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In German, g sounds like the English g in any part of a word, except when it's at the end of a word, in which case it sounds like a k.

Happy?

Good. 3nodding

With the exception of the suffix -ig, which sounds exactly like the word 'ich'...

Yeah, I knew I was missing something.


I want more lessons. ;_;

I was under the impression it was "Alles Gute zum Geburstag." sweatdrop Is there more than one way to say it or did I just get this wrong somewhere along the lines?



Depends on where you live. I lived in the east (Nijmegen) and the "g" wasn't as obnoxious as in the west, where they really choked on the thing. And in flanders (northern Belgium) their "g" is even softer.

3: Adjectives

Okay, it's another lesson! This time it's on adjectives, and now to place them in front of different types of nouns. I'll also put down some of the most useful adjectives you'll need.
Things that you will find useful:

The colours
Rot - red
Orange - orange (said orangsh, I've also heard it said orongsh)
Gelb - yellow
Grün - green
Blau - blue
Lila - purple
Rosa - pink (mostly means light pink - magenta sort of pink is called 'pink')
Schwarz - black
Weiβ - white
Grau - grey
Braun - brown

To say if a colour is light or dark, you use:
Hell - light
Dunkel - dark

eg. Hell Blau = light blue
Dunkel Grün = dark green

Colours are definitely some of the most useful adjectives, so remember these ones! If you like, make yourself rainbow cards, they always help when your learning colours in another language!

More useful adjectives:
(If there is anything you would like to know, ask for it and I'll add it to the list)
groβ = large (tall when describing height)
klein = small
schön = pretty
nett = nice
lecker = delicious
süβ = sweet
dumm = stupid
richtig = right (correct)
falsch = wrong
recht = right (side)
links = left
dünn = thin
schlank = slim
d**k = thick (also fat)
interessant = interesting
langweilig = boring
öde = dull
blond = blonde
kalt = cold
heiβ = hot
warm = warm
kühl = cool

I'm sure there's something really important that I've forgotten, so if I have, please point out.

How you use an adjective depends on whether the noun is a der, die or das noun (These I have explained in lesson 2)
An adjective placed in front of a 'der' noun ends in 'er'. For example, ein grüner Baum (a green tree), ein kleiner Hund (a small dog)
An adjective placed in front of a 'die' noun ends in 'e'. For example, eine schwarze Katze (a black cat), eine schöne Brille (some pretty specs)
An adjective placed in front of a 'das' noun ends is 'es'. For example, ein rotes Auto (a red car), ein dickes Buch (a thick book).

If you just want to say 'the [noun] is [adjective]', you don't have to do any of the things above to the adjective. You just leave the adjective as it is.
eg. Der Junge is dumm (That boy is stupid), die Schuhe sind rosa (The shoes are pink), das Essen ist lecker (The food is delicious)

Some adjective end in 'ig'. eg. wolkig (cloudy - Wolke = cloud), salzig (salty - Salz = salt), langweilig (boring - Langewile = boredom)
Some adjectives end in 'isch' eg. praktisch (practical), regnerisch (rainy), spottisch (mocking)
When you put these in front of different 'der', 'die' or 'das' words, you leave the 'ig' or 'isch' or whatever else on the adjective and then just add 'er', 'e' or 'es' depending on which one you need. eg. eine winzige Maus (a tiny mouse), ein höllischer Tag (a hellish day), ein praktisches Tagebuch (a practical diary)

I'll be finishing for now, but I might be adding on to this later. I hope I have explained enough.

I never knew that. Extremely helpful. Thank you.

But, could someone clarify :
Orange - Can it also be said ore-ran-ger? I use Before you know it, and that's how they say it.

Lila - purple. Again on the Byki program, it's Violett. Is that like the difference between the English lilac, violet, purple, mauve? I'd just like to know wich word refers to which tone of color.

'Lila' is to 'purple' as 'violett' is to 'violet'. They're just two different words for the same color, just like we have in English.

Here's some more adjectives to add to the list:

hässlich - ugly
hübsch - pretty
wunderbar/wundervoll - wonderful
sonderbar - weird
klug - smart
stark - strong
schwach - weak
schnell - quick
langsam - slow
fett - fat
ruhig - quiet
laut - loud
schweigsam - silent
sauer - sour
bitter - bitter
gut - good
schlecht/schlimm - bad
notwendig/nötig - necessary
unnötig - unnecessary
verständnisvoll - understanding
ärgerlich - angry
traurig - sad
glücklich - happy

On a more important note, you can make superlatives out of most adjectives, generally by adding -er or -sten.

Ex: hell (bright) -> heller (brighter) -> am hellsten (the brightest)

Some adjectives add umlauts where they can:

klug (smart) -> klüger (smarter) -> am klügsten (the smartest)
schwach (weak) -> schwächer (weaker) -> an schwächste (the weakest)

(Note that the above examples are all used when one says something IS smarter, Ich bin klüger=I am smarter, sie sind am klügsten=they are the smartest. When you want to use it as a superlative adjective, use the same ending rules mentioned above by Chikiya.)

Ex: Ein kluger Mann (a smart man) -> Ein klügerer Mann (a smarter man)
Eine kluge Frau (a smart woman) -> Ein klügere Frau (a smarter woman)
Ein kluges Mädchen (a smart girl) -> Ein klügeres Mädchen (a smarter girl)

You can't say "a smartest person", only "the smartest person", so there is only one ending:

Ex: der klügste Mann (the smartest man)
die klügste Frau (the smartest woman)
das klügste Mädchen (the smartest girl)

Sorry if that's all confusing but there's really no humanly possible way to simplify something like that.