Learning German

First attempts

Hi!

You wanna know some basics in German? Well you're right here!

I'm living in Germany, so don't worry I know what I'm talking about.

If you have any question or want me to translate something then feel free to ask ;)

Let's get started!

Alphabetic characters

There are basically the same characters as in English. The vowels are:

a - spoken like in "cat" or also "butt"

e - Like in "bet"

i - Like the first "e" in "even" or also the "i" in "in"

o - Like the english "o"

u - Like in "upon"

In addition to that we have:

ä - spoken like the a in "care"

ö - spoken like the "ur" in "burn" similar to the nordic letter "ø" or french "œ"

ü - smiliar to french "u"; you can't compare it to any english word.

ß - you just speak it like an English s

combination of letters:

ei - Like the "i" in "Hi" or "fire"

ai - ↑ same

au - Like ou in "ouch"

eu - A bit like "oi" in "oil"

ie - like an long "i"

Sch - "Sh" like in "Sheep"

ch - That's a really hard. The best thing you can do is go to an online dictionary and listen to the german words "Dach" und "Milch", because there are two different pronounciations.

Basic information

First of all the Federal Republic of Germany is a country in western Europe. (You'll probably know that)

German is also spoken in Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg and South Tyrol (Italy).

There are 16 "Bundesländer".

Our Currency is the so called "Euro". You basically should know that since almost the entire European Union use it.

There live like 80 million citizen here and the capital is the city of Berlin.

Pronouns

I - Ich

You - Du/ Sie

He - Er

She - Sie

It - Es

We - Wir

You - Ihr/ Sie

They - Sie

There is a singular "You" which you guys use for everyone. But here it's different. To friends and family we say "Du" and to people we don't know "Sie". It's basically like we spoke in plural with this people. They say it was like "Thou" (Du) and "Ye" (Sie).

If you speak french:

Tu - Du

Vous - Sie

Greeting

First of all the German word for it is "Begrüßung".

Hello - Hallo

To friends and family you can say "Hi" or "Hey", it's pronounced like you probably know it ;). "Hallo" is a bit more formal.

If you speak really formal, like in school or generally to people you don't know you say:

"Guten Tag" (Good day)

Other basic words:

Good morning - Guten Morgen

Good evening - Guten Abend

Yes - Ja (spoken Ya)

No - Nein (spoken like 9 "nine")

Maybe - Vielleicht

I don't know - Ich weiß nicht

Thank's - Danke (important: we do speak the e at the and of a word)

Please - Bitte

You're welcome! - Bitte!

How are you? - Wie geht es ihnen?

Well, now it gets complecated. If you speak to friends and family you say "Wie geht es dir?" and the formal way is "Wie geht es Ihnen?"

The answer to this question would be:

Good, thank's - Danke gut

I don't really know anybody who answers something else, but just in case you want to do so:

Not so good - Nicht so gut.

And:

How about you? - Und Ihnen? (formal) /Und dir? (informal)

I don't speak German - Ich spreche kein Deutsch.

You speak English? - Sprechen sie Englisch?

Bye - Tschüss / Auf Wiedersehen (formal)

To friends and family we also say "Bye" or the italian word "Ciao"

Or basically everything.

(You know like Bye-bye or Tschüssi or other languages. And there are some "funny" things like "Tschö mit ö", "See you later Alligator" or "Tschüssikofski" But you know it's not a normal way to say good bye :D)