Free Online Language Practice

We are fortunate enough to live in the age of the internet– all of the knowledge of the world wide web at our fingertips– if only we know where to look!

Lucky for you, I’ve done a lot of searching already for free language-learning/practice websites!

Here are some of my favorites:

• Memrise – This is my new favorite website. It has oodles of courses you can sign up for, all of the content for which is user generated. AND it’s not limited to just languages. I also signed up for some medical terminology courses. Because it is all user generated, you do have to take it with a grain of salt, and not all of the courses are super well constructed. BUT there are a lot of really good courses available (especially for lower-level German), and you can message the creator of the lessons if you have any questions (no guarantees they will respond, though). What’s cool is you can go at your own pace learning new words (planting) an testing your memory (watering). It will mix up the words you have learned and give you a good review session for any class of words you’ve previously learned and wish to brush up on. Additionally, you have the option to skip certain words in lessons– like if you already know a good number of the vocabulary words on the list, and just want to practice with the 7 you don’t know quite as well. This way you don’t waste time. For words you have difficulty with, it gives you the option to create a “Mem”
  

  This is my “Mem” for اَلْأُولَى which is the Arabic word for “the first”. The Arabic word is pronounced al-ah-oo-la; which reminded me of the French Looney Toons character PePe LePew saying “oh-la-la.”

  which is a picture/text combination to help you remember the word better. If you get the word wrong during practice, you will be shown the Mem you made, or be prompted to make one (you don’t have to). You can also create your own classes, so if you have a specific list of vocabulary words (like I want to learn a lot of technical German words), you can type them in and the webpage will generate the course for you to navigate through. You get bonus points for quick (correct) answers. You can link it with your facebook account to get competitive with other friends. I also love that the sessions are relatively short, so you can sneak one in while waiting for the bus, or do a few during lunch.

• Lang-8 – This should be my favorite website– but it’s not always fun to work on what you’re not good at. I am a terrible German writer. Speaking? No problem– you can slur through those adjective endings and no one will bat an eye, but on paper/screen, the flaws are sitting there, indisputably, in black and white. This is why I NEED Lang-8 in my life!!! It is all about getting you to be a better writer in your target language… which makes it one of the few sites you can use to work on your understanding and application of grammar. When you sign up it asks you for your native language, as well as your target languages. Your home page will look similar to your facebook newsfeed– entries in your native language with a lot of spelling/grammar errors! This is because the website has been smart in making sure no one abuses the system. In order for you to submit an entry you have written in your target language and get the corrections of native speakers, the website requires you to give your native speaker corrections to others seeking to learn your native language. You get points for correcting other people’s essays, which in turn you spend to get other people to correct your essays. The best part is that all corrections are submitted by native speakers– no archaic words will go by uncorrected– one of the dangers of using dictionaries for new vocabulary. The only downside to this structure is that all corrections are provided by native speakers, which means they may not be able to explain their corrections to you very well in a language you can understand. Because this website requires you to generate content instead of answer multiple choice questions, the time commitment required is greater… especially if you’re like me and struggle with writing in the first place. Make sure you have time to sit down and crank out that blurb– or you can start a draft and submit it to the community later.
• duolingo – This website is akin to Memrise, but is just for languages. It is not comprised of user-generated content, and therefore has a more consistent quality throughout all of its courses. What is great about this website is that it tests you in a bunch of different ways including recognition, spelling, listening comprehension, and speaking. You can turn off the speaking questions if you do not have a microphone. There is also an “immersion” section where you can read and translate real articles in your target language. I have not used this functionality much myself, but, it is there to utilize should you choose. The site keeps track of how many days in a row you have practiced and rewards you with extra lives– which you’ll probably need. Every time you get a question wrong, you lose a life and if you lose all of them, the lesson ends and you have to start over (or choose a different lesson). If you get fueled by anger-from-failure like I do, you can use this life-based system to your advantage. You can also link it to your facebook page to generate competition among your friends. There are a few flaws in this website, but you can submit any qualms you may have to the creators and they will get back to you about your message.
• Ba Ba Dum – This site is unique because it doesn’t really care what your native language is. The navigation and interaction with the site is almost entirely picture based. You can create an account to log your progress, or you can just pop on and do a few rounds without committing. You select your target language from the flag options in the bottom right corner, and select the game/practice method in the top left. There is a game where they give you the word and you have to choose the appropriate picture, one where they give you a picture and you have to choose the appropriate word, one where they say the word and you have to choose the appropriate picture, one where they give you a picture an the letters to make up the word are scrambled below for you to sort out, and a scramble option to shuffle each of the above into your game. There is no “end” to the lessons, so whenever you feel like stopping is when you’re done. You have to create your own sense of closure, but again, that makes it great for whipping out at the bus stop or during the last few moments of your precious 30 minute lunch break.
• lingua.ly – I have not yet mastered this site, but if I understand its premise correctly, it has the power to be very useful for higher-level language learners. You create an account and install the button to your web toolbar. Then, as you are surfing websites in your target language, you have the option to add words on the page to your lingua.ly stash by double-clicking on them. It will then prompt you with a list of translation options, from which you select the ones you would like to learn. It will then save the words to your lingua.ly list and bring with it the context in which you found them. So, not only does it encourage you to surf websites in your target language– but all the surfing you’re doing should be related to your interests– no more stupid, outdated essays you couldn’t care less about! If you’re into fashion, you can learn fashion vocabulary. If you’re into refurbishing cars, cool. Build that vocabulary. I started surfing robot manufacturer websites to grab some vocabulary that I might hear floating around a German robot sales meeting. That being said– a complaint I would file against this site is that it automatically capitalizes each of the words you import, which is NOT a good thing in German, as capitalization is how you distinguish nouns from other parts of speech. A second complaint is that if the toolbar application doesn’t recognize the word on the page when you double click to add the word to your list, it won’t add the word to your list. You will have to manually add it to your practice list. I’m a little confused because I added words manually that the ap couldn’t translate, and then on my list on the site, it had them translated without need of my assistance… but hey, it’s a free service, I can’t complain too much!

