₦airaland Forum

willy2000:
It is good to learn the theoretical part, but to be honest with you. The easiest and best way of learning the language fast is by immersion.
I learnt German in Nigeria to B1 but when I came here, I had no confidence to speak, because you are not taught how to speak fast.
Once you get here the speed the language is used will take you off, but you then have to build confidence over time.
Just my opinion, from experience, too much grammar rules sometimes hinder you from speaking fluently. But each to his own. Learn what works for you and use it.
You learn pronunciation by repetition, so lay more emphasis on grammar rules and sentence structure, then build your vocabulary.

My aim is to be able to read anything written in German. Newspapers, storybooks and other things.

Language is comprises of 4 aspects namely READING, WRITING, LISTENING, and SPEAKING.

I want to be an expert in reading and writing aspect. As for the speaking and listening, i would work on that when i finally escape from Zoogeria and enter my country which is Deutschland

Thanks for the advice anyways.

willy2000:
It is good to learn the theoretical part, but to be honest with you. The easiest and best way of learning the language fast is by immersion.
I learnt German in Nigeria to B1 but when I came here, I had no confidence to speak, because you are not taught how to speak fast.
Once you get here the speed the language is used will take you off, but you then have to build confidence over time.
Just my opinion, from experience, too much grammar rules sometimes hinder you from speaking fluently. But each to his own. Learn what works for you and use it.
You learn pronunciation by repetition, so lay more emphasis on grammar rules and sentence structure, then build your vocabulary.

You are right bro but learning the vocabulary now is better cos i think it would

DisturbingEU:
Deutschland mich gut behandeln

das ist schön bruder

willy2000:
when you literally translate from English to German it is as the above, but glücklich becomes an adjective so you have to declinate it.
A native speaker would just say, Du hast Glück, Brüder.

Many thanks for this bro

One of the problems i have with learning deutsch is translating the German sentences literally to English

I wanted to write du hast Glück but i thought to myself that Glück means luck and i was like "does it make sense to say you have luck i guess i still have a long way to go.

I have read many materials about how to construct a sentence but still, i don't understand how some sentences are formed. Can you please highlight the steps on how to construct a good sentence that is acceptable in German.

DisturbingEU:
Ich denke "du bist ein Glücklich bruder"

Vielen dank bruder. I'm still learning German(don't know how to say that in German; D)


Wie behandelt dich Deutschland?

DisturbingEU:
Ich wohne in Deutschland seit einem Jahr

Prima!! Du lebst in Deutschland, meinem Traumland du hast Glück

Bro, abeg which one is correct o if you want to say you are lucky brother

Is it "du hast Glück bruder" or "du bist ein Glücklich bruder"


cc: willy2000

DisturbingEU:
Ich bin jetzt zuhause entspannen

Gut. Hier in Nigeria oder Deutschland

Wo wohnst du?

willy2000:
Not to sound mean, but we are all learning...... what you meant to write here is how are you? I hope you slept well last night.
This should be written in past tense. So the right sentence should be.

Wie geht's dir? " ich hoffe, dass du gut geschlafen hast?" or make it short "hast du gut geschalfen? "

Thanks for the correction bro.

I'm still in A1 level and i haven't mastered Präteritum imperfekt very well. I will start working on it. Once again thanks for the correction, i really appreciate

It's nice to have you here bro

What is a noun?

A noun is a naming word for a living being, thing or idea, for example, woman, happiness, Andrew. German nouns change, according to their gender, case and number.This is called declension.

GENDER: Using nouns

Unlike in English, where nouns almost always reflect natural gender (that is, the sex of the noun determines its gender, e.g., father, man, and boy are masculine; mother, woman, and girl are feminine; and hand, table, and friendship are neuter), all German nouns have grammatical gender. A noun can be masculine, feminine, or neuter, regardless of its natural gender. For example... der Mann (The Man)
das Mädchen (The girl)
die Person (The person)

The definite article der(the) designates a masculine noun, die designates a feminine noun, and das a
neuter noun. For example der Junge, die Frau, das Bild

Nouns that refer specifically to male beings, such as father and uncle, are usually masculine. Those that refer to female beings, such as mother and daughter, are usually feminine.

However, nouns referring to things are not always neuter; they can also be masculine or feminine.

