Which of these tips did you find most helpful? :) And what are YOUR TIPS when it comes to learning German or which MISTAKES should people try to avoid? Let me and everyone else know in the comments below! EDIT: Yes, "ick" or "icke" is also part of the Berlin accent/dialect but that's the only place where people say that and in my opinion, it doesn't really work if you only use that one word of the dialect.
Possessed by Beavis and Butthead: huh huh huh she said "dip THONG" Huh Huh Huh HUH. As opposed to Huhuhu. :) Oh, thanks for avenging Rammstein. Ich liebe dich!! xD
Today's video was fun! I might suggest you do a comparison of German dialects, at one point? They say that in some areas the people from one town can't understand neighboring towns because of differences in dialect. It also gives an opportunity to explain how hoch Deutsch is the national dialect and how it became into being. Comparing cities that are far apart, such as Munich and Berlin's can be fun. Doing the dialect comparison for "I'm going home" is perfect! Berlin is "Ich gehe nach Hause" where in Munich(Bayrisch) it's " Ie goha Hom" Thanks!
I agree. I found this easiest by learning a noun in the context of different sentences which put them into the different cases so you get used to hearing the noun spoken in different parts of the sentence (e.g. das Haus: ich sehe ein blaues Haus, er ist in meinem Haus, sie ist gluecklich wegen ihres Hauses). If I then forget the gender I just think of a sentence with that noun in and it typically lets me know the gender.
Or just doing it the turkish style and say "de" instead of der,die,das. Just de Baum, de Mädchen,... Not very elegant and everyone will know you are foreigner, but you will be understood.
EVERY TIME I mention to an American I’m German, they start to yell the 3 German words they know at me aggressively... I usually reply with my best cowboy impression...
I sent my kids to German class with a sentence. First day, teacher asks, does anyone know any German? My 15 year old holds up his hand and replies, Meine Bleistift ist gross und Gelb. I can't believe they let me chaperone on the trip from Berlin to Lucerne,
That's actually quite good! Coming from the other (German native speaker), i often despair of people mixing up, or rather mispronouncing, beer and bear. Which is a mystery to me, because both sound pretty much exactly the same in both languages - Bier/beer and Bär/bear...couldn't actually bei much easier 🤦
Yes, Ä is more accurate than A. The sound is the same as the e in many English words like "help" or "memory". Basically every "short" e is pronounced like ä, not only at the end of the word. Like in any of these words: Herr, Herz, Held, helfen, Geld, Pelz...
My high school German teacher told us "when i and e go walking, the second one does the talking" - never forgot that how to pronounce "ie" and "ei" after that.
91msJill So, if two vowels go on a walk and the first one is English and the second one is German, they’re both talking all the time. Vice versa, they are quiet all the way. ^^
I was going to comment the same thing. "When i and e go walking, the second one does the talking" was taught to me in German class in central Pennsylvania, in ~1999
Ei vs ie is important. In my beginning German course at university, the professor was teaching the use of the word "gern." And we had to form a sentence using it and write it on the board. At the time, I was on the university rifle team, so, I wanted to say that I like to shoot. However, in my haste, I misread the dictionary, and I wrote, "Ich scheiße gern." The professor looked at me and started laughing. He said, "I think you meant "schieße." What you said was that you like to shit." Lesson learned.
She does pronounce the words good. However, there is a slight accent. The s are a bit sharp. I must admit, I live a long time in America and still have a strong accent. Well, many times people think I am from Austria or England.
My German professor got a huge laugh out of one of us students reading a passage about an amusement park and telling about scheissbuden. Between his laughs he managed to spit out, "yes, a shitting gallery..." (Schiessbuden would be shooting galleries.)
The best is Schiss is also a word for shit (so Scheissbuden = Schissbuden but not Schießbuden, where the difference between Schiss and Schieß is how shrt or looooong they are pronounced and potentially if you pronounce the i(e)-sound low in the mouth or in the upper part) It's also used for "Hast du Schiss?" which roughly translates to "Are you shitting yourself (out of fear)?" Or "Chicken?" (literal translation is "Do you have shit?")
Another embarrassing mistake is to pronounce the musical piece by Mozart as "A little naked music." ("Eine kleine Nacktmusik" instead of "Eine kleine Nachtmusik")
The "ei" / "ie" confusion was illustrated in a very amusing way in a documentary I saw some years ago. Some German veterans were interviewed about how they came to surrender to the Allies and one of them recounted an anecdote. His unit had been surrounded by American soldiers who had all been taught the phrase "Hande hoch oder ich schiessen!" ("Hands up or I'll shoot!). One of the Americans shouted this phrase at the German unit but inverted the "ie" in "schiessen" and actually said "Hande hoch oder ich scheissen!" ("Hands up or I'll shit!"). The Germans found this so amusing that they burst into laughter and one soldier who spoke some English shouted back "Anything but that! We surrender!".
Oddly enough I heard a British soldier challenge us on a relief patrol during a duty at a "sensitive" ammunition site making the same mistake, it's because they hear scheisser more than schiesser.
Homeschooled my youngest and he learned (with exceptions, of course), when two vowels go awalking, the first one does the talking. Can still see the printed sheet of two vowels holding hands! 😛
A couple tips that I give my students: 1. Even though it is hard, do not skip learning noun genders. At some point everything else is going to focus on that. You have to know genders once you start applying cases, and then you have to know genders really well once you learn adjective endings. 2. In the same spirit as my first tip, learn the endings that are commonly one gender or another. For example, -er is commonly masculine, -e is commonly feminine (I tell my kids, "if it ends with -e, its probably 'die'"), -ung is always feminine, -heit/-keit are always feminine, -chen is always neuter. There are others, but these are common ones that you encounter early. 3. There are no helping verbs in the present tense. Even though we say "I am playing" in English, you just say "ich spiele" in German (not "ich bin spiele" or something). 4. Word order is important. In a statement, you have subject+verb (du singst=you are singing), but questions are verb+subject (singst du?= Are you singing?) Also, if you have two verbs in one clause, the second one is at the end, not right after the first one (ich MUSS nach Hause GEHEN= I MUST GO home) 5. Be able to understand how nouns function in a sentence. For example, you have to know how a subject, direct object, and indirect object differ (ich gebe dem Kind einen Hund "I give the kid a dog" is very different from "ich gebe dem Hund ein Kind" "i give the dog the child"--notice the endings on the words "the" and "a")
Yes, word order is important in German, but far more important in English since German still uses case while English doesn't so the meanings given by case are expressed through word order instead (actually, English still uses case, but it just doesn't show, which is why we now have monstrosities such as "between you and I"). So while you can mix word order up a bit in German (eg, "Der Hund beißt den Mann." and "Den Mann beißt der Hund."), the slightest change of word order in English can completely change the meaning (eg "The dog bites the man." vs. "The man bites the dog."). I have also studied other languages which are more heavily inflected than German (ie, languages that have retained case endings; eg, Latin, Greek, Russian) in which you could conceivably mix up almost all the noun phrases (retaining the associations of adjectives and the genitive, of course) and still come up with the same meaning.
The translation for "I am playing" is a bit more complex. Yes, I don't need to translate the progressive form into German, but you can do that without an problem. To "ich spiele" you could ad "gerade" oder "im Moment" to make it more obvious. But you could translate it into the progressive form "ich bin (gerade) am Spielen" .
The find the article-adjective declinations almost impossible and the also where to place adverbs and prepositions in the sentence when you use perfect tense or helper verbs. It’s a lot to remember when you’re trying to speak in real time at a normal pace.
@@davidwise1302 but in English you can place a preposition practically anywhere in the sentence and it’s understood. In fact, the placement is largely based on emphasis or poetic effect rather than grammar. Even adverbs can generally go anywhere close to the verbs.
regarding your second point I urge you to not do that anymore. You only gonna confuse your students. There are NO rules for noun genders! -er is NOT commonly masculine (die Butter, die Mutter, das Futter, etc.) One has to simply learn the gender together with the new word, so don't remember door=Tür but door= die Tür Have a look at this link www.passion4teq.com/articles/der-die-das-genus-regeln/ So many rules, so many exceptions. Forget about the rules and learn the words you need. I am teaching German to refugees and migrants for over a decade now and in my experience that's the only thing that reliably works.
I started learning German w/ duolingo about a year ago, and in one of the sections where users can leave comments someone said it helps to think of the "ch" sound as mimicking the hissing sound a cat would make. That helped me a lot to get close to its correct pronunciation.
I use Duolingo too. I just got a 400 day streak and I think I have 2 years now generally. 15 mins a day with German music and movies has gotten me farther than ever! I’m still only A2 but it’s farther than I got in college as far as speaking/understanding.
Also applies to other expressions of emotion/state of mind: mir ist langweilig (I am bored) as opposed to ich bin langweilig (I am boring) or mir ist übel (I'm nauseous/not feeling well). But it's not a general rule, you can't say mir ist müde for example, you have to say ich bin müde (I am tired).
As a native German speaker, let me tell you that you either say 'Ist dir kalt?' (without the 'es') or 'Frierst du?'. 'Bist du kalt would only make sense as a statement to someone else to tell him eg. that he has cold hands or to tell him that he is less emotional but as a native speaker you would express the last one differently.
You should do a video about compliments and insults. I am sure that there are things that non-Germans unknowingly do or say while in Germany that are insulting or insensitive.
I can see the need for compliments but NOT insults...shame shame !! hahahahaha BUT, I have used minor insults in German on coworkers who pushed my buttons once too many tines !!They had no idea what I was calling them..shame one me !!! hahahaha !!!!
On my first Army assignment to Germany, I had to live on the German economy; because no government housing was available. The German couple next door sort of took us under their wing. They spoke no English; but I had taken two years of German in college; so we could haltingly make ourselves understood. They invited the wife and I to dinner one night at their house. I decided to get the neighbor's wife some flowers as a token of appreciation. I had been warned that it was against custom to give an even number of flowers; so I bought 13 red roses for her. When she and her husband came to the door, he started laughing. Turns out that you only give red roses to your sweetheart in Germany....good thing Heinz had a sense of humor.
dont speak English with a German accent and expect to be understood or appreciated. Dont call the Euro "funny money". Unless by a miracle the American FiFA team is doing really well and you are at the game... never shout ...USA USA USA ....especially in Dresden
@@miklosernoehazy8678 I am very aware. I have visited Dresden and have seen the scars and charring on buildings that remain today. Yes, we bombed churches too. I wouldn't be born for 20 years but I am still deeply sorry.
