Lëzen's German Class

[Lëzen]

Let's get ready to learn the language of ...Shut up. It's based off of what was my Gaia avatar at the time. So obviously I yoinked this idea from CanceledCzech. I was originally thinking of doing a thread for both German and Dutch at the same time, the better to show the glaring similarities between the two languages (as well as their similarities with English), but I figured it'd get too confuzzling. Like Czech, I'm also self-taught in this language. I'm probably not what one would consider fluent, but I can hold a basic conversation in German, as well as being able to understand at least 70% of what is written in German webpages and articles and such. So I'm getting there. I don't exactly know what Czech's "student" thing is all about, but assume that I won't be taking any for a while. Too much shizz going on 'round these parts.

[Unelias]

Deutschland, Deutschland, ûber alles! Über alles in der Welt! But for real, I studied Germany for five years. Result : I don't remember a damn Reason : it was so long ago

[Lëzen]

German Alphabet & Phonology The German language uses the Latin alphabet, as I'm sure most of you are already aware. There are a few out of the ordinary characters, but they're nothing to be afraid of. One more thing to note: The vowels in this language have short sounds and long sounds, much like English does. I'll list all possible sounds for each character, and the various rules regarding how they should be pronounced. (Don't worry, it's not all that confusing.) Click on the links to hear examples. Aa [ay] - Long: as in "father" [IPA: ɑ]; Short: similar to the long sound, but shorter and sounds just a wee bit more like the English short A in "cat" [IPA: a] Bb [bay] - Like in English. When it appears at the end of a word or word-compound, sounds like P. Cc [tsay] - Usually used with H to produce a multitude of sounds. See below. Dd [day] - Like in English. When it appears at the end of a word or word-compound, sounds like T. Ee [ay] - Long: like a stressed é in Spanish "olé" [IPA: e]; Short: as in English "bed" [IPA: ɛ]; *Unstressed: a schwa, like the English "a" when not stressed [IPA: ə] *Most of you should know what syllable stress is. Ex: in "attack", the stress is on the second syllable (a-TACK); in "comfortable", it's on the first (CUMF-ter-ble), etc. When a word ends in E, it is usually unstressed. Ff [ef] - Like in English. Gg [gay] - As in "go". When it appears at the end of a word or word-compound, sounds like K. Almost never like in English "gem", with the exception of a couple foreign loanwords. Hh [hah] - Like in English. Works with C to make a multitude of different sounds (see below). When it follows a vowel, it becomes silent and the preceding vowel becomes long. Ii [ee] - Long: As in "machine" [IPA: i]; Short: As in "sit" [IPA: ɪ] Jj [yoht] - Like English Y. Kk [kah] - Like in English. Ll [el] - Mostly like in English, but with tongue touching the roof of the mouth right behind the teeth [IPA: ] Mm [em] - Like in English. Nn [en] - Like in English. Oo [oh] - Long: Like in "ghost", but more emphasized [IPA: o]; Short: Like in the British pronunciation of "walk" [IPA: ɔ] Pp [pay] - Like in English. Qq [koo] - Like how English always uses Q with U to make a "kw" sound, German always uses Q with U to make a "kv" sound. Rr [ehr] - If followed by a vowel sound, it is the voiced counterpart of CH (see below). [IPA: ʁ]; If followed by a consonant or ending a word, it's a non-rhotic R (in other words, it sounds like a schwa - see E above). Ss [es] - If followed by a vowel sound, acts as English Z, even at the beginning of a word. If followed by a consonant or ending a word, acts as the standard English S sound. Tt [tay] - Like in English. Uu [oo] - Long: Like in English "moon" [IPA: u] Short: Sounds a wee bit like in "book" [IPA: ʊ] Vv [fow] - Almost always the same as F. In some foreign words, like "clever", makes a regular V sound. Ww [vay] - Always V. Xx [eeks] - Like in English. Rare (see CHS below). Yy [ipselon] - Mainly used as a vowel that mimics Ü (see below). Zz [tset] - Always like in English "pizza" or "cats". Extra characters ß [es-tset] - A ligature of S and Z. Always makes the hard S sound. Usually follows a diphthong, or is used to preserve the S sound under certain circumstances (which I'll explain later if need be). Ää - See E above. (I realize that the pronunciation of this letter may differ in some areas, but I was taught that Ä and E were basically equivalent, so that's what I'm using for the purpose of this tutorial.) Öö - Long: Not found in English (see link) [IPA: ø]; Short: Not found in English (see link) [IPA: œ] Üü - Long: Not found in English (see link) [IPA: y]; Short: Not found in English (see link) [IPA: ʏ] Note: If you find yourself unable to type the diacritic characters, it is acceptable to replace ä with ae, ö with oe and ü with ue. Diphthongs ei - English Y sound as in "try" ai - Same as ei ey - Same as ei ay - Same as ei ie - English E sound as in "tree" au - As in English "cow" eu - As in English "boy" äu - Same as eu Consonant clusters sch - English SH sound tsch - English CH sound st - S sound becomes SH sound; e.g. "Stiel" sounds like "shteel" sp - S sound becomes SH sound; e.g. "Spiel" sounds like "shpeel" ch - When preceded by a, o, u, or au, makes the hard "loogie" sound that characterizes German [IPA: x]; When preceded by e, i, ä, ö, ü, eu, or äu, makes a softer sound that is similar to the "HY" sound in the word "human" [IPA: ç]; Can sound like SCH in French loanwords chs - English X sound Spoiler for Learn the alphabet with Speedy:

