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German I Tutorial

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1. Some Basic Phrases

Note:  Ich is not actually pronounced ikh, unless you are speaking a northern dialect of German. If you are speaking a southern dialect, then it is more like ish. There is no equivalent sound in English.  In standard German, It is somewhere between ish and ikh and somewhat like a soft hiss of a cat. Technically it is a voiceless palatal fricative and its voiced counterpart is the y sound in yes.

2. Pronunciation

German Vowels		English Pronunciation
[i]	viel	meet, eat
[y]	kühl	ee rounded / long vowel
[ɪ]	Tisch	mitt, it
[ʏ]	hübsch	ih rounded / short vowel
[e]	Tee	mate, wait
[ø]	schön	ay rounded / long vowel
[ɛ]	Bett	met, wet
[œ]	zwölf	eh rounded / short vowel
[a]	Mann	mop, not
[ɑ]	kam	ah / longer vowel than [a]
[u]	gut	boot, suit
[ʊ]	muss	put, soot
[o]	Sohn	coat, goat
[ɔ]	Stock	caught, bought
[ə]	bitte	cut, what
[ɐ]	Wetter	uhr / also short vowel like [ə]

Vowels highlighted in blue do not exist in English.

Notice that words spelled with ö and ü can be pronounced with a long or short vowel, so determining the pronunciation based on the spelling is not possible. The other umlauted letter, ä, is generally pronounced as [e], though it can be pronounced as [ɛ] in some dialects. A general rule for pronunciation, however, states that the short vowels / ɪ ʏ ʊ ɛ ɔ / must be followed by a consonant, whereas the long vowels / i y u e ø o / can occur at the end of the syllable or word.

German Consonants

There are a few German consonants that do not exist in English, and some consonant combinations that are not common in English. Notice that the pronunciation of the German r changes according to the location in the countries that speak German, i.e. [R] in northern Germany and [r] in southern Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

In addition, the sounds [b], [d], and [g] lose their voicing at the end of a syllable, so they are pronounced as their voiceless counterparts [p], [t], and [k], respectively. However, the spelling does not reflect the pronunciation.

Stress

Stress generally falls on the first syllable of the word, except in words borrowed from other languages, where the stress falls on the last syllable (especially with French words.)

3. Alphabet

There is another letter in written German, ß (es-zet ), pronounced like [s]. However, this letter is only used after long vowels or diphthongs, and it is not used at all in Switzerland.

4. Nouns and Cases

All nouns have a gender in German, either masculine, feminine or neuter.  There really isn't a lot of logic to which nouns are which gender, so you must memorize the gender of each noun.  Male persons or animals, the seasons, months, and days are all masculine, as are nouns ending in -ant, -ast, -ich, -ig, -ismus, -ling, -or and -us.  Female persons or animals, and numerals are all feminine, as are nouns ending in -a, -anz, -ei, -enz, -heit, -ie, -ik, -in, -keit, -schaft, -sion, -sis, -tät, -tion, -ung and -ur.  Young persons or animals, metals, chemical elements, letters of the alphabet, hotels, restaurants, cinemas, continents, countries and provinces are all neuter, as are nouns that end in -chen, -icht, -il, -it, -lein, -ma, -ment, -tel, -tum, and -um.  Nouns referring to things that end in -al, -an, -ar, -ät, -ent, -ett, -ier, -iv, -o and -on, as well as most words with the prefix ge- and most nouns ending in -nis and -sal are also neuter.  All nouns in German are capitalized as well.

All nouns (as well as pronouns and adjectives) have a case depending on what function they serve in the sentence.  These may seem strange, but remember that English uses cases also; however, we would say direct object instead of accusative, or indirect object instead of dative.  Although these cases may make learning new words difficult, they actually help with word order because the position of words in a sentence is not as crucial in German as it is in English.  And the reason for that is because words can occur in these four cases:

Note:  The nouns I give you, and the ones you look up in a dictionary, will be in the nominative case.

5. Articles and Demonstratives

Note:  Jener is an older word  found in written German that was used to mean that or those, but today in spoken German the definite articles are used.  Dort or da may accompany the definite articles for emphasis.  Das is also a universal demonstrative and therefore shows no agreement.  Notice the last letter of each of the words above.  They correspond to the last letters of the words for the definite articles.  Words that are formed this same way are called der-words because they follow the pattern of the der-die-das declension.  Other der-words are:  jeder-every, and welcher-which.  Mancher (many) and solcher (such) are also der-words, but they are used almost always in the plural.

6. Subject (Nominative) Pronouns

Note:  Man can be translated as one, we, they or the people in general.  When referring to nouns as it, you use er for masculine nouns, sie for feminine nouns and es for neuter nouns.  However, the definite articles der, die and das can be substituted for er, sie and es to show more emphasis.

7. To Be, to Have, and to Become

Note:  You must use the subject pronouns (ich, du, er...); however, I will leave them out of future conjugations.

Haben is frequently used in expressions that would normally take to be in English.
Ich habe Hunger. = I am hungry.
Ich habe Durst. = I am thirsty.
Ich habe Langeweile. = I am bored.
Ich habe Heimweh. = I am homesick.
Ich habe Angst. = I am afraid.

8. Useful Words

Es gibt is commonly used to mean there is/are.

9. Question Words

10. Numbers

Note:  Sometimes zwo (tsvoh) is used instead of zwei to avoid confusion with drei.  And the use of commas and periods is switched in German, though a space is commonly used to separate thousandths, i.e. 1,000 would be 1 000.

11. Days of the Week

Note:  To say on a certain day or the weekend, use am.  Add an -s to the day to express "on Mondays, Tuesdays, etc."  All days, months and seasons are masculine so they all use the same form of these words:  jeden - every, nächsten - next, letzten - last (as in the last of a series), vorigen - previous.  In der Woche is the expression for "during the week" in Northern and Eastern Germany, while unter der Woche is used in Southern Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

12. Months of the Year

Note:  To say in a certain month, use im.

13. Seasons

Note:  To say in the (any season), use im.

14. Directions

15. Colors and Shapes

16. Time

17. Weather

18. Family

Note:  The letters in parentheses indicate the plural form of the noun.

19. To Know People and Facts

20. Formation of Plural Nouns

Plural nouns in German are unpredictable, so it's best to memorize the plural form with the singular.  However, here are some rules that can help:

1. Feminine nouns usually add -n or -en.  Nouns that end in -in (such as the female equivalents of masculine nouns) add -nen.

2. Masculine and neuter nouns usually add -e or -er.  Many masculine plural nouns ending in -e add an umlaut as well, but neuter plural nouns ending in -e don't.  Plurals that end in -er add an umlaut when the stem vowel is a, o , u or au.

3. Masculine and neuter singular nouns that end in -er either add an umlaut or change nothing at all.  Many nouns with a stem vowel of a, o, u or au add an umlaut.

4. Nouns that end in a vowel other than an unstressed -e and nouns of foreign origin add -s.

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