German for Starters

[Lina Inverse]

To get some life in here, and to get our English friends acquainted with our lovely language, I thought it would be best to start a German course.
Lessons will be one a day, consisting of a dialog, exercises and grammar.
It shouldn't be too hard for an English speaker to learn German, since English actually originated from early German. You can read more about this here.

Pronunciation
Before we start, I'll lose some words on pronunciation, since it differs notably on some letters. I'll leave out the letters which are the same.

a - always like ah in "father", never like a in anvil
� - "a umlaut", equals normal English a (anvil, absolutely, action etc.)
au - Diphtong, like ow in "now"
ch - never like k as in English! There are two versions, voiced (as in Scottish "Loch" or "Bach"), and a more hissing voiceless version (e.g. in Chemie)
e - never like i as in evil, always like eh as in nebula
ei - Diphtong, similar to ai
eu - Diphtong, like oi in noise
g - always like g in garlic, never like g in George
j - never like English j, always like y in boy
o - always like o in normal
� - o umlaut
r - soft sound, not a thrilled troathy sound like in English
s - refers to English s as well as to English z
u - never like English u as in unity, always like uh
� - u umlaut
v - either like w or like f (not always like w as in English)
z - always like ts in Tsunami, never like English z
� - "sharp s", always like normal English s

Lesson 1
Dialog
Lina: Hallo, ich bin Lina.
Frank: Angenehm. Ich bin Frank.
Lina: Angenehm. Wie geht es dir?
Frank: Danke, gut, und dir?
Lina: Danke, auch gut.

Lina: Ich bin Deutscher. Bist du auch Deutscher?
Frank: Nein, ich bin kein Deutscher. Ich bin Amerikaner.

Vocabulary 1
Hallo Hello
ich bin I am
Angenehm literally: "comfortable". Here, it means something like "Nice to meet you."
Wie geht es dir? How are you?
Danke Thanks
gut good
..., und dir? short for "...und wie geht es dir?" - "...and how are you?"
auch "also" or "..., too"
Deutscher German
Bist du...? Are you...?
Nein No
kein not a, no
Amerikaner American

Exercise 1(solution will be provided tomorrow)
Fill in the blanks.
1. Hallo, ___ ___ Frank.
2. ________, ich bin Lina.
3. Wie ____ es dir?
4. _____, gut.
5. ___ ___ Amerikaner.

Grammar 1
The personal pronouns:
1st person singular: ich (I)
2nd person singular: du (you)
3rd person singular: er (he), sie (she), es (it)
when adressing someone formally: Sie (you) - note the capital S

1st person plural: wir (we)
2nd person plural: ihr (you)
3rd person plural: sie (they)

Conjugation of the auxiliary verbs "sein" (to be) and "haben" (to have)
sein (to be)
ich bin I am
du bist you are
er, sie, es ist he, she it is
(formal address) Sie sind you are

wir sind we are
ihr seid you are
sie sind they are

haben (to have)
ich habe I have
du hast you have
er, sie, es hat he, she, it has
(formal address) Sie haben

wir haben we have
ihr habt you have
sie haben they have


Ok, that wraps it up for today. Comments welcome.

[dreamer]

O_o?
Bist du ein Deutsches Lehrer ??

[Frank D. White]

I printed it off and will study it ! Looking forward to future training, thanks again !

Frank

[jeisan]

hmm maybe i should scan my old worksheets and post them

this is a neat idea lina

[Mayura]

yeah, it is indeed! lol ^^

dreamy - isn't it: "bist du ein deutsch Lehrer?" '-'
I just noticed this forum today... o.O

[Lina Inverse]

O_o?
Bist du ein Deutsches Lehrer ??

Du meinst "Deutschlehrer"? Das ist ein Service nur f�r euch

@jeisan
Sicher doch, nur zu!

