german writing exam - useful phrases

does anyone know any phrases which it would be useful to learn for the writing exam? For example, any phrases which you perhaps couldn't work out form the top of your head, and also any vocab/phrases which would look impressive?

Reply 1

Pumpkin_Howie

bump (need this kinda info as well)

Reply 2

Excalibur

What sort of phrases are you looking for? For what kind of writing - letter of complaint, letter to friend, essay on holidays, or what?

General ones to express opinion:
- Meiner Meinung/Ansicht nach
- Ich bin der (festen) Meinung/Ansicht, dass
- Ich bin davon überzeugt, dass (i am convinced, that)
- Ich habe den Eindruck, dass (I have the impression, that)
- Ich glaube/denke/finde
- Aus meiner Sicht, glaube ich... (in my view I believe)

Letters:
- Liebe/Lieber for close friends, Sehr geehrte Damen & Herren for formal.
- Vielen Dank im voraus (thank you in advance)
- mit freundlichen/herzlichen Grüßen (yours sincerely)
- ich möchte mich über __ beschweren (I would like to complain about...)

Random constructions:
- im Vergleich zu (+dat)
- sobald wie möglich (as soon as possible)
- auf keinen Fall/keineswegs (on no account)
- im Allgemeinen (in general)
- im Prinzip (in principle)
- es kommt auf ___ an (it depends)
- es gefällt mir (I like it)
- es ist mir egal (I don't care)

Make sure you include as many tenses as possible provided it sounds natural, namely perfect, present, future, conditional, pluperfect, imperfect, maybe subjunctive.

Make sure you get your grammar right, e.g. word order, adjectival endings, cases.

Use a lot of conjunctions to connect clauses together, like obwohl, weil, sodass, damit, somit, obgleich, wenn, als, da, bevor, nachdem, ob, als ob (these all send the verb to the end).

Link your sentences together with things like deshalb, deswegen, dadurch, aus diesem Grund, andererseits, einerseits, jedoch, außerdem, vor allem, beispielsweise, danach, nach, erstens, zuerst, zweitens, drittens. If you use these at the beginning of the sentence you should invert the verb and the subject.

You can also use time phrases like manchmal, ab und zu, regelmäßig, häufig, heute, heutzutage, zur Zeit etc.

You can also use some prepositions that take the genetive like trotz, wegen, während, statt.

Hope that helps somewhat.

Reply 3

Pumpkin_Howie

man....i'm screwed for this exam

Reply 4

Excalibur

Bear in mind that I've just done my AS exams, so some of those may not be relevant at GCSE level :smile:

Reply 5

afua12

thank you! Those phrases were exactly what I was looking for! Thank you for the grammer as well!

Reply 6

afua12

a few problems though - I don't understand all of them..

what is the difference between "meinung" and "ansicht"? - we were only taught "meinung"

"Ich bin der (festen) Meinung/Ansicht, dass" - I'm assuming this means " I am of the opinion that ? What does "festen" mean?

what is the difference between "obwohl" and "obgleich" ?

and also between " sodass" and "damit" ?

I did not know either "somit" or "dadurch" - but in my dictionary they both came out as "thus" - is there any difference or just two ways of saying the same thing?

also "deshalb" and "deswegen"

and finally "wenn" "als" "da" - I always get these three confused! (even though i think that one of them means somethign completely different :s)

Reply 7

Excalibur

fest = firm. Ansicht is more view while Meinung is more opinion.

obgleich and obwohl are basically the same. sodass and damit are also basically the same (damit can also mean 'with it' if inserted into the middle of the sentence but in this context, used as a connective, they are interchangeable). I suppose that for a native they would have different nuances but at this level I don't think it matters.

dadurch literally would mean 'through it/that', so basically 'thus'. somit means the same really, perhaps more 'consequently', and seems to be used less often.

deshalb and deswegen basically the same; 'deswegen' literally means 'because of that/it'.

'da' means since, or can also mean 'there' (Ich war da) and has a lot of other little meanings. 'Als' is 'when', when you're referring to something that has happened in the past ("Als ich Deutschland besucht habe..."). You also use als when you're using superlatives ("xyz war schöner als abc"). 'Wenn' is more 'if' or 'whenever' ("wenn ich mehr Geld hätte, möchte ich ein neues Auto kaufen" used as 'if'. "wenn ich einkaufen gehe, bin ich froh", used as 'whenever').

Hope that helps.

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