masse/Maße, fuhr/für. Options that depend on a misread umlaut or ß are deliberate traps in reading sections.

Certainty levels

vielleicht, möglicherweise, oft, meistens express lower certainty than sicher, bestimmt, immer. Match the option's certainty to the text's hedging rather than to its topic.