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419scambaiterKoko

PostPosted: Fri Aug 01, 2008 9:05 pm


Jazzy-Devine
Koko.Dk
Jazzy-Devine
Hello everyone!

I desperately need help learning German. I've been learning since May/June 2007. I just can't get the hang of it at all! (I've actually had better luck in Finnish, and my boyfriend doesn't believe me.) So, please, please hep me if you can. Links for vocab, good online dictionaries, something to help with my pronunciation, help learning the cases, anything free basically.


Look up on Youtube "Easy German lessons" and perhaps play Sandra Bullock's speech in german at the bambi awards on youtube too.
Purchase the game "Where is Oscar Lake?" That game is such a fun way to learn german.


Ah, well, thanks! I think the easy German lessons on youtube might be a little bit too low level for me. But, I'll give it a try.


It's only in German with English subtitles either in the clip or to the side.
PostPosted: Fri Aug 15, 2008 5:53 pm


Gutentag alle. How do you prounounce double "r's" in German?

apiyo

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apiyo

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PostPosted: Sat Aug 16, 2008 8:07 am


Is German sentence structure the exact same as in English (I can't imagine that being the case)?

Like would the sentence "Ich Habe zwei schwesterm" be correct. Or "Meine mutti sie braucht noch ein Stuhl oder das Sofa."

Are my word orders correct?
PostPosted: Sat Aug 16, 2008 7:09 pm


apiyo
Is German sentence structure the exact same as in English (I can't imagine that being the case)?

Like would the sentence "Ich Habe zwei schwesterm" be correct. Or "Meine mutti sie braucht noch ein Stuhl oder das Sofa."

Are my word orders correct?
Sometimes it can be. There is another order in german too. Those could be correct but as I said there is another order so you could be both right and wrong depending on which order they use most.
Edit: Apparently, the word order you used is the most common, which is SVO and that goes for english and german. but they can also use SOV order which is used in dutch also.

buggsie blue


Chikiya

PostPosted: Sun Aug 17, 2008 4:16 pm


T A T U_TV
apiyo
Is German sentence structure the exact same as in English (I can't imagine that being the case)?

Like would the sentence "Ich Habe zwei schwesterm" be correct. Or "Meine mutti sie braucht noch ein Stuhl oder das Sofa."

Are my word orders correct?
Sometimes it can be. There is another order in german too. Those could be correct but as I said there is another order so you could be both right and wrong depending on which order they use most.
Edit: Apparently, the word order you used is the most common, which is SVO and that goes for english and german. but they can also use SOV order which is used in dutch also.
Oh dear, SVO xd
In my English Language class last year, one of our German exchange students put up his hand and said 'SVO, we have that in Germany too, it stands for Straßenverkehrsordnung!'
PostPosted: Fri Aug 22, 2008 3:37 pm


Chikiya
T A T U_TV
apiyo
Is German sentence structure the exact same as in English (I can't imagine that being the case)?

Like would the sentence "Ich Habe zwei schwesterm" be correct. Or "Meine mutti sie braucht noch ein Stuhl oder das Sofa."

Are my word orders correct?
Sometimes it can be. There is another order in german too. Those could be correct but as I said there is another order so you could be both right and wrong depending on which order they use most.
Edit: Apparently, the word order you used is the most common, which is SVO and that goes for english and german. but they can also use SOV order which is used in dutch also.
Oh dear, SVO xd
In my English Language class last year, one of our German exchange students put up his hand and said 'SVO, we have that in Germany too, it stands for Straßenverkehrsordnung!'


What does Straßenverkehrsordnung mean?

apiyo

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Chikiya

PostPosted: Sat Aug 23, 2008 2:33 pm


apiyo
Chikiya
T A T U_TV
apiyo
Is German sentence structure the exact same as in English (I can't imagine that being the case)?

Like would the sentence "Ich Habe zwei schwesterm" be correct. Or "Meine mutti sie braucht noch ein Stuhl oder das Sofa."

