New to German
Hey all, i'm new to German and i'm wondering what tips you might have for learning the language. I have heard that it is one of the hardest languages to learn so i thought i would give it a shot;)
34 Comments
My only tip is to learn the gender of every noun you come across because it will really benefit you! I would recommend writing them down too so you can memorize them easier :)
Good luck with your studies!
thanks so much, i like to write so that shouldn't be too hard. i appreciate your thoughts:)
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I'll second this. My most common error nowadays is to inflect verbs and such incorrectly just because I misremembered the gender of some noun, so I get the case right but for the wrong gender, which means the actual form is wrong.
This advice is not related only to German, but rather to learning languages in general... still thought that I wanted to share it, haha:
Try to surround yourself with German as much as possible. So don't only practice it when you're on duolingo – no, read short German texts somewhere else too, watch movies/videos in German etc. Try to build your own sentences and think in German too, so you'll get comfortable to write in German, not only listening/read and understanding. It could be really simple things like when you feel like you're hungry and want to eat, try to say/think it in German.
Lastly, don't pay attention to "it's such a hard language to learn". Just hang on and at some point you'll just find everything clicking and making sense – and all of a sudden everything feels so much easier.
if you are a fan of Netflix than this is super helpful. Its basically a list of everything that they offer with german audio and english subtitles. https://www.netflix.com/browse/audio/de
I made a quizets for vocabulary for the first four episodes of Dark. I love that show! https://quizlet.com/ketetzlaff/folders/dark-netflix
- 1043
Absolutely: before I turned to write chat with natives, I got into the habit of writing a journal of my learning journey, auf Deutsch of course. And I'm still "inner-monologing" in German. German songs are also a source of pleasure as well as vocabulary booster, pronounciation training, and memory workout out as a bonus :) And I do seek all the German content I can find in my surroundings: can be real fun.
Basic Introduction to German for Newbies
"Wir" vs. "Uns"/"Unser"/"Unsere"
"Das" vs "Dass" - Using "Das" for 'The' and 'That'
A bunch of posts for German learners that might be helpful
Four helpful Posts for German learners
Umlaut or Ending indicating a word being Plural
Weekdays, Months, Seasons, Wind Directions, The Alphabet and Parts of The Day in German
Questions concerning German words and sentences
"Angangen" vs. "Beginnen" in German
Difference between "weh" and "leid" in German
"Wand" and "Mauer"
"Zahlt" vs. "Bezahlt" - "Zahlen" vs. "Nummer"
When to use nominative and when to use accusative?
The German Sentence Structure! Part 1
The German Sentence Structure! Part 2
German Conversation
German Conversation (beginner to intermediate)
Vote for a topic or subject that should be posted about concerning German
And something fun:
Post Formatting Quide 1
Post Formatting Guide 2
Post Formatting Guide 3
I highly recommend German with Jenny's YouTube channel and Learn German with Anja's YouTube channel.
Here is a long list of German TinyCards Decks for nearly every subject.
I hope this is useful!
Good luck!
I copied this text off of a post off of a comment I made on another post. lol!!
- 1043
Yossarian is very right, and if I may add a hint to what they said, write separate lists of nouns according to their genders, and color-code them. Endless saved time :)
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It is. And mind you, it's far easier in the long term to remember that the word is red, green or blue, than to know cold if it's masculine, neuter or feminine.
Also, I found this order, rather than the traditional masculine, feminine, neuter, much easier when it comes to declensions tables, as most of masculine and neuter forms are similar, as well as feminine and plural.
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When I studied German in school, the order was always der-das-die so this is entirely natural to me.