For this reason, the gender of each
noun must be memorized and 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.
der Teppich (The carpet)
die Zeit (The time)
das Bild (The picture)

###
>Whenever you are using a noun, you need to know whether it is masculine, feminine or neuter as this affects the form of other words used with it. Such as:

*Adjectives that describe it
*Articles(such as der or ein)that go before it
*Pronouns(such as er or sie)that replace it

>We refer to something as singular when we are talking about just one, and as plural when we are talking about more than one.The singular is the form of the noun you will usually find when you look a noun up in the dictionary. As in English, nouns in Cerman change their form in the plural.

die Katze cat -------- die Katzen cats


>Adjectives, articles and pronouns are also affected by whether a noun is singular
or plural. So take note of that

beatmonster:
guten morgen

Guten Morgen bruder
Wie geht's? ich hoffe du schläfst letze nacht gut?

DisturbingEU:
Super danke und dir?

Mir geht es gut brüder. Was gibt es neues

willy2000:
nice work, but be prepared to be banned always by seuns bot

That one na normal thing o cos i no fit count d number of times that antispam bot don ban me.

I don even complain about it but be like say dem no fit do anything.

Guys i forgot to tell you about the special characters and their importance.

ß – the sharp ‘s’

The letter ß, called ess-tset 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:

heißen to be called
Straße street
groß big

The umlauts – ä, ö, ü

These are very important. They change the pronunciation of a word and more importantly, its meaning: Mutter means ‘mother’, but Mütter is the plural form and means
‘mothers’. Musste means had to, but müsste means ‘should’ or ‘ought to

Next lesson is on Nouns and Articles


Capitalization
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 or any word used as noun must always be written with a capital letter, regardless of whether they are at the beginning of a sentence or in the middle.

der Herr, das Haus, die Ratte, der Junge, der Reisende, das Mädchen, das Lesen, das Schreiben, das Singen.


Let's us look at some sentences

1) Der Mann und die Frau arbeiten jeden Tag am Computer.
The man and the woman work at their computer every day.

2) ich gehe zu Marianne
I'm going to Marianna's place

**
The emboldened words are the noun*

Note that the pronoun ich (‘I’) has no initial capital in German, but Sie
(formal form of ‘you’) has.

The Letter s, alone and in combination


The pronunciation of the letter s depends on its position in the word. If it is in initial position preceding a vowel or stands between two vowels, it is pronounced like an English z. In other positions, it is usually pronounced as a soft s.


For example

Initial S - Salz, sehr, Seife, Suppe, sagen, sicher, süß........ The S is pronounced like Z in Zoo.


s between vowels - lesen, Käse, Mäuse, Häuser, Eisen....... The S is pronounced like Z in Zoo


Final s - Hals, Puls, das, Eis, Gans, Gas, mittags ...... The S is pronounced like S in Bus.



Consonant Clusters with s


The letter s also occurs in combination with other letters


For example

Sch - schön, wischen, wünschen, Tisch, rasch. It is pronounced like sh in the word SHINE

Sp - spät, Spiel, sprechen, spazieren, Sprache. There is no English equivalent for this but alternatively, you can pronounce it like shp

St - Stein, Stadt, still, entstehen, studieren.... No English equivalent for this also but you can pronounce it like sht

The German R

The German R is one of the most challenging consonants for native speakers of English to master.

Unlike English, German uses either the uvular r (the uvula is the small flap of skin hanging from the soft palate at the back of the mouth) or the tongue-trilled r.

As far as the German, I assume the uvular ʀ is commonly used. In order to be able to pronounce it well, you need to gargle( do like hausa that want to spit )

##
Take a sip of water in your mouth, put your head back and gargle. Basically, that is what you have to do if you want to pronounce the gargled r (uvular r)

Now try and make the same sound without the water

It will take a while until you can get the balance between tenseness and laxness of the sound.


There are some laws guiding the German R

1) If the first syllable is R, you have to use the gargled R... It is pronounced like krrrr in a gargle manner

Examples..... das Rathaus, die Ratte, Russland
Rechts, Rot, Rennen, aufräumen


2) After voiced consonant, you also have to pronounce it like gargled R

groß, die Größe, grün, Bremen, der Druck


3) When R follows an unvoiced consonants, then you have to pronounce it like KRA in a gargle manner.

der Preis, Prima, Krank, der Schrank, die Treppe

4) Before vowels, the R is pronounced RI in gargle manner

Fahren, Studieren, gehören


5) At the end of the syllable, the R will be silent. It will sound more like ah

Lernen, die Schwiegereltern, gefährlich


6) At the end of the word, the R sounds like ah

Für, das Wetter, der, der Politiker, der Fußballspieler, das Bier


7) Before consonant, the R is also pronounced ah

der Berg, dort, die Eltern, kurz, morgen



####
To master the German R, you need alot of practice.

For pronunciation, search learn German with Jenny on youtube. Look for the GERMAN R by Jenny. The video is well explained.


