wortklassen

Wortklassen, also known as parts of speech or word classes, are categories into which words are grouped based on their grammatical function and meaning. In German, these classes are fundamental to understanding sentence structure and word relationships. The traditional German grammar distinguishes between several main wortklassen.

Nouns, or Substantive, are words that represent people, places, things, or ideas. They are characterized by grammatical gender (masculine, feminine, neuter) and number (singular, plural), and they decline in case. Verbs, or Verben, express actions, occurrences, or states of being. They are conjugated for tense, mood, person, and number. Adjectives, or Adjektive, describe or modify nouns and pronouns, agreeing with them in gender, number, and case. Adverbs, or Adverbien, modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs, providing information about time, place, manner, or degree.

Pronouns, or Pronomen, substitute for nouns. Articles, or Artikel, precede nouns and specify their definiteness. Prepositions, or Präpositionen, show the relationship between a noun or pronoun and other words in a sentence, often indicating location or direction. Conjunctions, or Konjunktionen, connect words, phrases, or clauses. Interjections, or Interjektionen, express strong emotion. These categories help linguists and learners analyze language and construct grammatically correct sentences.