GN 100

Teacher: [Magus Ferox]

Guten Tag! Wie geht's?

My name is [Magus Ferox], and I'll be sharing with you the things that I learn in my German 100 class, a college level course in speaking conversational German. Keep in mind, I'm not a native German, so if you are and you find errors here, your help is most appreciated.




Das Alphabet
Pronunciation list for the 26 characters of the alphabet, plus 4 special character.
a "ah" b "beh" c "tseh" d "deh" e "eh" f "eff" g "geh" h "hah" i "ih" j "jot" k "kah" l "ell" m "emm" n "enn" o "oh" p "peh" q "kuh" r "err" s "ess" t "teh" u "uh" v "fau" w "weh" x "iks" y "üeppsilon" z "tsett"

ä "ae" ö "oe" ü "ue" Umlauts appear as two small dots over the a, o, and u. 
ß "ess-tsett," pronounced as a double "s" (ss)

---

Note: "sp" at the beginning of the word is read as "shp", "st" as "sht".
The sound "sh" is in German written "sch"

---

German Pronuciation 2

---

Das Zählen von 1 bis 1.000
Counting from one to 1,000. Note that German numbers never have a space between the individual words, and that they use the decimal point instead of commas.
0=null 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 21=einundzwanzig 22=zweiundzwanzig  23=dreiundzwanzig 24=vierundzwanzig 25=fünfundzwanzig 26=sechsundzwanzig 
27=siebenundzwanzig 
28=achtundzwanzig 29=neunundzwanzig 30=dreißig

From here, now that you see the pattern, it continues in much the same fashion, with the numeral in the ones position proceeding the number in the tens position, separated by the word "und" which means "and" in English. And always, never place any spaces between the words.

40=vierzig 50=fünfzig 60=sechzig  70=siebzig 80=achtzig 90=neunzig 100=hundert (or "einhundert")  101=hunderteins 1.000=tausend

---

In German, there are three groups of nouns. Masculine, feminine, and neuter. They are indicated by the definite article that precedes each noun. (der=m die=f das=n) These definite articles funstion like the English definite article, "the." In the vocab list below, the nouns are given in boldface, preceded by their definite article, and those that have a plural form, have a ,- after the word. These letters get tacked on to the end of the word, and any umlauts are placed on the A O or U closest to the end of the word."Die" also serves to indicate plurals, when you change the noun to make a plural, it becomes feminine. Also note that the first letter of all nouns are always capitalized.




Vokabeln
Nouns nouns2

---

Verbs are used with subject pronouns, and have to be conjugated. To conjugate a verb, remove the "en" ending, and add the new ending based on the desired subject pronoun.

Subject Pronouns Translated
Ich -I du -you (familiar) er -he, it es -it sie -she, it wir -we ihr -you (familiar pl.) sie -they Sie -you (formal, sg. and pl.)

In spoken German, the meanings of sie (she), sie (they) and Sie (you) can be distinguished by the corresponding verb forms and by context. In written german, Sie (you) is always capitalized.

sie + singular verb form = she
sie + plural verb form = they
Sie + plural verb form = you (formal)

Conjugating Verbs
Each subject pronoun has its own verb form. Taking the verb, remove the "en" ending to create the stem. Place the desired subject pronoun before the verb, or in some cases, after the verb. (Will elaborate in Sentence Structure) Add the letters designated for that subject pronoun for the new ending.

Ich- "e"
du- "st"
er, sie, es- "t"
wir- "en"
ihr- "t"
sie, Sie- "en"

In verbs whose stem ends in d, t or n, add "e" for forms du, er/sie/es, and ihr.

EXAMPLES:
Ich brauche- I need
du brauchst- you need
er/sie/es braucht- he/she/it needs
wir brauchen- we need
ihr braucht- you(familiar pl.) need
sie brauchen- they need
Sie brauchen- you (formal sg. and pl.) need

Ich arbeite- I work
du arbeitest- you work
er/sie/es arbeitet- he/she/it works
wir arbeiten- we work
ihr arbeitet- you (familiar pl.) work
sie arbeiten- they work
Sie arbeiten- you (formal sg. and pl.) work

Some verbs are irregular. They have different endings for their conjugation, and some even change their stem.



Vokabeln
Verbs2

Sentence structure is almost nonexistant in German, though as a rule the verb is always in the second postion, and the noun at the end.

Ich heiße [Magus Ferox]. I am called [Magus Ferox].
Wie heißt du? How are you called?

Word order ususally has expressions of time preceding expressions of place.
             
Monika geht heute Abend ins Kino.
Robert war gestern nicht dort.

Monika goes to the movie theater this evening.
Robert didn't go there yesterday.

English usually uses word order to signal the difference between a subject and a direct object. The usual word-order pattern is statements is subject, verb, and direct object. These two sentences, in English, have very different meanings.
Subject      Verb    Direct object
The man      visits   the professor.
The professor   visits   the man.

German, on the other hand, uses case to signal the difference between subject and a direct object.

More later...

---

Links!!

A great list of German sayings- http://www.geocities.com/CollegePark/Hall/1238/sayings.html

---

More to come! Questions? Please ask in the Comments bar.




Back to Languages or the Elftown Academy