When you use the normal German pronunciation rules, in most cases you lengthen the first vowel. You don't do that with diphthong. (It's about the same as in Dutch, so it's quite easy to me.)
Another issue that an english teacher pointed out to me: u vs ü. A lot of English speakers ignore those two dots above the ü and pronounce it like the u. They just didn't learn the words schwul and schwül. At that point it would be better to know the different pronunciation of u and ü.
THIS. i just cant comprehend how english people are like "yeah so there are these dots... nah, nvm, theyre probably just decoration and dont mean anything"💁
Schwul (gay) comes from schwül (humid) because it was thought that gay guys are very warm and "wet". So it's not really wrong per se. Just a bit old timey. Time travel to the 16th century and it would be right... Not today. Never today!!!
My tip for all foreign language speakers (almost) all over the world: Speak and make your own mistakes. Your hosts will be pleased that you try and will be glad to help you (and to correct you if neccesary)
This is very true! The only thing I would add is that it is helpful to set your mind in advance so that you're not embarrassed by anything you say incorrectly or have to hand-wave about. If it's obvious you are honestly trying, people will treat you nicely and try to help you.
I don’t think that is true with learning French as native speakers are not just tickled that you are just trying to speak their language. Stereotypically they seem more annoyed that you are mangling it
@@chrisk5651 I've always heard the opposite - that French people really appreciate it when you at least try to speak some French. I haven't tried it myself, but it is what I have heard.
One of my German language professors told a story that he had a Russian professor that didn't bother with noun genders. He just gave every noun the adjective suffix -"chen" meaning small eg. das Brotchen... little bread... roll/bun
Regional ch - ck east-west line runs mid-Germany with Plattdeutch favoring ck. In Dutch, which blends more closely with Plattdeutsch than Hochdeutsch, the pronoun "I" is "ik."
The problem of German is not pronunciation but to understand everything of the sentence, it's order is quite different from English and the Gender of the word
Sometimes they even rematk the difference between something which is in motion (akkusative) and something that is static (dativ). But if you master the Cases, it shouldn't be a big deal the rest
Personally, I have troubles with trennbare verben, since they can be split into the verb and the particle, they are similar to phrasal verbs but the particle goes to the end of the sentence. This particles actually have some meaning but depends on the verb. In non trennbare verbs, there's a preffix which is not splitted from the verb but adds some meaning which I don't understand either
But it's really a language which is worthy to be learnt. It's challenging at first but it doesn't sound as **making a bunch of weird sounds** it's different and they usually go to the really smallest detail. So I encourage you to take German classes if you are really interested. It really changed my mind
ch has a third way of pronounciation. When it is followed by a s it is pronounced like ks or x. Achse (axle), Ochse (ox), Fuchs (fox), Lachs (salmon), Luchs (lynx) etc.
@@j3nn3s no... now you mixed all three of them together... :-P Fuchs is the x/ks, Bach the rasping sound and Häuschen the soft hiss of air. (the word Hoffensterchen does not exist. Sorry!)
@@j.m.w.5064 I mixed those up intentionally. The last words are hard to read and understand at first sight even for native speakers. Bachstelze is pronounced Bach-Stelze (it's a bird), Häuschen - Häus-chen (CH Like in ich. That's diminutive, so it's just a small house), Hoffensternchen is actually Hof-fenster-chen - a little window towards the front or backyard
@@j3nn3s "Hoffensternchen" is such a great trap! ;-) I'm a native speaker myself, but I didn't recognize that it didn't mean "Hoffen-Sternchen", but "Hof-Fensterchen". However, I can easily pronounce "Donaudampfschifffahrtsgesellschaftskapitänsmützenaufhängung". What a great word. ;-)
Joke of the day: So a few years ago I was teaching German to a group of immigrants here in Austria. One member of the course was a very nice middle-aged lady from the Philippines, who was having a particularly difficult time with German pronunciation. This was of course due to the fact that many of the German diphthongs simply do not exist in her native language. One morning I started the class with a lively verbal exercise - each person was to describe to the class their activities from the day before in German. So one by one, each person got up and recounted the previous day's activities in German. So far, so good. Then it was the Philippine lady's time to speak. She stood up, and in her best German, started to recount how some guy introduced himself to her in the supermarket and the conversation they had, only that he kept on talking and talking and talking, while she just wanted to leave. She said: "und er spritzt und spritzt und spritzt und wollte nicht aufhören zu spritzen". My eyes popped open wide!!! I said to her, "you mean 'er SPRICHT'!". "JA", she said, "er SPRITZT und SPRITZT und wollte nicht aufhören zu SPRITZEN!" I fell over on the floor, doubled over in spasms! I laughed so hard, I thought I would suffocate! I tried correcting her pronunciation, but each time I said "SPRICHT", she would close her eyes, concentrate really hard, and the word "SPRITZT" came flying out her mouth. The poor lady had no idea why this was so funny, and I didn't have the heart to explain it to her. She was so modest and was such a nice decent lady, I didn't want to give her a heart attack. But she continued, completely unaware of the difference between the two words, "ich habe ihn mehrmals gebeten, hör bitte auf zu spritzen, aber er spritzt, und spritzt und spritzt die ganze Zeit!!" My eyes were red and I got weak from laughing so hard. Even to this day, whenever I think of that poor lady, I can't help but bursting out laughing. Native German speakers will understand why...
When referring to letter combinations "ei" and "ie", as in how they are written, they are called digraphs, not diphthongs. Diphthongs are related to how sounds are pronounced. You would say that the digraph "ei" is pronounced as a diphthong /ai/.
I'm a native French speaker, and when I went abroad, my tendency to revert to the "-sch" sound instead of the soft "-ch" sound made ALL the Germans I spoke to assume I was a native French speaker. I was also kind of pleasantly surprised about how positively the accent French speakers of German had amongst Germans, because I have to say, the accent German speakers of French have is so damned beautiful. It's this kind of mutual give-and-take I love. As always, love the vids, Feli. You're a treasure.
Well you probably also have the "French melody" (that's what I call it anyways). French has far more intonation than German and Germans will noticed that rather than the "-sch" sound.
I'm from North East England and many non English folks think I'm either German or Danish. Had some Germans I met on holiday randomly switch to German at one point due to my accent haha
@@colinp2238 Indeed. The way we say words such as opal isn't like any other English dialect as far as I'm aware. That 'o' noise is what causes the confusion.
Trotz dass ich Deutsch bin und somit hier nichts zu suchen habe, finde ich dieses Video interessant! Ich finde spannend, auf was die Engländer alles achten müssen, wenn sie Deutsch sprechen
3 года назад+5
The digraph “ie” is not a diphtong. It makes the sound of a simple vowel: [iː]. A diphtong is the gradient from one vowel to another. Technically, no letter combination can be a diphtong, because letters are letters and not sounds. If the technical term “digraph” confuses you, just say “letter combination”. The digraph “ei” on the other hand represents a diphtong: [aɪ̯]. The final consonant in “ach” also exists in some English names. Take Loch Ness in Scotland. [lɔx] / [ax] I like the approach to choose an alternative mistake that keeps the words most intelligible. At least that’s better that ignoring the mistake or keep struggling with it for a long time.
@@CrankCase08 good job! thank you for correcting me, english isnt native language. but thx good people like you are always happy to help. translate "klugscheißer" for me 😉
I spend years learning to say 'ich' properly as I am a native English speaker. Then I went to Germany living close to the Dutch border and found that they use the plattdeutch pronunciation rather like Dutch. this was close to Monchegladbach.
Thanks for the tips. I’ve been learning German and I want to do as much as I can the right way. I’ve really been struggling with the word ich in German. The way you described it, comparing it to trying to get something out of your throat actually makes sense. Danke
You have to be careful, because that's the wrong ch sound. The throat one is in words like Bauch, auch, Kuchen,... But the ch sound of ich is the same sound as the beginning of huge, human,... It's a sound made by making the h sound and bringing your tongue to forward and upward, so that the air flows through a narrow channel at the roof of your mouth
Capitalization is super important in German since it can change the meaning completely: - die spinnen (they are crazy) vs. die Spinnen (the spiders) - dichter (tighter) vs. Dichter (poets) - Floh (flea) vs. floh (escaped) nice video...
I have looked at a moderate amount of German text, but I had not not noticed that the seemingly randomly capitalized words are all nouns! That is _so_ helpful! Thanks!
Great video! It took me a couple of months to learn to pronounce „möchte“ because it has the German „ch“ but also the Umlaut on the o, which doesn‘t exist at all in English. I do have a couple of tips to help with the pronounciation. The „ie“ diphthong does indeed exist in English, because English is so full of exceptions, that you have to learn. Words like “brief” and “piece” are pronounced like the diphthong in German. The „ch“ sound can be learned by English speakers by imitating the sound a cat makes when angry or threatened, the so called “spitting sound” or “ccchhh”. It helps if you make your hand simulate the extended claws at the same time! The last tip I have is that the German „z“ does also exist in English, and most Americans use it (or eat it) every day: PIZZA! The “z” or better said, the “zz” is indeed a “ts” sound, as in “Pete - sa”. That’s in contrast to a normal English “zz” like in the word “Lizzy” as in “Tin Lizzy” (nickname for a Ford Model T). During my first trip Germany I visited a brewery in Amberg called “Schiesselbier”. You can imagine how I pronounced it!
That's great about the pizza, I never noticed. And the dipthongs, after learning German it helped me with my English spelling ei/ie. The fact that "weird" does it wrong is just selbstverstaendlich: )
I have a pretty old german learning book from the 50s and I found them saying: ch in words like 'Ich' you have similar placement with your jaw and tongue to the english/scotch 'loch' but speak it with out enunciating the kuh sound. So its more a cuh. Either way it isnt perfect but the jaw and tongue placement were a great way to begin pronouncing it better.
My German teacher at school was actually called Frau Schuhle . Learned so much in those three years without realising. Few years later, living and working in Germany I raised many a glass in her honour.
@@byrdchem in German the plular is different for many words so please don't put the 's' on every word. For "der Umlaut" the plural would be "die Umlaute".
