German for Beginners

First we will cover die Deklination im Akkusativ and then we'll explore the Dativ. We hope you'll find these so helpful you'll refer to them again and again! Review the transcript, study the lesson and do the quizzes: www.newsinslowgerman.com/series/guts/25/transcript

This is one of the most important points in German, and the German language is (in)famous for its endings, so you've likely heard of them already. Here you want to be sure to take small steps and you want to avoid trying to learn all the endings in all the cases all at once. It bears repeating to be sure to learn these adjective endings one case at a time. Review the transcript, study the lesson and do the quizzes: www.newsinslowgerman.com/series/guts/24/transcript

The word tense or tenses refers to the time that a verb describes. The present tense describes now, today, or currently. The future tense indicates something that will happen later today, tomorrow, or five or 50 years from now. Review the transcript, study the lesson and do the quizzes: www.newsinslowgerman.com/series/guts/23/transcript

The word tense or tenses refers to the time that a verb describes. The present tense describes now, today, or currently. The future tense indicates something that will happen later today, tomorrow, or five or 50 years from now. Review the transcript, study the lesson and do the quizzes: www.newsinslowgerman.com/series/guts/22/transcript

These Wechselpräpositionen are also known as the "two-way prepositions." You could also think of them as double-use prepositions or change-up prepositions. To understand how that double-use functions, you need to already be familiar with the Akkusativ and the Dativ, which you are. First we'll look at the prepositions and then we'll walk through how they are used. Review the transcript, study the lesson and do the quizzes: https://www.newsinslowgerman.com/series/guts/21/transcript

The Dativ prepositions are also very reliable. Difficult sometimes, but always reliable. Review the transcript, study the lesson and do the quizzes: www.newsinslowgerman.com/series/guts/20/transcript

The two most important things to know about prepositions are: 1. Prepositions tell us how one thing is related to something else.  2. Prepositions are language-specific. Here we won't deal with an exhaustive list of prepositions, but we will work with the most commonly used prepositions. As you discover additional prepositions in the news articles you read, feel free to add to these lists. It's important, too, to note that you don't need to learn an exhaustive list of translations for these prepositions. It's most important that you use the prepositions in German, that you develop a sense of how to do so. Review the transcript, study the lesson and do the quizzes: www.newsinslowgerman.com/series/guts/19/transcript

This lesson serves two purposes: one is to help you learn more about the Personalpronomen (personal pronouns) and the Possessivpronomen with the declensions (endings) they require in the three cases. The other is to serve as a reference for you. If you were to repeat this lesson dozens of times, we'd be thrilled! Review the transcript, study the lesson and do the quizzes: www.newsinslowgerman.com/series/guts/18/transcript

The third and final case we'll explore is the Dativ. It's completely unlike the other two cases, so everything really is different in the Dativ. Review the transcript, study the lesson and do the quizzes: www.newsinslowgerman.com/series/guts/17/transcript

The second case we'll explore is the Akkusativ. It's very similar to the Nominativ, with one important difference. Review the transcript, study the lesson and do the quizzes: www.newsinslowgerman.com/series/guts/16/transcript  

As mentioned in lesson 13, there are four cases in German. The cases refer to the very specific ways we must speak about anything in German. The four cases are the Nominative, the Accusative, the Dative, and the Genitive. In German, these cases are called Nominativ, Akkusativ, Dativ und Genitiv. It's easiest and least frustrating when you learn them one at a time, and we're even going to leave one of them out because you don't need it as a beginner. The Genitive is the case we're going to leave out completely. Review the transcript, study the lesson and do the quizzes: www.newsinslowgerman.com/series/guts/15/transcript

The simple past tense has several additional names: the Präteritum (preterite) or the Imperfekt(imperfect). Use whichever name works best for you. Here, we'll use the Präteritum. This is a form of the past tense that is used somewhat in spoken German, somewhat in news articles, and frequently in literature. There won't be a lot of this for you to learn until you reach a high-intermediate level and start reading German literature. Review the transcript, study the lesson and do the quizzes: www.newsinslowgerman.com/series/guts/14/transcript

To keep things manageable for this beginner's course, we're going to work with the Possessivartikel (the possessive articles) in the Nominative case only. (The Nominative case is one of four cases in German, and these are the only four ways anything can be expressed in German. We'll cover that in the following lessons.) Seeing as there are 36 possessive articles per case, that makes a total of 144 possessive articles for you to learn (36 articles x 4 cases = 144 articles). So you can see why we're only going to cover them in one case. This is also why we heartily recommend you only work on them in one case at a time. Review the transcript, study the lesson and do the quizzes: www.newsinslowgerman.com/series/guts/13/transcript

