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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| patrickwilken Senior Member Germany radiant-flux.net Joined 4535 days ago 1546 posts - 3200 votes  Studies: German | Message 49 of 63 12 February 2015 at 9:10am | IP Logged | |||||
The simple past is pretty easy and only really appears in books, where depending on the author you might see it a lot. I learnt the 50 most common irregular simple past forms of the verb ages ago via Anki, which was sort of helpful when I was reading - but it's probably not so necessary. Once you start reading regularly you'll see them so often that you'll learn them all pretty fast. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| carlyd Groupie United States Joined 3991 days ago 94 posts - 138 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish | Message 50 of 63 14 February 2015 at 1:55am | IP Logged | |||||
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Well, to be honest, I will probably end up reading a whole lot more German that I will speak, so I will continue plugging away at the past tense. I have a book called "Short Stories in Spoken German" that has wonderful 2-3 page short chapters, but is in past tense--I thought spoken German used present perfect for past tense when speaking. Regardless, I really like the stories and it's great practice on the past tense.
I just started the 3rd of the chapters and they've thrown in Dative, so now I'm also working on that. I've reviewed Dative before so it's not hard--just remembering the endings and whether the noun gets declined. Practice, practice. :) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| carlyd Groupie United States Joined 3991 days ago 94 posts - 138 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish | Message 51 of 63 16 February 2015 at 9:09pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Word of the Day:
die Schnapsidee (beer + idea) An idea that sounds brilliant last night after that 3rd beer, now.....not so much. Still working on verbs. Today it's separable verbs, then I return to 4 more chapters in my grammar workbook on all the verbs, present and simple past tense. I like the separable verbs, but I wonder how many times I will translate that prefix by itself and not associate it with the verb and get the whole sentence wrong? I guess context. With 5 chapters to practice them, I guess I'll find out. I stopped at a bookstore a ways away from me yesterday, and they had an amazing selection of German fiction books. From the covers, looked like regular fiction or maybe romance. When I get to the point I can figure out what kind of books they are, I can go back and buy one. In the meantime, I got a kids book that I can read now. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4846 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 52 of 63 16 February 2015 at 10:14pm | IP Logged | |||||
Saying that the past tense is only used in written German is a gross oversimplification. In fact, you always use the past tense when telling a story and in most other circumstances they are freely interchangeable. For some very common verbs, it feels much more natural to use the past tense than the present perfect, especially for modal verbs like "müssen", "können", "sollen", and so on. To tell the truth, there are some South German dialects which have lost the past tense and where the present perfect is the only option when referring to the past. However, these are dialects and not Standard German! Also, you need to know the past tense in order to form the past subjunctive ("Konjunktiv II"). 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| carlyd Groupie United States Joined 3991 days ago 94 posts - 138 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish | Message 53 of 63 24 February 2015 at 7:36am | IP Logged | |||||
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I did a bit less for a couple of days after re-injuring my knee and didn't have the concentration--mostly back on track now.
I finished chapter 12 in the grammar book today--I was on chapter 6 when the 6 Week Challenge started, so making good progress. Now I need to look for a list of the nouns that will decline in Dative--the book only gave a few (Herr to Herrn) but in an exercise gave another one, then a chapter later another one. I'm sure some resource has a list of all of them. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| patrickwilken Senior Member Germany radiant-flux.net Joined 4535 days ago 1546 posts - 3200 votes Studies: German | Message 54 of 63 24 February 2015 at 11:47am | IP Logged | |||||
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Sorry to hear about your knee. I hope it's feeling better now.
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| carlyd Groupie United States Joined 3991 days ago 94 posts - 138 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish | Message 55 of 63 25 February 2015 at 2:48am | IP Logged | |||||
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Thanks, Patrick. My knee was injured too badly to ever really heal, but mostly it's ok.
I was going through my calendar and if I stay on track, I will totally finish the whole grammar book by the end of March. At least that's my goal. It's a very easy book but a good beginning. If I then finish the beginning textbook by mid- to late spring, I'll be doing great. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| patrickwilken Senior Member Germany radiant-flux.net Joined 4535 days ago 1546 posts - 3200 votes Studies: German | Message 56 of 63 25 February 2015 at 10:05am | IP Logged | |||||
Sorry to hear that. I lost a third of my right kneecap about a ten years ago after I fell over in the snow and my leg hit a train track. I healed pretty well despite all the damage, apart from a few twinges now and again I wouldn't know that it had happened. It's of course possible that it will get bad in the future, but I deal with that if it ever happens when it happens.
Grammar is good, but how's the reading? Are you planning to come out to Germany sometime? 1 person has voted this message useful |
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