#Shalom

Other Differences


Other consonants that are pronounced differently in English and German include the letters l, r, j, w, z,
s, v, q, c.


The Letters [l]

Although this letter exist in both the English and the German alphabets, it is pronounced very differently in the two languages.

The English I is a dark sound that is pronounced rather far back in the mouth. By contrast, the German I is pronounced toward the front of the mouth with the tongue flatter and touching the back of the
front teeth. This produces a much lighter l sound.

***
Good listening skills and practice are required to master these sounds.

###
Search and download German word pronouciation on PLAYSTORE or APPLESTORE (for those using Iphone)

Differences

The ich sound and the ach sound

The consonant cluster ch can represent two closely related, but different sounds that are present in German but not in standard English.

Both sounds are produced with the tongue and mouth in more or less the same position as for the k sound. However, the stream of breath is not cut off as when pronouncing
a k; rather, it is forced through the narrow opening between the tongue and the roof of the mouth.

Whether the ch becomes an ich sound or an ach sound is determined by the immediately preceding vowel, that is, by the position of the mouth that is required to produce these vowel sounds.

When ch follows the vowels a, o, u or the diphthong au, it is pronounced toward the back of the throat.

Examples these sounds are:-

ach, acht, Nacht, doch, Woche, Tochter, Buch, Tuch, Kuchen, besuchen, Frucht, auch,
rauchen, gebrauch


####


In other environments, that is, after the vowels e, i, ä, ö, ü, as well as after the diphthongs ei (ai, ay, ey)
and eu (äu) and the consonants l, n, r, the stream of air is forced through a flatter but wider opening between the tongue and the roof of the mouth. The resulting ich sound is pronounced more toward the
front of the mouth.

Examples are as follows

schlecht, ich, Sicht, lächeln, möchte, Bücher, Eiche, euch, welcher, München, Kirche, Milch

Pecky2222:
Wow...das ist toll.. Danke

Gern geschehen Schwester. Willikommen an Bord

Guten Morgen leute
Was geht?

Sorry am late... Today, we are going to talk about the differences between ich and ach and some other differences.

Also we are going to talk about the German R sound.

So, stay tuned �

amahbrain:
You are a life saver. I have actually understood this better than what I arch on YouTube. Danke!

Gern geschehen Schwester
Willkommen an Bord

OkaNaUbe:
Let me learn something here...

Bitte schön brüder

drakura:
Danke , ich kann spreche ein bisschen Deutsche
I stopped at A1 last year, i wanted to continue but I am afraid of failing because it's hard for me to learn it, the people i started with are already in B1 level , some already left the country to Germany it's just hard for me to learn

As i have said earlier in one of my posts, the most difficult language is one you are uninterested in learning.

The easiest language is whichever language you enjoy most (for whatever reasons you may have) and have most readily available to immerse yourself.

When i first started learning German. My first impression of the language was poor and i had little knowledge of the resources available.

Because of these reasons I found the language dull, ugly sounding, complicated, and ultimately uninteresting. Simple concepts made little sense to me but as time goes on, i started getting it. The enthusiasm to learn it quickly was all over me. Gradually, i started forming sentences and words. Right now, i can say am still in A1 level because i haven't mastered the CASES(Nominative, dative, accusative and genitive)

So to cut my story short, every language has to be easy enough to learn at least in its spoken form.

You need consistency and commitment to learn German. If you have these 2 qualities, learning German would be as easy as ABC

Eldeee:
this is absolutely amazing and wonderful. many thanks for your selfless acts. We hope to see it become fruitful and impacting.

God bless you richly in all measures.

Vielen danke

Schön dich kennenzulernen bruder. I really appreciate your comment. It motivates me.

The Consonants

###
Similarities

Many of the German consonants are pronounced more or less as they are in English. Included in this group are f, h, k, m, n, p, t, x.

For example

F --- Freitag, Fisch, Neffe,
H--- Haus, haben, hastig, gehoben
K--- kaufen, küssen, Park
M--- Montag, immer, dem
N--- nicht, bin
P--- Problem, Lampe, schlapp
T--- Tag, Täter, tat
X--- Taxi, Axt, boxen



The consonants b, d, g are also pronounced more or less as they are in English when they are at the beginning of a word or a syllable. However, when b, d, g appear at the end of a word or syllable, or before t or st, they are pronounced as p, t, k.

That is, b is pronounced like p
d is pronounced like t
g is pronounced like k

I think i have posted something like this in one of my posts.

**

Note: When g appears in the suffix -ig at the end of a word, the suffix is pronounced like -ich.