If you have a smart phone, and aren’t living in the ‘dark ages’ like I am, you can download a free app from FunEasyLearn with 6000 German vocabulary words. Obviously, without the smart phone I can’t attest to the awesomeness of this product, but if it’s free vocab practice you can take with you on the go, what’s not to love?

If you ARE still in the ‘dark ages’ like I am, first of all *high five*. Second of all, (and this goes for people that don’t want to always have their fancy phones out too,) there is a fantastic offering of free quick-phrase books at LivingLanguage. These are lifesavers when you go to a country that speaks your target language and you are blanking on the word for “train station” or “pharmacy”.

If you’re trying to utilize one of the above listed practice websites away from home, where your Langenscheidt dictionary and copy of The Duden reside, the internet also offers a smattering of good online dictionaries and translation tools.

• dict.cc – a short little URL that could save your life– or at least your German grade! The best part about this dictionary is that it tells you the number of people that prefer which translation over each other translations. For example, if you type in “wedding” on their site, it tells you that “Hochzeit” is preferred by 3676 people, and “Eheschließung” is preferred by 2671 people, whereas “Vermählung” is preferred by only 37 people. This gives you a good feel as to how appropriate your choice for translation is and helps you avoid using archaic words. If you were writing something about a wedding, chances are you would go with one of the first two choices and leave “Vermählung” in the dictionary. Words sometimes also have subjects listed with them, which is useful when trying to determine if the word for “thread” you are thinking about using is the one used in sewing textiles (Faden) or online forums (Thema). And lastly, the dictionary has sound bytes of most words. You can listen to people pronounce the words, and record your own for the posterity of the website.
• Leo – This dictionary is German, and used for translating into other languages. It is much like the dictionary I mentioned before, just without the preference ratings.
• PONS – This dictionary is unique because it includes a visual dictionary, text translation AND you can save words from the dictionary to a vocabulary list to practice later.
• Google Translate – If you don’t want to navigate to “German,” just type in translate.google.de . The “.de” stands for Deutschland. This website is good for translating phrases. Keep in mind that Google Translate is fallible, and sometimes gets really confused with German word-order (especially if punctuation is involved). Although it may seem like a pain that this site isn’t perfect, I find it comforting that because it is imperfect, my efforts to learn a foreign language aren’t totally in vain. There is still a need for human translators.
• IM Translator – Before the days of Google Translate, this was my go-to free translator. It’s a little rougher around the edges than Google Translate, but if you’re looking for a second, third or fourth opinion, this isn’t a bad place to get one. You can compare translations between 4 translators (one being Google Translate) with just a click. You can even back-translate to make sure you successfully communicate the message you wish to. Downside: this translator can only manage 1000 characters of text at a time… perhaps that’s where twitter got its idea for abbreviated postings?
• About.com – If you are getting into translator fights for conjugations (specifically informal vs. formal “you”), this specific link at about.com lists the 20 most common German verbs with partial conjugation lists, while this specific link lists 50 common German verbs with links to conjugation lists.

