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German words | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| JamesBates Bilingual Triglot Newbie Pakistan Joined 6125 days ago 27 posts - 28 votes Speaks: English*, Hindi*, Arabic (Written) Studies: Persian, German | Message 1 of 10 04 September 2009 at 7:13pm | IP Logged | ||
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Does anybody know of a book that teaches you shortcuts to expanding your German
vocabulary? For example, what various prefixes, such as ent-, mean or cognates with English. Thanks! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6844 days ago 4250 posts - 5711 votes  Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 2 of 10 05 September 2009 at 12:53am | IP Logged | ||
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Not really. Michel Thomas usually has some ideas, but I've only had a look at his Spanish course.
A search for vocabulary builder German gave a link to this book: Vocabulary builder: German, including a lot of links to similar books at the bottom of that page. Maybe some of them can be previewed. Maybe somebody here knows more? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| translator2 Senior Member United States Joined 6854 days ago 848 posts - 1862 votes Speaks: English* | Message 3 of 10 05 September 2009 at 4:37am | IP Logged | ||
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Without a shadow of a doubt - this is the book you need. It helped me immensely when I was learning German:
You can actually read some of the book here (scroll up and down): Easy Way to Enlarge Your German Vocabulary Edited by translator2 on 05 September 2009 at 4:37am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Walshy Triglot Senior Member Australia Joined 6877 days ago 335 posts - 365 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, German | Message 4 of 10 05 September 2009 at 4:37am | IP Logged | ||
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You can't rely on anything 100%, but MT teaches a bunch of rules of thumb for dealing with vocabulary.
Ent- is often said to be equivalent to English dis-. discharge/dismiss = entlassen (dis-leave) escape = entkommen (dis-come) Which you can sort of see the logic in, but then you have: Entfremden - which you might think means "to befriend", but it actually means the opposite, "to estrange/alienate". I would say that ent-, just like ab-, seems to imply a seperation of two bodies, which fits all the above examples, but I'm sure there are many which it does not. In short, the "feel" of the prefixes is quite complicated, riddled with exceptions, and only gained after you already have a good handle on the vocabulary. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| schoenewaelder Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5495 days ago 759 posts - 1197 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: German, Spanish, Dutch | Message 5 of 10 05 September 2009 at 7:46pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'm trying to do the opposite, and find a way of ignoring the prefixes (and roots) because they confuse me while not really providing clues to the meaning.
For example, I have a vague confusion between all of the following: Vorwand - pretext, excuse, plea Einwand - objection Vorwurf - accusation Entwurf - sketch Vorschlag - proposal I think I'd be able to learn them much easier if they were called Vwand, Ewand, Vwurf, Ewurf etc. although the shared roots are still confusing. people are always claiming German is logic, but there certainly isn't any here. I think "ver" is probably the worst, as it can mean the whole gamut from exactly the same as without the prefix (veränderung ~ änderung), to roughly the opposite (versehen = oversight). Similarly "absagen" = "reject" while "abmachen" = "agree" 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| trance0 Pentaglot Groupie Slovenia Joined 5685 days ago 52 posts - 78 votes Speaks: Slovenian*, English, German, Croatian, Serbian | Message 6 of 10 06 September 2009 at 5:03pm | IP Logged | ||
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Well, when learning a foreign language one should be thorough.
The last examples of schoenewaelder for example have the following meanings/usage formulations: absagen = to quit/cancel; sich(accusative) einer(genitive) Sache absagen = sich(accusative) von etwas/einer Sache lossagen = etwas(genitive) entsagen = sich(dative) etwas(accusative) versagen =... (+ many more synonyms!) abmachen: 1) entfernen, abnehmen, herunternehmen...(=to remove, to take down/away) 2) eine Zeit ableisten(=to finish serving time (for something)), for example in jail 3) erledigen = to finish/do/settle,... 4) vereinbaren, verabreden,... = agree/arrange,...; etwas(accusative) (mit jemandem) abmachen = to arrange something (with somebody), for example: mit dem Professor einen Termin abmachen = to arrange (about/on) a meeting with the professor etc. There is no easy way to do this, one just has to learn as many words and meanings and idiomatic expressions as possible. And the book proposed by translator2 looks like an excellent help for expanding one`s vocabulary. And German certainly is logical to a certain degree, but no language is really as logical as mathemathics! Word building in German is much more consistent and "Germanic" than in English, it is more predictable and there are fewer exceptions than in English in which Latin, French, Germanic etc. prefexes and suffixes are all mixed up. Edited by trance0 on 06 September 2009 at 5:14pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Astrophel Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 5667 days ago 157 posts - 345 votes Speaks: English*, Latin, German, Spanish Studies: Russian, Cantonese, Polish, Sanskrit, Cherokee | Message 7 of 10 06 September 2009 at 6:08pm | IP Logged | ||
I can't second this enough. As others have stated, the prefixes in particular are not logical, and often have completely opposite meanings in translation. However, if you get a good "feel" for them, not only will you increase your vocabulary, but you will also be able to create your own compound verbs the way that native speakers do. The way I accomplished this myself was actually going through a dictionary and making flashcards of every single word that began with a prefix. You don't necessarily have to learn all these words, just make the cards. This works because when you're making the cards, you think about the meaning of the word in your head and try to understand it intuitively, and by the time you're on the fiftieth word that begins with ab-, you have a crystal clear understanding of what that prefix means, exceptions and all. Just start with the first word that begins with your chosen prefix and go forward alphabetically. This really doesn't take as long as you might think it does. I was having the same problem you are with the prefixes, so I just replaced my normal new vocabulary with ONLY prefix words, and found that by the time I'd done about fifty words with the same prefix, I could easily guess the meaning of the next word (even if it was totally anti-intuitive) and understand why THAT prefix was used instead of any other. I used a Langenscheidt dictionary for this by the way - not too big, not too small. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| trance0 Pentaglot Groupie Slovenia Joined 5685 days ago 52 posts - 78 votes Speaks: Slovenian*, English, German, Croatian, Serbian | Message 8 of 10 06 September 2009 at 6:44pm | IP Logged | ||
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The problem with German prefexed verbs isn`t only in their occasional inconsistency, but also in the numerous meanings and synonyms that exist for the majority of the most frequently used verbs. Take the verb 'ausmachen' for example, most meanings are in a way logical if you have a good feel for the German verb prefexes, but not all of them. German prefexed verbs are similar to English phrasal verbs, and their underlying logic is often quite obscure. This is one of the more difficult parts that Germanic languages sort of have in common. Edited by trance0 on 06 September 2009 at 6:48pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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