91. Adjective Endings (iii)

91.  The Last of the Adjective Endings  (See Quiztests 245-246)

In this post we look at the last of the adjective endings. This time we see how Adjectives change when they are preceded by either the Definite Article (the) or Demonstrative Adjective (this, that etc.).

Basically, the ending on the adjective in the first 2 cases is simply 'e'. Except for the Masculine Accusative ('en'), this applies to all the other forms.

After the Accusative Case ALL adjective endings are 'en' just as we saw for endings after ein.

                         Masculine                      Feminine                      Neuter           

Nom.           der  gute  Wein                die  süße  Limo           das   alte  Bier      

Acc.            den guten*  Wein             die  süße  Limo           das   alte  Bier       

...................................................................................................................................

Gen             des  guten  Weins           der   süßen  Limo        des    alten  Biers    
Dat              dem  guten  Wein            der   süßen  Limo        dem    alten  Bier     

                                                                     Plural    
                                                    diese       schicken   Klamotten 
                                                    diese       schicken   Klamotten      
                                                    welcher*  schicken   Klamotten
                                                    solchen*  schicken   Klamotten 

*Note here that dieser, welcher, solcher  used here are all Demonstrative Adjectives and as such are interchangeable.

Inside the Wieskirche Southern Bavaria

90. Adjective Endings (ii)

90.  More Adjective Endings  (See Quiztests 243-244)

In the last post we looked at Adjective Endings on their own. In this post we look at how adjective endings work when the Indefinite Article or Possessive Adjectives precede it .... a good wine, no sweet lemonade, an old beer or my chic clothes.

First we have to remember to get the endings for ein, kein etc. correct and remember that those endings will change according to case. Then attend to the adjective endings themselves.

In the first 2 cases, the endings for adjectives after ein, mein, kein etc. are the same as for dieser, diese, dieses and dies.

After the Accusative Case singular,  ALL adjective endings are  'en'

                    Masculine                      Feminine                      Neuter           

Nom.           ein  guter  Wein              eine  süße  Limo           ein   altes  Bier      

Acc.            einen guten  Wein           eine  süße  Limo           ein   altes  Bier       

...................................................................................................................................

Gen             eines  guten  Weins        einer   süßen  Limo      eines    alten  Biers    
Dat              einem  guten  Wein         einer   süßen  Limo      einem    alten  Bier     

                                                                Plural    
                                                    keine  schicken Klamotten 
                                                    keine  schicken Klamotten      
                                                    keiner  schicken  Klamotten
                                                    keinen  schicken  Klamotten 

Shop Mural in Oberammergau

89. Those Pesky Adjective Endings (i)

89.  Adjective Endings  (See Quiztests 241-242)

You may have noticed in your German already that adjectives used in conjunction with a noun require an adjective ending. If the adjective is alone towards the end of the clause, then no ending is required. Let's look at what I mean here ...  The new car is expensive.  New  in German will require an adjective ending but expensive does not.  It looks like this ...  der neue Wagen ist teuer. 

There are 3 types of Adjective Endings in German ....

1   Adjectives used on their own with a noun ...  e.g. new clothes, old men, big boats

2   Adj's after  ein, kein, mein, dein etc. e.g. a new suit,  no bad day,  my good clothes

3   Adj's after  der, die, das, dieser etc. e.g.  the poor people, this great shop

In Post 71 we looked at how the endings on Demonstrative Adjectives worked. They become important here because the endings on the adjectives in Categories 1 & 2 above are very similar.

This is how the dieser, diese, dieses Table worked we saw before …

                  Masculine           Feminine     Neuter            Plural   

Nom.           dieser                diese             dieses              diese    (Subject)

Acc.            diesen                diese             dieses              diese     (Object - direct)

Gen             dieses  (guten)  dieser           dieses (guten) dieser  (Poss'n - 'of'  's  s')
Dat              diesem              dieser           diesem             diesen  (Indir. Object - 'to'  'for' )

1.  Adjectives on their own .... have the same endings except for the Genitive Case Masculine and Neuter when the ending is 'en' ( see (guten) above). The table will look like this...

