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501 German Verbs

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I have read reviews that say this book is limited in its scope.Well, it is limited,and for good reason.This book is meant for one reason only, to give you full conjugation of 501 of the most common verbs in all tenses.If this book had included a broader scope of info it would not be so easy to use.This book is a must have for all serious language students.The one other book I strongly recommend is "750 verbs |GERMAN| and their uses". That book covers the many many meanings a verb can have and how it can change meaning with various prepositions and also gives numerous example sentences per verb/meaning.

Henry Strutz was an associate professor of languages at State University of New York in Alfred, New York, when he put this book together. The volume I have has a publication date of 1972 - this is, however, the kind of book that doesn't really go out of date. Language does change, but the basics of languages remain steady over several generations in general, and German is no exception. The basic core of the language remains constant, so this book holds up over time. Subsequent printings of this book may add a verb here and drop a verb there (given the title, it will always try to stay at 501 verbs), but the vast majority will remain the same.

I studied German at university almost 25 years ago, and first purchased this book to go along with my studies. While German is fairly standard in the patterns of conjugations for most verbs, German like most languages has exceptions to many rules, including exceptions to some of the most frequently used verbs, such as the verb constructions for to be (English is the same, with this being one of the most difficult verb constructions for non-English speakers to learn). The verb sein (bin, bist, ist, sind, seid, sind) is one of the most important verbs; haben is another important verb, given its `helping verb' status (true also in English), as it occurs in constructions with other verbs.

There are 501 verbs here, one each to a page, arranged in alphabetical order. From achten (to pay attention to) to zwingen (to force, compel), most of the verbs found in eighty percent or more of regular conversation and general writing are to be found here. Each page is laid out in a logical order, with indicative forms (the most common and simple forms) on the left, and subjunctive forms (primary and secondary, as appropriate) on the right. It steps through the various verb tenses: present, past (imperfect, perfect, and pluperfect), future and future perfect. Rare is the verb that doesn't follow these patterns - some verbs, such as geschehen (to happen, to take place, to come to pass) have simplified patterns given the use in parts of speech (rare is the sentence in English or in German where someone would say, `I have come to pass...').

Strutz has an introduction of 45 pages (not numbered along with the verbs, but rather using Roman numerals, so that the 501 verbs can correspond to 501 text pages). This introduces a very basic grammar, a discussion of the verb tenses and their uses, different kinds of conjugations, and sets out a pattern page in English to aid users in following the German pages of verbs.

In discussing word order, Strutz quotes Mark Twain, who once said of the German language, `The German goes to bed with his subject and wakes up with his verb.' According to Strutz, Twain is once supposed to have refused to leave a play, despite its being dreadful, because he was waiting for the verb. Strutz injects humour into the serious aspect of language study such as he can (how much can one do with a simple listing of verbs?), particularly in the early pages with grammar discussion. He also addresses pronunciation issues, and looks at particular forms that are regionally different. Knowing his audience is largely academic/student readers, he draws examples from literature, philosophy (Nietzsche), and music.

Despite this good introduction, this book should not be confused with being a German grammar or language study. This introductory material is but the briefest of introductions, intended primarily as a refresher for those who have studied German before, or are studying German concurrently with using this text.

Strutz has several indexes. There is an English-to-German index of words represented in the text; there is a German-to-English index in the same pattern. Many `prefix verbs' are conjugated on the primary pages - words like ankommen (to arrive) and bekommen (to receive); however, there are others for which only the basic verb is conjugated - prefix formations are included in the index in parenthetical form. Finally, there is a brief index of verbs identified by infinitive form, given that some verbs change sufficiently in various conjugate forms to not be intuitively obvious for the beginner to understand which word it is.

I'm trying to recapture my reading German this summer, so that I can do some theological research using various German texts in the coming academic year. I find this book invaluable - it is perhaps of more value when one is trying to write than when one is trying to read, but it is still very useful, so much so that the binding on my copy has cracked from use.