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Thanks for saying: apparently your school was much more logical than mine, and it did make a huge difference for the worse :)
- 448
Colour coding! Brilliant, thanks. Sometimes I'm so stupid...I advise people to use colour to aid learning other things...and then forget to apply it to my own learning
- 1043
It's always like that: you don't see things till they hit you in the face :) If you knew how many years not thinking of this simple trick contributed to effectively stop me from learning German…
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It's far from too late, Manfred. Du schaffst es, wir schaffen es zuzammen :)
- 105
never give up. With me, I regard each time I say to myself 'I will never learn this darn language' as a signpost that I am improving, oddly enough. Viel Gluck !
Grammar explanations: http://germanforenglishspeakers.com/basics/the-german-alphabet/ Oh, and it's actually one of the easiest to learn for an English speaker.
It's really not hard. Its actually extremely fun. The best tip is that no matter how hard it is put you head down and push. Es ist einfach und Spaß. You will be fine.
Read along with audio books as much as you can as you are doing Duo. I can't stress reading enough and how important it is.
It's really not that hard for native English speakers. In fact, only ranks as a category 2 as English and German come from the same language tree. There are much much harder languages. As far as advice, don't just rely on DuoLingo. This is a good place to reinforce vocabulary, but you won't learn grammar, etc here. Also, try to devote chunks of time through the day, even if it's 10-15 minutes, every single day. That's better than one long study session every few days.
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Check out these websites: http://www.ard.de/home/ard/ARD_Startseite/21920/index.html and https://www1.wdr.de/kinder/tv/neuneinhalb/spielundquiz/index.html Both are news sites from Germany so you can see German language and culture in action. It's really helped me and there's tons of interesting stuff happening in Germany right now! Always something exciting to read!
My only tip is that, though the various cases besides nominative (accusative, dative, etc.) will come much later on in your studies, I cannot stress how important it is to memorize every little change between the different cases. This will make it easier in the long run. And also, German is not that particularly hard. After you get started, it will become easier and more natural.
Viel Glück! (Good luck!)
- 448
My big one is - though I'm in awe of people learning many languages all at once - dont! And especially don't if the languages are similar eg, two Romance languages, 2 slavonic languages. I decided to Duolingo French which I did at school, lifetimes ago, and that is going quite well, as the rusty memory banks are getting oiled, and also decided to learn German from scratch. That is somewhat harder, but progressing, though the stumbling block is that some nouns are one gender in French, e.g. un journal, une pomme, and the opposite in German, eine zeitung, ein apfel.
A trick some others use, which I'm gearing up to, is, when a bit more confident, to learn one of your languages 'as if' the other language was your native one - that way, you learn two languages together. That's not right for me yet, but what is called 'reverse tree' might happen sooner - to add 'learning English' as if GERMAN was my native language.
Happy German learning!
I just started learning German and Italian as a French speaker. (Note: I'm pretty conversant in French). Let me tell you, it's soooo worth it! It strengthens my French even more. I thought it would be hard but so far, each language reinforces the other. I noticed the differences in gender with words like lait (m.) and milch (f.) but the new duolingo update has so much repetition in it that I've just absorbed it. Plus the fact that I'm learning two new languages makes me feel bad a** so it motivates me. But again, I have a good base of French and I'm still at the beginning. Who knows, when I get to the more complex parts, I might be singing a different tune.
i totally agree, i like to keep in mind that this will all be worth it in the end, especially cause i can show off ;)
wow you guys are great, i never thought i would learn so much, i appreciate all the comments
I say don't learn the gender its a waste of time and not absolutely necessary to communicate or any grammar for that matter. same for all the different ways to say "because" since german has many words that mean the same thing just pick one and memorize it. Its only useful here on duolingo where its needed to get the right answer. also there is no way to study the words on the site or the app. I suggest you use the tiny cards app. its arranged the same way the tree is but is only words. studying vocabulary words on your own is the fastest and most effective "brute force" way to communicate. approach language like a child. learn words first grammar later.
This may sound backwards but the more you learn German the more you will hate it. you start to understand how difficult it is compared to other languages. lauf means run and walk BTW its all about context. freund can mean friend or significant other. Viel Gluck.