                    Masculine           Feminine      Neuter           Plural   

Nom.           guter  Wein         süße Limo     altes  Bier       schicke Klamotten 

Acc.             guten  Wein        süße Limo     altes  Bier       schicke Klamotten      

Gen             guten Weins        süßer Limo   alten Biers     schicker Klamotten
Dat              gutem Wein         süßer Limo   altem Bier      schicken Klamotten

More toys in the specialtyXmas shop Oberammergau

88. Reflexive Verbs and Pronouns

88.  Reflexive Pronouns  (See Quiztests 239-240)

German has a number of Reflexive Verbs where the Action provided by the Speaker reflects back on this person. A simple example of this is ... I wash myself. The speaker is both the subject and object in the same sentence.The pronouns used, however, are slightly different to the Personal Pronouns we saw in the previous post. The Reflexive Pronouns are highlighted in green if they vary from the Personal Pronouns.

Nominative    Accusative       Dative
ich                   mich                  mir
du                    dich                   dir
er                     ihn / sich           ihm / sich
sie                    sie  / sich          ihr /  sich
wir                   uns                    uns
ihr                    euch                  euch
Sie                   Sie / sich           Ihnen / sich
sie                    sie  / sich           ihnen / sich

Let's see how some of these reflexive verbs might work ...

Ich dusche mich immer am Morgen.
Kämmst du dir oft die Haare?  (Note use of Dative for Pronoun & Accusative for Noun)
Die Kinder waschen sich im Fluss.
Wir fragen uns, wann Sankt Nikolaus kommen wird.
Herr Möller, Sie können sich im Schlafzimmer umziehen.
Hans, zieh dich nicht hier aus, geh doch ins Badezimmer!
Tina hat sich den Arm verletzt und den Fuß verrenkt.
Ich wundere mich, ob Trudi zur Party kommt.
Nach dem Essen haben wir uns sehr krank gefühlt.
Peter, bitte putz dir sofort die Zähne, wir gehen bald aus.
Setz dich hier hin, Monika! Du musst sehr müde sein.
Karl und Ilse müssen sich beeilen. Ihr Zug fährt in zehn Minuten ab.
Kommt doch 'rein, Sacha, Erich, sonst erkältet ihr euch.
Stell dir vor, Kurt, ich kann fast irgendwo schlafen!
Die Studenten rasieren sich nur alle drei Tage.

Christmas Toy Shop Oberammergau

87. Pronouns replacing Nouns

87.  Personal Pronouns  (See Quiztests 237-238)

The role of the pronoun in a sentence is fairly important. After introducing a noun into conversation, we usually resort to replacing the noun with a relevant pronoun ... e.g. the man ... 'he'. Pronouns are streamlined, save time, are shorter than the noun.

Like nouns, pronouns have case but mostly only the Nominative, Accusative and Datives. A list of these appears below:

Nominative    Accusative       Dative
ich                   mich                  mir
du                    dich                   dir
er                     ihn                     ihm
sie                    sie                     ihr
wir                   uns                    uns
ihr                    euch                  euch
Sie                   Sie                     Ihnen
sie                    sie                     ihnen

The usual rules of case apply, Nominative for the Subject, Accusative for the Object and Dative for the Indirect Object ('to' and 'for').

Beispiele
"Kennst du Thomas und Philippa?"... "Ja, ich kenne sie gut."
Erika geht bald nach Hause. Sie hat Kopfschmerzen.
Ich liebe dich, aber du liebst mich nicht. Was sollen wir machen?
Claudia, Franz, ihr sollt sofort in die Stadtmitte gehen. Euer Vater trifft euch dort.
"Bernd, ja, das wissen wir. Wir sagen es ihm, seine Mutter wartet auf ihn am Bahnhof."

