Deutsch 101

A few things (or sentences, specifically) that I'm not entirely sure about:

Firstly, if I were to be attempting to say, "My parents like to dance when it's cold" (never mind why I'd want to say that :p), would it be correct to say, "Meine Eltern tanzen gern wann es ist kalt"? I assume 'wann' fits in that context?

Secondly, if I wanted to say, "My teacher, who comes from Germany, plays golf", would it be, "Meine Lehrerin, wer kommen aus Deutschland, spielen Golf"? Does it matter with such a structure that the verb (spielen) doesn't come second? That is, does the entirety of 'Meine Lehrerin, wer kommen aus Deutschland' count as the subject? And is 'wer kommen' even right for that context and tense?

Thirdly, if I were to be saying, "I ring up my father and then play Tennis", would it be, "Ich rufe mein Vater an und dann spiele Tennis", or does the 'an' from 'anrufen' have to go after 'Tennis'? That is, given it's a compound sentence, where does the separable prefix go?

And some more:
I'm saying, "They go to bed at 11". My answer is, "Sie gehen ins Bett um elf". Is 'ins' correct? What's the difference between 'ins' and 'zu'? And is 'um' correct for giving a precise time? Or does it mean 'around' more than 'at'?
 
A few things (or sentences, specifically) that I'm not entirely sure about:

Firstly, if I were to be attempting to say, "My parents like to dance when it's cold" (never mind why I'd want to say that :p), would it be correct to say, "Meine Eltern tanzen gern wann es ist kalt"? I assume 'wann' fits in that context?

Secondly, if I wanted to say, "My teacher, who comes from Germany, plays golf", would it be, "Meine Lehrerin, wer kommen aus Deutschland, spielen Golf"? Does it matter with such a structure that the verb (spielen) doesn't come second? That is, does the entirety of 'Meine Lehrerin, wer kommen aus Deutschland' count as the subject? And is 'wer kommen' even right for that context and tense?

Thirdly, if I were to be saying, "I ring up my father and then play Tennis", would it be, "Ich rufe mein Vater an und dann spiele Tennis", or does the 'an' from 'anrufen' have to go after 'Tennis'? That is, given it's a compound sentence, where does the separable prefix go?

And some more:
I'm saying, "They go to bed at 11". My answer is, "Sie gehen ins Bett um elf". Is 'ins' correct? What's the difference between 'ins' and 'zu'? And is 'um' correct for giving a precise time? Or does it mean 'around' more than 'at'?

Meine Eltern tanzen gern wenn es kalt ist." Wann means only "at which time" and not "when".
Meine Lehrerin, die/welche aus Deutschland kommt , spielt Golf. I guess you should read something about the structure of dependent clauses in German. When you relate in such a clause to your teacher, you must consider her sex and swap the sentence structure.
Ich rufe mein Vater an und spiele dann Tennis. Your first guess was right. The verb and the prefix must not be seperated by a depentent clause.
Sie gehen um elf ins Bett
"ins Bett" is correct, "zu Bett" is right as well, you can go "ins Bett" and "zu Bett", it means the same. "um elf" is correct and "um" is correct for giving a precise time. "um" can as well mean "over" like in "One full hour is over".
 
Thanks for your help; I appreciate it.

I'm having a little trouble figured out what to put in when I say I'm going somewhere. That is, if I say I go to the train station and catch a train to Central station, is that, "Ich spaziere zur Bahnstation und nehme einen Zug zur Central Bahnhof"? I take it that zur is a contraction of 'zu' and 'der', for the masculine Bahnstation. Does it work for 'Central station' as well? And if I were to be saying that I was going somewhere non-masculine, like my house for instance, would I say, "Ich gehe zu meinem Haus"? That is, does 'zu' work for going to non-masculine places? Additionally, I'm not entirely sure about the 'gehe' there. I'm unsure if it's acceptable to have 'gehe' without the separable 'aus'. In what circumstances do you need to use 'ausgehen'? Furthermore, I'm not entirely sure about the 'meinem'. It's something we haven't covered yet, and I'm wondering why it's 'meinem' instead of 'mein'.

Getting even more specific, if I were to be saying that I walk to the train station and take a train to Central station, and then go from the station to my house, would it be, "Ich spaziere zur Bahnstation und nehme einen Zug zur Central Bahnhof, dann ich gehe von der Bahnstation zur meinem Haus"? Depending on the individual elements being correct, I take it that that's an acceptable way of stringing it together?

And finally (I think), is it acceptable to use 'reiten' instead of 'nehmen' when referring to taking the bus or train, as you would ride a bus or train in English?
 
Thanks for your help; I appreciate it.

I'm having a little trouble figured out what to put in when I say I'm going somewhere. That is, if I say I go to the train station and catch a train to Central station, is that, "Ich spaziere zur Bahnstation und nehme einen Zug zur Central Bahnhof"? I take it that zur is a contraction of 'zu' and 'der', for the masculine Bahnstation. Does it work for 'Central station' as well? And if I were to be saying that I was going somewhere non-masculine, like my house for instance, would I say, "Ich gehe zu meinem Haus"? That is, does 'zu' work for going to non-masculine places? Additionally, I'm not entirely sure about the 'gehe' there. I'm unsure if it's acceptable to have 'gehe' without the separable 'aus'. In what circumstances do you need to use 'ausgehen'? Furthermore, I'm not entirely sure about the 'meinem'. It's something we haven't covered yet, and I'm wondering why it's 'meinem' instead of 'mein'.
Your problem seem to be cases here. Certain pronouns require certain cases, in your example, it's "zu" + dative. "Der Bahnhof" is nominative, it's corresponding dative would be "dem Bahnhof". So you would say "ich [...] nehme einen Zug zum Bahnhof", "zum" being a contraction of "zu dem" (you're right about "zur" = "zu der", by the way).