[Mayura]

oh yeah, right... ^^; well... my spelling seems so bad... ^^;

hmm... *peeps answeres fromt eh top*

1. Hallo, ich bin Frank.
2. Angenehm, ich bin Lina. (<--- I don't normally say that... o.O lol ^^)
3. Wie geht es dir?
4. Danke, mir geht es sehr gut! (lol)
5. Ich bin nicht Amerikaner. (v.v;)

[Lina Inverse]

oh yeah, right... ^^; well... my spelling seems so bad... ^^;

hmm... *peeps answeres fromt eh top*

1. Hallo, ich bin Frank.
2. Angenehm, ich bin Lina. (<--- I don't normally say that... o.O lol ^^)
3. Wie geht es dir?
4. Danke, mir geht es sehr gut! (lol)
5. Ich bin nicht Amerikaner. (v.v;)

to 2. Well, you can use several levels of formality... I tried to balance it somewhat...
most formal: "Guten Tag, ich bin..." - "Sehr erfreut, ihre Bekanntschaft zu machen." literally: "Good day, I am..." - "(I am) very pleased to make your acquantance."
formal: "Guten Tag..." - "Angenehm."
somewhat formal: "Hallo..." - "Angenehm."
informal: "Hallo..." - "Hallo."
Also for "How are you?", you have a formal and an informal version:
formal: "Wie geht es Ihnen?"
informal: "Wie geht es dir?"

to 5. well, not quite... instead of "nicht", you'd rather use another word. Look at the vocabulary.

[dreamer]

lol I see ^^'
Dang think I need to practice a lot more ^^

[Ten'shi-no-Shippuu]

Lina....Brauchst du ein bisschen hilfe um zu lehren?
Mein Deutsch ist etwas verschieden, aber die Grundlagen sind gleich!
Ich bin immer verf�gbar!!

[Lina Inverse]

Lina....Brauchst du ein bisschen hilfe um zu lehren?
Mein Deutsch ist etwas verschieden, aber die Grundlagen sind gleich!
Ich bin immer verf�gbar!!

Danke f�r's Angebot... wenn ich Schwyzert�tsch brauche, la� ich's dich wissen

[bossel]

Great post, Lina! Would have to add something about pronunciations, though.

All vowels have a long & a short sound, the pronunciation then differs a bit.


ch - never like k as in English!
With some exceptions, eg. Christus (Christ). In some regions (eg. parts of Bavaria, I think) the pronunciation in initial position is always 'k'.
Another pronunciation for ch is 'tsch' as in bachelor, which is also used in German.

j - never like English j, always like y in boy
Except for loanwords, that is, eg. Jeans or Jeep.

r - soft sound, not a thrilled troathy sound like in English
Depends where in Germany you are. Where I live, it is often spoken like 'ch' in Rauch.

sch - like 'sh' in shine

tio - as in Nation is pronounced like 'tsio'

tsch - like 'ch' in bachelor

u - never like English u as in unity, always like uh
Pronunciation usually like 'u' as in rule or bull. Again except for loanwords, eg. computer.

Actually, exceptions apply for many letters, esp. in loanwords. If you see a word that looks like English, then in most cases you can pronounce it the English way & will be understood.

A good English-German-English online translator is Leo:
http://dict.leo.org/?lang=en
You can find (High German) pronunciation sound files for many German words.

If you ever come to Germany be prepared to encounter some strange regional varieties of pronunciation.

[Mr. Manji]

WOW, thank you for doing this! :) i always wanted to teach myself some german, this will be a great way for me to start :)
thanks again!

[Golgo_13]

Auf Wiedertypen !

[Mayura]

hmm... how bout:

Ich bin kein Amerikaner. ??? o.O oh well... ^^ dun really care... haha~ as long as I get good grades in school, everyhting's fine with me... lol j/k j/k...

[Lina Inverse]

Great post, Lina! Would have to add something about pronunciations, though.

All vowels have a long & a short sound, the pronunciation then differs a bit.

ch - never like k as in English!
With some exceptions, eg. Christus (Christ). In some regions (eg. parts of Bavaria, I think) the pronunciation in initial position is always 'k'.
Another pronunciation for ch is 'tsch' as in bachelor, which is also used in German.

That's only valid for foreign loan words which were taken from foreign languages, and where the original pronunciation has been kept. Bavaria I'd also call a foreign country, so this fits as well

j - never like English j, always like y in boy
Except for loanwords, that is, eg. Jeans or Jeep.

Same as with the ch, loanwords keep their original pronunciation.

r - soft sound, not a thrilled troathy sound like in English
Depends where in Germany you are. Where I live, it is often spoken like 'ch' in Rauch.

