Hallo (German for hello), I am glad you are back to my series of learning german. There are some basics to english grammer to help us create some sentences.
Ich- I
Bin- am
Du- you
Er- He
Sie- They or She depending on thr verb form
Es- it
Bist- are
ist- is
In bist and ist, the dont take the sht sound we learnt earlier but the normal english st. The Sie in this case will sound like ‘Zi’. Er sounds like ear in english.
NB
As we already know german and english are on the same language family, this makes it easier to learn. However, thete are some differences of how things are done in German.
All nouns in german start with a capital letter. German nouns have gender
Difference 1
In english, one says a man, a woman, the man, the woman, the child, a child. In german, the article ‘the’ or ‘a’ depends entirely on the nouns gender. To know the gender of a noun (which doesn’t have to be people), you will have to a learn and memorize the new german word with its article.
‘A’ and ‘The’ article
There are definite and indefinite articles.
Der bestimmte artikel
Definite is used when talking about a particular object or a person that is already known to thr speaker or listener. Used when further information is known about a person or an object e.g. to whom it belongs.
die, der, das
der unbestimmte artikel
Indefinite is used when we are talking about the type of object or person being referred im general. Used when the person or object is not yet known and has not been mentioned before.
ein, eine
Masculine
ein Mann- A man
ein Junge- A boy
Der Junge- The boy
Feminine
eine Frau- a woman
Die Frau- The woman
Die Bäckerei- The Bakery
Neuter
ein Kind – A child
Das Brot- The bread
Das Wasser- The water
Plurals are formed differently and there is no general rules that apply as seen in english
Difference 2
German Plurals
In Plural the article The changes to Die on all plural nouns. The indefinite articles are never in plural. Indefinite nouns don’t have articles infront of them
Plurals are formed differently in german and fall in either of the following.
der Singular – der plural
Different plural endings
-n
die Brille- die brillen
Der Junge- die Jungen
-en
die Zahl- Zahlen
Die- Frau- Die Frauen
-e
der Stift – die Strifte
-er
Das Kind- die Kinder
-s
das Foto – die Fotos
Don’t change
The words dont change or have different ending when in plural.
der lehrer- die lehrer
das mädchen- die mädchen
Gain Umlaut
Some gain umlauts in one of thr vowels in the word in the plural
das buch – die bücher
der mann- die männer
Two plural forms
die Pizza- die pizzen/pizzas
‘To be’ Verb
Ich bin – [Fill in the blank]
Wir sind- We are
Du bist- You are
Ihr seid- You all are
Er/Sie/es ist- He/She/It is
Sie sind- They are
German simple sentences
She is a girl- Sie ist ein mädchen
I am a boy- Ich bin ein junge
Eine Frau und ein mann- A woman and a man.
Stay Tuned und lernst deutsch with me.
A scientist who writes about her daily experiences. Most are drafts but some are publicly shared, like this one you just read.