Introduction 1
Book I: Getting Started with German 7
Chapter 1: Warming Up to German Basics 9
Chapter 2: Handling Numbers, Times, Dates, and Measurements 31
Chapter 3: Meeting and Greeting: Guten Tag! 53
Chapter 4: Talking about Home, Family, Friends, and Daily Life 77
Chapter 5: Talking Telecommunications, Business, and Current Events 97
Chapter 6: Shopping Simplified 119
Chapter 7: Dining Out and Buying Food: Guten Appetit! 137
Book II: Speaking German on the Go 165
Chapter 1: Locating Places 167
Chapter 2: Going Out on the Town 185
Chapter 3: Planning a Pleasure Trip: Gute Reise! 203
Chapter 4: Finding a Place to Stay: Gute Nacht! 227
Chapter 5: Getting Around 243
Chapter 6: Handling Emergencies: Hilfe! 263
Book III: Assembling the Grammatical Foundations for Communication 281
Chapter 1: Laying Out the Basics to Build Sentences 283
Chapter 2: Sorting Out Word Gender and Case 307
Chapter 3: Dealing with the Here and Now: The Present Tense 331
Chapter 4: Asking and Answering Questions 353
Chapter 5: Describing and Comparing with Adjectives and Adverbs 379
Chapter 6: Modifying Verbs with Helpers: The Modal Auxiliaries 411
Chapter 7: Instructing and Commanding: The Imperative Mood 429
Chapter 8: Sorting Out Separable- and Inseparable-Prefix Verbs 445
Book IV: Building Detail and Precision in Your Communication 463
Chapter 1: Tying Ideas Together with Conjunctions and Relative Pronouns 465
Chapter 2: Specifying Relationships with Prepositions 479
Chapter 3: Using Reflexives and Other Verb Combinations 493
Chapter 4: Conversing about the Past: The Present Perfect and Past Perfect 507
Chapter 5: Narrating the (Simple) Past: Fact and Fiction 525
Chapter 6: Looking to the Future (And Avoiding It) 537
Chapter 7: Describing Your Mood: Summing Up the Subjunctive 549
Book V: The Appendixes 563
Appendix A: Verb Tables and Case Charts 565
Appendix B: German-English Mini-Dictionary 587
Appendix C: English-German Mini-Dictionary 599
Appendix D: Fun & Games 611
Appendix E: About the CD 655
Index 659