A couple of weeks ago I explained what a grammatical tense is and I alluded to the idea
that there is also this thing called moods. That's the topic of today's video.
A mood is another way to change a verb in this case it changes the
attitude about a particular statement. Contrary to what you may be thinking,
it's not about whether or not you like this particular sentence or if you're
just gonna be all whiny about it that's a different type of mood or attitude.
In this case we're talking about whether or not this is a fact, a desire, or a command.
Last time I alluded to the idea that most people know what the indicative mood is.
This is the one that is talking about facts. This could be something that is happening,
something that has happened, or something that will happen.
Of course this also includes questions such as “Where are you going? and “Are you going?”
Obviously you are going even though you know it says “are you”.
If you want to know more about the indicative mood, it's probably just easier for you to
watch the video about tenses, as I covered basically all of the indicative mood there.
The second mood that most people learn about in a German class is
the command form or the imperative. This mood is obviously going to be
used whenever you're telling someone what to do. Since there are three different you’s in German,
obviously you can use all three of these you’s when giving commands. If you would
use the du-form with someone when speaking with them, you would use the du-form when
commanding them. Obviously the same is true of the ihr-form and of course the Sie-form.
There is a fourth version that you can use as well and that is the wir-form. This is
kind of counterintuitive to most people, but once I explain that it's actually just kind
of like using “let's” in front of an English sentence then it makes perfect sense. Things
like “let's go” or “let's run” or something along those lines. It's commanding yourself
and a group of other people. I've already done some blog posts and some other videos
and some older stuff about command form. I'll eventually be doing this in the 3 Minuten
Deutsch series but I just haven't gotten to it yet. I linked all of the other things
that I've done so far on the command form in the description as well as on the side here.
Let's go over the command form really, really quickly. If you're gonna use the du-form with
somebody as a command, basically you just write any sentence that you would have as long as it's
not a question with a question word. Then you take out the du and the -st out of the
sentence. So for instance if you have the word gehen and you would conjugate it to the du-form
you would say Gehst du nach Hause? - Are you going home? or Du gehst nach Hause. - You are
going home. If you want to use this as a command you take out the du in the -st and you add an
exclamation mark to the end of the sentence. So you would say Geh nach Hause! - Go home.
If a verb is irregular for the du-form for the stem change, then you would also have that same
stem change whenever you're using a command. So for example the verb “geben” which means
“to give” changes to “gibst” in the du-form. If you're gonna use that with the command,
you would say “Gib” as in “Gib mir einen Keks!” - Give me a cookie. This however
does not work if the verb takes an a-ä change. So, for instance, the verb “fahren” where it
would be “du fährst” (you are driving) you would just say “Fahr” (drive).
Similar to what happens whenever you are conjugating a verb in the indicative mood
in the present tense, if the verb stem ends in an S you will not be adding an
S in the indicative mood and therefore you will not be taking away an S when you are
using a command. For example: “Liest du ein Buch?” (Are you reading a book?” and
you would change that to a command of “Lies ein Buch!” (Read a book.)
The ihr-form is actually pretty easy. All you have to do is take out the igr for each sentence,
you know, just like van Gogh did. So, for example,
“Fahrt ihr nach Hause?” (Are you driving home?) “Fahrt nach Hause! (Drive home.)
“Lest ihr ein Buch?” (Are you reading a book?) “Lest ein Buch!” (Read a book.)
The Sie-form command is really simple. All you have to do is put your verb first, then
your Sie. Then everything else is the exact same as it would have been. Basically it's question
word order. The only difference is that you put an exclamation mark at the end instead of a question
mark and the inflection of your voice changes. See if you can spot the difference in these
sentences Fahren Sie nach Hause? Fahren Sie nach Hause! Lesen Sie ein Buch? Lesen Sie ein Buch!
It's the exact same way in the wir-form.
Fahren wir nach Hause? Fahren wir nach Hause! Lesen wir ein Buch? Lesen wir ein Buch!
The last mood on our list today is actually the most complicated of them all and that is
the subjunctive mood. This is the one that's used to talk about things that are contrary
to reality. Basically it's hypotheticals. It can also be used with indirect speech like
the things that you'll find in a newspaper when they're reporting what someone else said. There
is no way I could finish all of the things about the subjunctive in this video and therefore I'm
just gonna leave that to the blog post that I already did about the subjunctive. You can find
that link down in the description and also up to the side here. The only thing I didn't
cover about the subjunctive form whenever I was doing that blog is the passive voice and that's
because I did everything else in the active voice. If you want to know what a voice is,
wait until next week. That's what I'll be covering in our German grammar jargon video
for next week. Das ist alles für heute. Danke fürs Zuschauen. Bis zum nächsten Mal. Tschüss.