"zu" always works in this context regardless of gender. It's only when you're talking about proper nouns for places (like city/country names) where you have to use "nach" instead ("Ich gehe nach Berlin"). But most Germans tend to mix that up, too :D

"ausgehen" means "to go out", i.e. "I go out tonight" etc.

"meinem" is the dative to "mein" again, following the pronoun "zu". So you see possessive pronouns get declined just like articles and nouns.

Getting even more specific, if I were to be saying that I walk to the train station and take a train to Central station, and then go from the station to my house, would it be, "Ich spaziere zur Bahnstation und nehme einen Zug zur Central Bahnhof, dann ich gehe von der Bahnstation zur meinem Haus"? Depending on the individual elements being correct, I take it that that's an acceptable way of stringing it together?
Definitely, but mind that the last part is a main clause, and there the conjugated verb always comes second, even if the first word isn't the subject: "..., dann gehe ich von der [...]".

Just a small correction I didn't mention above: "spazieren" is only used to translate "to promenade" etc. I'd go with "gehen" here. Also, "train station" is usually translated as "Bahnhof".

And finally (I think), is it acceptable to use 'reiten' instead of 'nehmen' when referring to taking the bus or train, as you would ride a bus or train in English?
No, "reiten" usually only refers to horses etc. (not to bikes either). You can either use "nehmen" ("ich nehme den Zug") or "fahren mit" ("ich fahre mit dem Zug").
 
Also, "train station" is usually translated as "Bahnhof".
He might go with Hauptbahnhof if he really wants to keep the central.
 
I assumed it was a proper name of a specific station. "Central station" = "Hauptbahnhof", yes.
 
thanks, online translators always translate zu as to, so I was a bit confused.

It usually does mean "to", but you need an article in dative case between zu and the destination which is usually just compressed to a letter added to zu.

To the trainstation = Zu dem Bahnhof compressed to Zum Bahnhof.
To the bridge = Zu der Brücke = Zur Brücke.

If the destination is a person you don't need the article.
To Napoleon simply becomes Zu Napoleon.
 
there are quite a lot of rules/guidelines. check:

http://www.mein-deutschbuch.de/lernen.php?menu_id=53

mein-deutschbuch.de said:
nur Plural:
[...]
die Lebensmittel
Who are those jokers?

Das Lebensmittel. Perfectly viable singular.
And a frequently used one at that... like in the debate on whether or not Nestle is the embodyment of pure evil.

And - correct me if i am an anachronist - but i would have thought die Einkunft is a viable singular, too. Not that i would have any urge to use it.
 
I guess they mean if someone says "Lebensmittel", the word is usually plural. Because you can't tell from the word's spelling.
 
I guess they mean if someone says "Lebensmittel", the word is usually plural. Because you can't tell from the word's spelling.
My suspicion is that they are lazy and/or inept and couldn't come up with 10 proper pluralia tantum.
 
If the destination is a person you don't need the article.
To Napoleon simply becomes Zu Napoleon.

In southern German, you need the article. So if you get this wrong, you can always use southern/northern German as an excuse ;)
 
In southern German, you need the article. So if you get this wrong, you can always use southern/northern German as an excuse ;)

This thread isn't about sourhern German, it's about proper German.:p
 
So, something more that I fail to understand.

I'm writing a letter, and my first line is apparently meant to be, "Ich schreibe das Brief zur Antwort auf Ihren letzten Brief." I had initially crafted the sentence as "Ich schreibe das Brief zu Antworte Ihr letzten Brief." So a few things arise from that.
  1. Why is it 'zur' rather than 'zu' and 'Antwort' rather than 'Antworte'?
  2. 'Brief' being neuter, why is it 'Ihren' rather than 'Ihr'? Also, it's acceptable to say 'deinen' instead, right?
  3. Why is there an 'auf'? Is that just to indicate that the answer is a reply?
Thanks!
 
First off, let me correct some mistakes.
It's not das Brief, it's der Brief. The first sentence should be
Ich schreibe diesen Brief...
We use "diesen" instead of "den" to emphasise we are referrign to this particular letter. It Brief were neuter the first line should be Ich schreibe diesen Brief.

So, something more that I fail to understand.
Why is it 'zur' rather than 'zu' and 'Antwort' rather than 'Antworte'?
Personally I would have gone with als Antwort. Zur Antwort is not strictly wrong, but it's a bit archaic and sounds somewhat awkward.
The German word for answer is Antwort, the Verb is antworten. "Antworte" would be the second-person imperative form of the Verb.
Zur is an abbreviation of zu der. It refers to the Answer. The German language just loves articles.

Brief' being neuter, why is it 'Ihren' rather than 'Ihr'? Also, it's acceptable to say 'deinen' instead, right?

As I said, Brief is not neuter, therefore it's Ihren. Deinen is acceptable if you know the person well. As a rule of thumb use Du with people you're on a first name basis with. There are also situation (for example in an office environment) when people use the frist name in combination with "Sie". "Daniel, haben Sie..." It's a weird compromise between being friendly but professional, and being professional but not too distant. Personally, I hate it and think people who talk like that are collossal tossers, but I digress...


Why is there an 'auf'? Is that just to indicate that the answer is a reply?
It fulfills the same role as to would in the english sentence.
an answer to your letter = Antwort auf Ihren Brief
 
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