In the last sentence, notice how the Accusative precedes the Dative Pronoun when 2 pronouns are used together. This is always the case but it is the reverse for Nouns where the Dative precedes the Accusative... e.g.  Morgen schenken wir unserem Bruder seinen Computer.

Transport to the Neuschwanstein Castle Bavarian Alps

86. More on Separable Vebs

86.  More on Separable Verbs  (See Quiztests 234-235)

In Post 79, we saw how Separable verbs work. Below you will find a list of common verbs with prefixes that are separable whereby the prefix will normally be positioned at the end of the clause.

e.g.  (auf)stehen    =   to get up    .... ich stehe jeden Tag um 7 Uhr auf

ab ... usually indicates 'away' or 'down' ... ab / fahren, holen, reisen, schalten, steigen

an ... 'on'  or 'at'     bieten, fangen, kommen, nehmen, probieren, rufen, schalten, schauen,
                              sehen, ziehen   
              
auf ... 'up'              bauen, bleiben, hören (stop), heben, machen, nehmen, passen,
                              stehen, stellen, wachen, wecken 

aus ...  'out (of)'    brechen, drücken, füllen, geben, gehen, halten, kommen, ruhen,
                             tauschen, wählen, ziehen

bei ...  'at'  'to'       fügen, bringen

durch   'through'  arbeiten, dringen, lesen, schneiden

ein ... 'in(to)'         fallen, kaufen, kommen, laden, leiten, nehmen, schlafen

mit ...  'with'         arbeiten, gehen, helfen, kommen, machen, nehmen, spielen

nach ... 'after'       denken, kommen, sehen

um  ... 'around'     bringen, gehen, schulen, stellen, tauschen, ziehen

vor ... 'before'       bereiten, haben, lesen, schlagen, stellen

weg ... 'away'       fallen, gehen, werfen

zu  ...   'to'             gehen, hören

*** Although the prefixes usually attach some form of literal meaning to the stem verb, this is not always the case. If we look at the three verbs highlighted, it is not hard to understand that mitkommen means to 'come with' people or to accompany them. However, when we look at the verbs aufhören and umbringen, it is hard to attach a literal meaning to them. They mean to 'stop' and to 'kill' respectively. As such the prefix is not always a totally reliable guide as to meaning.

One of the major forms of transport in Zermatt (no cars allowed!)

        

85. Subordinate Clauses (ii)

85.  More on Subordinate Clauses  (See Quiztests 232-233)

Last time we looked at Subordinate Clauses BUT.... with the Main Clause first. This time we need to look at what happens if the Subordinate Clause comes first. The word order is different again. We will use the conjunctions below that we saw as our examples previously.

wenn     =      when (Present,  Future & Past Tense meaning 'whenever'), if

als         =      when (Past Tenses)

weil      =       because

nachdem  =   after

bevor    =      before

während   =   while     

indem   =       as, while

seitdem =      (ever) since  

dass      =       that

obgleich   =   although

sobald      =   as soon as

ob         =      if, whether 

da         =      as, since (because)

If the Subordinate Clause goes second we found the verb simply went to the end of the clause ... e.g.

Wir haben das Deutsche Museum besucht, als wir in München waren.

If the Main Clause is second, we now get ...

Als wir in München waren, haben wir das Deutsche Museum besucht - Note that the Subject and Verb of the Main Clause are reversed. This always happens when the Subordinate Clause comes first.

More examples..

Wenn ich Fieber habe,  nehme  ich  immer ein paar Tabletten,

Weil er viele Hausaufgaben hat,  kann  Hans  nicht zur Party kommen. 

Nachdem sie im Café zu Mittag gegessen hat,  geht  Silke  sofort ins Kino.

