Archive for 'Language'
Some simple facts about Germany Posted by jan on Nov 21, 2011
Germany is located in the heart of Europe. It has nine Nachbarstaaten (neighboring states) and it naturally borders the Nordsee (North Sea) and Ostsee (Baltic Sea) and the European Alps in the south (The borders to all neighboring states are open, by the way. The only exception is Switzerland). With its 357.111,92 km², it is…
German movies: Lola rennt (Run Lola Run) Posted by jan on Nov 16, 2011
The movie „Jeden Tag, jede Sekunde triffst Du eine Entscheidung, die dein Leben verändern kann.“ („Every day, every second you make a decision that could change your life.“) You can say that this Satz (sentence) is something like the credo of this fast-paced movie made by Tom Tykwer in 1998. The story of the movie…
German ordinal numbers in use: Choosing the proper gender, grammatical case, and number (pt. II) Posted by Sandra Rösner on Nov 11, 2011
In my last post I discussed what adjectival endings you have to use when you use a noun with a definite article. Remember that ordinal numbers are grammatically nothing else than adjectives. That is, when you embed an ordinal in your sentence you have to modify it like any other adjectives. In this post I…
German ordinal numbers in use: Choosing the proper gender, grammatical case, and number (pt. I) Posted by Sandra Rösner on Nov 9, 2011
Ordinal numbers are not as common as cardinal numbers. But you need to use them whenever you express things that occur in an order or series. For example, in a hotel you may discover that your room is on the eighth floor. To properly use ordinals in German, you have to consider that ordinal numbers…
German ordinal numbers from 1st to 100th Posted by Sandra Rösner on Nov 7, 2011
Numbers come in two forms in almost every language. The most common form is called cardinal numbers. You use cardinal numbers when you look at a price tag or do your taxes. In other words, you use these types of numbers for any type of counting. The second type of number is called ordinal numbers…
Wie man Deutsch lernt!? – How to learn German!? (Part III) Posted by Sandra Rösner on Oct 28, 2011
Here is, for now, the third and last part on language learning tips. In two of my previous posts I already talked about the importance of learning vocabulary, the positive influence of ignoring your native language when learning a second language, the ambiguity of linguistic entries, the lengthy acquisition process, and the importance of instructed…
Wie man Deutsch lernt!? – How to learn German!? (Part II) Posted by Sandra Rösner on Oct 18, 2011
In my second last post I began to write about language learning tips, which I will now carry on. 4. Be realistic Learning a second language takes time. So, don’t put yourself under pressure to become a fluent speaker of German within a couple of weeks. Fast second language learning is just not possible…