Are my word orders correct?
Sometimes it can be. There is another order in german too. Those could be correct but as I said there is another order so you could be both right and wrong depending on which order they use most.
Edit: Apparently, the word order you used is the most common, which is SVO and that goes for english and german. but they can also use SOV order which is used in dutch also.
Oh dear, SVO xd
In my English Language class last year, one of our German exchange students put up his hand and said 'SVO, we have that in Germany too, it stands for Straßenverkehrsordnung!'


What does Straßenverkehrsordnung mean?
It's the Highway Code.
PostPosted: Sat Aug 30, 2008 10:01 pm


I've recently begun going to school, and one of my classes is German. I already dislike the class. My teacher said that Spanish and French had dropped the neuter definite article that German retained from Latin. She also said that Thor was a god in Greek and Roman mythology. I also know for a fact she's made pronunciation errors, and she gets mad if we translate "ich heisse" as "I am called" rather than "my name is".

o_o

I have met a girl from Germany in that school, though. XD

The Star is Vain


lili of the lamplight

PostPosted: Sun Sep 07, 2008 10:58 pm


Most of that proves your teacher is an idiot, but with the translation of "Ich heisse," I can see where she's coming from.

You wouldn't use "heisse" to mean 'to call' in other contexts, and there is another verb that could translate more closely to 'being called' something (nennen).
For example:
"Mein Freund nennt mich Senfa, aber ich heisse Olivia."
would generally be translated
My friend calls me Senfa, but my name is Olivia.
PostPosted: Tue Sep 09, 2008 8:31 pm


Jazzy-Devine
Hello everyone!

I desperately need help learning German. I've been learning since May/June 2007. I just can't get the hang of it at all! (I've actually had better luck in Finnish, and my boyfriend doesn't believe me.) So, please, please hep me if you can. Links for vocab, good online dictionaries, something to help with my pronunciation, help learning the cases, anything free basically.


Have you ever heard of a website called byki.com? It's a language learning site that has courses in over 70 different languages. I haven't done much on the site myself, but from what I've seen it looks pretty awesome, and really helpful whatever level of a language you're at. I think you should have a look. 3nodding

frohesmaedchen


Chikiya

PostPosted: Wed Sep 10, 2008 8:12 am


lili of the lamplight
Most of that proves your teacher is an idiot, but with the translation of "Ich heisse," I can see where she's coming from.

You wouldn't use "heisse" to mean 'to call' in other contexts, and there is another verb that could translate more closely to 'being called' something (nennen).
For example:
"Mein Freund nennt mich Senfa, aber ich heisse Olivia."
would generally be translated
My friend calls me Senfa, but my name is Olivia.
Not necessarily. In fact I would say 'nennen' is more like 'to name (sth.)' - but can mean many similar things, including 'to state' or 'to designate'. In fact it doesn't have multiple meanings - it has the same meaning but can be used in many different contexts. Think of it like someone 'stating' the name of someone else.

What you have said so far is right, but there is more than one way of expressing it. You could also put it this way:
'Wir nannten unsere Tochter Elise.' - 'We named our daughter Elise.'
compared to: 'Unsere Tochter heisst Elise.' - 'Our daughter is called Elise.'

'Heissen' is a word that does have a double meaning - 'to be called' or 'to mean'. When you use it to say 'Ich heisse ____', it's other meaning is irrelevant.

If you want it put the simple way, neither of them mean 'my name is' and both mean 'I am called.'

If you wanted something to mean 'my name is' you would actually have to put it literally - 'Mein Name ist'.

I hope the way I have explained this makes sense. sweatdrop
PostPosted: Mon Oct 06, 2008 7:28 pm


Guten tag German Speakers ^^

I have a question about 'Pennsylvania Dutch'
I'm posting it here because contrary to the name, its spoken by Amish/Mennonite communities in the US who descend from German immigrates prior to the 1800's

Does anyone know more information on this..'dialect'
Ive looked it up on sites and ive not found much information the difference between this and traditional German sweatdrop

PiercedPixie2


apiyo

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PostPosted: Wed Oct 08, 2008 11:43 am


Today, I was bored in Spanish and decided to write some German sentences(oh the irony). Here they are:

Ich verste mein Schwester.