S  P  A  N  A  PP  I  V,  V  S  P  A  N  A  PP  I   is how the sentence structure now looks

The fabulous Matterhorn - Zermatt Switzerland

84. Subordinate Clauses (i)

84.  Subordinate Clauses  (See Quiztests 232-233)

Previously we looked at the German Word Order in a Principal (Main) Clause. A Principal Clause can stand alone and make sense by itself. A Subordinate Clause cannot stand alone and simply serves to add meaning to the Main Clause.  Subordinate Clauses start with a Conjunction. A list of the more common conjunctions appears below and then some sentences showing how they are used.

wenn     =      when (Present,  Future & Past Tense meaning 'whenever'), if

als         =      when (Past Tenses)

weil      =       because

nachdem  =   after

bevor    =      before

während   =   while     

indem   =       as, while

seitdem =      (ever) since  

dass      =       that

obgleich   =   although

sobald      =   as soon as

ob         =      if, whether 

da         =      as, since (because)

Before we start some examples, we will notice a change in word order in the Subordinate Clause. The Main Clause maintains the S V P A N A PP I formula we saw previously but the Subordinate Clause changes slightly. The verb in a Subordinate Clause is placed at the end of the clause. Notice also that a comma separates the two clauses.

Beispiele

Ich nehme immer ein paar Tabletten, wenn ich Fieber habe.

Wir haben das Deutsche Museum besucht, als wir in München waren.

Hans kann nicht zur Party kommen, weil er viele Hausaufgaben hat.

Silke geht sofort ins Kino, nachdem sie im Café zu Mittag gegessen hat.

Du hast das Buch Mord in Wien gelesen, bevor du den Film gesehen hast, nicht?

Wir haben eine Rheinreise gemacht, als wir in Koblenz waren.

Stefan hat ein Lied gesungen, indem er ins Zimmer kam.

Tina lernt schon viel Deutsch, seitdem sie in Nürnberg ist.

Ich weiss, dass du Hunger hast. Wir gehen bald ins Restaurant.

Er will nicht mehr Tennis spielen, obgleich er viel Talent hat.

Wir gehen sofort Schi laufen, sobald wir in Innsbruck ankommen.

Franz und Bettina wissen noch nicht, ob sie ausgehen dürfen.

Ilse will nicht mitkommen, da sie Kopfschmerzen hat.

Cable Car to Matterhorn Switzerland

  

83. More on the Past Tenses

83.  Most Common Principal Parts of Verbs (See Quiztests 230-231)

Last time we looked at the Past Tenses and in particular the Table usually referred to as the the Principal Parts of Verbs. The table below is not exhaustive and only a brief version of the better known and more commonly used verbs. I will refer to several examples from this further below.

Infinitive        Present        Imperfect        Past Participle     Meaning
sein *              ist                 war                  gewesen              (to) be
haben              hat                hatte                gehabt                 have
werden*          wird             wurde              geworden            become
wollen             will              wollte              gewollt                want to
sollen              soll               sollte               gesollt                  be supposed to
mögen             mag             mochte            gemocht               like
können            kann            konnte             gekonnt                be able to, can
dürfen             darf              durfte               gedurft                 be allowed to, may
müssen           muss             musste             gemusst                have to, must
essen              isst                aß                    gegessen               eat
trinken             trinkt            trank               getrunken             drink
sehen              sieht              sah                  gesehen                see
gehen *           geht              ging                 gegangen             go, walk
fahren *           fährt             fuhr                  gefahren              go (transport)
laufen *           läuft              lief                   gelaufen              run
sterben *         stirbt              starb                gestorben            die
bleiben *          bleibt            blieb                geblieben           stay
fliegen *           fliegt             flog                 geflogen             fly
nehmen            nimmt           nahm               genommen         take
stehen              steht              stand                gestanden           stand
liegen               liegt              lag                    gelegen              lie
sprechen          spricht           sprach              gesprochen        speak
lesen                liest                las                    gelesen              read

Examples / Beispiele  ....   'C'  =  Conversation  and   'W'  =  in Writing

W    Klaus war sehr krank und zwar hatte Fieber.
C    "Klaus ist sehr krank gewesen und zwar hat Fieber gehabt."

