Recognizing neuter nouns in German part 1 Posted by Sandra Rösner on Feb 14, 2012
I have already written about how you can recognize masculine and feminine nouns in German. But German nouns can have a further gender: the neuter. In comparison to masculine and feminine nouns, neuter ones can be recognized much easier. a) Nouns that denote young living beings: humans as well as animals Young living beings…
Valentinstag – Valentine’s Day Posted by anja on Feb 12, 2012
Only two days until Valentine’s day! Have you already sent out your greeting cards, prepared your presents, planned the evening with your loved one? The custom to celebrate St. Valentine’s Day as the day of lovers was introduced to Germany by US soldiers after WWII, and then got popularized among the general public by marketing…
Das Meer – the sea Posted by jan on Feb 9, 2012
Here´s an audiovisual comprehension about the sea. Watch the video and answer the questions afterwards. Attentions: This one might be for advanced learners! Here are the questions: 1. How many percent of the oxygen is produced by plants living in the sea? 2. What is the alternative word for „Ebbe und Flut“? 3. The sea…
Deutsch lernen mit Liedern – Learn German with songs Posted by anja on Feb 8, 2012
Songs are a great way to learn a language. By listening to native speakers, you get a feel for the sound of the language. By listening to the same text repeatedly, you get a feel for the structure of the language, for its word order; and you’ll be remembering phrases, words, and articles. Just listen…
Die Sendung mit der Maus – The Program with the Mouse Posted by anja on Jan 31, 2012
When searching for German language learning resources online, I discovered this wonderful website: Sachgeschichten aus der Sendung mit der Maus. Sachgeschichten means “non-fictional stories”, and Die Sendung mit der Maus is, I’d say, Germany’s most famous TV program after the crime television series Tatort (english title: Crime Scene), so I am dedicating a whole article…
Getting from A to B in Germany: part 2 of 2 Posted by anja on Jan 21, 2012
In my last post I talked about traveling Germany by train, and I promised to tell you about other ways of getting around. So here we go! A cheaper alternative to train travel is carpooling. There are several websites dedicated to aranging long-distance carpools, the one with the largest community being mitfahrgelegenheit.de. Usually the person…
Weibliche Substantive im Deutschen erkennen: Teil 4 – Detecting German feminine nouns: part 4 Posted by Sandra Rösner on Jan 20, 2012
After we have hashed and rehashed feminine nouns in the last three posts, we finally come to an end of this topic. Remember that all nouns are feminine that refer to: – female human beings (Mutter-mother; Frau-woman, wife; Tochter-daughter; the only exception is “Mädchen”-girl, which is neuter because of the syllable –chen) – female occupations…