[Lord Bennington]

That seems like a bad foot to start on. I'd say the pronunciation is so similar that only a few letters need going over, and you can cover that as you need. I'd start with something interesting, to get people's attention. Teach them something that they can run with a little bit to begin with. ABER: Ich spreche schon Deutsch, und so brauche ich keinen Klassen. Viel Glueck.

[Lëzen]

^No, it probably wouldn't make much sense to someone who already knows the language, but the bare basics of the language must be covered first and foremost, even if they are uninteresting. Besides, the only letters that are 100% the same as their English counterparts are F, H, K, M, N, P, T and X. All the others have some sort of catch, so I feel it necessary to explain them. "If you're gonna learn German pronunciation, why not learn it right?", I always say. Basic phrases Hallo - Hello Wilkommen - Welcome Guten Morgen - Good morning Guten Tag - Good day Guten Abend - Good evening Gute Nacht - Good night Auf Wiedersehen - Goodbye Bis nachher/später - See you later Bis bald - See you soon Bis morgen - See you tomorrow Bis Montag/Dienstag/etc. - See you Monday/Tuesday/etc. Bitte - Please Danke (schön/sehr) - Thank you (very much) Bitte schön - You're welcome Entschuldigen Sie/Verzeihung - Excuse me/Pardon Es tut mir Leid - Sorry Wie geht es Ihnen? - How are you? Danke, gut - Fine, thanks Schlecht/Nicht gut - Badly/Not well So lala - So-so, not bad Wie heißen Sie? - What's your name? Ich heiße ____ - My name is ____ Es freut mich, Sie kennen zu lernen. - Pleased to make your acquaintance. Gleichfalls - Likewise Woher kommen Sie? - Where are you from? Ich komme aus ____ - I come from ____ Wo wohnen Sie? - Where do you live? Ich wohne in ____ - I live in ____ Wie alt sind Sie? - How old are you? Ich bin __ Jahre alt - I am __ years old Sprechen Sie englisch? - Do you speak English? Ich spreche kein deutsch - I don't speak German Ich spreche nur ein bisschen deutsch - I only speak a bit of German Verstehen Sie? - Do you understand? Ich verstehe nicht - I don't understand Ich weiß nicht - I don't know Ich habe vergessen - I forgot Können Sie mir helfen? - Can you help me? Kann ich Ihnen helfen? - Can I help you? Gerne - Of course, gladly Entschuldigung, was haben Sie gesagt?/Wie bitte? - Excuse me, what did you say?/Sorry? Wie heißt ____ auf deutsch? - How do you say ____ in German? Was ist los? - What's wrong? Keine Angst! - Don't worry! Es ist mir egal - I don't care Jetzt muss ich gehen - I must go now Ich habe hunger/durst - I'm hungry/thirsty Wo finde ich...? - Where can I find...? Ich möchte... - I would like... Viel Glück! - Good luck! Was machen Sie beruflich? - What do you do for a living? Echt?/Wirklich? - Really? Nicht echt/Nicht wirklich - Not really Ach! - Oh! Ach so - I see Ein bisschen - A little (Let me know if there are any others you're interested in knowing, and hopefully I can find an accurate translation.)

[sheogorath]

I am torn between Russian and German German sounds so cool, and has a lot of intellectual material. Then again, so does Russian. I just like the writing system better of Russian and the sound better of German.