In Estonian language - They have " Ü " aswell - and even Finnish & Estonian are Only 50miles apart - in Finnish We have No such a letter ! Many taking the Ferry 3h - Dont know anything about the local language !
I'm from Serbia and I chose German as my second foreign language (besides English) at Uni, it was hell indeed 😅 The grammar is way too hard. Fortunatelly, I remained on B1 level only
HAH Now I know why my mutter always capitalized nouns. Even as a kid in school my mother would help us with home work and she was very good at English... see even that word I still capitalize. I never realized she was teaching that from her own language!
Yes. I took several years of German in high school and university and I liked it. I did find two long-lasting beneficial effects: (1) capability to understand and think in very long sentences (easy to do in German and helps you read academic papers) and (2) capitalizing nouns (this actually can enhance one's English - you can use it to Spotlight words you want to Honor or Highlight).
Meine Muttersprache ist Deutsch und bis jetzt ist mir nie aufgefallen, dass das ch in "ich" nicht das gleiche wie in "auch" ist. Habe es gerade ausprobiert "ich, auch, ich, auch, ich, auch, aja wirklich!" 😅😂
Cool video. As some have noted, the umlauts are tricky for many non-native speakers and might merit their own video. Also something I would suggest for a future video: how things are actually pronounced by Germans (and other German speakers), as opposed to how it is often taught. I have seen these kinds of videos while learning French, and they definitely help, because one of the things that makes learning a language so difficult is that when you first really have to communicate with native speakers, things are not only faster but also different. E.g. how "haben" isn't usually pronounced the way it is taught but like "habn" or even "ham". Generally, the "-en" ending is so common, yet never really pronounced as such, except when strongly enunciated.
You actually do use the present tense in English to talk about the future! It's a little less obvious because the present tense is less direct in English, but it feels more fluent to me to say "I'm going shopping tomorrow" than "I will go shopping tomorrow"
Thanks for these vlogs, Felicia. I was a US soldier, stationed in what was then West-Germany from Feb 87 - Oct. 91. When I arrived, my unit had enrolled me in a program called Kindergarten. It was a two week program where we were taught the language, customs, the do's and don'ts. At the end of the class, we were taken to downtown Nuremberg where we toured the city and had lunch, where we were required to order in German. When we were done, we were left to find our way back to the Kaserne. My unit was based in Monteith Barracks, which is in Fürth, which is not too far from Nuremberg.
I spent a little time in Hohenfels, Bavaria for some combat training in the U.S. Army, but I never learned the German language however. Thanks for all of the tips because I imagine that many of us Americans who have learned some German may have butchered the language with our mispronunciation of many words. Happy Thanksgiving! Much love from the wild west.
Hi German Girl, Your “American” English is amazing. I worked with a fellow engineer from Germany and his English was very good, understandable. But your English is at a much higher level! Good for you, your outstanding!
I learned to pronounce the German "r" (at least when it begins a word) by listening to and imitating Dr. Ruth (Westheimer) say the word "rub". As a native English speaker, I have found that it is often helpful to exaggerate the pronunciation of a foreign language when first learning unfamiliar sounds in that language. With time and practice, practice, practice improvement can be made.
@@winittiwary7893 Das wird dem Hasen scheissegal sein, wo hingeschossen wird. Hauptsache es trifft nicht ihn, der Jäger mit dem Schiessgewehr. Also: "Egal!"
@Drew PeacockShooting? I don't now. But with "scheisse" I shit on the hare. Litterally is "I don't care.". And my "egal" is a quote of an not so important singer. I think his song goes about his desastrous lifestyle going into dept but still enyoing luxury.
Not a problem for me :) Arriving in Germany in late 1991 while I was in the US Army, I went through the "Just Enough German" classes, which helps non-speakers (like me) to at least read menus and road signs. The instructor complimented me, "Your accent is very good, where are you from?" Milwaukee, WI. Surrounded by it, even if I never really learned it. _"Deutscher als Milwaukee ist nirgendwo in Amerika"_ -- Frankfurter Allgemeine, 2008
Feli, German "R" remains the most challenging for this American, but your tips are helping. As for "ch," the tip I heard many years ago that made it easy was to place my tongue and mouth shape exactly the same as if I were about to pronounce the "y" sound, as in "yarn," only instead to vibrating vocal chords, gently exhale like a hissing cat(not too harshly). That pretty much nails it.
Lesson starts at 2:51. I've studied German on and off for a long time and was never familiar with point 3 and never formally introduced to point 6. Very helpful indeed.
Very good video. I attended intensive language school for six months in Regensburg back in the late ninties. One thing my friend, Matthias, helped me with was where to speak German in my mouth. English is spoken at the front of the mouth, but German is mostly spoken at the back of the mouth and in the throat. I am often mistaken for a native German because of this one thing (until I run out of vocabulary, of course). Whenever I hear a native English speaker speaking German, almost invariably they pronounce everything at the front of the mouth, which immediately gives them away as non-native German speaker even if their syntax and vocabularly are excellent.
I've been practicing German for over a decade and it's always helpful to go back to the basics. This was helpful. A lot of Americans will know Rammstein, since we have a big Air Force base there and it's in the news a lot. When military or foreign service personnel are injured in Africa or the Middle East, they are usually evacuated to Rammstein to get quality medical care 🙂
@@pwbmd The Band (formed 1994) used the village's name because of the 1988 air show disaster at the Ramstein US base that caused 70 dead people. They added a 2nd M, fitting their attitude better. German "Ramme" = pile driver. (Similar to the former US Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld. With poor reputation in Germany often a 2nd M was added. German "Rumms" = thud. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramstein_air_show_disaster
I usually ask a person that speaks German how to pronounce my last name. If I hear the "I" and a lot of them roll the R. Which I am used to, but we never roll the R. We lost the German spoken at home due to World War II. If people heard German they thought you were a Nazi or a sympathizer. Thanks for the lesson.
When I was in University I took German, spent 3 years in the Frankfurt area at Rhein Main AB, at the time I was conversational not fluent. In class, would piss the teacher off when I said Isch for Ich, and zwoo, for zwei. It was funny.
😂😂😂 ja so geht es mir auch ich spreche nur Hessisch. Ich kann kein Hoch deutsch,wenn jemand mich am Telefon 📱 hört, dann kommt immer du hörst dich an wie die Daniela Katzenberger 😂😂😂😂 Liebe Grüße aus Hessen
Well for me (I'm a teacher as well) it sounds just like a local dialect and should not be seen as false. XD dialect belong to the German language as well so I'd say good job in learning a dialect!
The "zwo"(zwei) is very often used for "two" so as not to confuse it with "drei". Also with "Juno" instead of "Juni"(June) to distinguish it more easily from "July".
I am an American in Germany and the local dialect of Pfälisch pronounces words like ich as isch and dich as disch.. They say words like einundzwanzig as einundzwanzisch.
You might want to visit "Pennsylvania Dutch" communities in case you go back to US. Some years I was astonished to learn that their internal language is a variant of Pälz'sch. Also good chance to meet them among Amish people, however those might also be originating from Mennonites who used Plattdüütsch, yet another dialect from Northern Germany (influenced by actual Dutch language).
@@quietcorner293 I've been there twice, but never for long. Once to fix one of our F-16s that had to land at Ramstein, and once when landing there from a hop I took from the states. I hope you're enjoying your stay there, and try your best to get away from the base and do some exploring. I wish I had done a lot more.
@@coachgman How much Bier did you bring back? Before moving here for good in '04, I was TDY with the Air Guard in '98 & '99. IMO I was a major importer, at least according to my fridge.
I'm just starting to learn German and this helped me better understand some of the things I've learned so far. Particularly the capital nouns so, danke! Ich lerne jeden Tag ein bisschen mehr.
I learned from my father, who learned from his father (born in Oberpfalz, Bayern) how to pronounce "ich" and the "au" in my name. I had heard Münchner on the Metro in D.C. in 1992 and then from Felicia a pronunciation of German closer to that of my aforesaid family than the half-Kölsch pronunciation I hear touted as "hochdeutsche Aussprache." Danke, Felicia!
Felicia my last name is Maus and my family came from the German circus. I however grew up in New England and I wanted to tell you we never use paper plates for meals I found this odd when I left New England too so your not alone in hating that.
Something that I’ve always struggled with is knowing the classes on nouns and articles. Der, Die, Das is confusing enough but then you have to know when and how to use the nominative, accusative, and the dative cases. Don’t even get me started on the genitive case. We have it so much easier in English with one word: The.
Most Germans butcher the genitive as well, don’t feel bad😄 I recommend watching dubbed movies or German movies. Hearing native speakers can help, if you’re an auditive learner type. In general, being exposed to the language is the most important aspect. At least that’s what I think😊 I did the same thing with English and it helped a lot in regards to prepositions and phrasal verbs, which I struggled with.
The worst thing for me as an English person learning German (In Germany) is about how I learnt English. So when you learn the german grammar rules, you also have to learn the English equivalent rule as you may use it but were not taught the technical rules in school. Being able to use present tense for basically everything in German makes it a lot easier. Honestly, the best way I learn is just to listen to other germans, then make mistakes but get corrected.
Even if you learned the rules, you would need to remember them. I (German) learnt all that, even in English and French. But in your own language you don't need it after school, because you mostly speak a way that feels OK like you hear it everywhere - it's just engraved in your mind - hopefully the correct way ! With some usage that also happens in English for me. But when some foreigner is learning German and asks me somehting about grammar rules, I nearly can't help him. I know what is correct, but i don't know the rule.
English grammar is not taught at British schools nowadays. They rely on foreign language teachers to do that thing. Most Brits don't know a noun from a verb.
Thanks for the clarification! When I was learning German my teacher said that ich, "ick", and "ish" were all technically correct, just depending on where you are in Germany
@@andypham6335 The fact that Germans were solely responsible for the war has Mr. Putin refuted in an hour-long speech. The truth is often unfashionable. On the occasion - the First World War began Austria. And the second started an Austrian.
We invented the “Dir/Dich game” - really difficult for a lot of English speakers to know when to use which one. PS Great intro! “Schnell - schnell” could be added 😝
A great tip for Deutsch grammar for English speakers is that it is very similar to Elizabethan English, i.e. Shakespearean English. The verb orders are almost identical. Also pronunciation is more similar.
