Introduction
Learning German is often perceived as difficult. In 1880, Mark Twain famously dubbed it 'the awful German language', protesting 'Surely there is not another language that is so slipshod and systemless, and so slippery and elusive to the grasp'.
But is this really the case? One thing that is very helpful in learning German is that it is a systematic language, which follows rules. There are many ways to make these rules easier to learn, and there are quite a few tips which will help you in learning the language.
If you approach the language step by step you will find that it is much easier than you may think at the beginning. Here are pointers to some basic principles where German is different from English, and which may be useful before you start out with the grammar proper.
Capital letters for nouns
There are a few ways in which German spelling is different from English.
Capital letters for nouns
German is one of the few languages which uses capital letters not only at the beginning of sentences but also within sentences. In English, this applies only to proper names, to the personal pronoun 'I' and to personifications, such as 'Love'.
In German, all nouns must always be written with a capital letter, regardless of whether they are at the beginning of a sentence or in the middle:
Note that the pronoun ich ('I') has no initial capital in German, but Sie (formal form of 'you') has.
Different characters
The German alphabet has some characters which do not exist in the English alphabet:
ß – the sharp 's'
The letter ß, called eszett in German, is pronounced like the normal English 's', for example in 'sun' or 'basic'.
German uses this letter for instance after ei and ie, and after a, o, u if they are pronounced long:
The umlauts – ä, ö, ü
These are very important. They change the pronunciation of a word and, more importantly, its meaning:
Three genders
All nouns in German are masculine, feminine or neuter. This shows in their singular article: der for masculine nouns, die for feminine nouns, das for neuter nouns.
It is important to realise that gender Grammatical category of nouns in German (masculine, feminine, neuter), not necessarily related to biological sex in German is grammatical, not biological as it is in English. This means that objects, concepts etc. which are neuter ('it') in English can be masculine, feminine or neuter in German:
Important: Whenever you learn a new noun, always learn it with its gender: the best way to do it is to learn it with its article. You will find that this will pay off in the long term.
Verbs
One of the principal differences between English and German is that in German words take specific endings depending on their relationship to other parts of the sentence. This applies to verbs, articles and possessive adjectives and adjectives.
Verbs
These are words describing the 'action' of a sentence, such as 'to run', 'to think'. For example, the German verb 'to go' has different endings when used with 'I', 'he' and 'they':
Articles and possessive adjectives
These are words linked to a noun such as 'a', 'the', 'my' or 'his'. For example, the indefinite article meaning 'a' changes in German when it is linked to the subject of the sentence or the object of the sentence:
Adjectives
These words, which describe the quality of a noun, such as a 'new' computer, an 'intelligent' woman, a 'beautiful' house, follow a similar pattern when they appear in front of a noun. In German adjectives can have different endings when they are linked to a masculine noun, a feminine noun or a neuter noun:
Cases
One of the most important features of German is that you can tell what function a noun performs in a sentence by its ending and the form of the article. These show its case Grammatical function of a noun in a sentence (nominative, accusative, dative, genitive), shown by article and ending changes.
For example, a noun can be the subject of the sentence, i.e. the 'agent' of what is happening:
Or it can be the object, i.e. the 'receiver' of the action in the sentence. The subject and the object are in different cases, which means that the article ('the') has a different ending. Both 'dog' and 'man' are masculine (der) but 'the dog' is the subject (der Hund) and the man is the object (den Mann).
Word order
Word order is much more flexible in German than in English, but there are some very important rules. The most important apply to the position of the finite verb The conjugated verb form that carries the person and number marking, as opposed to infinitives or participles. Here are some basic principles:
- The finite verb is the second idea in most statements:
- The finite verb goes at the beginning of a sentence in orders and many questions:
- The finite verb goes at the end in subordinate clauses:
- If there are two verb forms, one of them goes at the end:
Tenses
English tenses differentiate between an action happening at the moment ('I am working') and an action taking place regularly ('I work at Harrods'). In German, this difference does not exist. The finite verb form is the same in both statements:
The past in English is expressed either by the present perfect tense (when something happened recently or has a connection to the present: 'I was working') or the simple past tense (when something happened at a certain time in the past or has no link to the present: 'I worked'). German is simpler: you normally use the present perfect when you talk about the past regardless of when it happened, and you normally use the simple past in written German.
Looking for principles
German is a very systematic language, and very soon you will realise that there are certain patterns which occur again and again. If you bear this in mind you will see that, after the first few weeks of a fairly steep learning curve, things will become easier and you will recognise these patterns.
Buy a good dictionary. It not only gives you a list of translations but also tells you how to pronounce unfamiliar words and gives you important grammatical information, for example whether a verb takes a certain case or what the plural is for a noun.