[khh]

But for real, I studied Germany for five years. Surely you studied German, not Germany? (I had German in school for five years too, with the same result)

[CanceledCzech]

Yo, Lezen, looking good man! I am torn between Russian and German German sounds so cool, and has a lot of intellectual material. Then again, so does Russian. I just like the writing system better of Russian and the sound better of German. And seriously, dude, if you're going to let intellectual material decide what language you want to study, go for German. Nietzsche/Kant > Bakunin/Marx. Of course, that's just philosophy we're talking about. If you open up literature on a whole then that's a completely different story.

[[SomeGuy]]

Nice idea man, I'll follow this when I can.

[Lëzen]

A note about long and short vowels German is fairly regular about its vowel length, but there are a few irregularities here and there. -Like in English, if a vowel is separated from another vowel by a single consonant, the vowel is long: Vater (father) has a long A. Leder (leather) has a long E. Mozart has a long O. mutig (mighty) has a long U. -If a word ends in a single consonant, the vowel is still long: an (at) has a long A. den (the) has a long E. -Like in English, if a vowel is separated from another vowel by two or more consonants, the vowel is short: essen (to eat) has a short E. Norden (North) has a short O. Masse (mass) has a short A. küssen (to kiss) has a short Ü. -If the word ends in more than one consonant, the vowel is still short. denn (because) has a short E. Gott (God) has a short O. -The letter H makes a preceding vowel long no matter how many consonants follow (keep in mind, these H's are silent): Fahrt (journey) has a long A. Hühnchen (chicken) has a long Ü. -Diphthongs always retain their sound, and are completely unaffected by the spelling rules above: sieht (he/she sees) maintains its IE sound. rauchen (to smoke) maintains its AU sound. Other spelling rules -One thing to note is that you hardly ever see double consonants in conjunction with diphthongs. One exception is SS, but that has since been replaced by ß: heißen (to name) in place of heissen schließen (to close) in place of schliessen -When you see the suffix -ig, the G is pronounced as the "soft" CH sound: Pfennig (penny) is pronounced as Pfennich. Einigkeit (unity) is pronounced as Einichkeit. lustig (jolly) is pronounced as lustich. An exception to this is when one of these words is either pluralized or declined, in which case, the G is pronounced normally: Pfennige (pennies) lustiger Mann (jolly man) That's about all I've got for spelling rules, other than "don't mix up IE and EI". Any German speakers out there feel free to tell me if there was some obscure rule I missed so I can add it to this list.

[Lëzen]

Since the forum's being all homosexual (won't let me edit my Lektion 1 post), here's an amendment. ch - When preceded by a, o, u, or au, makes the hard "loogie" sound that characterizes German [IPA: x]; When preceded by e, i, ä, ö, ü, eu, äu - or soft cosonants like l, r and n - makes a softer sound that is similar to the "HY" sound in the word "human" [IPA: ç]; Can sound like SCH in French loanwords. I'll throw in some examples for further clarification: Examples of hard CH Krach (crash) Rauch (smoke) Buch (book) Examples of soft CH Blech (sheet) ich (I) mächtig (powerful) möchte (would like) Bücher (books) euch (you) räuchern (to fumigate) Note: The suffix -chen always has a soft CH. Mädchen (girl) Hündchen (puppy) etc.

[Oneiro]

Pfennig (penny) is pronounced as Pfennich. Einigkeit (unity) is pronounced as Einichkeit. lustig (jolly) is pronounced as lustich. Any German speakers out there feel free to tell me if there was some obscure rule I missed. I lived and worked in Germany for 10 years, and the pronunciation you cited is that of dialect(s). In Hochdeutsch (the german equivalent of Oxford English) the ending g is always pronounced as a hard g. Generally speaking, but not exclusively, the more the "ish" pronunciation, the further south you are, as in the dialects Plattdeutsch, Koelsch, and Schwizzidutsch for example.

[Lëzen]

You get all ^that, people? I sure hope so, 'cause the post where I made the -ig claim won't let me edit it. That feature desperately needs to be abolished.

[dajo]

-One thing to note is that you hardly ever see double consonants in conjunction with diphthongs. One exception is SS, but that has since been replaced by ß: You use ß if there is a long vowel before it. For example heißen (ei is always followed by ß). If it's a short one, like essen, you still use ss. In 1996 there was a new spelling reform that got updated in 2004 and 2006 - so concerning spelling and grammar there were a few changes made. German seems like a difficult language to pronounce, I very rarely meet a non-native speaker with only a little accent. Even when I was in the US, the German teacher had a pretty thick one. And especially 'ch' and 'r's seem to be close to impossible to get, mostly for English-speaking people.