Kimberly R S Han Do they pronounce your name Screeber or Shreeber? :) I know an American with the German last name Zeiger. I believe that Americans pronounce his name almost correctly, but with the soft American Z. Oh, and probably with the the American R at the end, while in Germany, we pronounce it more like Tsuyga.
Hab heute draufgeklickt, wegen Utube Vorschlag: bin ziemlich beeindruckt: alles passt: der Text, die Erklärungen, die Sprache: Hut ab und weiter so! Grüsse aus der Schweiz
I've been working on German for several years, and assumed I wouldn't learn anything new here, but that last tip was a very good one that I'd never heard before. Thank you.
(10:40) Well, there are some languages that write the first person singular nominative pronoun in uppercase, like Saanich "EESE", Scots "A". But I'll give you that it is a really rate feature.
Another good one is the s-mobile rule; words that START with “Sp” or “St” will have the “s” sound replaced with an “sch” sound in German. Also, there is no such thing as the “Sk” sound at least in native German. “Sk”s get replaced with the typical “Sch” which is equivalent to the English “Sh”.
I find that Scots English overall has a lot of similarities to German. I watched Scottish Parliament when they discussed the Brexit and I was so astound about the similarities.
Yes, but this is only the dark vowel variant. In fact, the "ich" variant doesn't exist in some dialects, particularly in Austria, so as a Scot you might try Austrian German...
@@christineh342 I'm Austrian and watched the series "Outlander" partially in the original version. Difficult to understand, but I thought the same about the similarities of Scots English and German.
Hello Feli from Germany, Thank-you for this lovely lesson in pronouncing German, highlighting the mnemonics for learning how to say 'ie' and 'ei'. If I may be so bold as to return the compliment: near the end of your lesson you said 'I will' as an example of the future whereas it is much more complicated than that, at least in England. The first person singular and plural take shall to represent the simple future - tomorrow I shall go to Berlin (a simple statement of what I am going to do) and the other persons take will. I shall, you will, he will, we shall, they will, etc. The verb will is the other way round - I will, you shall, he shall, they shall do not represent the simple future but a strong intention to verb. You shall sit your exam tomorrow (no question about it) or I will punish you (be warned) Of course I have noticed that in the last twenty odd years people have become very haphazard in applying basic rules of grammar so it is quite possible that this simple rule is no longer observed, especially in America which seems to have gone off in a completely different direction.
Just a note on terminology. The digraph 'ie' is a monophthong /i/, whereas the digraph 'ei' is a diphthong /ai/. In other words the German 'ie' is colloquially described as a pure or flat vowel, and the German 'ei' as a compound vowel that slides from one vowel quality to another (in this instance from 'a' to 'i').
(4:20) But "ie" isn't a diphthong. It's a digraph, but not a diphthong. This is because it's just pronounced /iː/, while "ei" is pronounced /aɪ̯/ and is therefore a diphthong, and also a digraph.
For what it's worth, many native English speakers have no idea how to use all of the tenses correctly. Mistakes I commonly see are conflation of ran / run (yes, "run" is used in some of the past tenses of the verb "to run"), drank / drunk, hanged / hung etc.
When I first started to learn German, it was a basic conversation course which the use of tenses in one language to the other doesn't work, such as the -ing form. Our instructor was from Switzerland. I then went to an evening course at UCLA, my first instructor was from Hamburg, the second from Wien. This was all some 40 years ago. I've been living in ÖS for over 30 years, my work was always in English and rarely needed to speak German, though it's my primary language now, and most people think I'm from the Netherlands. I learn by doing, also notice patterns, but at times with two adjectives preceding a noun it can be a bit confusing. One thing I would almost prefer when learning is that there are der, die, das words and forget that they are M, F, and neutral. It makes life more simple. For some reason, French was easier. Thanks for your informative video.
Which of these tips did you find most helpful? :) And what are YOUR TIPS when it comes to learning German or which MISTAKES should people try to avoid? Let me and everyone else know in the comments below!
EDIT: Yes, "ick" or "icke" is also part of the Berlin accent/dialect but that's the only place where people say that and in my opinion, it doesn't really work if you only use that one word of the dialect.
Possessed by Beavis and Butthead: huh huh huh she said "dip THONG" Huh Huh Huh HUH.
As opposed to Huhuhu. :) Oh, thanks for avenging Rammstein. Ich liebe dich!! xD
Guten tag
Did I notice 2 arms and 0 casts?
Today's video was fun! I might suggest you do a comparison of German dialects, at one point? They say that in some areas the people from one town can't understand neighboring towns because of differences in dialect. It also gives an opportunity to explain how hoch Deutsch is the national dialect and how it became into being. Comparing cities that are far apart, such as Munich and Berlin's can be fun. Doing the dialect comparison for "I'm going home" is perfect! Berlin is "Ich gehe nach Hause" where in Munich(Bayrisch) it's " Ie goha Hom" Thanks!
Wasser ist Spitze
I'm German. I'm watching an English video how to speak German correctly. Something is wrong with me 😂
Same here, ich finde es interessant wie Amerikaner Deutsche wahrnehmen und sie gibt gute Einblicke wie sie es erlebt 😄
Same ich auch😂
Same, but it is so interesting
Ist so, ich dachte es mir vorhin auch 😂
Exakt das gleiche bei mir 😅
Learn. Every. Noun. with the. Article. From the beginning. It will save you A LOT of problems later.
Too late....😭
Disagree. Don't let details keep you from progressing. In almost all situations, people will understand even if you mix up the articles.
@@peters2522 But you'll sound like a jerk. Learn the article with the noun. If you don't want to do this study Spanish instead
I agree. I found this easiest by learning a noun in the context of different sentences which put them into the different cases so you get used to hearing the noun spoken in different parts of the sentence (e.g. das Haus: ich sehe ein blaues Haus, er ist in meinem Haus, sie ist gluecklich wegen ihres Hauses). If I then forget the gender I just think of a sentence with that noun in and it typically lets me know the gender.
Or just doing it the turkish style and say "de" instead of der,die,das. Just de Baum, de Mädchen,...
Not very elegant and everyone will know you are foreigner, but you will be understood.
EVERY TIME I mention to an American I’m German, they start to yell the 3 German words they know at me aggressively... I usually reply with my best cowboy impression...
You mean they yell "volkswagen", "nazi" and "scheisskopf" at you? 😀
HAHAHA THE COWBOY 😂😂
I sent my kids to German class with a sentence. First day, teacher asks, does anyone know any German? My 15 year old holds up his hand and replies, Meine Bleistift ist gross und Gelb. I can't believe they let me chaperone on the trip from Berlin to Lucerne,
I teach every American I meet the three most important German words: Ein Bier bitte!
@@FreezyAbitKT7A Now that's a great first impression to make for your son. How did he do in class?
I always think of "Bier" and "Wein" to make sure I pronounce "ie" and "ei" correctly since these words are so similar to the English equivalent.
That's a brilliant mnemonic! :D
(
It's funny to me that when I started learning the language, those are 2 of the first words I learned😂
@@kileyslife7541 Makes sense to me!
That's actually quite good!
Coming from the other (German native speaker), i often despair of people mixing up, or rather mispronouncing, beer and bear. Which is a mystery to me, because both sound pretty much exactly the same in both languages - Bier/beer and Bär/bear...couldn't actually bei much easier 🤦
Duolingo?
Another one: Assuming that an "e" at the end of a word is silent. Like Porsche.
Yup. Drives me crazy.
I've been to Germany and in isolated places I have heard people say the "e" as in Porsha. But almost everyone says Porsche.
e at the end of a word is pronounced like an ä in German
Yes, Ä is more accurate than A. The sound is the same as the e in many English words like "help" or "memory". Basically every "short" e is pronounced like ä, not only at the end of the word. Like in any of these words: Herr, Herz, Held, helfen, Geld, Pelz...
To be more precise, the e at the end of words is a schwa - a reduced vowel like the a in English about or the e in pencil.
Most important: when speaking German, don't try to sound like Nazis in the movies. Talk like a normal human being.
😂😂😂
Nein...find a soap box in Berlin und rant und bark like Joseph Goebbels' reincarnation!
@Hauke Holst Kinda like Trump in private interviews speaks completely different from his public speeches.
Unless Nazi-in-a-movie is what you're going for. But no, don't, really don't.
Most of those movies are made in Hollywood without a clue of how German really sounds.
My high school German teacher told us "when i and e go walking, the second one does the talking" - never forgot that how to pronounce "ie" and "ei" after that.
My 3rd grade teacher told us "when two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking" as an English rule.
91msJill
So, if two vowels go on a walk and the first one is English and the second one is German, they’re both talking all the time.
Vice versa, they are quiet all the way. ^^
I was going to comment the same thing. "When i and e go walking, the second one does the talking" was taught to me in German class in central Pennsylvania, in ~1999
I just added the “ie ei” tip (above) and then I saw you had already written the same tip!
@Dru - Fantastic principle, nice that you shared that.
Ei vs ie is important. In my beginning German course at university, the professor was teaching the use of the word "gern." And we had to form a sentence using it and write it on the board. At the time, I was on the university rifle team, so, I wanted to say that I like to shoot. However, in my haste, I misread the dictionary, and I wrote, "Ich scheiße gern." The professor looked at me and started laughing. He said, "I think you meant "schieße." What you said was that you like to shit." Lesson learned.
lol
The same applies for words (ie and ei) in Dutch. (German and Dutch) are closely related
When you grow older you begin to appreciate a good shit too... :D
@@csabrendeki Very true, I'm at that 'older' age so yes. 🤣💩
😱😱😱
Your english is so perfect its hard to believe you aren't american
I can hear a slight German accent, but ONLY because I am German AND because I know that she is German.
It’s a super super slight accent but she sounds lovely.
@@I_am_Raziel same
She does pronounce the words good. However, there is a slight accent. The s are a bit sharp. I must admit, I live a long time in America and still have a strong accent. Well, many times people think I am from Austria or England.
@@I_am_Raziel same
My German professor got a huge laugh out of one of us students reading a passage about an amusement park and telling about scheissbuden. Between his laughs he managed to spit out, "yes, a shitting gallery..." (Schiessbuden would be shooting galleries.)