Never heard of that - where in Germany would that be?

sch - like 'sh' in shine

Indeed, not like 'sk' as an English speaker could assume.

tio - as in Nation is pronounced like 'tsio'

The German word is meant here, not the English one.
German pronunciation: nah-tsee-ohn
Same with German 'Information': een-fohr-mah-tsee-ohn

tsch - like 'ch' in bachelor

Yes. Example here would be Matsch, which rhymes on the beginning of 'bachelor': Matsch - bachelor

u - never like English u as in unity, always like uh
Pronunciation usually like 'u' as in rule or bull. Again except for loanwords, eg. computer. Actually, exceptions apply for many letters, esp. in loanwords. If you see a word that looks like English, then in most cases you can pronounce it the English way & will be understood.

Pretty much the only exceptions made are for loan words from foreign languages.

A good English-German-English online translator is Leo:
http://dict.leo.org/?lang=en
You can find (High German) pronunciation sound files for many German words.

If you ever come to Germany be prepared to encounter some strange regional varieties of pronunciation.

Indeed, it can vary a bit from region to region - with the big exsception being Bavaria. The dialect there, Bavarian, should better be regarded as a language of its own, as it's totally unintelligible to any normal German - but Bavaria is pretty much like a foreign country anyway, they even call themselves "Free country"

@Mayura:
That's absolutely correct!

Ok folks, ready for round two?

Lesson 2
This time, we'll take a closer look at the conjugation of the verbs.

Dialog 2 - Unterwegs nach Deutschland
(On the way to Germany)

Lina: Packst du die Koffer ins Auto?
Frank: Ja, ich packe die Koffer ins Auto.
...
Frank: Fertig. Fahren wir.
Lina: Ja, fahren wir.
(schaut auf die Uhr) Es ist schon sp�t.
Frank: Ja, es ist schon sp�t. Beeilen wir uns!

Am Flughafen
Lina: Schnell, beeilen wir uns!
Frank: Ja, schnell! Gehen wir zur Gep�ckabfertigung!

Bei der Gep�ckabfertigung
Personal: Wieviele Koffer haben Sie?
Lina: Wir haben zwei Koffer.
Personal: Stellen Sie die Koffer bitte aufs Band.
Lina: Sofort. (stellt die Koffer aufs Band)
Frank: Fertig?
Lina: Ja, fertig.
Frank: Dann komm schnell!
Lina: Ich komme.
Frank: Unser Flugzeug steht schon da!
Lina: In der Tat, es steht schon da! Laufen wir!

Vocabulary:
note: Verbs will only be listed in the infinitive form.
packen: to pack
Koffer: baggage
Auto: car
ja: yes
fertig: ready
fahren: to drive
schon: already
sp�t: late
beeilen: to hurry
Am Flughafen: at the airport
schnell: quick
gehen: to go
zur: to the
Gep�ckabfertigung: baggage check-in
Personal: staff
wieviele: how many
zwei: two
stellen: to put
aufs: onto the
Band: (here) conveyor belt
dann: then
kommen: to come
unser: our
Flugzeug: airplane
stehen: to stand
da: there
in der Tat: infact, really
laufen: to run

Grammar 2:
Verb conjugation (present)

packen (to pack)
Infinitive: pack-en
Singular:
ich pack-e
du pack-st
er,sie,es pack-t
(formal) Sie pack-en
Plural:
wir pack-en
ihr pack-t
sie pack-en
Imperative: (command)
singular: pack!
plural: pack-t!

fahren (to drive)
Infinitive: fahr-en
Singular:
ich fahr-e
du f�hr-st (note: a becomes �!)
er, sie, es f�hr-t (note: a becomes �!)
(formal) Sie fahr-en
Plural:
wir fahr-en
ihr fahr-t
sie fahr-en
Imperative:
singular: fahr!
plural: fahr-t!

gehen (to go)
Infinitive: geh-en
Singular:
ich geh-e
du geh-st
er,sie,es geh-t
Plural:
wir geh-en
ihr geh-t
sie geh-en

Exercise 2:
Conjugate the verbs stellen (stell-en), kommen (komm-en), stehen (steh-en), laufen (lauf-en).

[Golgo_13]

hmm... how bout:

Ich bin kein Amerikaner. ??? o.O oh well... ^^ dun really care... haha~ as long as I get good grades in school, everyhting's fine with me... lol j/k j/k...

John F. Kennedy said "Ich bin ein Berliner" in a speech in Germany.

[fixelbrumpf]

About the German "ch" sound in words like "Chemie" and "China": It sounds quite a bit like the "hissing" "hi" sound in "hito" in some Japanese dialects. The video game character Richter Belmont's name is written "リヒター"　in Japanese for a good reason. In the English version of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, they pronounce it "Righter", which is -- you may have guessed it -- totally wrong.

