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How to learn German and French | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| adhoc Newbie United States Joined 5110 days ago 2 posts - 2 votes | Message 1 of 7 30 May 2010 at 3:54am | IP Logged | ||
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Hello all,
As you can see, I'm fairly new here. I'm an amateur linguist, I've studied German, French, Mandarin, Arabic, Russian, Latin, and Ancient Greek. But now I need to learn to speak German and French, and I'm not quite sure how. Currently, I'm in uni learning German and French and of course I'm taking courses in them. I've had several years of each in high school. It's summer now and I've been reading some books in both languages and also watching movies. What I'm getting at is that I don't feel like I'm doing enough though. Can anyone offer some suggestions as to what I should change or what else I should be doing? Time is no issue and I don't want to spend a lot of money. I feel that I need to work on vocab in both languages (tips and tricks for learning genders of nouns = bonus points) as well as grammar (mostly in German). 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Slovak_anglo Diglot Groupie United States facebook.com/deliver Joined 5159 days ago 87 posts - 100 votes  Speaks: English*, German Studies: Italian, Slovak | Message 2 of 7 30 May 2010 at 5:10am | IP Logged | ||
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Herzlich Wilkommen!
So really I can't tell you much to help with nouns other than -chen means its neuter(das). I don't know, but I feel that it just sticks and you can just tell that they don't sound right. At least that's how it is for me. A good thing to do is always remember nouns with their genders. die Sonne, das Bad, der Mannschaft usw. As for watching more things I always watch shows on Deutsche Welle. Shows such as Global 3000 and Made in Germany are really cool and they can increase your vocabulary. I can't really help you with french since I don't know it. Viel Glück! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6517 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 3 of 7 30 May 2010 at 11:28am | IP Logged | ||
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You should get accostumed to memorize nouns with an article attached (definite or indefinite) as if it was part of the noun itself, - or at least do this with feminines and neutra (the masculine gender is the most common one, so it is enough to learn the exceptions) Edited by Iversen on 30 May 2010 at 11:29am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| rlf1810 Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 6154 days ago 122 posts - 173 votes Speaks: English*, German, Slovak | Message 4 of 7 30 May 2010 at 4:20pm | IP Logged | ||
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I strongly agree with Iversen's suggestion above.
For a good source of German vocab I have found Basic German Vocabulary by Langenscheidt or Mastering German Vocabulary by Barron's a good place to start. You might also check out the Fokus Deutsch series or the Slow German podcast if you want to get away from books. -Robert 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| josht Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6260 days ago 635 posts - 857 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Spanish, Russian, Dutch | Message 5 of 7 30 May 2010 at 6:45pm | IP Logged | ||
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If you decide to get one of the books that Robert mentioned, I recommend that you go with Langenscheidt's Basic German Vocabulary and not Mastering German Vocabulary. They both are good to help you get the essential vocabulary under your belt, but the latter book, for some reason far beyond me, doesn't include the plurals of nouns. There are enough ways to form the plural in German that, at least when starting out, it's worth memorizing the plurals outright.
As for learning nouns gender, I've found that it's easier to just memorize them as you go along rather than look for any tricks. There are some very obvious gender markers - like all German nouns ending in -heit / -keit are feminine - but I find it's easier to just learn the gender than carry around 25 rules in my head that might help me figure out the gender. Edited by josht on 30 May 2010 at 6:46pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Rob Harris Diglot Newbie United Kingdom Joined 5082 days ago 5 posts - 5 votes Speaks: English*, German | Message 6 of 7 23 June 2010 at 2:50pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hello all!
There are certain endings that give a clue. For example, words derived from verbs ending in -ung are generally feminine. Words created from adjectives (like gesund) ending in -heit or -keit are usually feminine (like Gesundheit). Nouns the same as verb infinitves are neuter (das Schwimmen). Nouns describing people ending in -er are almost always masculine (for example, Holzfäller, lumberjack is masculine) There are actually quite a lot of rules like this. If you have a look in your library for a German grammar, the first or second chapter will be filled with them. There are other, much less reliable clues. For example, words ending in -e are often feminine (like Blume, flower, but not always, there's a large class of words, like Junge (boy) and Beamte (civil servant) that are masculine). Words ending in -en but not derived from verbs are often masculine. Words derived from verbs which end in -t are often feminine (like Sucht from suchen, Sicht from sehen, Macht from machen). Nouns that are formed from chopping off the -en from a verb infinitive are often masculine (der Blick, from blicken). But these rules are really not something you want to count on.
After you learn a few dozen words and you have some knowledge of the rules, the rules become second nature. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| johntm93 Senior Member United States Joined 5141 days ago 587 posts - 746 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish | Message 7 of 7 23 June 2010 at 8:32pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'd say find an advanced course (Assimil or whatever) and try that.
Also read this forum, even old posts, there's so much information here it's amazing. Good luck 1 person has voted this message useful |
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