I don't have many complaints about this book. The conjugation of each verb in all tenses is great, and for gaining some 'feeling' as to how one might conjugate an unknown verb, it's very helpful. It's a great companion to, say, the Langenscheidt's basic German vocabulary books. I do have two criticisms. First, the choice of the verbs is slightly odd, in some cases. Many of the common verbs are omitted. Additionally, some of the verbs have numerous meanings, and some of these meanings are omitted. For learning formal German, its fine, but the omissions of common verbs/meanings makes it somewhat less useful as a learning tool for common, spoken German.

A quick scan of the title of this book will tell the potential purchaser all one needs to know about it. If such a reference is required,buy this book. In response to the request from "1/2 germany,the other half California",I will provide a comparison to the "750 german verbs" publication. These two books are similar in title only.The 750 verbs book does not fully conjugate the verbs in all tenses. Rather,it provides examples of the different contexts in which a verb might be used. I find both books quite useful.The question that needs to be answered is whether a conjugational or contextual reference is needed.

I believe that any learner of the German language should also own this book. This is one of the most helpful German verb books out there. As you can probably tell from the title, the book shows 501 German verbs fully conjugated.

So, why should you buy this book? Any learner of the German language will definitely gain something from this book. Because it shows all of the conjugations of the German language, it is a good reference book as well as a good book for learning. I use this book to help with my German homework or if I'm writing something and I forget if a certain tense is irregular for a verb. I can just flip to the page of the verb in question and I can see the entire verb fully conjugated. I just look and see how the verb is conjugated in the tense I'm using. It is also great for finding out past participles because they cannot always be guessed simply by looking at the verb.

Some added features besides the fully conjugated 501 verbs is the great section in the front which explains how and when the verb tenses are used in German. It also gives the English equivalent for added reference. I use this section to learn more German verb tenses and also as a reference to make sure I used the right tense in the right case. Additionally, the book has some grammer exercises in the back and on each verb page, it has sentences at the bottom using the verb so that you can see common examples for when it would be used.

The bottom line is if you are taking a German class in school or self-studying, you should get this book. It helps greatly in learning German verb tenses and it is a great reference book for if you are unsure of a certain tense for a verb or if you want to review when a verb is used. It is clean and organized, there is an entire page devoted to each verb and each page is set up exactly the same so that you can quickly find the verb tense you are looking for no matter which verb page you are on. I highly suggest buying this book.

I was starting to learn the different conjugations of verbs when I discovered it was not so easy to just open up a PONS or DUDAN dictionary to help you out. Not knowing all the time if what I was constructing was correct I broke down and bought this book. It helps a lot.

There is one full page dedicated to each verb with all the tenses you could imagine. Supplementary information then justifies a book that is 585 pages fat. A pocket guide it is not.

If I had to say something bad about this book it would be that I would much rather see them shrink the printing (in half) and give me 1001 verbs instead. Maybe somebody who has bought the competing book "750 German verbs" which has only 416 pages could tell us if it a better deal or not? I have already noted that there are a few common verbs that are not in this book. That's bad for a beginner. So if I had to do it all over again I would buy the "750" book instead.

The best use for this book may be in composition writing for a German class. Pick a verb, build a sentence around it. That is great for learning the formal language. However, in situations where you need to interpret what is meant by something already spoken or written in German, this book could leave you very confused. The translation for the words are too limited. They don't include the multiple uses a word can have. Buy it. But use it as a companion to a huge dictionary.

This book is a "must have" for all German students!! It has hundreds of verbs, conjugated in all their tenses with examples at the bottom of each page. In the back of the book, short grammar lessons are given on word order, separable prefixes, subordinating conjunctions and many others. There are also grammar exercises that the reader can complete and check (answers also included) and some idiomatic expressions (which are always fun to learn!) This book has saved me many hours of researching various tenses of verbs & I strongly recommend it to any serious German student!

What a reference! This is the single greatest book I have ever had the opportunity to use for verb reference. I recently "upgraded" from "301 Verbs" to this "501" model, and I continued to be greatly impressed. Congradulations to Henry Strutz!

Contains all of the cases for the most commom verbs. Is easy to use as it is in alphabetical order with the german word at the top of the page.