German

I’ve been trying to learn German via Duolingo for a bit.

Nouns/Gender

Bunch of nouns that have somehow still trip me up.

Articles are:

| Article | Der | Die | Das | | Gender | Masc. | Fem. | Neuter |

Countries/places

Jobs/Occupations

Jobs have different endings depending on if a man or woman holds it. Usually, the feminine version is the masculine version, with an “in” suffix. For example, Waiter is “Kellner”, while waitress is “Kellnerin”.

Grammar: Jobs are usually phrased as “They are $OCCUPATION”. For example, “Sie ist Kellnerin”. Which literally translates to “she is waiter”.

Friend, despite not being a job, also follows this.

| Friend | Fruend | Fruendin |

Games

Adjectives

Location

| far away | weit weg | “weit” = far, “weg” = away | | here | hier | | nearby | in der Nähe | “in the vicinity” | | left | links | Also “On the left” or “to the left” | | over there | da drüben | | right | rechts | Also “On the right” or “to the right” |

Conjunctions

| also | auch | | but | aber | | from | aus | | or | oder |

Verbs

Verbs conjugate differently if you’re talking about yourself vs. someone else.

Second person drops the trailing vowel (if there), and appends “st”. Third person also drops the trailing vowel (if exists), but it appends “t”.

e.g. The second person form of “koche” is “kochst”, and its third-person form is “kocht”.

Grammar: When making a statement, put the subject first (“du schwimmst”). When making a question, put the verb first (“schwimmst du?”). When making a question, put modifiers after the subject (“schwimmst do oft?”). Modifiers still go before the object of the sentence (“du spielst gut Klavier”).

| English | First-person | | cook | koche | | meet | trifft | | paint | male | | play | spielt | | swim | schwimme |

Verb Modifiers

Modifiers go after the verb.

| always | immer | | never | nie | | often | oft | | sometimes | manchmal |

Phrases

| Prost | Cheers | | Bis Bald | See you soon | | wie gehts | how are you | | auf Wiedersehen | goodbye | | bis später | see you later | | es geht | I’m all right / I’m well | | es tut mir leid | I’m sorry | | tschüss | bye | | entschuldigung | excuse me |

| wie ist es in | what is it like in | | woher kommst du | where do you come from? |

Grammar Notes

Nouns are Capitalized in German

Questions are usually formed as “verb subject”. Statements are usually formed as “subject verb”. E.g. “kommst du” (“do you come…”) vs. “du kommst” (“you come…”)

Last updated: 2022-05-07 19:39:27 -0700