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Deutsch Aktuell 1 5th Edition

Die Deutsche Sprache fr Dummkpfe


Guide for the Linguistically Challenged
Ch. 1 & 2
Wow. Over a year later I come and
look at this. Man it needed serious
editing! So now for the newest
German 1 students, enjoy this better
formatting.

Basic Verb Conjugation


In a sentence, depending on who is
performing an action/doing something etc.
the verb in the sentence is changed.
Which is pretty annoying, but it turns out
we do that in English too.Meh.
For example well use the verb gehen
which means to go. Gehen has six
different versions of itself depending on
who is going.
The normal version of a word (gehen)
always ends in en. This normal version is
called the infinitive form. In order to
conjugate a verb you take off the en and
add different endings.
Normally you add the same letters:
ich
du
er/sie/es

-e
-st
-t

wir
-en
ihr
-t
Sie/sie -en

Wir and Sie/sie always have the same


ending. Like always.
This chart (above) is the regular endings
you add onto verbs. So
ich gehe
wir gehen
du gehst
ihr geht
er/es/sie geht Sie/sie gehen
If this still isnt making sense, heres the
English version. You dont realize it but we
have different forms of the same words
too.
I go
you go

he/it/she goes they go


Yeahour version is a lot simpler. Because
ours are all just go except for the
he/it/she form.
This makes sense, yeah? Because you
wouldnt say I goes home or 'He go home.
Ich gehe zum Kaufhaus.
Im going to the department store.
Du gehst gleich um die Ecke.
You go right around the corner.
Er/es/sie geht weit von hier.
He/it/she goes far from here.
Wir gehen zur Schule. We go to school.
Ihr geht da drben. You (all) go over there.
Sie gehen zum Kaufhaus.
You (formal) go to the department store.
This is a list of the verbs that follow this
regular rule. Yes, youll need to know
them.
kennen
kommen
to
gehen
to
machen
wohnen
singen
to
trinken
to
mitkommen to
hren
to
schreiben
to
rberkommen to

to know
come
go
to make/do
to live (reside)
sing
drink
come with (along)
hear/listen
write
come over

*Note: When you use mitkommen and


rberkommen in a sentence the mit and
rber part are separated from kommen.
Youll find out why later.

we go
you (plural) go

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Die Deutsche Sprache fr Dummkpfe

Irregular Conjugation

masculine. When a word becomes plural


its form changes to die.

Yeah so you get the part where all the


verbs end in certain letters except the
irregular ones. Anyways, weve only
learned a few. Here you go.
haben-to have

Der Bruder.
Die Brder.

ich
du
er/es/sie

habe
hast
hat

wir
ihr
Sie/sie

haben
habt
haben

*The last three have normal conjugation.


Yay!
sein-to be
ich
du
er/es/sie

bin
bist
ist

wir
ihr
Sie/sie

sind
seid
sind

heien-to be called
ich
du
er/sie/es

heie wir
heit ihr
heit Sie/sie

heien
heit
heien

Yeah only three. So far.

Genders and Possessives

The brother.
The brothers.

Also the possessive thing. I mean the


words my, your, and none. Mein, dein,
and kein. Now these words get an e
ending if the thing being possessed is
plural or feminine. Examples:
Ich habe keine Fragen.
I have no
questions.
Das ist mein Freund. That is my friend.
Das ist meine Freundin.
That is my
friend (who is
also a
girl).
Das sind meine Freunde.
Those are my
friends. *If youre talking about friends
who are males and females, you use the
masculine version. Bummer for us girls.

Eszetts and Umlauts


This is the eszett, or Scharfs S: . The
word eszett is pronounced es-tset. This
character is the equivalent of two ss. So
thanks to a grammar adjustment to the
German language in 1996 we can now use
ss instead of .

Feminine, masculine, and neuter. You got


three basic genders. Nouns
(unfortunately) have genders. You can tell
their gender by the version of the word
the that precedes it.

Also, another thing to thank that grammar


reform for is that if you cant type the
umlaut (it's on the insert section of Word if
you use it-duh) then you just stick an e
after the o/u/a.

die
der
das

But this isnt always perfect. Some words


in German mean differently if they have ss
instead of .

feminine
masculine
neuter

Some nouns are easy to tell the gender of.


Like Bruder (brother). Well duh thats
masculine. But besides things like family
members it doesnt always apply. Because
the German word for tie (like the necktie)
is feminine, and a womans skirt is

If youre really into being politically correct


like me then heres how to type them.
Alt + 132/0228
Alt + 148/0246

Alt + 129/0252
Alt + 0223

Note: Some computers you must hit Alt


and Fn at the same time. Usually they use

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Die Deutsche Sprache fr Dummkpfe


one of the two codes I have listed. There is
also a faster way to do this but I dont
know it. Word 2007 doesnt work with
these codes, you have to insert them.
Also, when you type these numbers in you
should have Number Lock on or on some
laptops there are small numbers on the
letters of your keys. Use those.

Genders:

Back to the eszett. If you capitalize an


entire word that has an eszett in it then
you change the eszett to ss.

Cognates are words in German that look


like words in English. Or the other way
around.

The Pronunciation of the


German Language
Nouns are ALWAYS capitalized.
If you dont know that by now you havent
been paying attention in Frau Pearsons
class have you?
Sounds:
Pronunciations
w-->v
v-->f
g-->k
d-->t
e-->a
P-->b
s-->z
Sonne
z-->tseh
Zeit
eu-->oi
[das] Feuer (fire)
ie-->ee
(how)
ei-->eye
vielleicht
(perhaps)
-zig-->zisch
(90)

German

vas = was (what)


feel = viel (many)
tak = [der] Tag
hoont = [der] Hund
vare = wer (who)
op = ob (if)
zohn-uh = [die]
tsite = [die]
foy-air =
vee = wie
feel eye-sht =

noyn-zisch = neunzig

Notes:
Africa Corps Afrika Korps
Central America
Zentral Amerika

Nouns ending in -ik (Musik) are often die


(feminine).
Machines ending in er (Rechnercalculator & Computer) are usually der.

