INTRODUCTION 1 About This Book 1 Conventions Used in This Book 2 Foolish Assumptions 3 How This Book Is Organized 4 Book 1: Getting Started with German 4 Book 2: Speaking German on the Go 4 Book 3: Assembling the Grammatical Foundations for Communication 5 Book 4: Building Detail and Precision in Your Communication 5 Book 5: The Appendixes 5 Icons Used in This Book 6 Where to Go from Here 6 BOOK 1: 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! 51 CHAPTER 4: Talking about Home and Family 73 CHAPTER 5: Taking Care of Business and Telecommunications 83 CHAPTER 6: Shopping Made Easy 101 CHAPTER 7: Guten Appetit! Dining Out and Going to the Market 115 BOOK 2: SPEAKING GERMAN ON THE GO 139 CHAPTER 1: Asking for Directions 141 CHAPTER 2: Going Out on the Town 157 CHAPTER 3: Planning a Trip: Gute Reise! 171 CHAPTER 4: Finding a Place to Stay: Gute Nacht! 191 CHAPTER 5: Getting Around: Planes, Trains, Taxis, and Buses 205 CHAPTER 6: Handling Emergencies 221 BOOK 3: ASSEMBLING THE GRAMMATICAL FOUNDATIONS FOR COMMUNICATION 237 CHAPTER 1: Laying Out the Basics to Build Sentences 239 CHAPTER 2: Sorting Out Word Gender and Case 259 CHAPTER 3: Dealing with the Here and Now: The Present Tense 279 CHAPTER 4: Asking and Answering Questions 297 CHAPTER 5: Describing and Comparing with Adjectives and Adverbs 315 CHAPTER 6: Modifying Verbs with Helpers: The Modal Auxiliaries 339 CHAPTER 7: Instructing and Commanding: The Imperative 357 CHAPTER 8: Sorting Out Separable- and Inseparable-Prefix Verbs 369 BOOK 4: BUILDING DETAIL AND PRECISION IN YOUR COMMUNICATION 381 CHAPTER 1: Tying Ideas Together with Conjunctions and Relative Pronouns 383 CHAPTER 2: Specifying Relationships with Prepositions 395 CHAPTER 3: Using Reflexives and Other Verb Combinations 407 CHAPTER 4: Conversing about the Past: The Present Perfect and Past Perfect 419 CHAPTER 5: Narrating the (Simple) Past: Fact and Fiction 437 CHAPTER 6: Looking to the Future (And Avoiding It) 449 CHAPTER 7: Describing Your Mood: Summing Up the Subjunctive 461 BOOK 5: THE APPENDIXES 475 APPENDIX A: Verb Tables and Case Charts 477 APPENDIX B: German-English Mini-Dictionary 499 APPENDIX C: English-German Mini-Dictionary 511 APPENDIX D: Fun & Games 523 INDEX 565.