Hi there!

Due to the fact that a few people have been expressing their desire to learn and / or improve their German, as well as some German-speaking users are already trying to help out, a teaching-thread seemed to be in order, and here it is:


Rules

- All SS-Board-Rules apply.
- This is a place to learn Basic German.
- You may ask questions concerning the German language, such as spelling, pronunciation, grammar, daily speech, ... .
- Questions can be asked in English
- But only answer, if you are a Native Speaker and / or are fluent in German grammar.


- Absolutely no Chatting.


Und nu: Frohes Lernen!


I know that not all keyboards support all symbols of the German language, therefore use:

ä - ae
ö - oe
ü - ue
ß - ss

okei, Lesson number 1:

Alphabet & Pronunciation
A - ah
B - bay
C - tsay
D - day
E - ay
F - ef
G - gay
H - hah
I - ee
J - yot
K - kah
L - el
M - em
N - en
O - oh
P - pay
Q - koo
R - ehr
S - ess
T - t
U - oo
V - fow
W - vee
X - eeks
Y - ip-see-lohn
Z - tset

Special Sounds:


ä (long/short) - Käse/Känchen late / get
au - aus now
äu - Fräulein oil
ch - ich
e (long/short) - See/Geld ? / met
ei - zwei mine
eu - neu foil
g (in -ig) - vierzig
ie - Sie tree
ö (long/short) - schön/möchte her /
sch - Flasche
ß(Eszett) - Straße
ü (long/short) - für,fünf


Some Notes on pronunciation:
Vowels are short when two konsonants are following: Tasse, Hund
Vowels are long when followed by h:Zahn
when doubled: Zoo
´
Main-info by Kunka

To listen to some sound examples on the web, go here

Ein doesn't usually mean one, at least not the number one. Ein is the same as a/an, as in a car, an apple... (As opposed to the.)
It's an indefinite article in German.
The first line is easier to understand, by the way, if you add a comma or two: Ich, ein Kind des Universums,
Ich is the subject, and ein Kind des Universums is an attributive phrase (an apposition, if you want to know ) to that subject. It's sort of removed from the normal sentence structure, and if you mark it with commas, it's easier to spot.

Immer has a few translations, but usually, it means 'always' or 'at all times'. 'Always' works very well in this case.

Lastly, dass is definitely not the same as der, das or die although the distinction is less clear in English. Dass begins an object clause while the other three are used in relative clauses.

For example:
Ich denke, dass du falsch liegst.
I think (that) you're wrong.
In German, object clauses are introduced with dass. It sort of corresponds to 'that' in English, but unlike 'that', in German the dass is obligatory and cannot be removed. The underlined words are the object clauses.

Relative clauses relate to the (pro)noun that they are modifying/describing. They pretty much works the same in both languages, I'd say, so they're a bit easier to understand.
Example:
Du bist der, der falsch liegt.
You are the one who is wrong.

The italicised words are the relative pronouns starting the relative clause. The underlined words are the nouns (in this case pronouns) that are being modified by the relative clause.



Does that help at all? I tend to go on and on about stuff, sorry. If you have more questions, please ask!

it is one word, in its infinitiv-form spelled spazierengehen (spa - zie - ren - ge - hen)

but if you want to use it with a pronoun, you break it up and into gehen and spazieren, while only gehen is conjugated:

ich gehe spazieren
du gehst spazieren
er geht spazieren
....

As you have already learned how pronounce German letters and we all want to get to know each other it's time to learn how to greet someone in German.

In German we make a distinction between people you know (everyone here in this forum is in this group) and people you don't know (but also teachers or adults). As we will only need the first group here this is all we're going to learn.

Hallo / Hi
Hello / Hi

Guten Morgen.
Good Morning.

Guten Abend.
Good evening.

Gute Nacht.
Good night.

Auf Wiedersehen.
Good-bye.

Wie geht es dir?
How are you?

Bitte.
Please.

Danke.
Thank you.

Entschuldigung.
Sorry / Excuse me.

Ich heiße ...
My name is ...

That's everything you'll learn in this lesson. If you've got any questions please feel free to post them here.

Next we want to learn how to count in German. You'll see that the principle is very easy - it works just like in English - and if you don't know how pronounce a number don't be afraid to ask.

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
...
20 - Zwanzig
21 - Einundzwanzig
22 - Zweiundzwanzig
...
30 - Dreißig
40 - Vierzig
50 - Fünfzig
60 - Sechzig
70 - Siebzig
80 - Achtzig
90 - Neunzig
100 - Hundert

Ich finde, das ist überhaupt keine dumme Frage ... beim Lernen gibt es nämlich keine dummen Fragen

Also, soweit ich weiß gibt es im Deutschen nur "die Gewalt", und die heißt auf Englisch "violence". Mein Wörterbuch sagt auch, dass es "das Gewalt" nicht gibt. Wo hast du denn das gelesen?