Wann sie geht die Kirche?

Wir kaufen das Hause.

Donald Trump er kauft das Hauser. (w/ umlat over the 'a')

Mein Brutter er sprecht nicht Deutsch aber mein Schwester sie sprecht nicht viel Deutsch.
How are they grammatically? I have the sneaking suspicion that the sentence structure is wrong...
PostPosted: Wed Oct 08, 2008 2:48 pm


I have quite a few reflexive verbs that I need to know for spanish. I thought it'd be a great idea to learn the German verbs at the same time since knowing German seems to be helping my Spanish. Were's a place were I could get a good list of German reflexive verbs and how to conjugate them? I'd list them here but it's kind of alot.

apiyo

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Hawk_McKrakken

PostPosted: Thu Nov 06, 2008 9:34 pm


@frohesmaedchen: Yes, BYKI's a fairly good resource for basic vocab and phrases, but alas, it covers almost nothing of grammar (for any of its available languages). Great for pronunciation, though, as I'm at least 90% certain their speakers are natives. It was a great help to me...although the finicky "type in your answer" quizzes were seriously, seriously flawed.

@PiercedPixie2: The Wikipedia article for Pennsylvania Dutch should have some resourceful links at the bottom of the page.

@apiyo (post 1):
Well, the sentences you wrote are understandable, I'll give you that much. wink Here's how they should look, assuming I'm correctly getting at what you were trying to say:

Ich verstehe meine Schwester. (I understand my sister.)
1 - 'versteh' is the root of the verb 'verstehen', and most verbs take a -e ending in the 'ich' form.
2 - 'Schwester' is a feminine word, so 'meine' is used in place of 'mein'.

Wann geht sie zur Kirche? (When is she going to the church?)
1 - when forming a question, the verb typically comes before the object.
2 - 'zu', meaning 'to', is combined with the dative form of 'die', which is 'der' - this provides the contraction 'zur', meaning 'to the'.

Wir kaufen das Haus. (We're buying the house.)
1 - Haus is spelled without an -e, but the rest of that sentence is fine.

Donald Trump kauft die Haeuser. (Donald Trump is buying the houses.)
1 - you can omit 'er' because with 'Donald Trump', the subject of the sentence is already established (it'd be like saying in English "Donald Trump he buys the houses").
2 - like the article 'la' pluralizes to 'las' in Spanish, 'das' pluralizes to 'die'.
3 - remember: when you are unable to use an umlaut because of computer issues, substitute 'ä' with 'ae', 'ö' with 'oe' and 'ü' with 'ue'.

Mein Bruder spricht Deutsch nicht, aber spricht meine Schwester ein bisschen Deutsch. (My brother doesn't speak German, but my sister speaks a little bit of German. [Right?])
1 - again, 'Bruder' establishes the subject, so 'er' is redundant; same thing with 'Schwester' and 'sie'.
2 - 'sprechen', 'to speak', is a strong verb - the stem vowel, E, changes to I in the 'du' and 'er/sie' forms - thus 'sprecht' becomes 'spricht'.
3 - to say that 'my brother doesn't speak German but my sister doesn't speak very much German' sounds a little odd; if you're aiming to say 'a little', use 'ein bisschen' - it literally means the same as English's 'a little bit (of)'.
4 - German word order is pretty flexible, so don't feel like you're obligated to carry on the SVO order as if Big Brother were monitoring your sentence structures.

@apiyo (post 2):
Visit ielanguages.com . It is by far one of the most useful sites you'll ever find pertaining to the grammar of Indo-European languages. There should be a section in the German lessons about reflexive verbs which provides a list of them.
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