It’s an exciting time to be a language learner, with all of these resources available. You can get corrections from native speakers or look up unfamiliar words on the go– so no more excuses! Get learning!!!

What (preferably free) language learning websites do you utilize?

German Grammar — What you Need to Know

Most of German grammar relies on 7 things:

1. Capitalization
2. Noun Genders (and their effects on everything)
3. Noun Cases (and their effects on everything)
4. Definite, Indefinite and Unprecedented Articles (and their effects on Determiners and Adjective Endings)
5. Prepositions (and their effects on Noun Cases)
6. Verb Conjugation and
7. Word (specifically Verb) Order.

Let’s get dig in a little bit and see why these 7 things are pivotal to learning grammatically correct German.

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1). Capitalization

German nouns are capitalized, every time. Adjectives are never capitalized, unless they begin a new sentence. Capitalize the first letter of a new sentence. Bam.

2) Noun Genders (and their effects on everything)

Every German noun has a gender. It falls into one of three options:

1) Masculine
2) Feminine
3) Neuter

Sometimes there is rhyme or reason to the gender allocations to the nouns, but sometimes it seems totally haphazard. Your best bet is to memorize the gender when you first learn the vocab word. Genders for nouns and adjectives are generally related to/derived from the last syllable of the noun. If you don’t know the gender, you can usually form an educated guess by looking at that last syllable. Words that are obviously derived from English or other languages are generally gender neutral.

Then, each noun can be pluralized, which creates a 4th category of “gender.”

4) Plural.

Each of these genders has an effect on the grammar of the sentence.

3) Noun Cases (and their effects on everything)

German has four cases which help determine the actors and objects in a sentence… which you will eventually appreciate when you learn more about German word order rules and how they are very different from English.

1) Nominative: The subject of a sentence, the thing doing the action
2) Accusative: The direct object, the thing which is directly receiving the action, or the object of certain prepositions.
3) Dative: The indirect object, as in when an object is given to someone, or the object of certain prepositions and verbs
4) Genitive: The possessor of something, or the object of certain prepositions or verbs; in English “Whose?”

Here is an example sentence to break down:

The girl gave the boy their mother’s book.

The girl is the subject. (Nominative)
The book is the direct object. (Accusative)
The boy is the indirect ‘object’. (Dative)
The mother is the possessor. (Genitive)

So, if we were going to apply German grammar rules to that sentence, we would have to take into account both the case of each noun, as well as the gender of the word and use that information to determine the correct word or endings that need to be applied. Pronouns, like nouns, also undergo change in relation to case. 

These combinations can easily be represented on a chart, with the cases along the Y axis and genders along the X axis.

In upcoming posts, there are 5 charts set up like this to help you navigate all of the possibilities. You determine which chart to use by determining if you are talking about a Definite, Indefinite or Unprecedented Article and if you are trying to determine the grammatical information about a Noun or an Adjective (ending).

Based on a combination of the gender of the noun and its position in the sentence (nominative, accusative, dative) there are:

–6 different definite articles, or words for “the” (der words).

• der (masculine)
• die (feminine or plural)
• das (neuter)
• den (variable)
• dem (variable)
• des (variable)

–6 different indefinite article endings, or words for “a” (ein words), which are also the 6 possible adjective endings.

• -er
• -e
• -es
• -en
• -em
• – (none)

My first German teacher advised me to memorize these 5 charts early on. I rebelled, and I regret it immensely! If I were any less afraid of needles, I seriously would have gotten them tattooed on my forearm for test-taking purposes during my semester abroad in Germany. Yes, they are THAT vital to your grammatical success. 

