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WORD GRAMMAR
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Verb
- Conjugation in indicative
- Person and number
- Tenses
- Voice
- Mood
- Verb categories
- Valency
- Semantic categories of verbs
- Finite / non-finite verb forms
- Noun
- Adjective
- Adverb
- Article
- Pronoun
- Preposition
- Conjunction
- Particle
- Interjection
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Verb
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SENTENCE GRAMMAR
- Clause types
- Complex clauses
- Constituents of a sentence
- Sentence structure
- Word order in a sentence
- Negation
Yes-no questions
RA3
With yes-no questions, we ask whether the fact stated in the question is true or false.
Examples |
Besucht uns Patrick morgen? |
Hat jemand an der Tür geklopft? |
Könnte Hans um diese Zeit noch zu Hause sein? |
Yes-no questions have the following features:
position of the finite verb | first |
mood | indicative |
Konjunktiv II | |
intonation | rising |
punctuation mark | question mark |
Yes-no questions are also called V-Fragen (verb questions) because they begin with a verb, in contrast to question-word questions (w-word questions) that begin with an interrogative pronoun or interrogative adverb (wer, was, wann, wie, wo etc.).
Possible answers to yes-no questions
Yes-no questions are answered with ja, nein, doch or with adverbs of manner.
A positive question can be answered with ja, nein or adverbs of manner.
Example | answer | ||
positive question | Hat er Geld dabei? | ja | er hat Geld dabei = affirmation |
nein | er hat kein Geld dabei = negation | ||
adverbs of manner like sicher, bestimmt nicht, vielleicht, wahrscheinlich, möglicherweise, keineswegs etc. |
Same rule applies to questions that ask for confirmation, in which the negation word is unstressed and does not express negation but rather a confirmation of a statement.
Example | |||
question for confirmation | Hat er es nicht gut gemacht? |
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Er hat es doch gut gemacht. Ist das nicht wahr? |
Declarative clauses can also function as questions that ask for confirmation. In this case, the intonation is rising and the particle doch is included in the clause.
Example | |
question for confirmation | Du wohnst doch bei deinen Eltern? |
When the question is negative, doch or nein are possible answers.
Example | answer | ||
negative question | Hat er kein Geld dabei? | nein | er hat kein Geld dabei = affirmation |
doch | er hat Geld dabei = negation |