The Language

Learning the German Language, and how much Grammar I forgot from School!

So my starting to learn German began back in the New Year in Canada. I subscribed to a couple of sites to watch videos, do lessons and try to get some pre-understanding prior to my final arrival.

Well, they say it’s a relatively easy language to learn as it has the same origin as English. And yes, I would agree, there are a lot of words that are the same or similar in English. But some confusion comes in as the pronunciation is not always the same. But I do regularily try to remind myself this is not Hungarian which is Mike’s first language. It has something like 31 letters in the alphabet and sounds nothing like English.

Below I have some notes I copied from online about the German Alphabet

There are extra letters (umlauts) – ä, ö, ü and ß (ß- es-zet),pronounced like [s].

The W in German sounds like the V in English The V in German sounds like the F in English

Most of the time the S in German sounds like Z in English when placed at the beginning of a word followed by a vowel.

The letter ß will never appear at the beginning of a word.

Das Deutsche Alphabet (The German Alphabet) (after each letter is an approximation of what it is called in German)

Aa – ah, Bb, C – c (soft c sound in German sounds like ts)

Dd, Ee, Ff – eff, Gg – gee, Hh – haa, Ii – eeh, Jj – yot (or yacht)

Kk – kah, Ll – ell, Mm – em, Nn – en, Oo – oh, Pp – pay, Qq – koo

Rr, Ss – es – sounds like a zed, Tt – tay, Uu – ooh,

Vv – fow (sounds like an f does in English when you say a V word)

Ww – Vee (which makes sense if you know French. W is doo-blah-Vay or double V)

Xx – ix, Yy – uep-si-lohn, Zz – tset

Umlaut + ß

ä sounds similar to the e in melon

ö sounds similar to the i in girl

ü no equivalent nor approximate sound in English – like eu

ß double s sound (esszet)

One thing I’m having trouble with is not Focusing too Much on Grammar!

I’m seeing online teachers saying Grammar matters, and others saying no it doesn’t. I’ve listed some of what I found below…

From Learn-German-easily.com >>>

Wow, I can literally see your surprised face! 🙃

„Don’t focus on grammar rules?“ 

Is he serious?

But my teacher told me…

Teacher: „You must study grammar!

Grammar is the secret to German!

Grammar, grammar and grammar!“

Student: „But why?“

Teacher: „Because I said so!“

Student: „Some teacher you are – you should be a lawyer.“

Grammar can be very helpful and at a certain point. You need to know some rules to reach the next level and to be able to get rid of some typical mistakes. However, if you focus too much on grammar instead of more important things, you will never be able to speak German fluently – or, even worse, you will get frustrated and quit.

A lot of students go crazy because they can’t handle the grammar rules. The more grammar they learn the more confused they get. Because to every rule there are also exceptions and in quite a lot of cases German grammar seems to be completely illogical.

Here is just one example that always raises many questions: 

I will go with you.

=> Ich werde mit dir gehen.

=> dative 

I will go without you.

=> Ich werde ohne dich gehen.

=> accusative

What ??? 🤔

Most people who are studying German but don’t speak German fluently have something in common. 

When they try to speak German, they…

• think of something to say in their own language

• then they try to translate the words into German 

• then they try to change the word order and think of the suitable grammar rule

• and finally they try to say it out loud (very slowly because they pay attention to the correct pronunciation)

This can’t work!!! 

Even if you do just one of these steps, you can’t speak fluently. It is also very exhausting and the reason why so many people don’t like to speak German.

So what is the solution? 

In order to speak a foreign language fluently, you must be able to do two things:

1. Be able to think in the foreign language

2. Feel the grammar (not think about grammar)

You need to feel what is right and what is wrong. If you want to speak German fluently, there is no time to think about grammar.

der Kopf / die Köpfe

the head / the heads

Mir dreht sich alles im Kopf.

My head is spinning.

>>> sort of translation below.

Mir is Me, dreht is rotates, but with sich added it becomes turns

alles is everything or all

im is in the and Kopf is head.

Easy Peasy right? Nicht or Not! Yeah my thoughts exactly!

German Numbers

Learning numbers in German is important as you’ll use them all throughout your day. Same as English, but we take it for granted, because in English we just know them. There have been many times where there hasn’t been a register showing the value I owed for something I purchased and I was left with a bewildered look when the clerk said sechsundzwanzig. Which is 26. (6 and 20)

1 – eins

2 – zwei

3 – drei

4 – vier

5 – fünf

6 – sechs

7 – sieben

8 – acht

9 – neun

10 – zehn

11 – elf

12 – zwölf

13 – dreizehn

14 – vierzehn

15 – fünfzehn

16 – sechzehn

17 – siebzehn

18 – achtzehn

19 – neunzehn

20 – zwanzig

30 – dreißig

40 – vierzig

50 – fünfzig

60 – sechzig

70 – siebzig

80 – achtzig

90 – neunzig

100 – hundert

1,000 – tausend

one million – eine Million

one billion – eine Milliarde

one trillion – eine Billion

German numbering rules

• Digits and numbers from zero to twelve are specific words: null [0], eins [1], zwei [2], drei [3], vier [4], fünf [5], sechs [6], sieben [7], acht [8], neun [9], zehn [10], elf [11], and zwölf [12].