I used to know the address of a web site with a few audio examples, perhaps I'll manage to dig it up again.

Edited bcuz eye kant spel

[Lina Inverse]

John F. Kennedy said "Ich bin ein Berliner" in a speech in Germany.

I know. There's even a popular joke about this over here:
"Recently, they exhumed Kennedy and filled him with jam. Why?" - "Because he said: 'Ich bin ein Berliner.' "
For this, you need to know that there is a bakery product over here called "Berliner" which is somewhat like a doughnut, but without a hole in the center, and always filled with jam

[Golgo_13]

Then there's the joke about a dozen Polish guys attacking a German woman, and she screams "Nein ! Nein !" and three of the Polish guys left.

[bossel]

Same as with the ch, loanwords keep their original pronunciation.

As long as they are not "eingedeutscht". That's a matter of language distance & time.

Never heard of that - where in Germany would that be?

Niederrhein (Lower or Nether Rhine). We pronounce eg. "warten" like "wachten". Another regional feature is the missing sch-sound, most of us can only pronounce it like 'ch' in "ich".

BTW, 'ch' as 'k' is not restricted to loanwords. Take the examples "h�chstens" or "n�chstes Mal".

Pretty much the only exceptions made are for loan words from foreign languages.

Loanwords are always from foreign languages, else they are not called loanwords, for what I know.

Indeed, it can vary a bit from region to region - with the big exsception being Bavaria. The dialect there, Bavarian, should better be regarded as a language of its own, as it's totally unintelligible to any normal German - but Bavaria is pretty much like a foreign country anyway, they even call themselves "Free country"

Hmm, you really have an issue with Bavaria, it seems. Don't be too negative! They are human, too. BTW, don't forget that there is more than one dialect in Bavaria.
Pretty much every dialect in Germany could be regarded as a separate language, for being unintelligible with some other German dialects. If I would speak Jl�becker Platt (the dialect of my hometown) to you, you probably wouldn't understand very much either. Luckily for you, I myself cannot really speak it (& even have problems understanding parts of it).

[jeisan]

ok the alphabet with my generic proncitations, used them til i could remember when i was learning. german letter left, english sound on right. letteron right = english letter if you were to say.

A - ah
B - bay
C - say
D - day
E - A
F - F
G - gay
H - ha
I - E
J - yot
K - K
L - L
M - M
N - N
O - O
P - pay
Q - coo
R - air
S - S
T - tay
U - oo
V - fay
W - va
X - ix
Y - upsilon
Z - tzet

and numbers for ya

1 - ein
2 - zwei
3 - drei
4 - vier
5 - f�nf
6 - sechs
7 - sieben
8 - acht
9 - neun
10 - sehn

[bossel]

Jeisan, this should be very useful for English native speakers. Almost all correct (although, of course, the pronunciation is not 100% German), only a few mis-pronunciations.

C - tsay

V - fow ('ow' as in eyebrow)

1 - eins

10 - zehn (pronounced something like 'tsayne')


'C' is a bit ambiguous in German. It can be pronounced as 'ts', 'k', 's' & even 'tsch' (in loanwords from Italian mainly).

[Lina Inverse]

Niederrhein (Lower or Nether Rhine). We pronounce eg. "warten" like "wachten". Another regional feature is the missing sch-sound, most of us can only pronounce it like 'ch' in "ich".

BTW, 'ch' as 'k' is not restricted to loanwords. Take the examples "h�chstens" or "n�chstes Mal".

Nope, that's not valid. In both cases, the 'ch' is clearly not pronounced as 'k' - as long as you don't come from the Nether-Rhine, that is :baka:
My area, the Ruhrgebiet (Ruhr area) also has its pecularities. 'ch' and 'sch' are always pronounced as such.
'g' at the end of a word is always pronounced like a voiced 'ch': Tag -> Tach.
't' at the end of a word is omitted: nicht -> nich, ist -> is.
'er' at the end of a word is pronounced like 'a': Futter -> Futta.
There are also a few contractions of frequently used words, like haben -> ham und wir -> wa.
So, the sentence "Haben wir nicht" would be pronounced "Ham wa nich"

Hmm, you really have an issue with Bavaria, it seems. Don't be too negative! They are human, too. BTW, don't forget that there is more than one dialect in Bavaria.
Pretty much every dialect in Germany could be regarded as a separate language, for being unintelligible with some other German dialects. If I would speak Jl�becker Platt (the dialect of my hometown) to you, you probably wouldn't understand very much either. Luckily for you, I myself cannot really speak it (& even have problems understanding parts of it).

