German All-in-One For Dummies, with CD

Product Information

In addition to having a gender, a noun's article changes depending on if it's a subject, object, direct object, or indirect object.The four German cases are nominative, accusative, dative, and genitive.

The same is true for the indefinite articles. Just as English has two indefinite articles — a and an — that you use with singular nouns, German also has two indefinite articles (in the nominative case): ein for masculine- and neuter-gender words and eine for feminine-gender words.Pronunciations follow in the second column. The example shown uses the verb to be. The conjugation starts with the German equivalent of I am, you are, and so on.

Many words, like the ones shown in Table 1-1, are spelled almost the same in German as in English and have the same meaning. Table 1-1 also shows you something about German spelling conventions, which include: Pursuing a second language is proof of your willingness to engage with the world. It’s proof of an open mind and an ability to learn new things and see things from different perspectives. So when it comes to finding a job, knowing a second (or third) language will give you a leg up and set you apart from the rest of the field. The accusative case, known as the objective case in English, answers the question “ wen?” or “whom?” and describes the direct object of a sentence. But it’s important to remember that to really master a language, you’ve got to do more than just listening to it; you’ll probably want to supplement audio with other methods of learning German, too. Try looking up podcast transcripts or song lyrics for extra reading practice, and keep a notebook to write down new words and phrases you hear to review later. Learning With German TV Shows And Movies

German phrases

I enjoy using various apps to dabble in language learning and though I could benefit from sitting down with an actual text book, those are often too dull and I can't focus for long. I had forgotten all about the, "For Dummies" series and then came across this book. This was PERFECT. audiocd.eps The audio CD that comes with this book gives you the opportunity to listen to real German speakers so that you can get a better understanding of what German sounds like. This icon marks the Talkin’ the Talk dialogues that you can listen to on the CD. Where to Go from Here Because both German and English belong to the group of Germanic languages, quite a few words are either identical or similar in both languages. Words that share a common source are called cognates. Another group of words common to German and English stem from Latin-based words that English speakers are familiar with. Many of these have direct equivalents in German, for example, nouns that end in -tion. Friendly allies (perfect cognates) What good is committing to learning a new language if you’ll forget it before you even have a chance to use it? That’s why your personalized Babbel Review feature is optimized to help you retain the information you’re learning.

Be aware that the tradeoff of a free product is that it usually sacrifices quality. Much of the content in free apps comes from user-generated translations that are rarely verified and are often inconsistent or riddled with errors. These lessons often focus on writing and reading without improving listening and speaking skills. And be wary that free interactive lessons like these can often be basic, poorly designed, messy, rigid, and just downright boring — not to mention littered with ads. Das Haus von meinem Vater (My father's house). The dative case often replaces the genitive case in spoken German.The first thing to know about German nouns is that they have genders. For native English speakers, this is an entirely new concept. One place you might be surprised to find German is in Africa — in Namibia, where Germans had a brief imperial legacy in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, there are a few more than 10,000 German speakers. You can even find speakers in South Africa, too! How Long Does Learning German Take?

When you’re watching, you can choose to display subtitles in German for some extra reading practice. Try to avoid watching media dubbed in your native language, as you won’t end up hearing any German! If the dialogue is too fast, you can pause what you’re watching to give yourself a chance to process what you’re hearing and look up and write down unfamiliar words. And when you use movies and TV series to learn German, don’t be afraid to break them up into chunks to give your brain some rest. Free Online Courses And Apps For Learning German Maybe you've noticed a variety of possibilities to translate “a” such as ein, eine, einer, einen, or einem. It gets even more complicated when translating “the .” When do you use der, die, das, den, or dem? Here are the key ways Babbel German lessons are crafted to get you having real-life conversations in German with confidence, and all for less cost per month than your morning coffee. The Full Spectrum Of Language Learning GrammaticallySpeaking.eps Languages are full of quirks that may trip you up if you’re not prepared for them. This icon points to discussions of important grammar points.In North America, there are roughly a million speakers of German in the United States, also the historical legacy of migration during the 18th and 19th centuries. A dialect of the language, called Pennsylvania Dutch (though, confusingly, it’s not Dutch at all) is the first language of many of the Amish and Mennonite communities of the upper Appalachian region. There are also about 400,000 speakers in Canada, descendants of immigrants generations ago. culturalwisdom.eps If you’re looking for information and advice about culture and travel, look for these icons. They draw your attention to interesting tidbits about the countries in which German is spoken.