Hahahaha
The best is Schiss is also a word for shit (so Scheissbuden = Schissbuden but not Schießbuden, where the difference between Schiss and Schieß is how shrt or looooong they are pronounced and potentially if you pronounce the i(e)-sound low in the mouth or in the upper part)
It's also used for
"Hast du Schiss?" which roughly translates to "Are you shitting yourself (out of fear)?" Or "Chicken?" (literal translation is "Do you have shit?")
Another embarrassing mistake is to pronounce the musical piece by Mozart as "A little naked music." ("Eine kleine Nacktmusik" instead of "Eine kleine Nachtmusik")
The "ei" / "ie" confusion was illustrated in a very amusing way in a documentary I saw some years ago. Some German veterans were interviewed about how they came to surrender to the Allies and one of them recounted an anecdote. His unit had been surrounded by American soldiers who had all been taught the phrase "Hande hoch oder ich schiessen!" ("Hands up or I'll shoot!). One of the Americans shouted this phrase at the German unit but inverted the "ie" in "schiessen" and actually said "Hande hoch oder ich scheissen!" ("Hands up or I'll shit!"). The Germans found this so amusing that they burst into laughter and one soldier who spoke some English shouted back "Anything but that! We surrender!".
Schiessen nein scheissen!
Its "Hände hoch oder ich schieße"
@@navy_flyer2331 Nah, thats totaly fine. They just wrote "schiessen" wich is grammatically not correct.
That story is hilarious 🤣
Oddly enough I heard a British soldier challenge us on a relief patrol during a duty at a "sensitive" ammunition site making the same mistake, it's because they hear scheisser more than schiesser.
"When I and E go walking, the second does the talking". That's the way I was taught a long time ago.
Ha, good one!
Exactly the opposite of what English-speaking kids are taught. One of my son's old LeapFrog DVDs has a whole "first one does the talking" song.
My last name is of German origin with ei in it. No one pronounces it right.
Homeschooled my youngest and he learned (with exceptions, of course), when two vowels go awalking, the first one does the talking. Can still see the printed sheet of two vowels holding hands! 😛
A couple tips that I give my students:
1. Even though it is hard, do not skip learning noun genders. At some point everything else is going to focus on that. You have to know genders once you start applying cases, and then you have to know genders really well once you learn adjective endings.
2. In the same spirit as my first tip, learn the endings that are commonly one gender or another. For example, -er is commonly masculine, -e is commonly feminine (I tell my kids, "if it ends with -e, its probably 'die'"), -ung is always feminine, -heit/-keit are always feminine, -chen is always neuter. There are others, but these are common ones that you encounter early.
3. There are no helping verbs in the present tense. Even though we say "I am playing" in English, you just say "ich spiele" in German (not "ich bin spiele" or something).
4. Word order is important. In a statement, you have subject+verb (du singst=you are singing), but questions are verb+subject (singst du?= Are you singing?) Also, if you have two verbs in one clause, the second one is at the end, not right after the first one (ich MUSS nach Hause GEHEN= I MUST GO home)
5. Be able to understand how nouns function in a sentence. For example, you have to know how a subject, direct object, and indirect object differ (ich gebe dem Kind einen Hund "I give the kid a dog" is very different from "ich gebe dem Hund ein Kind" "i give the dog the child"--notice the endings on the words "the" and "a")
Yes, word order is important in German, but far more important in English since German still uses case while English doesn't so the meanings given by case are expressed through word order instead (actually, English still uses case, but it just doesn't show, which is why we now have monstrosities such as "between you and I"). So while you can mix word order up a bit in German (eg, "Der Hund beißt den Mann." and "Den Mann beißt der Hund."), the slightest change of word order in English can completely change the meaning (eg "The dog bites the man." vs. "The man bites the dog."). I have also studied other languages which are more heavily inflected than German (ie, languages that have retained case endings; eg, Latin, Greek, Russian) in which you could conceivably mix up almost all the noun phrases (retaining the associations of adjectives and the genitive, of course) and still come up with the same meaning.
The translation for "I am playing" is a bit more complex. Yes, I don't need to translate the progressive form into German, but you can do that without an problem. To "ich spiele" you could ad "gerade" oder "im Moment" to make it more obvious. But you could translate it into the progressive form "ich bin (gerade) am Spielen" .
The find the article-adjective declinations almost impossible and the also where to place adverbs and prepositions in the sentence when you use perfect tense or helper verbs. It’s a lot to remember when you’re trying to speak in real time at a normal pace.
@@davidwise1302 but in English you can place a preposition practically anywhere in the sentence and it’s understood. In fact, the placement is largely based on emphasis or poetic effect rather than grammar. Even adverbs can generally go anywhere close to the verbs.
regarding your second point I urge you to not do that anymore. You only gonna confuse your students. There are NO rules for noun genders! -er is NOT commonly masculine (die Butter, die Mutter, das Futter, etc.)
One has to simply learn the gender together with the new word, so don't remember door=Tür but door= die Tür
Have a look at this link
www.passion4teq.com/articles/der-die-das-genus-regeln/
So many rules, so many exceptions. Forget about the rules and learn the words you need.
I am teaching German to refugees and migrants for over a decade now and in my experience that's the only thing that reliably works.
I started learning German w/ duolingo about a year ago, and in one of the sections where users can leave comments someone said it helps to think of the "ch" sound as mimicking the hissing sound a cat would make. That helped me a lot to get close to its correct pronunciation.
I use Duolingo too. I just got a 400 day streak and I think I have 2 years now generally. 15 mins a day with German music and movies has gotten me farther than ever! I’m still only A2 but it’s farther than I got in college as far as speaking/understanding.
Always ask, “Ist es dir kalt”,
And never, never say.
“Bist du kalt!”
As we do in English!
You can also drop the "es" - "Ist dir kalt"
Also applies to other expressions of emotion/state of mind: mir ist langweilig (I am bored) as opposed to ich bin langweilig (I am boring) or mir ist übel (I'm nauseous/not feeling well). But it's not a general rule, you can't say mir ist müde for example, you have to say ich bin müde (I am tired).
Bist du kalt means
“are you frigid!”
Try it for yourself.
@@hansmahr8627 as a German speaker it happens a lot that I accidentally say "mir ist müde" because my mouth is faster than my brain :')
As a native German speaker, let me tell you that you either say 'Ist dir kalt?' (without the 'es') or 'Frierst du?'.
'Bist du kalt would only make sense as a statement to someone else to tell him eg. that he has cold hands or to tell him that he is less emotional but as a native speaker you would express the last one differently.
In my German class, someone once asked why the grammar were so tricky. He responded that the German language was invented during a long winter.
I mean, technically, the Little Ice Age was a “long winter”
You should do a video about compliments and insults. I am sure that there are things that non-Germans unknowingly do or say while in Germany that are insulting or insensitive.
I can see the need for compliments but NOT insults...shame shame !! hahahahaha BUT, I have used minor insults in German on coworkers who pushed my buttons once too many tines !!They had no idea what I was calling them..shame one me !!! hahahaha !!!!
On my first Army assignment to Germany, I had to live on the German economy; because no government housing was available. The German couple next door sort of took us under their wing. They spoke no English; but I had taken two years of German in college; so we could haltingly make ourselves understood. They invited the wife and I to dinner one night at their house. I decided to get the neighbor's wife some flowers as a token of appreciation. I had been warned that it was against custom to give an even number of flowers; so I bought 13 red roses for her. When she and her husband came to the door, he started laughing. Turns out that you only give red roses to your sweetheart in Germany....good thing Heinz had a sense of humor.
dont speak English with a German accent and expect to be understood or appreciated. Dont call the Euro "funny money". Unless by a miracle the American FiFA team is doing really well and you are at the game... never shout ...USA USA USA ....especially in Dresden
@@FreezyAbitKT7A ... never, ever, EVER in Dresden...
...(the bombing raids that happened in WWII are still quite a sore point)...
@@miklosernoehazy8678 I am very aware. I have visited Dresden and have seen the scars and charring on buildings that remain today. Yes, we bombed churches too. I wouldn't be born for 20 years but I am still deeply sorry.
Regarding "ie and ei" this is what I was taught: "In German, when two vowels go walking, the second one does the talking."
How though? In the ie example the first vowel is pronounced. And the ei, gives a new sound. It's neither e nor i, it's "ay".
@@Lovethyself887 actually it's true if you consider the english pronounciation of the last vowel :)
When you use the normal German pronunciation rules, in most cases you lengthen the first vowel. You don't do that with diphthong. (It's about the same as in Dutch, so it's quite easy to me.)
Ei and ie are diphthongs btw
@Harold Potsdamer Exactly.
In Scotland the "ch" sound is used for words like Loch and its pronounced the same as german
Does loch by any chance mean hole in Scottish?
@Recoil,SVP o then the Lochness monster makes more sense
@Recoil,SVP there was no ó used in the comment though that’s why it looked wrong ig
@Recoil,SVP What does greats mean?
@Recoil,SVP o
Ich verstehe zwar nicht warum, aber irgendwie fand ich das Video sehr spannend... auch wenn ich Deutsche bin😂
Ich auch😅
Same
true
Jap same
Ich schaue mir das Video auch an obwohl ich deutsch bin LOL
Another issue that an english teacher pointed out to me: u vs ü. A lot of English speakers ignore those two dots above the ü and pronounce it like the u. They just didn't learn the words schwul and schwül. At that point it would be better to know the different pronunciation of u and ü.
THIS. i just cant comprehend how english people are like "yeah so there are these dots... nah, nvm, theyre probably just decoration and dont mean anything"💁
@@johnappleseed3428 you made my day
Me an Estonian : ä ü ö õ
Schwul (gay) comes from schwül (humid) because it was thought that gay guys are very warm and "wet". So it's not really wrong per se. Just a bit old timey. Time travel to the 16th century and it would be right... Not today. Never today!!!
You don’t want to mix up sultry and gay
My tip for all foreign language speakers (almost) all over the world:
Speak and make your own mistakes. Your hosts will be pleased that you try and will be glad to help you (and to correct you if neccesary)
This is very true!
The only thing I would add is that it is helpful to set your mind in advance so that you're not embarrassed by anything you say incorrectly or have to hand-wave about. If it's obvious you are honestly trying, people will treat you nicely and try to help you.
I don’t think that is true with learning French as native speakers are not just tickled that you are just trying to speak their language. Stereotypically they seem more annoyed that you are mangling it
@@chrisk5651 That's why I wrote "(almost) all over the world" but even that's getting better
@@chrisk5651 I've always heard the opposite - that French people really appreciate it when you at least try to speak some French. I haven't tried it myself, but it is what I have heard.