Examples

hastig, billig, durstig, fertig, zwanzig, neunzig

The Vowels

Vowels in German are either long or short. In our pronunciation key, long vowels are followed by a
colon, e.g, [a:], [e:], [i:], [o:], [u:]


Short vowels stand alone, e.g, [a], [e], [i], [o], [u]


To learn how vowels are being pronounced in German, search it on Google or youtube

###
There are a number of basic rules that help in determining whether a vowel is to be pronounced long or short.

(1) A double vowel is long.
Haar, Boot, Beet

(2) A vowel followed by a silent h (the so-called
Dehnungs-hah, or stretching H) is long.
Jahr, ihm

(3) A vowel followed by a single consonant is
usually long.
gut, dem,


(4) An i followed by an e (that is, ie) is long.
Liebe, wieder, sieben, die

(5) A vowel followed by a double consonant is
short.
Bett, kommen, können

(6) A vowel followed by two or more
consonants, including the combinations ch
and sch, is usually short.
ich, typisch, sicher, Fenster, Sack

(7) A vowel in one-syllable prepositions and
other common one-syllable words ending in a
single consonant are often short.
mit, im, um, es

( An e not in combination with another vowel,
standing at the end of a word, is short.
Hase, gebe, bitte, Hilfe




DIPTHONGS

A diphthong is a combination of 2 vowels that blend and are sounded together. Instead of being pronounced seperately, 2 letters have one sound or pronunciation.

There are three common diphthongs in German. Note that two of these diphthongs can be spelled in several different ways.

For example

au is pronounced like ow
Haus, traum, auf, Frau, brauchen, aus

äu or eu is pronounced like oi
Häuser, neu, freuer, heute

ai or ei is pronounced like eye
Frei, Zeit, Mai, ein, mein, Leid

Note: In German, diphthongs are not drawn out as they are in English. They are pronounced short and clipped.


And also, the combination ie is not a diphthong, but rather a spelling variant of the [i:] sound.

die, Sie, Lied, Knie, Brief, wieder.

egorov:
Richtig Gut dir?

Ja
You haven't answered my question bro �

You really need to polish your German skills

To learn some basic German phrases
Visit this thread

https://www.nairaland.com/4834342/deutsch-lernen-mit-hadampson-learning

Iheuyo:
So I had a very long wait between interview and AM.

Admission July.
Interview 28 August
AM 13th October
Visa 22nd October
Landed here. 3rd Nov

Just wanted to point out. Hold some cash (like 1500 Euros) on your way, whether or not you are using the blocked account.
As you might need to pay rent et al before you're able to unblock your account.
If you can learn basic German too, so you don't have to start all conversations with "Do you speak English"

Congrats bro
Wish you success in deutschland


About learning basic German, there is a thread here on travel section where people can learn German

johndoefoo:
Something happened to me today. I lost my wallet yesterday, I never knew I lost it until some few hours ago... before I knew it, police came to my house some few minutes ago to give it to me... I have some money it with all my debit and credit cards... As they take know my house is Lol What a good country!

If na Nigeria, make i no talk wetin go happen

It is important to learn to pronounce the German names of the letters of the alphabet so that you will be able to spell names, addresses, and other essential information when needed during stays in German-speaking countries and over the telephone.

Even though both English and German employ the same basic alphabet, there are, of course, significant differences in the pronunciation of the individual German and English sounds represented by the standard letters


To perfect pronunciation, it is essential to avail oneself of every possible opportunity to hear and use spoken German, e.g., through CDs, DVDs, radio, television, movies, conversations with native speakers, and visits to German-speaking countries

It might be helpful to remember that precisely those sounds that characterize a German accent in English are the sounds that will require the most work in order for you to overcome your foreign accent in German. It might be helpful to imitate those sounds as you practice your German pronunciation.

The German Alphabet


The German alphabet has the 26 standard letters found in the English alphabet plus four letters that are
specific to German.

They are as follows:-

Alphabet
Letter German Name
A. ah
B. bay
C. tsay
D. day
E. eh
F. eff
G. gay
H. hah
I. ee
J. yot
K. kah
L. ell
M. emm
N. enn
O. oh
P. peh
Q. kuh
R. err
S. ess
T. teh
U. uh
V. Fau
W. veh
X. iks
Y. üppsilon
Z. Tset



The 4 special letter are as follows


Ä or A-umlaut
English equivalent is melon, age

Ö(oeh) or O-umlaut
English equivalent is flirt, girl

Ü(ueh) or U-umlaut
There is no English equivalent for this

ß... This is called ess-tset or scharfes S(sharp S)
English equivalent for ß is kiss


Note that ß (ess-tset) is the only letter that will never be at the beginning of a word.