Cognates

Haus house
Welt world
Wasser
water
Feuer fire
Even words that sound like other words
that arent a direct translation are
cognates.
Like the German word for body is krper.
But that looks like corpse. Still a cognate.
Watch out for the false cognates. The word
bald in German means soon not a hairless
guy. The word fast in German doesnt
mean fast, it means almost.

Stupid Apostrophe
The apostrophe (for possessives or
contractions) in German isnt used for
possessives. Like 'Evas' is just 'Evas'. But
the apostrophe is used in the phrase Wie
gehts? Because youre actually saying
Wie geht es? which means How goes
it? or Hows it going?

Time
[die] Zeit
[die] Uhr
Wie viel Uhr ist es?

time
clock/time/hour
What time is it?

Germans not only use PM/AM, they also


use military time except they dont say o
hundred hours-but only for formal things

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Die Deutsche Sprache fr Dummkpfe


like appointments. In general they use the
12 hour clock too. Also if you want to say
its two thirty then you say it is half three.
Es ist halb drei. OR Es ist zwei Uhr dreiig.

dreiig 30
vierzig 40
fnfzig 50
sechzig
100

Numbers

Fun:

Numbers are infinite and when Germans


say them it goes like this:

Leave the THREE fs in this word:

four-and-thirty (34)
vierunddreissig
The German language is a lot of times just
two (or more) smaller words stuck
together. Like kindergarten which is kid
garden. I find that kind of creepy for some
reasontry picturing a kid garden.
Anyways, this is very simple. When you
stick two or more words together you
dont take anything out. Leave the two ds
in vierunddreissig where they are.
number Nummer
telephone number Telefonnummer
(notice I didnt take out one of those ns.)
Wie1 ist deine Telefonnummer? What is
your telephone number?
null0 elf
11
eins
1
zwlf
12
zwei 2
dreizehn
drei
3
vierzehn
vier
4
fnfzehn
15
fnf
5
sechzehn
16
sechs 6
siebzehn
17
sieben 7
achtzehn
18
acht 8
neunzehn
19
neun 9
zwanzig
zehn 10
einundzwanzig
sechsundzwanzig
26
siebenundzwanzig
27

siebzig
70
achtzig
neunzig
60
hundert

80
90

Donaudampfschifffahrtselektrizittenhaup
tbetriebswerkbauunterbeamtengesellschaf
t the electric works suborganization of
the Danube steamboat company

Break it down:
Donau-dampf-schiff-fahrts-elektrizittenhaupt-betriebs-werk-bau-unter-beamtengesellschaft
Danube-steam-ship-travel-electricity-headoperations-work-construction-underofficers-company

Die Vokabel Liste


NOTE: Not including the Wrter und
Ausdrcke or some words from the
chapter vocabulary list, cause then this
would be a very, very long list. You can
use your books for that. Lazy hobos

13
14

Days of the Week

20
21

Montag
Monday
Dienstag
Tuesday
Mittwoch
Wednesday
Donnerstag
Thursday
Freitag
Friday
Samstag/Sonnabend*
Saturday
Sonntag
Sunday

1
Why is it wie instead of was?
Because Germans say: How is your
telephone number? Its very well,
thanks for asking!

*Even though both mean Saturday, my


German friend says that nobody EVER
uses Sonnabend anymore, except for
some in the North. Its like an old
fashioned word. So yeah, dont go to
Germany and say Sonnabend.

Colours
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Die Deutsche Sprache fr Dummkpfe

rosa pink
grn green
wei white
orangeorange
lila
lavender
rt
red
gold gold

blau blue
gelb yellow
grau grey
purpur purple
braun brown
schwarz
black

dunkel dark

hell

dunkelrt
hellrt

light/bright

dark red
light/bright red

Others
[das] Kaufhaus, --er department store
[der] Jung, -en
boy
[der] Norden-north (im Norden/in the
north)
[die] Auswahl
selection
[die] Familie, -n
family
[der] Abend
evening
alt
old
an/am
at/on
auch
also
Auf Wiedersehen
Bye!
aus
from (a place)
bis
until
da drben
over there
das
that
denn
used for
emphasis/makes
questions less formal
deutsch
German
dies
this
echt
real(ly)
[die] Eltern
parents
falsch
false
fertig
(in context) Done?
[die] Frau
Mrs., woman, wife
gegen
about/around,
against
gleich
right/immediately
gro
big
halb
half
[das] Handy, -s
cell phone
[der] Herr, -en
Mr., gentleman
hoch
high
in/im
in
interessant
interesting
kein
none

klein
[die] Leute
[das] Mdchen, mit
mitt
[der] Morgen
na
nach
nett
nicht
nur
richtig
schlecht
schon
sehr
so
spter
super
[der] Tag,-e
toll
Tschs/Tschau!
um
vielleicht
viel
much)
von
was
weit
welch
wer
wie
wirklich
woher
wo
zu Hause
zu

small
people

girl
with
middle
tomorrow/morning
Na gut/Oh well
after, to
nice
not
only
right
bad
already
very
so
later
super
day
great
Bye!
around
perhaps
much (wie viel-how
from/of
what
far
which
who
how
really
where from
where
at home
to

Disclaimer:
I am not responsible for any
brain damage that may result in
reading this.
And lucky you, since these
newsletters contents are based
off of the Deutsch Aktuell 1 5th
Edition textbook, I cant charge
you money for it!

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