W    Anja ass zuerst eine Currywurst und dann trank sie eine Limo.
C    "Anja hat zuerst eine Currywurst gegessen und dann hat sie eine Limo getrunken."

W    Anja und Alex gingen ins Kino und sahen einen Film.
C    "Anja und Alex sind ins Kino gegangen und haben einen Film gesehen."

W    Uli und Jan fuhren zum Park und liefen ganz um den Park herum.
C    "Uli und Jan sind zum Park gefahren und sind ganz um den Park gelaufen."

W    Meine Freunde flogen nach England und blieben zwei Monate dort.
C    "Meine Freunde sind nach England geflogen und sind zwei Monate dort geblieben.

W    Die Eltern lasen das Schulzeugnis und sprachen mit Timos Lehrer darüber.
C    "Die Eltern haben das Zeugnis gelesen und haben mit Timos Lehrer darüber                    
        gesprochen."

Compass Direction to Sydney Australia from TV Tower Berlin

82. More on Common Regular and Irregular verbs

82.  More on Common Irregular Verbs  (See Quiztests 230-231)

Further to recent information on how verbs work in the past tenses, we need to look at a table of what are usually called the Principal Parts of Verbs. This table always includes the Infinitive, the 3rd person form of the Present Tense, the Imperfect Tense, the Past Participle and Meaning of course. For Regular Verbs, we do not need a table as such because they always 'behave' in a consistent pattern but by way of example let's set up a table to see how they would work and then move on to a few of the more common Irregular verbs.

Infinitive        Present        Imperfect        Past Participle     Meaning
sagen               sagt               sagte              gesagt                    say
hören               hört               hörte              gehört                     hear
kaufen             kauft              kaufte            gekauft                   buy

Before adding the Irregular Verbs, you may wonder why the 3rd person form of the verb is used. The reason for this is that an Irregular Verb in the Present Tense is usually only irregular in the 2nd and 3rd persons and then works like a regular verb in the other forms of the verb.  So... let's make up a list of some of the most  common verbs. Also verbs with an  '*' use  'sein' in the Perfect Tense and not 'haben'.

Infinitive        Present        Imperfect     Past Participle    Meaning
sein *              ist                war                 gewesen              (to) be
haben              hat               hatte               gehabt                 have
werden*          wird            wurde             geworden            become
wollen             will             wollte              gewollt                want to
sollen              soll              sollte                gesollt                be supposed to
mögen             mag             mochte            gemocht             like
können            kann            konnte             gekonnt              be able to, can
dürfen             darf              durfte              gedurft                be allowed to, may
müssen            muss            musste             gemusst              have to, must
essen               isst               aß                    gegessen            eat
trinken             trinkt           trank                getrunken           drink
sehen               sieht            sah                   gesehen              see
gehen *           geht             ging                 gegangen            go, walk
fahren *           fährt            fuhr                  gefahren             go (transport)
laufen *           läuft             lief                   gelaufen             run
sterben *          stirbt            starb                gestorben           die
bleiben *          bleibt           blieb                geblieben           stay
fliegen *           fliegt            flog                 geflogen             fly
nehmen            nimmt          nahm               genommen        take
stehen              steht             stand                gestanden         stand
liegen               liegt             lag                    gelegen             lie
sprechen          spricht          sprach              gesprochen       speak
lesen                liest              las                    gelesen             read

This is not an exhaustive list by any means and for further information you probably need to consult a dictionary or a good text here. The previously mentioned Leo German English website will also be helpful. A couple of things to note, however .... Separable Verbs such as 'aufstehen' do not usually get included in tables like this because this verb has 'stehen' as its stem. Only stem verbs are normally included. Next time I will use the above table to look at how the Past Tenses are used in the different contexts such as Conversation and Literary uses.