4) Definite, Indefinite and Unprecedented Articles (and their effects on Determiners and Adjective Endings)

For the record, “Determiner” is the part of speech that the words “the” and “a” (or “an”) belong to. This is relevant because, as we mentioned in #2, these words change in relation to the Case of the Noun that the Determiner it is attached to.

• Definite articles are specific nouns: I want the fresh bread. I want the pencil.
• Indefinite articles are less specific nouns: I want a piece of fresh bread. I want a pencil.
• Unprecedented articles are nouns with no determiner present: I want   fresh bread. I want   pencils.

You have to determine what sort of article the Noun in question is before you can pick which (Noun Case) x (Noun Gender) chart you need to reference.

5) Prepositions (and their effects on Noun Cases)

The most difficult part of learning of any language, I have been told, is learning to understand prepositions. In English we think “about” someone, while in German, you think “on” someone. Unfortunately, German preposition troubles don’t stop there. They have the power to affect the case of the object noun. The object noun is the one receiving the action of the verb (Ex: The cat ran through the forest.).

There are 3 types of prepositions:

• Accusative
• Dative
• 2-way

Some prepositions always render the object noun accusative. Some prepositions always render the object noun dative. Some prepositions are dependent on whether your noun is answering the question “where?” or “where to?”. I will have a whole post dedicated to this topic in greater detail (including the lists of these prepositions). The reason I bring it up now is because if your sentence uses a preposition, this will affect your noun case, which we discovered in #2 also affects your adjective endings and choice of determiner/article.

6) Verb Conjugation

Unfortunately, as a native English speaker, we are less in tune with verb conjugation than many other language speakers of the world. The conjugations of the verb are dependent on the subject noun or pronoun of the sentence. The subject noun of the sentence is the noun doing the action (Ex: The cat ran through the forest). The best example in English is the verb “to be”:

• I am
• You are
• He/She/It is
• We are
• They are

In German, every verb requires conjugation. Luckily, most verbs follow the same standard conjugation pattern. However, there are verbs that take strange variations to their conjugations, like Modal Verbs. I will further explain standard conjugation and modal verb conjugations, as well as extrapolations on verbs in different tenses in coming posts.

Conjugation also determines whether or  not the verb is being used imperatively (command form).

7) Word (specifically Verb) Order

When constructing a perfect German sentence, it is important to pay attention to word order.

Despite all of the noise above about Nouns– Verbs are really king when it comes to German. They, and their relationship to all other parts of the sentence, determine the word order.

• In simple sentences, the verb always comes second. Subject –> Verb –> (Object, if applicable).
  • Ex: I paint pictures.
• If there is more than one verb in the sentence, the subject’s direct verb goes second, and all other verbs cluster at the end in their infinitive form. This can become rather confusing in long sentences, but it becomes much easier in practice… and you’ll learn to love defaulting to the infinitive verb form.
  • Ex1: I can paint pictures. –> I can pictures paint.
  • Ex2: We can go swimming tomorrow. –> Tomorrow can we swimming going.
• If not using a question word (who, what, where, when, why, how), German requires that the verb comes first to denote a question. This helps with clarification between statements and questions (as does intonation and punctuation).
  • Ex: Are you coming with us? –> Coming you with us?
• Coordinating conjunctions denote a “resetting” or word order. It applies the word order rules separately to each clause.
  • Ex: We have eaten dinner and now we are tired. –> We have dinner eaten and now are we tired.
• Subordinating conjunctions will alter verb/word order by creating a subordinate clause. Where you choose to put the subordinate clause will determine your sentence structure. I will go over this in greater detail in a future post.
  • Ex1 (Subordinate clause last): We want candy because we are hungry. –> We want candy, because we hungry are.
  • Ex2 (Subordinate clause first): Because we have eaten, we are tired. –> Because we eaten have, are we tired.

Other things to note about word order include:

• Unlike English, German follows the pattern of addressing the Time, Manner and Place of action in that order.
  • Ex: We will go to the bank with our check tomorrow. –> Tomorrow will we with our check to the bank going.
• Like English, German places the adjective in front of the noun it describes and the adverb in front of the verb it describes (except when there is more than one verb in the sentence).
• Verb negations come after the verb.
  • Ex: He does not laugh. –> He laughs not.

