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German Grammar * Review & Exercises

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"TO KNOW": WISSEN OR KENNEN?

"to know" has two German equivalents: wissen and/or kennen. They are not interchangeable, so when to use wissen and when kennen?

wissen is for abstract items, concepts, ideas [= to have an understanding of, to have knowledge of]
kennen is for concrete things, persons, places [= to be familiar with, to be aquainted with]

Beispiele

  1. Er weiß alles über die deutsche Grammatik.
  2. Sie weiß, daß morgen eine Prüfung ist.
  3. Kennst du meine Schwester?
  4. Ich kenne diese Stadt sehr gut.

With wissen you can have a dependent clause (Beispiel 2), with kennen you cannot!

. wissen kennen
ich
du
er/sie/es		 weiß
weißt
weiß		 kenne
kennst
kennt
wir
ihr
sie/Sie		 wissen
wißt
wissen		 kennen
kennt
kennen
The present tense conjugation of wissen is slightly irregular (in Singular):

  • all forms have a different vowel (ei),
  • 1st and 3rd person do not have endings (no "-e", no "-t").

kennen conjugates regularly.
Also take note of the difference--with regard to forms as well as pronunciation--between kennen and können (a modal verb).

ÜBUNGEN

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* Cut & Paste the appropriate character from here: ß - Ä - ä - Ö - ö - Ü - ü
* Or, for the "ß" use the capital letter "B" (or an "sz"), for umlauts use these transcriptions: ä = ae; Ä = AE; ü = ue etc.

A. Ergänzen Sie dir richtige Form des Verbs.

1. Woher du ihn? (kennen)
2. Dietrich seine Frau seit 12 Jahren. (kennen)
3. Martin nicht, was ich . (wissen)
4. ihr, was ihr machen sollte? (wissen)
5. Nein, du es nicht! (wissen)

B. Auf Deutsch! Übersetzen Sie.

1. They are here.

2. We are coming to Statesboro.

3. We will eat and drink and sleep a lot.

4. Oh yes, I do know that!

5. She just says "No!"

6. What are you saying?

7. Do you hear me?

8. I have been waiting since one o'clock.

9. It has been raining for one hour.

10. She knows him.

11. He knows that.

12. She has known him for three years.

13. And he has known this for three years?

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