Jewish Memorial site Berlin

81. Simple Past Tense - Imperfect!

81.  The Imperfect Tense  (See Quiztests 230-231)

Just as we saw recently that the Perfect Tense was used in conversation to express ideas in the past, this time we will have a look at the past tense in writing. This will involve the Imperfect Tense or Simple Past Tense which is the tense we prefer in English in conversation. In German, this is the tense of choice in all the literary media - newspaper articles, novels, fairy stories, reports.

Formation of Regular Verbs -  includes a 't' sound:  ich  höre -  ich hörte  (English also uses the 't' sound in the the past - jump - jumped)  The endings are:
  

ich hörte,  

du hörtest,  

                                                   er, sie, es hörte*,  (Notice no 't' ending as in Present)

wir hörten, 

 ihr hörtet, 

Sie / sie hörten

Irregular Verbs :  Like English there is frequently a vowel change and sadly they must be learned. You will always find a list of these verbs at the back of a good text book. The endings are also different from above and are formed just like Modal verbs in the Present Tense  ….

                  

                     ich schwimme    -    ich schwamm (similar in English - swim - swam)

du schwammst

er, sie, es schwamm

wir schwammen

ihr schwammt

Sie/sie schwammen

Other examples are:

Regular:  Die Frauen kauften Schmuck.  Klaus wohnte sieben Monate in Bremen.

Irregular: Anja kam sofort nach Hause.  Heinz traf seine Frau im Stadtzentrum.

*** One last note here about the Past Tense ... In conversation,  'sein'  and 'haben' in particular are often used in the Simple Past Tense form.  "Tom, hast du gehört? Klaus war heute krank, denn er hatte Kopfschmerzen."

Notice, however that the meanings in English of the Simple Past tense are several:  

er kam  =   he came,  did come,  was coming,  used to come

sie kaufte  =  she bought,  did buy, was buying,  used to buy

We need to set up a list of common verbs that work like this in the near future.

The Hop on Hop off bus city tours - an excellent way to see city sights!

80. Verbal Imperatives

80.  The Imperative of the Verb  (See Quiztests 228-229)

The Imperative form of the verb is used to give an order or command. Basically, it is a 2nd person issue because normally you are talking to someone when you give an order. Remember that in German there are 3 words for you (du, ihr & Sie) so we have to take all forms into consideration. Refer to Posts 21-24 and 56-58 to revise Present Tense verbs in both regular and irregular forms.

Regular Verbs   ..... let's use kaufen,  spielen,  sagen,  arbeiten  &  finden
du form   =   du kaufst  -  drop the 'st'   kauf!   spiel!   sag!    arbeite!   &   finde!
ihr form  =    ihr kauft -    just use    kauft!   spielt!  sagt!   arbeitet!  findet!
Sie form  =  Sie kaufen - turn around ... kaufen Sie!  spielen Sie!  sagen Sie!                                             arbeiten Sie!  finden Sie!

Beispiele
(du)  Mama, bitte kauf mir heute Bleistifte und Filzstifte (textas)!
(du)  Klaus, spiel doch mit uns!

(ihr)  Erika, Xavier, bitte sagt nichts meinen Eltern von meiner neuen Arbeitsstelle!
(ihr)  Heinz, Barbara, arbeitet mal nicht so schwer! (mal often used to soften an order)

(Sie)  Herr Thomas, finden Sie zuerst Ihren Ausweis!
(Sie)  Frau Schulz, Herr Meier, bitte kaufen Sie diese preiswerte Broschüre!

Irregular Verbs (See Posts 56-58)  -  fahren (a-ä),  geben (e-i),  sehen (e-ie)
(du) a - ä verbs: du fährst - fahr (no Umlaut); e - i  du gibst - gib; e - ie  du siehst - sieh
(ihr) =  as above     fahrt,   gebt,   seht
(Sie) =  as above     fahren Sie,  geben Sie,  sehen Sie

***  With the Irregular Verbs, only the du forms are different from the Regular Verbs. They will all show the same changes as the examples above. Further examples will be: Schlaf gut! Trag mal diese Jacke! Bitte wasch dir das Gesicht!; Iss doch langsamer!; Bitte nimm mich mit!; Sprich nicht so schnell!; Lies jetzt die Zeitung!; Stiehl nichts!