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And there you have it! The basics of “The Awful German Language,” as Mark Twain called it.

There is a lot to take in, memorize and apply, but take a breath and take heart!

Although you undoubtedly should dedicate time and effort to memorizing  all of the rules and charts to perfect your German grammar, if you use incorrect combination of “the”-s, “a”-s, endings, or conjugations, German speakers will usually understand you. Just don’t get too comfortable being understood in spite of your poor grammar, or else you may end up having to talk yourself out of grammar chart tattoos later on in life too!

Pronunciation & Translation – Sounding it Out & Breaking it Down

Well, if you’re just starting to learn German, it’s best to start at the beginning.

 

SOUNDING IT OUT

As far as pronunciation goes, German and English are actually pretty similar– they are both Germanic languages after all. But there are a few differences. For starters, German is a LOT more phonetic than English; what you see is what you say! Unless words are borrowed from other languages (and sometimes not even then), you will never see a ‘silent’ letter in German (take that French learners)!

The first difference you might notice in picking up anything written in German is the addition of a few letters. Really quick, I want to tell you the names of the “little dots on top” of the vowels and the “squiggily B with a tail”.

The dots are an accent mark called the umlaut. And unfortunately they aren’t just there to make your “u” look like a smiley face (or make the “o” look like it’s screaming in terror”). They are there to denote a different vocalization/pronunciation of the vowel. But, using the face visual is actually kind of helpful because, as you’ll see in the chart, they require you to move your lips differently than the regular, un-umlauted vowel.

The letter that looks like a “squiggily B with a tail” is a letter from the Greek alphabet that the Germans use to make a double “s” noise. In German, it is called the Eszett.

The biggest differences between English and German pronunciation are those listed in my chart below. I have provided you with a short example word that showcases the pronunciation. When I was learning, I found it most helpful to remember a specific, common, word with the different letters in it for reference. This will help your pronunciation by giving you something to try and simulate/recreate on your own. I had issues with the “ä” noise in particular. Whenever I found a new word with an ä in it, I would quietly say my example word, “Mädchen”, to myself before reading the new word aloud.

 

If you are learning German outside of a classroom and you aren’t sure that you are pronouncing a word correctly, the websites www.dict.cc or www.translate.google.de have audio clips for a good number of words. Take a few good listens to the word, and then try to repeat it yourself.

Before you start reading the rest of this post, I want to tell you not to panic! The 11 pronunciation rules above apply in most situations and should get you through most of the strange new words you will encounter in the German dictionary. However, just like in every language, there are exceptions, some of which I will briefly describe below.

• Combinations of multiple letters sometimes produce a different sound. For example, “-tion” is pronounced “tee-O-n”. (A good key word for this is “Nation”).
• Specific combinations of consonant compounds and vowels will play into how the consonant compounds are pronounced.
  • This website has a more specific guide for some of those instances. It breaks down the relationships between the consonants and surrounding vowels that determine the changes.
• Sometimes the part of Germany you are in (or where your German teacher came from/studied in) will affect your pronunciation in the form of a dialect. My first German teacher, who taught me 4 years of German, studied in Freiburg. Because she was versed in the southern, Freiburg-ian, German, that is the dialect/accent that I most closely mirror… and when I studied German in the northern city of Hamburg, people often asked me where I/my German was from. I was usually understood, but sometimes asked to repeat myself for clarity.
  • A good example of this is in the adjective ending “-ig”. In southern German, “-ig” is pronounced “-ish”. In northern German, “-ig” is pronounced “-ig”.
  • The word “ich” (meaning “I”) also changes drastically. In southern German it is pronounced “ish”  while the northern Germans will say “ick”.
• German also borrows a lot of words from other languages, which sometimes determines what the reader has to do with pronunciation rules. For example:
  • The word for Jeans in German is “die Jeans”, borrowed from English. So instead of following the “j” = “yuh” rule and saying “dee Yeens”, the correct pronunciation is “dee jeens”, just like English.
  • The German word for the color/fruit orange is borrowed from French. The word (noun) is “die Orange”. Instead of following the German rules and saying “dee oR-ang-uh”, with “-e” = “-ah”, it is pronounced more like “dee oR-an-zjuh” (sorry, my French transliteration is probably horrible).
  • The best way to work around these oddities is to learn them, make some strange memory association between the word and the language it is borrowed from, and repeat the word out loud a lot. I always pictures the jeans in question to be Levi’s– which I associate with American (English-speaking) cowboys. For the word “orange”, I think about how orange is an obnoxious color, and that I find the French language (specifically its spelling –>pronunciation) to be obnoxious. Like I said, find whatever association works for you, no matter how weird, and run with it!