One of my German language professors told a story that he had a Russian professor that didn't bother with noun genders. He just gave every noun the adjective suffix -"chen" meaning small eg. das Brotchen... little bread... roll/bun
"Ick" is also technically valid as it is Berlin accent for "ich"
That's why John F. Kennedy is known so well for his sentence: "Ick bin ein Berliner". XD
Icke, not ick.
dont Forget Claus Hipp and his Catchphrase.
"Ganz on Ckemie, dafüre steh ich mit meinem Namen"
Regional ch - ck east-west line runs mid-Germany with Plattdeutch favoring ck. In Dutch, which blends more closely with Plattdeutsch than Hochdeutsch, the pronoun "I" is "ik."
@@juno4255 ick or icke depending on where it falls in the sentence I heard.
I don’t know why I’m watching this (I’m a fourth year Germanistics student 🤣), but I can’t stop.
P. S. Good job!
The German word that I like that is now a part of the English language is zeitgeist. The diphthong clue was helpful.
FINALLY, someone explained the ie and ei pronounciation! You are making want to learn German. Thanks for all the great videos.
The problem of German is not pronunciation but to understand everything of the sentence, it's order is quite different from English and the Gender of the word
Gender of the word is FUNDAMENTAL to do a proper declination and really important while using prepositions. Some are in dativ and others in akkusative
Sometimes they even rematk the difference between something which is in motion (akkusative) and something that is static (dativ). But if you master the Cases, it shouldn't be a big deal the rest
Personally, I have troubles with trennbare verben, since they can be split into the verb and the particle, they are similar to phrasal verbs but the particle goes to the end of the sentence. This particles actually have some meaning but depends on the verb. In non trennbare verbs, there's a preffix which is not splitted from the verb but adds some meaning which I don't understand either
But it's really a language which is worthy to be learnt. It's challenging at first but it doesn't sound as **making a bunch of weird sounds** it's different and they usually go to the really smallest detail. So I encourage you to take German classes if you are really interested. It really changed my mind
Finde es als Deutscher immer wieder lustig durch die Kommentare zu scrollen haha l’y mach weiter so ❤️🙏🏻
Ich glaube die meisten ihrer Zuschauer sind deutsch...😂
ch has a third way of pronounciation. When it is followed by a s it is pronounced like ks or x.
Achse (axle), Ochse (ox), Fuchs (fox), Lachs (salmon), Luchs (lynx) etc.
Bachstelze... :-D Into a similar category fall Häuschen, Hoffensterchen and so on.
@@j3nn3s no... now you mixed all three of them together... :-P
Fuchs is the x/ks, Bach the rasping sound and Häuschen the soft hiss of air. (the word Hoffensterchen does not exist. Sorry!)
@@j.m.w.5064 I mixed those up intentionally. The last words are hard to read and understand at first sight even for native speakers. Bachstelze is pronounced Bach-Stelze (it's a bird), Häuschen - Häus-chen (CH Like in ich. That's diminutive, so it's just a small house), Hoffensternchen is actually Hof-fenster-chen - a little window towards the front or backyard
@@j3nn3s "Hoffensternchen" is such a great trap! ;-) I'm a native speaker myself, but I didn't recognize that it didn't mean "Hoffen-Sternchen", but "Hof-Fensterchen".
However, I can easily pronounce "Donaudampfschifffahrtsgesellschaftskapitänsmützenaufhängung". What a great word. ;-)
Joke of the day: So a few years ago I was teaching German to a group of immigrants here in Austria. One member of the course was a very nice middle-aged lady from the Philippines, who was having a particularly difficult time with German pronunciation. This was of course due to the fact that many of the German diphthongs simply do not exist in her native language. One morning I started the class with a lively verbal exercise - each person was to describe to the class their activities from the day before in German. So one by one, each person got up and recounted the previous day's activities in German. So far, so good. Then it was the Philippine lady's time to speak. She stood up, and in her best German, started to recount how some guy introduced himself to her in the supermarket and the conversation they had, only that he kept on talking and talking and talking, while she just wanted to leave.
She said: "und er spritzt und spritzt und spritzt und wollte nicht aufhören zu spritzen". My eyes popped open wide!!! I said to her, "you mean 'er SPRICHT'!". "JA", she said, "er SPRITZT und SPRITZT und wollte nicht aufhören zu SPRITZEN!" I fell over on the floor, doubled over in spasms! I laughed so hard, I thought I would suffocate! I tried correcting her pronunciation, but each time I said "SPRICHT", she would close her eyes, concentrate really hard, and the word "SPRITZT" came flying out her mouth. The poor lady had no idea why this was so funny, and I didn't have the heart to explain it to her. She was so modest and was such a nice decent lady, I didn't want to give her a heart attack. But she continued, completely unaware of the difference between the two words, "ich habe ihn mehrmals gebeten, hör bitte auf zu spritzen, aber er spritzt, und spritzt und spritzt die ganze Zeit!!"
My eyes were red and I got weak from laughing so hard. Even to this day, whenever I think of that poor lady, I can't help but bursting out laughing. Native German speakers will understand why...
Indeed... 😂
💦💦💦 Lolz
Und, was habt ihr heute schönes im Kindergarten gemacht? - Wir haben gevögelt!
Mein "Joke of the day" 😉
I will need to translate this now as I am curious LOL. It's means sprayed or splashed. So he sprayed and sprayed and sprayed?
@@steveth1000 LOL! Not exactly, "spritzen" has another vulgar meaning in colloquial speech. 😉
When referring to letter combinations "ei" and "ie", as in how they are written, they are called digraphs, not diphthongs. Diphthongs are related to how sounds are pronounced. You would say that the digraph "ei" is pronounced as a diphthong /ai/.
Pronouncing pure vowels is probably the biggest tip for improving your accent. It’ll help you out in so many other languages besides just German.
nevertheless the vowels are not spoken everywhere the same like in German, even Germans are not aware of this fact
@@walterweiss7124 Most people trying to learn German are learning Standard German, not a dialect, so pure vowels it is.
I'm a native French speaker, and when I went abroad, my tendency to revert to the "-sch" sound instead of the soft "-ch" sound made ALL the Germans I spoke to assume I was a native French speaker. I was also kind of pleasantly surprised about how positively the accent French speakers of German had amongst Germans, because I have to say, the accent German speakers of French have is so damned beautiful. It's this kind of mutual give-and-take I love.
As always, love the vids, Feli. You're a treasure.
Well you probably also have the "French melody" (that's what I call it anyways). French has far more intonation than German and Germans will noticed that rather than the "-sch" sound.
Actually, I know some Americans using this I-sch technique, and they are easy to be considered french.
At least the German "R" shouldn't be that difficult for you.
@@Sp4mMe That's absolutely correct. French women speaking German .... uncomparable. :)
Yes America found Claudine Longet's accent cute.
I think German pronunciation is easier for the Scottish than the English because the Scottish accent is already half way there.
The Scottish also shouldn't have any problem with the German "ch".
I'm from North East England and many non English folks think I'm either German or Danish. Had some Germans I met on holiday randomly switch to German at one point due to my accent haha
@@OldQueer Geordie?
@@thkempe Och aye.
@@colinp2238 Indeed. The way we say words such as opal isn't like any other English dialect as far as I'm aware. That 'o' noise is what causes the confusion.
Trotz dass ich Deutsch bin und somit hier nichts zu suchen habe, finde ich dieses Video interessant! Ich finde spannend, auf was die Engländer alles achten müssen, wenn sie Deutsch sprechen
The digraph “ie” is not a diphtong. It makes the sound of a simple vowel: [iː]. A diphtong is the gradient from one vowel to another. Technically, no letter combination can be a diphtong, because letters are letters and not sounds. If the technical term “digraph” confuses you, just say “letter combination”. The digraph “ei” on the other hand represents a diphtong: [aɪ̯].
The final consonant in “ach” also exists in some English names. Take Loch Ness in Scotland. [lɔx] / [ax]
I like the approach to choose an alternative mistake that keeps the words most intelligible. At least that’s better that ignoring the mistake or keep struggling with it for a long time.
I've been living in Germany for 7 years and you just helped me shock my German friends with my "ich" pronunciation :D thank you
dont get too good thou, i love for example love the accent 😉
@@maikbaumann1250 'though'
@@CrankCase08 good job! thank you for correcting me, english isnt native language. but thx good people like you are always happy to help.
translate "klugscheißer" for me 😉
@@maikbaumann1250 Screw you then. I'll not bother in future.
I spend years learning to say 'ich' properly as I am a native English speaker. Then I went to Germany living close to the Dutch border and found that they use the plattdeutch pronunciation rather like Dutch. this was close to Monchegladbach.
Thanks for the tips. I’ve been learning German and I want to do as much as I can the right way. I’ve really been struggling with the word ich in German. The way you described it, comparing it to trying to get something out of your throat actually makes sense. Danke
You have to be careful, because that's the wrong ch sound. The throat one is in words like Bauch, auch, Kuchen,...
But the ch sound of ich is the same sound as the beginning of huge, human,...
It's a sound made by making the h sound and bringing your tongue to forward and upward, so that the air flows through a narrow channel at the roof of your mouth
Speaking of Rammstein: Till Lindemann is rolling the "R" like nobody else.
Is he an Austrian?
@@ashjkouy852 Nein. Er kommt aus Leipzig.
@@ashjkouy852 No. He just adopted the so called "Bühnendeutsch" (stage german?) for his pronounciation. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C3%BChnendeutsch
@@AnastasiaSaenz RB Leipzig, RB Salzburg :)
Capitalization is super important in German since it can change the meaning completely:
- die spinnen (they are crazy) vs. die Spinnen (the spiders)
- dichter (tighter) vs. Dichter (poets)
- Floh (flea) vs. floh (escaped)
nice video...
I have looked at a moderate amount of German text, but I had not not noticed that the seemingly randomly capitalized words are all nouns! That is _so_ helpful! Thanks!
That is something you learn either by being German, or by following German classes. Otherwise, I can really imagine that it looks very random.
As a linguistics person I love this video!