Let's go, do, play etc is a form of the Imperative and to do this we reverse the subject and verb a little like the 'Sie" form … Gehen wir ins Kino!  Machen wir ein Foto!  Spielen wir Lotto!

Machen wir ein Foto von den Wolken

79. Separable Verbs

79.  Separable Verbs  (See Quiztests 226-227)

German has quite a few Separable Verbs. These have a Prefix as well as the basic Verb Infinitive form. Once the verb is used in context other than as the Infinitive, the verb and prefix separate, hence its name..... e.g....

A   (aus)gehen   =   the Infinitive  =   to go out   (note how the verb is used below)

Ich gehe selten aus   =   I seldom  go out (Prefix goes to the end of the clause)

Steh sofort auf!  =  Get up immediately! (This is a command - we will look at these soon)

Kannst du ausgehen? = Can you go out? ( aus & verb join at end of clause as Infinitive, remembering that a Modal Verb - here  können - is used with the Infinitive at the end of the clause)

Ich bin oft ausgegangen = I often went out (aus joins the Past Participle at clause end)


B  (auf)wecken   =    to wake up   (note that separable verbs are often verbs in English with a preposition to follow)

Um sieben Uhr wecke ich meinen Sohn auf.

Bitte wecken Sie uns beim Sonnenaufgang auf!

Soll ich dich morgen ein bisschen früher aufwecken?

Mama hat Tim aufgeweckt.  ('haben' used here - no 'sein' when there is an object)


C    Separable Verbs in the Perfect Tense.

Ich bin um acht Uhr aufgewacht   -  (note use of  'sein'  -  change of state!)
Er ist sehr langsam aufgestanden    -  (movement involved, so 'sein' again)
Anja und Klaus haben uns neulich angerufen.
Du hast nie deine Kusine mitgebracht!

***  ACHTUNG!  

Not all verbs beginning with a prefix are separable. If a verb is separable, the accent in saying the word falls on the prefix  .....  e.g. ....
     /                     /                       /
weggehen,      ausziehen,      auftauchen

Inseparable verbs have the accent on the verb rather than the prefix .... e.g. ....
                 /                          /                         /
unterschreiben,      übersetzen        unterhalten

Federal Parliament in Berlin - Be sure to book ahead for a visit!

78 Perfect in Motion & Changing State

78.  The Perfect Tense with Verbs of Movement and Change of State (See Quiztests 222-225)

You may have picked up from the last 2 posts that I did not mention any Verbs of Movement or Change of State. The reason for this is that their formation is different. Instead of using 'haben', these verbs use 'sein' + Past Participle. Let's look at some examples ...

Movement Verbs

Ich bin  letzten Dezember nach Deutschland  gefahren.
Inge  ist  in die Stadt  gegangen.
Bist  du rund um den Park  gelaufen?
Wir  sind  zuerst nach Hawaii  geflogen. 
Klaus und Anna  sind  sehr schnell ins Haus  gerannt.
Sonja  ist  durch den Wald  geritten.

Change of State

Wir  sind  5 Tage in Kanada  geblieben.***
Ist  der König letztes Jahr  gestorben?
Felix, Sigrid,  seid  ihr in Singapur krank  geworden?
Ich  bin  in Cessnock  geboren.
Der Schnee  ist  schon  geschmolzen.
Ich  bin  oft ungeduldig  gewesen.

***  Rather curiously bleiben is used with 'sein' rather than 'haben'.  In a sense, I guess, to stay or remain involves a change in one's state, albeit maybe a very small change sometimes.

Residence of Heinrich Heine (famous poet) in Berlin