NYSTCE German CST cheat sheet

German Language and Culture

• German noun gender is grammatical, not semantic: das Mädchen (girl) is neuter because the diminutive suffix -chen always forces neuter, overriding natural gender.

• Three-way case system: nominative (subject), accusative (direct object, most prepositions of motion toward), dative (indirect object, most static prepositions), genitive (possession, some prepositions such as wegen, trotz, während).

• Two-way prepositions (an, auf, hinter, in, neben, über, unter, vor, zwischen) take accusative for change of location/transfer and dative for fixed location: in die Stadt (acc.) vs. in der Stadt (dat.).

• Verb-second rule: in a main clause the finite verb occupies position 2; if an element is fronted, subject and verb invert (Heute gehe ich...), while subordinate clauses with subordinating conjunctions (weil, dass, obwohl, wenn) send the finite verb to the end.

• Auxiliary choice in perfect tense: haben with transitive verbs and most intransitives; sein with verbs of motion/change of state (gehen, fahren, aufstehen, werden) and sein/bleiben.

• Strong verb pattern shows ablaut in principal parts: singen–sang–gesungen; the past participle of strong verbs ends in -en, weak verbs in -t (gemacht).

• Konjunktiv II forms politeness and unreal conditions: hätte, wäre, würde + infinitive; Konjunktiv I (er sei, er habe) marks reported speech in journalism.

• Adjective endings depend on article type: after definite article the ending is -e/-en; after ein-words and no article the ending carries the gender/case signal (ein guter Wein, guter Wein).

• German-speaking geography: D-A-CH plus Liechtenstein covers Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein; Switzerland has four national languages (German, French, Italian, Romansh).