• From thirteen to nineteen, the numbers are formed from the matching unit digits, adding the word for ten (zehn) at the end: dreizehn [13], vierzehn [14], fünfzehn [15], sechzehn [16], siebzehn (and not siebenzehn) [17], achtzehn [18], and neunzehn [19].

• The tens are formed by adding the suffix -zig at the end of the multiplier digit, with the exception of ten, twenty and seventy, still irregular, as well as thirty: zehn [10], zwanzig [20], dreißig [30] (-zig becomes -ßig), vierzig [40], fünfzig [50], sechzig [60], siebzig [70], achtzig [80], and neunzig [90].

• From twenty-one to ninety-nine, the tens and units are joined with the und (and) word, but the unit is said before the ten (e.g.: einunddreißig [31], fünfunddreißig [35]).

• Hundred (hundert) and thousand (tausend) are not separated from the other numbers by a space (e.g.: hunderteinundzwanzig [121], tausendzweihundertneunzehn [1,219]).

• When expressing a year, the numbers from 1,100 to 1,999 are said in tens of hundreds. For instance, the year 1985 is neunzehnhundertfünfundachtzig.

• The unit eins (one) loses its final -s when composed in a number, unless it is the only value after a scale name (e.g.: hunderteins [101], tausendeins [1,001]).

• The German language uses the long scale for big numbers where the naming pattern of the scale words alternates between the -illion and -illiarde suffixes: Million (106, million), Milliarde (109, billion), Billion (1012, trillion), Billiarde (1015, quadrillion), Trillion (1018, quintillion), Trilliarde (1021, sextillion)…

999 would be written as: neunhundertneunundneunzig

9 x 100. +. 9. And 9. x 10

Now wasn’t that fun!

English is just like German – Well, Ja und nein.

Below is a small list I found online of some words in German that are exactly the same and some that are sort of similar.

Hobby, Flip-flops, Baby, Taxi, T-Shirt, Tourist, Computer and Sweatshirt are the words which sound exactly the same both in German and English.

Maus (mouse), Haus (house) and Foto (photo) sound the same both in English and German, but when it is are written as you can see, slightly differently.

On the other hand, you write Park, Reporter, Zoo, Ball, Name, Radio, Hotel and Bus exactly the same in German and English, but we are pronouncing them slightly differently. (Also note they are nouns so they are capitalized in German.)

Telefon (telephone), Delfin (dolphin), Lampe (lamp) and Krokodil (crocodile) are very similar, they just defer slightly in writing and pronunciation. trainieren (to train) and studieren (to study) are also very similar words, while the German word Handy has a completely different meaning from the same English word and means cell phone/mobile phone.

Apart from the same words in German and English, there are other significant examples that English and German are similar. Just take a look at: Vater (father), Bruder (brother), Milch (milk), Freund (friend), Buch (book), Garten (garden).

The connection between German and English is maybe not so obvious in Apfel (apple), tanzen (dance), denken (think), hoffen (to hope), helfen (to help), Herz (heart), Käse (cheese), zehn (ten), besser (better), essen (to eat), Wasser (water), Tochter (daughter).

Basic Pronunciation Rules.

e = sounds similar to English “e” in “help” (Example: helfen = to help)

“i” = sounds like “i” in “to live” (ich bin = I am)

“h” at the word beginning = h (Haus = house)

“s” at the word beginning (singen = to sing); “s” between 2 vowels (Hase = rabbit, Musik = music) = “z” like in English “zigzag”

“sch” = “sh” (Schule = school)

“tsch” = you get this if you say “t” and “sh” almost at the same time, just try to spell them one after another (i.e. “t” before “sh”) as quickly as you can (Deutsch = German)

vowel + “h” = long vowel (gehen = to go)

vowel + duplicate consonant = short vowel (Bett = bed; Sonne = sun)

ch = h (machen = to make)

ck = k (backen = to bake)

“z”, “tz” = try to say “t + s” at the same time and you should get that sound (tanzen = to dance)

German “r” does’t sound like English “r” . This is an entire post in itself later.

“ei” = “ai” (mein = my, sein = his, Eis = ice or ice-cream)

“ä” = sounds similar to “a” in “apple” (Mädchen = girl)

“eu”, “äu” = “oi” (neu = new, träumen = to dream)

“ie” = long “i” which sounds like “e” in English “me” (sie = she, fliegen = to fly)

“v” at the word beginning = “f” (Vater = father)

“ü” = your lips are formed like you would like to say “u”, however, you don’t say “u”, but English “e” (like “e” in “me”) (München = Munich)

“ö” = your lips are formed like you would like to say “o”, however, you don’t say “o”, but English “a” (like “a” in “apples”) (Köln = Cologne)

“ss”, “ß” = s (essen = to eat; heiß = hot, Fuß = foot)

“st” at the word beginning = “sht” (Stunde = hour, Strand = beach)

“st” in the middle of a word = “st” (lustig = funny)

“sp” at the word beginning = “shp” (sprechen = speak, Sport = sports)

“-ig” at the end of the word = sounds like “ich” (lustig = funny , ruhig = quiet, calm)

Should be simple right?