Practice and exposure to audio/visual resources will be your greatest aids! Especially when you’re trying to differentiate the pronunciation between words like “Kirche” and “Kirsche” (“Church” and “Cherry”). And context will be your greatest rescuer in conversation, should you make an error. Lucky for you, most Germans are just tickled when you try to speak German instead of demanding to be catered to in English. In almost every instance, German people I encountered in Germany were understanding and willing to try and explain my faults so I could fix them.

BREAKING IT DOWN

Another large portion of German pronunciation comes with learning how Germans “build” words. You’ve probably heard of German words that are longer than the English alphabet. My favorite long word that might come up in a ‘normal’ conversation is “Geschwindigkeitsbegrenzung” which has 26 letters and means “speed limit”. I like to think of long German words as an ornate Lego castle, built out of blocks of common words. The Germans like to create very specific, complicated words out of many less specific, less complicated words stacked on top of each other– which is GOOD for new language learners because the big words are usually made out of words you’ll already know how to say. The trick is learning to recognize these familiar words within the compound word. Additionally, although you may not know the perfect translation of a new monster word, if you can translate the smaller pieces it is built out of, you can get a general understanding of the topic at hand.

Let’s take my favorite long word, “Geschwindigkeitsbegrenzung”

We can sound it out using the chart I gave you above.

gah-sch-vind-ish-kItes-bah-gren-tsung… (or if you’re a northern German speaker, gah-sch-vind-ig-kItes-bah-gren-tsung)

We can also do a lot of damage in understanding how it means “speed limit”.

Let’s break it into some smaller parts: Geschwind~ig~keit~s~be~grenz~ung.

• geschwind = fast
• “-ig” = a word chunk that can turn a noun into an adjective, or a verb stem into an adjective, or transform a noun in front of another noun into an adjective that describes the second noun, (which comes into effect after the next part) (explanation)
• “-keit” = turns an adjective into a noun. It is used like the suffix “-ness” in English. (explanation)
• “-s” = Genitive ending denoting ownership
• “be-” = a prefix that “inflicts” something on a subject (explanation)
• grenz = boundary
• “-ung” = a suffix that changes a verb into a noun. (explanation)

So, if we mush all of that together, we get something along the lines of “fastness of the inflicted boundary” or “limit inflicted on the speediness”.

Even if you only recognize and understand the nouns, “Geschwind” and “Grenze”, which mean “fast” and “boundary”, you will probably be able to understand the definition of the word in context.

Please don’t get held up in all of the grammar-craziness of the prefixes and suffixes and genitive possession that I gave explanation links for. I mostly gave the explanation links to prove that I’m not just making this up. Again, learning a few words with the key prefixes or suffixes and what those word mean will greatly help your understanding of the prefixes and suffixes. Those key words don’t have to be 26 letters long, but they will help in tearing apart the new vocab words that are 26 letters long.

Please don’t get held up by not knowing where all of the breaks should go. The more words you add to your vocabulary (prefixes and suffixes included), the easier it will be to find the “natural” breaks in the big words. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gotten scared by a big word, gave up on finding the natural breaks, looked up the definition of the word in a dictionary, and then, all of a sudden, all of the natural breaks seemed to pop out of the page in glaring neon letters. That’s called learning. We will know how to break that word apart the next time we see it.

The longest German word approved by the Duden (the official German dictionary) is still up in the air, because in order for it to be “official” the word has to be in common use, but this news article tells the tale of what used to be German’s longest word at an awe-inspiring 63 letters: Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz.

The same article also explains how German words (specifically nouns) can get really out of hand:

A ballpoint pen that belongs to a captain could be called a Kapitänskugelschreiber.

