|
 |
German learning: noun genders. | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages |  | |
| J-Learner Senior Member Australia Joined 5972 days ago 556 posts - 636 votes  Studies: Yiddish, English* Studies: Dutch | Message 1 of 10 06 April 2009 at 11:39am | IP Logged |
|
Hi everyone.
I've been studying German for about four months now. That includes one month of in-home immersion and 3 months of formal study. I also attended 8 classes (which were more helpful that I would have thought previously due mainly to a very good teacher). I have come to a bit of a stumbling point in the last week as I am simply unable to learn the noun genders quick enough to continue with the courses. I have no method for learning the vocabulary fast enough so that I can keep pace with the workbooks. Looking for patterns is not worth my time because the exceptions are as great in number as those which conform to them. Is there anyone here that knows of a non-gimicky, free, not-overly-time-consuming way of doing this? I'm willing to try something new and I would prefer to be learning multiple words per day. Starting off with perhaps 5 or something. Then moving up slowly once I have got a hold of the method snd them memory is coping with it better. (Sorry Iversen, but not your word list method - as great as it it. :p) Thanks for any help and discussion that may lead to a new insight. P.S. I am really hoping for some language exchange of some sort with a native German speaker soon. Any offers for any period of time would be much appreciated. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Eduard Decaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5967 days ago 166 posts - 170 votes 2 sounds Speaks: Dutch*, NorwegianC1, Swedish, Danish, English, German, ItalianB1, Spanish, Serbo-Croatian, French Studies: Portuguese | Message 2 of 10 06 April 2009 at 11:58am | IP Logged |
|
When learning words (cramming, using anki or otherwise), don't count a word as memorised unless you also get the gender right.
I would however not fully do away with looking for patterns, as they in many cases do help. A quick (and sloppy) Google search returned amongst others this link: http://german.about.com/library/blgen_die.htm If you follow patterns like these, you are fairly likely to get it right most of the times, so you can concentrate on learning the odd ones out. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| J-Learner Senior Member Australia Joined 5972 days ago 556 posts - 636 votes Studies: Yiddish, English* Studies: Dutch | Message 3 of 10 06 April 2009 at 1:16pm | IP Logged |
|
I read that only about 50% of all nouns fit with the patterns. I am still left with a massive task which is best sorted out now.
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| josht Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6388 days ago 635 posts - 857 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Spanish, Russian, Dutch | Message 4 of 10 06 April 2009 at 2:09pm | IP Logged |
|
Other than being familiar with the patterns, there's no trick to it that I've found. When I learn German words, I do what Eduard recommended: I don't count the word as known unless I also know the gender. So when I'm doing reviews in Anki, if I get an English -> German card and give the right word but the wrong gender, I mark the card completely wrong.
I also agree with Eduard in that you shouldn't abandon the patterns altogether just yet. There are many exceptions, but if you could correctly guess even 50% of the genders of words, I would call that a success, not a problem. The best examination of word gender patterns that I've seen is in Using German Vocabulary by Sarah Fagan. Check that out if you're interested in pursuing the patterns any further. Finally, while I can't give any real tips or tricks to learning the genders, I can tell you this: the more words you learn, the better you'll get at being able to learn them quickly, along with the gender. I've found that I've learned many of the patterns, both for gender and pluralization, simply by learning a lot of words. When you've seen dozens of words ending in such and such way, all of them with the same gender and all of them forming their plural in the same way, you tend to get a feel for it. Edited by josht on 06 April 2009 at 2:09pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| J-Learner Senior Member Australia Joined 5972 days ago 556 posts - 636 votes Studies: Yiddish, English* Studies: Dutch | Message 5 of 10 07 April 2009 at 3:18am | IP Logged |
|
Ok. Thanks for the help.
So, now, the question that remains is where can I find the best set of rules? 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| josht Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6388 days ago 635 posts - 857 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Spanish, Russian, Dutch | Message 6 of 10 07 April 2009 at 3:48am | IP Logged |
|
As I said in my previous post, the best treatment I've seen is the book Using German Vocabulary by Sarah Fagan. It's an expensive book, as it's considered a "textbook"; around $50. Try to get it via interlibrary loan if you can.
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| nulis Newbie United States Joined 5718 days ago 2 posts - 2 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Lithuanian | Message 7 of 10 14 April 2009 at 6:16am | IP Logged |
|
I've found it useful just the learn the article and the word almost as if they are one word. (ie. learn them as "die Torte", "der Kaffee", "das Obst", etc)
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| J-Learner Senior Member Australia Joined 5972 days ago 556 posts - 636 votes Studies: Yiddish, English* Studies: Dutch | Message 8 of 10 14 April 2009 at 8:26am | IP Logged |
|
This is what I've been doing.
Thanks. 1 person has voted this message useful |
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