Great video! It took me a couple of months to learn to pronounce „möchte“ because it has the German „ch“ but also the Umlaut on the o, which doesn‘t exist at all in English. I do have a couple of tips to help with the pronounciation. The „ie“ diphthong does indeed exist in English, because English is so full of exceptions, that you have to learn. Words like “brief” and “piece” are pronounced like the diphthong in German. The „ch“ sound can be learned by English speakers by imitating the sound a cat makes when angry or threatened, the so called “spitting sound” or “ccchhh”. It helps if you make your hand simulate the extended claws at the same time! The last tip I have is that the German „z“ does also exist in English, and most Americans use it (or eat it) every day: PIZZA! The “z” or better said, the “zz” is indeed a “ts” sound, as in “Pete - sa”. That’s in contrast to a normal English “zz” like in the word “Lizzy” as in “Tin Lizzy” (nickname for a Ford Model T). During my first trip Germany I visited a brewery in Amberg called “Schiesselbier”. You can imagine how I pronounced it!
That's great about the pizza, I never noticed. And the dipthongs, after learning German it helped me with my English spelling ei/ie. The fact that "weird" does it wrong is just selbstverstaendlich: )
I have a pretty old german learning book from the 50s and I found them saying: ch in words like 'Ich' you have similar placement with your jaw and tongue to the english/scotch 'loch' but speak it with out enunciating the kuh sound. So its more a cuh. Either way it isnt perfect but the jaw and tongue placement were a great way to begin pronouncing it better.
You are a teacher. I taught for years so I know. Nice presentation
Finally, here is the video you've announced. I've been waiting for it and 6am German time is just perfect for me :-)))
My German teacher at school was actually called Frau Schuhle . Learned so much in those three years without realising.
Few years later, living and working in Germany I raised many a glass in her honour.
How about discussing the Umlaut with certain letters and their significance.
Yes, please, the umlauts!
Ö has always been tricky for me. I imagine it is like an "er" in English. I think that gets me close.
@@byrdchem in German the plular is different for many words so please don't put the 's' on every word. For "der Umlaut" the plural would be "die Umlaute".
@@Couponkingdom for 'ö' speak the German 'i' and then just move your lips and make them round. Don't move the tongue or change anything but the lips.
In Estonian language - They have " Ü " aswell - and even Finnish & Estonian are Only 50miles apart - in Finnish We have No such a letter ! Many taking the Ferry 3h - Dont know anything about the local language !
I'm very happy that German is my mother language. Because learning it as a stranger must be the hell on earth 😩😉
Germany's not too bad. Now, Mandarin - THAT'S a pain.
I'm from Serbia and I chose German as my second foreign language (besides English) at Uni, it was hell indeed 😅
The grammar is way too hard. Fortunatelly, I remained on B1 level only
I'd like to say- as a Polish- I really love German.
Danke
dobrze pani bobrze
HAH Now I know why my mutter always capitalized nouns. Even as a kid in school my mother would help us with home work and she was very good at English... see even that word I still capitalize. I never realized she was teaching that from her own language!
Yes. I took several years of German in high school and university and I liked it. I did find two long-lasting beneficial effects: (1) capability to understand and think in very long sentences (easy to do in German and helps you read academic papers) and (2) capitalizing nouns (this actually can enhance one's English - you can use it to Spotlight words you want to Honor or Highlight).
Meine Muttersprache ist Deutsch und bis jetzt ist mir nie aufgefallen, dass das ch in "ich" nicht das gleiche wie in "auch" ist. Habe es gerade ausprobiert "ich, auch, ich, auch, ich, auch, aja wirklich!" 😅😂
Und jetzt sag mal „Dachs“ oO
@@speedy9380 Oder Chamäleon
Und da Du das so schön formuliert hast, kannst Du jetzt in die Küche gehen und Dir ein Stück Kuchen holen.
Cool video. As some have noted, the umlauts are tricky for many non-native speakers and might merit their own video. Also something I would suggest for a future video: how things are actually pronounced by Germans (and other German speakers), as opposed to how it is often taught. I have seen these kinds of videos while learning French, and they definitely help, because one of the things that makes learning a language so difficult is that when you first really have to communicate with native speakers, things are not only faster but also different. E.g. how "haben" isn't usually pronounced the way it is taught but like "habn" or even "ham". Generally, the "-en" ending is so common, yet never really pronounced as such, except when strongly enunciated.
What was said about the pronunciation for 'auch' coming from the back of the throat, it's like the prefix 'ge' in Dutch and Afrikaans.
You actually do use the present tense in English to talk about the future! It's a little less obvious because the present tense is less direct in English, but it feels more fluent to me to say "I'm going shopping tomorrow" than "I will go shopping tomorrow"
The "ie" isn't a diphthong, it's a monophthong, specifically the IPA /i:/
Exactly, it's a digraph, i.e. written with two letters as one sound, but not a diphthong.
Thanks for these vlogs, Felicia. I was a US soldier, stationed in what was then West-Germany from Feb 87 - Oct. 91. When I arrived, my unit had enrolled me in a program called Kindergarten. It was a two week program where we were taught the language, customs, the do's and don'ts. At the end of the class, we were taken to downtown Nuremberg where we toured the city and had lunch, where we were required to order in German. When we were done, we were left to find our way back to the
Kaserne. My unit was based in Monteith Barracks, which is in Fürth, which is not too far from Nuremberg.
Andre Woodson I was in Ansbach at the same time.
I spent a little time in Hohenfels, Bavaria for some combat training in the U.S. Army, but I never learned the German language however. Thanks for all of the tips because I imagine that many of us Americans who have learned some German may have butchered the language with our mispronunciation of many words. Happy Thanksgiving! Much love from the wild west.
Hi German Girl,
Your “American” English is amazing. I worked with a fellow engineer from Germany and his English was very good, understandable. But your English is at a much higher level! Good for you, your outstanding!
I learned to pronounce the German "r" (at least when it begins a word) by listening to and imitating Dr. Ruth (Westheimer) say the word "rub". As a native English speaker, I have found that it is often helpful to exaggerate the pronunciation of a foreign language when first learning unfamiliar sounds in that language. With time and practice, practice, practice improvement can be made.
"ie" - "ei" - "Ich schieße auf den Hasen." A mix-up has only a similar meaning ... 😂
den Hase, die Hasen
Matthew Weber
Willst Du die Antwort wirklich einloggen? ;)
@@Matthews_Resume www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/Hase it will be "der Hase / die Hasen" - Akkusativ singluar "den Hasen
@@winittiwary7893 Das wird dem Hasen scheissegal sein, wo hingeschossen wird. Hauptsache es trifft nicht ihn, der Jäger mit dem Schiessgewehr. Also: "Egal!"
@Drew PeacockShooting? I don't now. But with "scheisse" I shit on the hare. Litterally is "I don't care.". And my "egal" is a quote of an not so important singer. I think his song goes about his desastrous lifestyle going into dept but still enyoing luxury.
OMG! That first dialogue was HILARIOUS!!!
Not a problem for me :) Arriving in Germany in late 1991 while I was in the US Army, I went through the "Just Enough German" classes, which helps non-speakers (like me) to at least read menus and road signs. The instructor complimented me, "Your accent is very good, where are you from?" Milwaukee, WI. Surrounded by it, even if I never really learned it. _"Deutscher als Milwaukee ist nirgendwo in Amerika"_ -- Frankfurter Allgemeine, 2008
Milwaukee is almost Swissconsin
Feli, German "R" remains the most challenging for this American, but your tips are helping.
As for "ch," the tip I heard many years ago that made it easy was to place my tongue and mouth shape exactly the same as if I were about to pronounce the "y" sound, as in "yarn," only instead to vibrating vocal chords, gently exhale like a hissing cat(not too harshly). That pretty much nails it.
Lesson starts at 2:51. I've studied German on and off for a long time and was never familiar with point 3 and never formally introduced to point 6. Very helpful indeed.
Wow, you're almost at the 200K subscriber mark- WAY TO GO!!!!
A note on the "R" thing. It's rhotic vs. non-rhotic. Non-rhotic speakers don't pronounce the 'r' after vowels. E.g. Boston accent: car, park, harbor.
In German you do pronounce the "R" after a vowel. It only gets dropped in the word endings
"-er" and "-ar"
The r is generally not pronounced at the end of words, it's always turned into an a or a schwa-like sound.
@@hansmahr8627 wait to meet swiss people! They manage to roll every r even at the end of a word. Sounds weird.
That intro had me almost drown in my iced tea. Lol
Very good video. I attended intensive language school for six months in Regensburg back in the late ninties. One thing my friend, Matthias, helped me with was where to speak German in my mouth.
English is spoken at the front of the mouth, but German is mostly spoken at the back of the mouth and in the throat. I am often mistaken for a native German because of this one thing (until I run out of vocabulary, of course). Whenever I hear a native English speaker speaking German, almost invariably they pronounce everything at the front of the mouth, which immediately gives them away as non-native German speaker even if their syntax and vocabularly are excellent.
I've been practicing German for over a decade and it's always helpful to go back to the basics. This was helpful.
A lot of Americans will know Rammstein, since we have a big Air Force base there and it's in the news a lot. When military or foreign service personnel are injured in Africa or the Middle East, they are usually evacuated to Rammstein to get quality medical care 🙂
Fun fact: the place is called Ramstein, single m
@@rosshart9514 - Is the etymology different?
@@pwbmd The Band (formed 1994) used the village's name because of the 1988 air show disaster at the Ramstein US base that caused 70 dead people. They added a 2nd M, fitting their attitude better. German "Ramme" = pile driver. (Similar to the former US Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld. With poor reputation in Germany often a 2nd M was added. German "Rumms" = thud.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramstein_air_show_disaster
I usually ask a person that speaks German how to pronounce my last name. If I hear the "I" and a lot of them roll the R. Which I am used to, but we never roll the R. We lost the German spoken at home due to World War II. If people heard German they thought you were a Nazi or a sympathizer. Thanks for the lesson.
Greiff = GRIFE :)
When I was in University I took German, spent 3 years in the Frankfurt area at Rhein Main AB, at the time I was conversational not fluent. In class, would piss the teacher off when I said Isch for Ich, and zwoo, for zwei. It was funny.