If the pen happens to belong to a captain of the Danube Steamship Company, it’s a Donaudampfschiffahrtsgesellschaftskapitänskugelschreiber.

Let us now refer to the ink used in that pen. This is the Donaudampfschiffahrtsgesellschaftskapitänskugelschreibertinte.

And, please bear with us, there could theoretically be a shop specializing in such ink. In that case we have a: Donaudampfschiffahrtsgesellschaftskapitänskugelschreibertintenfachgeschäft.

That store would presumably have a manager, the: Donaudampfschiffahrtsgesellschaftskapitänskugelschreibertintenfachgeschäftsführer.

That’s 81 letters. And we could go on. But for a word to be officially recognized, it must be in genuine use and must have been referred to in published texts.

Apparently German legalese can put English legalese to shame. Check out this 67 letter word:

Grundstücksverkehrsgenehmigungszuständigkeitsübertragungsverordnung

Again, this word can be cut down into bite-sized pieces, as this website shows:

Grundstück: plot of land
Verkehr: traffic
Genehmigung: approval
Zuständigkeit: responsibility
Übertragung: transmission
Verordnung: regulation

It just goes to show that gargantuan German words CAN be tamed, pronounced, and understood, if you’re willing to crack the whip and bolster your vocabulary and your ability to identify said vocabulary buried within a bed of other vocabulary/prefixes/suffixes.

What is your favorite long German word that you’ve mastered?

Articles (Definite and Indefinite)

In English there are only two articles: “the” and “a”. You could bump it up to three if you wanted to to include the word “an,” which is used in the same way as the word “a” in instances when the noun starts with a vowel or a vowel sound. These are words that sometimes precede a noun to describe the “definiteness” of the noun– do you want a specific pencil, or will any pencil suffice? In German, there’s a little more to determining which article to use than just whether or not the noun starts with a vowel.

Let’s get started!

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Definite Articles

The most common word in the English language is the word “the.” It is used to refer to a specific noun/object, so grammarians call this this word type the “definite article.” It’s the difference between asking for any old pencil and asking for the pencil.

German has 6 different words to convey the same idea as the English word “the”: der, die, das, den, dem, des. These are known as “der words.”

According to this list, “der” is the most common German word, with “die” taking second place and “das” coming in at seventh place. Knowing this, it is important to know and understand these words and how they are used!

In German, every noun has a gender, be it masculine, feminine or neuter. There is a little bit of logic and reasoning behind the gender allocations, but most of them have to do with phonetics more than with traditional gender rolls and associations (For example, the word for “skirt” is masculine and the word for “necktie” is feminine). And to make matters even more complicated, pluralized nouns also have their own gender category for determining the proper article to choose.

Germans also take note of the roll of the noun in their sentences and whether each noun is the subject, object, indirect object or possessed object– which are also known as being in the nominative, accusative, dative or genitive case respectively.

By taking these two pieces of information about each noun, you can utilize this chart to determine the correct definite article for your noun:

First, determine which column your noun’s gender dictates, and then determine the row that the noun’s case falls under. The intersection of this column and row houses your desired definite article.

I have color-coded this chart to showcase the patterns within the chart visually.

Now, for a bit of practice! Here is a pre-selected set of nouns, grouped according to gender:

We will place them in one of these pre-formulated sentences, which translates to “The _______ ate the _______ from the _______.”

1. Singular subject:
   • (Definite article) (Subject noun) isst (Definite article) (Object noun) von (Definite article) (Indirect object noun).
2. Plural subject:
   • (Definite article) (Subject noun) essen (Definite article) (Object noun) von (Definite article) (Indirect object noun).

So, if we used all masculine nouns, the sentence would read like this:

• Der Löwe isst den Apfel von dem Besucher.

If we used all feminine nouns, the sentence would read like this:

• Die Katze isst die Kiwi von der Nonne.

If we used all neuter nouns, the sentence would read like this:

• Das Pferd isst das Fisch von dem Kind.

If we used all plural nouns, the sentence would read like this:

• Die Bären essen die Karotten von den Zoowärter.