Clearly, this isn't true for all dialects, only for a few, most notably Plautdietsch (Low German), Frisian and Bavarian. You can see an exact list here as to which dialects are regarded as separate languages:
Languages of Germany

ok the alphabet with my generic proncitations, used them til i could remember when i was learning. german letter left, english sound on right. letteron right = english letter if you were to say.

Hate to tell you, but your pronunciation scheme is off by a good measure
I'll give a proper one below:

a - ah
b - beh
c - tseh
e - eh
f - ehf
g - gheh
h - hah
i - ee
j - yot
k - kah
l - el
m - em
n - en
o - oh
p - peh
q - kuh
r - ehr
s - ehs
t - teh
u - uh
v - fow
w - weh
x - iks
y - ipsilon
z - tset

[Lina Inverse]

Lesson 3
Today we'll take a look at the German articles.

Dialog 3

Im Flugzeug
Lina: Hast du alles?
Frank: Ja, ich habe alles
Lina: Bist du sicher?
Frank: Ja, ich bin sicher.

Lina: Was ist mit dem Pa�?
Frank: Ja, ich habe den Pa� mit.
Lina: Was ist mit der Kreditkarte?
Frank: Ja, ich habe die Kreditkarte mit.
Lina: Was ist mit dem Rasierwasser?
Frank: Ja, ich habe das Rasierwasser mit.

Lina: Hast du auch eine Zahnb�rste?
Frank: Ich habe auch eine Zahnb�rste.
Lina: Hast du auch einen Kamm?
Frank: Ich habe auch einen Kamm.
Lina: Hast du auch ein Erste-Hilfe-Set?
Frank: Ich habe auch ein erste-Hilfe-Set.

Frank: Bist du jetzt zufrieden?
Lina: Ja, jetzt bin ich zufrieden.

Vocabulary 3:
alles: everything
Bist du sicher? Are you sure?
was: what
Pa�: passport
Kreditkarte: credit card
Schl�pfer: slip
Rasierwasser: after shave
Zahnb�rste: tooth brush
Kamm: comb
Erste-Hilfe-Set: first aid kit
jetzt: now
zufrieden: satisfied

Grammar 3
The definite articles
male singular
Nominativ: der Pa�
Genitiv: des Passes *
Dativ: dem Pa�
Akkusativ: den Pa�
plural
Nominativ: die P�sse *
Genitiv: der P�sse *
Dativ: dem P�ssen *
Akkusativ: den P�ssen *

* � becomes ss when the two s are pronounced separately

female singular
Nominativ: die Kreditkarte
Genitiv: der Kreditkarte
Dativ: der Kreditkarte
Akkusativ: die Kreditkarte
plural
Nominativ: die Kreditkarten
Genitiv: der Kreditkarten
Dativ: den Kreditkarten
Akkusativ: die Kreditkarten

neutrum singular
Nominativ: das Rasierwasser
Genitiv: des Rasierwassers
Dativ: dem Rasierwasser
Akkusativ: das Rasierwasser
plural
Nominativ: die Rasierw�sser
Genitiv: der Rasierw�sser
Dativ: den Rasierw�ssern
Akkusativ: die Rasierw�sser

The indefinite articles
For plural, the article is omitted.
male singular:
Nominativ: ein Kamm
Genitiv: eines Kamms
Dativ: einem Kamm
Akkusativ: einen Kamm

female singular
Nominativ: eine Zahnb�rste
Genitiv: einer Zahnb�rste
Dativ: einer Zahnb�rste
Akkusativ: eine Zahnb�rste

neutrum singular
Nominativ: ein Set
Genitiv: eines Sets
Dativ: einem Set
Akkusativ: ein Set

Exercise 3
Give the appropriate answers (as in the dialog).

1. Was ist mit der Zahnb�rste?
A: Ja, _________________________
2. Was ist mit dem Kamm?
A: Ja, _________________________
3. Was ist mit dem Erste-Hilfe-Set?
A: Ja, _________________________

4. Hast du auch einen Pa�?
A: Ich _________________________
5. Hast du auch eine Kreditkarte?
A: Ich _________________________
6. Hast du auch ein Rasierwasser?
A: Ich _________________________

Ok, that's it for today