😂😂😂 ja so geht es mir auch ich spreche nur Hessisch. Ich kann kein Hoch deutsch,wenn jemand mich am Telefon 📱 hört, dann kommt immer du hörst dich an wie die Daniela Katzenberger 😂😂😂😂
Liebe Grüße aus Hessen
Well for me (I'm a teacher as well) it sounds just like a local dialect and should not be seen as false. XD dialect belong to the German language as well so I'd say good job in learning a dialect!
Sounds like you learned a lot of Pfälzisch there; I picked up on a lot of Saarländisch when I lived in Saarbrücken...
The "zwo"(zwei) is very often used for "two" so as not to confuse it with "drei".
Also with "Juno" instead of "Juni"(June) to distinguish it more easily from "July".
@@naimapeukert8575 die aber Pfälzisch spricht
I am an American in Germany and the local dialect of Pfälisch pronounces words like ich as isch and dich as disch.. They say words like einundzwanzig as einundzwanzisch.
You might want to visit "Pennsylvania Dutch" communities in case you go back to US. Some years I was astonished to learn that their internal language is a variant of Pälz'sch. Also good chance to meet them among Amish people, however those might also be originating from Mennonites who used Plattdüütsch, yet another dialect from Northern Germany (influenced by actual Dutch language).
Spang or Ramstein? I was at Hahn and then Spang and noticed the same. It made it easier to pronounce for sure.
@@coachgman I'm next door to Ramstein but I work on Kleber on east side of Ktown.
@@quietcorner293 I've been there twice, but never for long.
Once to fix one of our F-16s that had to land at Ramstein, and once when landing there from a hop I took from the states.
I hope you're enjoying your stay there, and try your best to get away from the base and do some exploring. I wish I had done a lot more.
@@coachgman How much Bier did you bring back? Before moving here for good in '04, I was TDY with the Air Guard in '98 & '99. IMO I was a major importer, at least according to my fridge.
I'm just starting to learn German and this helped me better understand some of the things I've learned so far. Particularly the capital nouns so, danke! Ich lerne jeden Tag ein bisschen mehr.
Awesome, keep at it!
I learned from my father, who learned from his father (born in Oberpfalz, Bayern) how to pronounce "ich" and the "au" in my name. I had heard Münchner on the Metro in D.C. in 1992 and then from Felicia a pronunciation of German closer to that of my aforesaid family than the half-Kölsch pronunciation I hear touted as "hochdeutsche Aussprache." Danke, Felicia!
Felicia my last name is Maus and my family came from the German circus. I however grew up in New England and I wanted to tell you we never use paper plates for meals I found this odd when I left New England too so your not alone in hating that.
Hello Mr. Mouse :D
anyone named Mickey in your family?
Something that I’ve always struggled with is knowing the classes on nouns and articles. Der, Die, Das is confusing enough but then you have to know when and how to use the nominative, accusative, and the dative cases. Don’t even get me started on the genitive case. We have it so much easier in English with one word: The.
You have to learn it by heart, there is no use in thinking about it.
@Pizza Pizza Not only in Swiss German. I grew up in a region with a strong dialect and in this dialect some articles were used differently.:-)
Most Germans butcher the genitive as well, don’t feel bad😄 I recommend watching dubbed movies or German movies. Hearing native speakers can help, if you’re an auditive learner type. In general, being exposed to the language is the most important aspect. At least that’s what I think😊 I did the same thing with English and it helped a lot in regards to prepositions and phrasal verbs, which I struggled with.
Drove me crazy in high school German class.
The worst thing for me as an English person learning German (In Germany) is about how I learnt English. So when you learn the german grammar rules, you also have to learn the English equivalent rule as you may use it but were not taught the technical rules in school.
Being able to use present tense for basically everything in German makes it a lot easier.
Honestly, the best way I learn is just to listen to other germans, then make mistakes but get corrected.
I too was taught by Germans; LISTENS TO GERMANS!
Even if you learned the rules, you would need to remember them. I (German) learnt all that, even in English and French. But in your own language you don't need it after school, because you mostly speak a way that feels OK like you hear it everywhere - it's just engraved in your mind - hopefully the correct way ! With some usage that also happens in English for me. But when some foreigner is learning German and asks me somehting about grammar rules, I nearly can't help him. I know what is correct, but i don't know the rule.
funny enough I learnt both languages in my childhood, so I know them better than my mother tongue ;)
English grammar is not taught at British schools nowadays. They rely on foreign language teachers to do that thing. Most Brits don't know a noun from a verb.
>Ick< instead of >ich< is even more common in German dialects than >isch
Thanks for the clarification! When I was learning German my teacher said that ich, "ick", and "ish" were all technically correct, just depending on where you are in Germany
German: "I would like to start a world war!"
Austria: *grinning and chuckles in corner*
Yep 👍 that’s about it haha
France: Here is my beer!
Italy's response,make pasta,not war,and also I love Germany!😆😆😆
Germany to Allies after WW1: No don’t punish me! It wasn’t my fault!
Allies: Unfortunately for you, history will not see it that way.
@@andypham6335 The fact that Germans were solely responsible for the war has Mr. Putin refuted in an hour-long speech. The truth is often unfashionable. On the occasion - the First World War began Austria. And the second started an Austrian.
We invented the “Dir/Dich game” - really difficult for a lot of English speakers to know when to use which one.
PS Great intro! “Schnell - schnell” could be added 😝
Dich (you), Dir (to/about) you.
Even many native speakers don't know the difference.
You rock Felicia!!👍👍
A great tip for Deutsch grammar for English speakers is that it is very similar to Elizabethan English, i.e. Shakespearean English. The verb orders are almost identical. Also pronunciation is more similar.
But 16th-century English had already lost noun cases and gender.
DU BIST EINFACH UNSCHLAGBAR UND EIN SCHÖNES MÄDCHES.ALLES GUTE IM NEUEN JAHR
Growing up with the last name of Schreiber in the US, I felt that first one exceptionally!
Kimberly R S Han
Do they pronounce your name Screeber or Shreeber? :)
I know an American with the German last name Zeiger. I believe that Americans pronounce his name almost correctly, but with the soft American Z. Oh, and probably with the the American R at the end, while in Germany, we pronounce it more like Tsuyga.
@@3.k Always Shreeber. Drove me crazy, but they didn’t know better, I’m sure.
"When two vowels go a-walking, the second one does the talking." "IE" is a long "E" and "EI" is long "I."
Nice video, Feli
Hab heute draufgeklickt, wegen Utube Vorschlag: bin ziemlich beeindruckt: alles passt: der Text, die Erklärungen, die Sprache: Hut ab und weiter so! Grüsse aus der Schweiz
I've been working on German for several years, and assumed I wouldn't learn anything new here, but that last tip was a very good one that I'd never heard before. Thank you.
(10:40) Well, there are some languages that write the first person singular nominative pronoun in uppercase, like Saanich "EESE", Scots "A". But I'll give you that it is a really rate feature.
Another good one is the s-mobile rule; words that START with “Sp” or “St” will have the “s” sound replaced with an “sch” sound in German. Also, there is no such thing as the “Sk” sound at least in native German. “Sk”s get replaced with the typical “Sch” which is equivalent to the English “Sh”.
The s sound is usually found in German in ß or the ss combination.
While there are some dialects that don't use "sch" but keep "sp" and "st".
Das ist ein Skandal. Oops there is a sk too?
In Scots English the "ch" sound is also sometimes pronounced as in German e.g. "loch".
I find that Scots English overall has a lot of similarities to German. I watched Scottish Parliament when they discussed the Brexit and I was so astound about the similarities.
Yes, but this is only the dark vowel variant. In fact, the "ich" variant doesn't exist in some dialects, particularly in Austria, so as a Scot you might try Austrian German...
Same in Welsh
@@christineh342 Not as astonishing as anyone watching a debate in the Scottish parliament! You were probably the only one.
@@christineh342 I'm Austrian and watched the series "Outlander" partially in the original version. Difficult to understand, but I thought the same about the similarities of Scots English and German.
Hello Feli from Germany,
Thank-you for this lovely lesson in pronouncing German, highlighting the mnemonics for learning how to say 'ie' and 'ei'. If I may be so bold as to return the compliment: near the end of your lesson you said 'I will' as an example of the future whereas it is much more complicated than that, at least in England. The first person singular and plural take shall to represent the simple future - tomorrow I shall go to Berlin (a simple statement of what I am going to do) and the other persons take will. I shall, you will, he will, we shall, they will, etc.
The verb will is the other way round - I will, you shall, he shall, they shall do not represent the simple future but a strong intention to verb. You shall sit your exam tomorrow (no question about it) or I will punish you (be warned)
Of course I have noticed that in the last twenty odd years people have become very haphazard in applying basic rules of grammar so it is quite possible that this simple rule is no longer observed, especially in America which seems to have gone off in a completely different direction.
Just a note on terminology. The digraph 'ie' is a monophthong /i/, whereas the digraph 'ei' is a diphthong /ai/. In other words the German 'ie' is colloquially described as a pure or flat vowel, and the German 'ei' as a compound vowel that slides from one vowel quality to another (in this instance from 'a' to 'i').
Your opening scene was classic, LOL
Hi Felicia great video was very interesting and helpful for us, and I learned a lot about your language
Continue with this! 👏 👏 👏 🙏
You said hi Felicia and all I could think of was bye Felicia
(4:20) But "ie" isn't a diphthong. It's a digraph, but not a diphthong. This is because it's just pronounced /iː/, while "ei" is pronounced /aɪ̯/ and is therefore a diphthong, and also a digraph.
Interesting.
For what it's worth, many native English speakers have no idea how to use all of the tenses correctly.
Mistakes I commonly see are conflation of ran / run (yes, "run" is used in some of the past tenses of the verb "to run"), drank / drunk, hanged / hung etc.
When I first started to learn German, it was a basic conversation course which the use of tenses in one language to the other doesn't work, such as the -ing form. Our instructor was from Switzerland. I then went to an evening course at UCLA, my first instructor was from Hamburg, the second from Wien. This was all some 40 years ago. I've been living in ÖS for over 30 years, my work was always in English and rarely needed to speak German, though it's my primary language now, and most people think I'm from the Netherlands. I learn by doing, also notice patterns, but at times with two adjectives preceding a noun it can be a bit confusing. One thing I would almost prefer when learning is that there are der, die, das words and forget that they are M, F, and neutral. It makes life more simple. For some reason, French was easier. Thanks for your informative video.