However, sentences will rarely be comprised of exclusively same-gendered nouns… “Die Katze isst das Fisch von der Nonne” and “Das Pferd isst den Apfel von dem Besucher” make more sense than my previous sentences. So, the quicker you get used to memorizing the forms and combining them, the quicker your German grammar will become envy-worthy!

Don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten about the genitive case! It’s just harder to incorporate into a simple sentence alongside all of the other cases, but now that you understand the 3 more common cases, we can build on what we know! Genitive case is used to express possession, much like the “-‘s” in English. If we were to translate a sentence that includes a genitive case, the genitive part usually comes out sounding like “the bicycle of the man” or “the dog of my mother”.

This time our example sentence will read: “The _______ ate the _______ of the _______.”

So, if we used all masculine nouns, the sentence would read like this:

• Der Löwe isst den Apfel des Besuchers. (*notice the “s” added to the end of the owner of the object.)

If we used all feminine nouns, the sentence would read like this:

• Die Katze isst die Kiwi der Nonne.

If we used all neuter nouns, the sentence would read like this:

• Das Pferd isst das Fisch des Kinds. (*notice the “s” added to the end of the owner of the object.)

If we used all plural nouns, the sentence would read like this:

• Die Bären essen die Karotten der Zoowärter.

 

Congratulations! You have mastered the first half of articles!

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Indefinite Articles

The word “a” or “an” is the 5th most common word in the English language, and its 6 German counterparts (ein, eine, einen, einem, einer, eines) rank as the 14th most common word in German.

Unlike the definite articles, these words refer to a NON-specific noun/object, so grammarians call this this word type the “indefinite article.” Now we are asking for any old pencil, instead of a specific pencil.

Just as before, we combine the gender of the noun and the noun’s case in the sentence to navigate to the correct “ein word.”

Again, I have color-coded this chart to showcase the patterns within the chart visually. This chart displays just the ending of the “ein word,” so orange squares are “einen“, red squares are “einer” and green squares are simply “ein.”

We will use the same example words as before to explore the indefinite articles and their changes but this time the sentence will translate to: “A _______ ate a _______ from a _______.”

If we used all masculine nouns, the sentence would read like this:

• Ein Löwe isst einen Apfel von einem Besucher.

If we used all feminine nouns, the sentence would read like this:

• Eine Katze isst eine Kiwi von einer Nonne.

If we used all neuter nouns, the sentence would read like this:

• Ein Pferd isst ein Fisch von einem Kind.

Now we reach an interesting situation– we can not assign plural nouns an indefinite article (think “a bears” “a carrots” or “a zookeepers”), so I must teach you another “ein word” that is not actually an article: kein. “Kein” means “no,” in the sense of “not a one of the” or “none of the.”

If we used all plural nouns and the “ein word” “kein”, the sentence would read like this:

• Keine Bären essen keine Karotten von keinen Zoowärter.

This particular example sentence doesn’t make much sense, as there are too many negatives, so here are some other examples.

• Keine Bären essen Karotten von Zoowärter. (No bears eat carrots from zoo keepers.)
• Bären essen keine Karotten von Zoowärter. (Bears eat no carrots from zoo keepers.)
• Die Bären essen Karotten von keinen Zoowärter. (The bears eat carrots from none of the/no zoo keepers.)

Then, if we venture back into genitive, our example sentence will read: “A _______ ate a _______ of a _______.”

So, if we used all masculine nouns, the sentence would read like this:

• Ein Löwe isst einen Apfel eines Besuchers. (*notice the “s” added to the end of the owner of the object.)

If we used all feminine nouns, the sentence would read like this:

• Eine Katze isst eine Kiwi einer Nonne.

If we used all neuter nouns, the sentence would read like this:

• Ein Pferd isst ein Fisch eines Kinds. (*notice the “s” added to the end of the owner of the object.)

If we used all plural nouns and the “ein word” “kein”, the sentence would read like this:

• Keine Bären essen keine Karotten keiner Zoowärter.

And with that, you have mastered the second half of articles!

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The moral of the story is that it is EXCRUCIATINGLY VITAL to learn, memorize and practice these two charts:

If you don’t get them right all the time, Germans will likely still understand you– but the longer you resist learning them, the longer you resist an “easy fix” to substantially improving your German language skills.