You learned kein, keine, kein, keine back in lesson 7.3 as answers to Ja-/Nein-Fragen. You can also simply use them in sentences to say everyday things like "There is no bread in the house" or talk about the fact that "Serena Williams will play no more professional tennis matches." This is how you negate information. Review the transcript, study the lesson and do the quizzes: www.newsinslowgerman.com/series/guts/12/transcript

Now that you can see the direct relationship between people, things, pronouns, and definite articles, it's time to branch out one step further to the indefinite articles. If you haven't yet, you'll begin to see even more in this lesson why it's imperative that you work to get a handle on which nouns belong to which der/die/das/die grouping, because that is foundational information for your German learning. Review the transcript, study the lesson and do the quizzes: www.newsinslowgerman.com/series/guts/11/transcript

In lesson 1 you learned that we can replace someone's name with a pronoun. You may specifically remember that we talked about Gisela (sie): Gisela liest die Nachrichten und trinkt Tee. Here we'll work more on replacing names with pronouns and we'll take that one step further. Review the transcript, study the lesson and do the quizzes: www.newsinslowgerman.com/series/guts/10/transcript

In this lesson, we're going to build upon what you learned about the articles in Lesson 3 and add one more layer. We'll also cover a bit of the rules of der/die/das groupings and a couple of techniques to help you learn which article goes with which noun. Review the transcript, study the lesson and do the quizzes: www.newsinslowgerman.com/series/guts/9/transcript

Now that you've got a handle on Positions 1 and 2, you can start working with questions that will help you acquire more information than only a Yes/No answer. These are called W-Fragen, or W Questions, which are frequently referred to as open-ended questions. Review the transcript, study the lesson and do the quizzes: www.newsinslowgerman.com/series/guts/8/transcript

In lesson 6, we used the verb in Position 1 to create the Imperativ. You also need to utilize Position 1 to ask a question for which there is a Yes or a No answer. So, first be very clear in your mind that we've now switched to asking questions. Review the transcript, study the lesson and do the quizzes: www.newsinslowgerman.com/series/guts/7/transcript 

The command form or Imperativ in German is used differently and much more frequently than it is in English. So, this lesson is as much a cultural lesson as it is a grammatical one. Review the transcript, study the lesson and do the quizzes: www.newsinslowgerman.com/series/guts/6/transcript

You've already learned about verbs with separable prefixes, and now we're going to explore verbs with set prefixes. These prefixes are glued on, so they have to stay where they are. They are inseparable prefixes. Because this is a beginner's course, this lesson functions very well as a reference for you as you read various news articles. We'll give you the gist, and you can always pick up more details and more inseparable prefix verbs as you go along. Review the transcript, study the lesson and do the quizzes: www.newsinslowgerman.com/series/guts/5/transcript

The modal verbs are in a league of their own because they conjugate in their own unique ways. Modal verbs help us say things like can, should, want to, would like to. They also usually require the use of a second verb, however not always. Make sure to review the transcript, study the lesson and do the quizzes: www.newsinslowgerman.com/series/guts/4/transcript

One of the most noteworthy things about learning German is one particular aspect: the many different words we have for the article the. You may find this mind-blowing, frustrating, or even entertaining. Maybe all three! You will likely decide what you think of this by the end of this lesson. Because this is early in the German learning process, remember too, that learning this takes time and loads of repetition. No one learns this the first time they read it. Make sure to review the transcript, study the lesson and do the quizzes: www.newsinslowgerman.com/series/guts/3/transcript

Just like some regions have unusual plants, some languages have rather unusual verbs. German has a number of unusual verbs. Make sure to review the transcript, study the lesson and do the quizzes: www.newsinslowgerman.com/series/guts/2/transcript

This first lesson is full of information, so we made sure to lay it out step-by-step. It may seem like a lot of information, but by the end of this first lesson you will know everything you need to know to understand and create your own basic German sentences. Make sure to review the transcript, study the lesson and do the quizzes: www.newsinslowgerman.com/series/guts/1/transcript

Our goal here is to start at zero German and then end with the ability to continue as a regular listener of "News in Slow German for Beginners". We'll start slow and will gradually pick up the pace as we go. In fact, after just today's lesson, we promise you… yes, PROMISE you that you will be able to understand an entire paragraph in German through the magic of cognates and learning just two simple verbs. Transcript: www.newsinslowgerman.com/series/guts/0/wow/1