Reading · C1 · Text 38

Fee

27 words1 min read100% known at C1

Eine Fee ist ein Wesen aus einer Sage.

A fairy is a creature from a legend.

Die guten Feen sind meistens jung und schön.

The good fairies are usually young and beautiful.

Heute kennt man Feen vor allem aus Büchern oder aus Filmen.

Today, fairies are known mainly from books or movies.

10 words above C1

fairy plural: Feen C1/feː/
creature, being creature, being; essence, substance; character B2/ˈveːzən/
legend, myth saga, legend, myth, story, tale C1/ˈzaː.ɡə/
mostly, usually mostly (for the most part); most often, usually, normally (most of the time) A2/ˈmaɪ̯stn̩s/
young young; man! come on!; a common surname transferred from the nickname A1/jʊŋ(k)/
beautiful beautiful, lovely, pretty, handsome; good, great, splendid; nice, pleasant A1/ʃøːn/
kennt← kennen
knows (is familiar with) irregular verb: kennen, kannte, gekannt to know; to be acquainted with; to be familiar with A1/ˈkɛnən/
vor allem
especially, above all fixed expression
Büchern← das Buch
books dative plural of Buch; plural: Bücher book (collection of sheets of paper bound together to hinge at one edge; long work fit for publication); books (accounting records); omasum, the… A2/buːx/
Filmen← der Film
films, movies dative plural of Film; plural: Filme film (a thin layer of some substance); photographic film; motion picture A1/ˈfɪlm/

Grammar in this text

Declension of adjectives after definite article

Die guten Feen sind meistens jung und schön.

The adjective 'guten' takes the weak declension ending '-en' because it follows the definite article 'die' (plural). This pattern is used to agree with the noun in gender, number, and case.

Dative plural of nouns

aus Büchern oder aus Filmen

After the preposition 'aus' (which governs the dative case), the nouns 'Bücher' and 'Filme' take the dative plural ending '-n' (or '-en' if the plural already ends in -n). This is a typical feature of dative plural in German.

Present tense of irregular verb 'kennen'

Heute kennt man Feen vor allem aus Büchern oder aus Filmen.

The verb 'kennen' is irregular; in the third person singular present tense it becomes 'kennt' (without umlaut change). It is used here with the impersonal pronoun 'man' to express a general statement.

Impersonal pronoun 'man'

Heute kennt man Feen vor allem aus Büchern oder aus Filmen.

The pronoun 'man' is used to refer to people in general (like 'one' or 'you' in English). It takes the third person singular verb form, as seen with 'kennt'.

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Text from Fee — Klexikon, used under CC BY-SA 4.0. See sources.

Translation, glossary and grammar notes are machine-generated and inherit the same licence.