The German language – A very short introduction

by Lena, Jana, Magdalena & others

Areas with the German language

German is the official language

German is a lingua franca

German speaking minorities

1st German dictionaryby the Brothers Grimm(1854)

The alphabet in German

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z(The red letters are vowels)

Special letters and soundsUmlaute & diphthongs• ä• ö• ü• au• ei• eu• äu

Sibilants & other difficult sounds

• ß• ch• sch• st• sp• ck

Examples• zählen (count)• Österreich (Austria)• Münze (coin)• Frau (woman)• Eier (eggs)• Leute (people)• Mäuse (mice)

• süß (sweet)• acht (eight) , ich (I)• Schule (school)• Stern (star) , Ast (branch)• springen (jump)• Schnecke (snail)

Difficult & funny words• Naschkätzchen (somebody with a sweet tooth)• Streichholzschächtelchen (a small matchbox)• Fruchtzwerg (literally „fruitdwarf“, name of a small

fruit joghurt)• Zweiundzwanzig (22)• Eichhörnchen (squirrel)• Achterbahn (roller coaster)• Tollpatsch (klutz)

Difficult grammarGerman has three articles: • der (male)• die (female)• das (neuter) Remembering the correct article is difficult

enough, but what makes it even worse, the articles change depending on whether the noun is the subject, an accusative object, a dative object or a genitive object.

Declination of articles

nominative: die Sonne der Mond das Meergenitive: der Sonne des Mondes des Meeresdative: der Sonne dem Mond dem Meeraccusative: die Sonne den Mond das Meer

To make things even more difficult, not only the articles have to change, but e.g. adjectives are also changed with the noun e.g. singular / plural: die helle Sonne, die hellen Sonnen / der runde Mond, die runden Monde / das blaue Meer, die blauen Meere

Conjugation of verbs:Verbs have to be changed according to the subject:ich singe I singdu singst you singer/sie/es singt he/she/it singswir singen we singihr singt you singsie singen they sing

These are the grammar structures that are a lot more difficult than in English. But always look on the bright side, there are things that are a lot easier in German than in English!

German tenses To communicate you

only need two (!) different tenses:

1. Präsens: for everything that happens or is happening in the present or will happen in the future

2. Perfekt: for everything that happened in the past

Of course, there are more tenses, but you only need them in written German.

(to) learnI learn/ I am learning / I will learnI have learned / I learned

German word order Since the articles and the verb tell you which word

is the subject of the sentence and which words are objects, you can play with the word order, almost everything is possible!

The woman gives the boy the book:

Die Frau gibt dem Jungen das Buch.Die Frau gibt das Buch dem Jungen.Dem Jungen gibt die Frau das Buch.Dem Jungen gibt das Buch die Frau.Das Buch gibt die Frau dem Jungen.Das Buch gibt dem Jungen die Frau.

Compounds• You can create very long nouns by just putting several words

together:• Haustürschlüsselloch = „housedoorkeyhole“: Haus (house) + Tür

(door) + Schlüssel (key) + Loch (hole)• Blumentopferdesack = „flowerpotearthsack“: Blume (flower) + Topf

(pot) + Erde (earth) + Sack (sack)• Hundehüttendachabdeckungsschaden = „doghutroofcoverdamage“:

Hund (dog) + Hütte (hut) + Dach (roof) + Abdeckung (cover) + Schaden (damage)

• Donaudampfschifffahrtselektrizitätshaupt-betriebswerksbauunterbeamtengesellschaft

(association for subordinate officials of the head office management of the Danube steamboat electrical services)

Does your language have a word with 80 letters???

A shop where you can borrow grinding machines

Don‘t worry, speak German!• Although some aspects of the German grammar are

rather complicated, don‘t worry. Germans do understand you even if you use the wrong article or the infinitive of the verb instead of its correct form.

• Forget about grammar, just speak

Outtakes