The word order in German grammar is pretty variable, but a general constellation is as follows: Subject Verb (Object).
e.g.: Er arbeitet (zu Hause).
[He works at home]

Verbs always hold the second position in a sentence.
Compound Verbs: the conjugated part of the verb comes after the subject, but the second part of the verb appears at the end of the sentence: e.g. verb: ankommen
Der alte Mann kommt heute an.
[The old man will arrive today]

In most cases, the words after the subject and (conjugated) verb are arranged in the following order:
Time Manner Place
But: Depending on what you want to emphasize, you can start the sentence with each of the three.
Example
Der Mann kommt heute mit dem Auto nach Hause. (most common)

Heute kommt der Mann mit dem Autonach Hause. (emphasis on the time/day)

Mit dem Auto kommt der Mann heute nach Hause. (emphasis on how)


In a subordinate clause, the verb is always last:
Das ist der Mann, der gestern ankam.
(main sen.) (Komma!) sub. clause


Mafia Leader, if you or anyone else has a specifi question on this, fire away. The problem with German word order is, that you can arrange the words in mynay cases in many ways, espeically when you have a long sentence. But rest asured that the English SVO works in German as well.

here, you need eine, it depends a bit on the case, but generally Eins is only used in counting. I think I'll put up a lesson for that combined with some more speech examples.

Do you mean alphabetical quizzes? I'll see if I can find one on the web in German.


Thank you!
You're right learning a new language has many advantages.

"Entgelt bezahlt" means that the postage fee for this letter has been paid for by the sender.

I'm Nessie.

the lesson will take a bit longer, but I'll have it ready by the end of next week. I just moved, have to settle in and catch up on my beta-work. I could defintiely do with a time-turner...

Hey Matt! I saw that there are still some unanswered questions so I might as well answer them, right?
Wer bist du?
Wann bist du zurückgekommen?
Wo bist du gewesen?
In welcher Klasse bist du?
If you have any more questions don't hesitate to post them!

hehe, fast.
A:"Gesundheit"
B: "Danke"

und das war's. B bedankt sich für die Gesundheitswünsche und damit ist die Situation vorbei und man kehrt zu dem zurück, was man vorher gemacht hat.

Yes, the two languaged have a lot in common. Old English developed from Low German and so forth, so if you pay close attention, you should be able to detect a few similarities.

I don't quite understand what that 'German' sentence is supposed to mean. sorry.

Thanks for your interest. Why not tell us more about your stay in the 'Plauderecke'?

Thanks! Germany you're fave country, that's cool! Yep, Ich liebe dich is right. You're welcome to ask any questions you have.

Nice to meet you - Schön / Nett, dich kennen zu lernen / Es freut mich, dich kennen zu lernen.

Go away - Geh weg (the nicest, I think)
Hau ab (a bit rude) / Verschwinde (not so nice, but less rude) / Sieh zu, dass du Land gewinnst (more of a threat)

Hi!

We do have conjunctions, but those are usually: because (weil), but (aber), and (und), if (ob), ...

And yes, we also use this kind of shortened speech, e.g.
- 'es' (it) is often reduced to 's' as in Tu's nicht (Don't do it) or Wie geht's? = Wie geht es dir? (How are you)
- you (du) is often swallowed: Kommste her? = Kommst du her? (Will you come over) or Haste 'ne Minute = Hast du eine Minute [Zeit]? (Do you have a minute [to spare]
- eine / ein / einen ... are often reduced to 'n / 'ne / 'nen ...


Does this answer your question?

Have you a Dog? - Hastu Vien Hunde............ - I'd guess you're trying to say *Hast du einen Hund* or *Hastu nen Hund * BUT don't write the latter, it's spoken language.


klingt nach nem interessanten Trip / sounds like an interesstung trip

Noone uses 'Fräulein' anymore, it's out-dated. No matter if you're married or not, it's 'Frau'. And call me Nessie, if you like ;-)

Sorry.........I'm literally new to the language!!!!!!!

Nice to meet you Nessie!!!

WARNING: All you german people are going to get alot of questions from me...

I'm going to TRY to write that (up there) in German, can someone please correct the errors?

Oh, ich liebe diesen Thread.

ACHTUNG: Alle Deutschen Personen hier werden viele Fragen von mir bekommen/ kriegen.


liebe means love. But you would probably say 'mag' in a sentence like the one above. We don't often use the word 'love' to say we like something. It's considered a strong expression and reserved for your hubby etc :-)

Hi Nicky! No problem here we go.
In der Schule trage ich eine weiße Bluse.
Ich trage nicht gerne Blusen, ich möchte stattdessen T-Shirts tragen.

You're always welcome to come back and ask if you need help!

Die Bibel. Sometimes the differences aren't that big, but those are the most confusing, am I right?

I guess you mean the declination of the verb to be = zu sein? Yes, it's almsot correct:

zu sein - ist - war - ist gewesen

do you also need the future? = wird sein

Good luck with your test! - Viel Glück bei deinem Test!

Ich verstehe nicht.

Er wird mich umbringen bevor Jenna es schafft.

I tried to insert a nice image but it won't stay put - give me a minute :-)


It always depends on what you're aiming at:

What's up

- Was geht? / Was's los? (slang)
- Alles klar? / rather asking if someone's ok
- Wie geht's? / (more like "how are you")

Well, it depends on where you are, some people in Germany say it with a "sh", but actually it is pronounced like the "g" in pig (sorry couldn't think of a better example..^^).

hehe, That's indeed correct! So who's your special friend? :-P

Anything else we can help you with?