{"id":13081,"date":"2013-06-20T10:43:09","date_gmt":"2013-06-20T09:43:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jabbalab.com\/blog\/?p=13081"},"modified":"2014-05-09T10:38:50","modified_gmt":"2014-05-09T09:38:50","slug":"how-to-ask-a-question-in-german","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.jabbalab.com\/blog\/13081\/how-to-ask-a-question-in-german","title":{"rendered":"How to ask a question in German"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Questions\"<\/a><\/p>\n

How to ask a question in German<\/h3>\n

A question is a sentence in an interrogative form, addressed to someone in order to get information in reply. Quite often questions can be answered with either “yes” or “no”. <\/p>\n

In German there are 3 ways of asking a direct question:<\/p>\n

1. by changing the word order<\/strong> in a sentence
\n2. by adding oder<\/strong>, doch<\/strong>, nicht<\/strong>, nicht wahr<\/strong> to the sentence
\n3. by using a question word, e.g. Wo?<\/strong> (where)
\n<\/p>\n

Asking a question by changing the word order<\/u><\/h3>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

Many questions are simply formed by changing the word order of a sentence. You can form questions by reversing the subject pronoun<\/span><\/strong> and verb<\/span><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Let’s have a look at a few examples:<\/p>\n

Du<\/span><\/strong> magst<\/span><\/strong> Kuchen. \u21e8 Magst<\/span><\/strong> du<\/span><\/strong> Kuchen?
\nYou like cake. \u21e8 Do you like cake?<\/em><\/p>\n

Max<\/span><\/strong> geht<\/span><\/strong> in die Schule. \u21e8 Geht<\/span><\/strong> Max<\/span><\/strong> in die Schule?
\nMax goes to school. \u21e8 Does Max go to school?<\/em><\/p>\n

In sentences with more than one verb, such as the perfect tense, conditional tense, future tense and pluperfect, the verbs haben \/ sein \/ werden<\/span><\/strong> come before the subject<\/span><\/strong> while the infinitive \/ past participle<\/strong> goes to the end of the sentence.<\/p>\n

For example:<\/p>\n

Die Rechnung haben<\/span><\/strong> Sie<\/span><\/strong> noch nicht bezahlt<\/strong>. \u21e8 Haben<\/span><\/strong> Sie<\/span><\/strong> die Rechnung noch nicht bezahlt<\/strong> ?<\/strong>
\nYou haven’t paid the bill yet. \u21e8 Haven’t you paid the bill yet?<\/em><\/p>\n

Anna<\/span><\/strong> wird<\/span><\/strong> n\u00e4chstes Jahr ihre Freundin besuchen<\/strong>. \u21e8 Wird<\/span><\/strong> Anna<\/span><\/strong> n\u00e4chstes Jahr ihre Freundin besuchen<\/strong>?
\nAnna is going to visit her friend next year. \u21e8 Is Anna going to visit her friend next year?
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Asking a question by adding doch, oder, nicht, nicht wahr<\/em><\/u><\/h3>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

In English isn’t it<\/u> and won’t you<\/u> are added to a sentence to make it into a question. In the same way a statement in German can be made into a question by adding nicht, nicht wahr, oder<\/strong> or doch<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

For example:<\/p>\n

Du machst das, oder<\/strong>? \u21e8 You’ll do it, won’t you<\/strong>?
\nDas wei\u00dft du doch<\/strong>? \u21e8 You know it, don’t you<\/strong>?
\nDu bist hungrig, nicht wahr<\/strong>? \u21e8 You are hungry, aren’t you<\/strong>?
\nSie sind Amerikaner, nicht<\/strong>? \u21e8 They are Americans, aren’t they<\/strong>?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Asking a question by using a question word<\/u><\/h3>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

Question words are used to ask for information. They can usually be found at the beginning of the sentence. Below are the most common question words:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
German<\/strong><\/th>\nEnglish<\/strong><\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
wie?<\/td>\nhow?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
was?<\/td>\nwhat?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
wann?<\/td>\nwhen?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
wo?<\/td>\nwhere?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
welcher?<\/td>\nwhich?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
wer?<\/td>\nwho?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
wem?<\/td>\nwhom?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
wessen?<\/td>\nwhose?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
warum?<\/td>\nwhy?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Example sentences:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Wann kommst du nach Hause? \u21e8 When are you coming home?
\nWas machst du heute Abend? \u21e8 What are you doing this evening?
\nWessen Auto ist das? \u21e8 Whose car is this?
\nWie koche ich ein Ei? \u21e8 How do I boil an egg?
\nWo ist die n\u00e4chste Bank? \u21e8 Where is the nearest bank?
\nWelcher Monat kommt nach Mai? \u21e8 Which month comes after May?
\nWer hat mich gerufen? \u21e8 Who called me?
\nWarum bist du krank? \u21e8 Why are you ill?
\nWem kann ich meinen Mantel geben? \u21e8 To whom can I give my coat?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How to ask a question in German A question is a sentence in an interrogative form, addressed to someone in order to get information in reply. Quite often questions can be answered with either “yes” or “no”. In German there are 3 ways of asking a direct question: 1. by changing the word order in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jabbalab.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13081"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jabbalab.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jabbalab.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jabbalab.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jabbalab.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13081"}],"version-history":[{"count":117,"href":"http:\/\/www.jabbalab.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13081\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15608,"href":"http:\/\/www.jabbalab.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13081\/revisions\/15608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jabbalab.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jabbalab.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jabbalab.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}