"Fahr mal weiter!" (= just go on driving!) said Antje always to uncle Heinz, because we didn't find the place we were looking for. I, Antje, her aunt Doris and her uncle Heinz were together in Heinz' car. Heinz drove it. We were in June 1996 on Ruegen island due to Margret's birthday. Margret, Antje's mother, and Peter, Antje's father, went behind us by their own car. Tiene, Antje's sister in law, and her sons, Daniel and Carl stayed in the hotel, while Clemens, Antje's brother, the father of the children was still in Indonesia.
Heinz stopped the car, then we saw from the windows, then Antje said, "No, not this. Just go on!" That happened several times. I don't know anymore, what we have looked for at that time.:-(
"Fahr mal weiter!" is an imperative for the second person singular. However it surprised me as I was preparing the lesson. In the book studio d A1 Deutsch als Fremdsprache, Kurs- und Uebungsbuch (Berlin: Cornelsen, 2006) on page 195 there is the rule so:
Imperative = second person singular (conjugation of indicative) minus st.
The book gives examples:
second person singular (conjugation of indicative): du nimmst, du gehst
so the imperative: Nimm eine Tablette! Geh zum Arzt!
Spontaneously I just thought of Antje's sentence "Fahr mal weiter!". The rule in the book studio d is not correct. Otherwise Antje should have said "Faehr mal weiter!", because faehrst - st = faehr. But Antje didn't say that. What Antje has said, "Fahr mal weiter!"
The right rule should be the rule, which our German teacher, who is Indonesian, at the Senior High School explained to us:
Imperative for the second person singular = der Stamm (= the root)
However, like always there is an exception to the rule in German. ;-) This is the exception: for verbs which have vocal change in the conjugation of indicative will also have vocal change in the imperative's conjugation.
So:
Infinitive - Conjugation of indicative for second person singular - Imperative for second person singular
essen - isst - iss den Kuchen!
geben - gibst - gib mir den Schluessel!
helfen - hilfst - hilf mir bitte!
lesen - liest - lies das Buch!
nehmen - nimmst - nimm mich bitte mit!
sehen - siehst - sieh den Mann!
sprechen - sprichst - sprich mit dem Professor!
treffen - triffst - triff deine Mutter!
treten - trittst - tritt in sein Zimmer ein!
vergessen - vergisst - vergiss nicht, die Blumen zu giessen!
werfen - wirfst - wirf den Brief in den Briefkasten!
However, following are verbs which are consistent, although there is vocal change in the indicative's conjugation, but the root stays unchanged in the imperative. Because it is indeed the rule: the imperative = der Stamm (= the root). :-)
fahren - faehrst - fahr mal weiter!
fangen - faengst - fang mal ohne mich an!
halten - haeltst - halt!
laden - laedst - lad deine Freunde ein!
lassen - laesst - lass mich in Ruhe!
raten - raetst - rate mal!
schlafen - schlaefst - schlaf gut!
schlagen - schlaegst - schlag vor!
tragen - traegst - trag lieber gruen!
waschen - waeschst - wasch deinen Pullover!
Because of the rule which is given in the book studio d I have asked my friends in Germany, why the vocal in the above-mentioned examples doesn't change in the imperative. Why is the conjugation "fahr mal weiter!" not "faehr mal weiter!" ? I just consider all friends. :-)
Luise in Berlin:
Unfortunately I cannot help you regarding your grammar problem. I think nobody in Germany has asked this question. :-)Christiane in Garstedt:
I'm sorry, but I cannot be of assistance regarding the German grammar,... . About the imperative I would say that somebody must learn it accordingly and because there are so many various irregular verbs in German, which then have a different imperative.Ulli in Hamburg:
Forgive me,... . But your questions are not easy, more difficult. Like you know, I am not linguist like you..., but this time I really don't know the answer to your question.Well, since I have started with the rule from the book studio d, then the question was misleading. That is already true, that the imperative of "fahren" for the second person singular is "fahr", not faehr. If it had started with the rule which our teacher has explained to us (the imperative = der Stamm/the root), such question above wouldn't be asked.
Why must somebody take 2 "steps of thinking" to form the imperative for second person singular: first, somebody must think of the conjugation of indicative; second, somebody must think to delete the end form -st? With the rule "imperative = der Stamm/the root" somebody only needs to think once. ;-) And to the question why the vocal changes in the imperative (e.g. nimm instead of nehm), there is still an answer, that that is an exception. :-)
You have read text 34.
Please read text 35: You Drink Coffee, Don't You?
Back to text 33: Coburg, A Town in Germany
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