Archive:Introduction to German

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Unit Summary

• Course code: ALAU101:
• Suggested Prerequisites:
  • ...
• Time investment:
• Assessment suggestions:
• Faculty: Humanities
• School: School:Language and Literature
• Department: Topic:Language Aquisition
• Stream German Stream
• Level: Beginner

Unit materials

• Study guide:
• Wikipedia article: w: __Article Name__

Learning materials and learning projects can be used by multiple departments. Cooperate with other departments that use the same learning resource.

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Learning materials and learning projects are located in the main Wikiversity namespace. Simply make a link to the name of the lesson (lessons are independent pages in the main namespace) and start writing!

Texts

• Wikibooks:__Textbook Name___
• ...

Lessons

• The Pronouns <--Needs to be numbered in a good place when other lessons are written (probably first).

• Introduction to basic German verbs <--Needs to be numbered in a good place when other lessons are written.

Typing German characters into a computer

For a PC, you have quick access by typing the following:
ß - alt+0223
ä - alt+0228
ö - alt+0246
ü - alt+0252

On a Mac, the commands are as follows:
ß - ⌥ + s
ä - ⌥ + u, u
ö - ⌥ + u, o
ü - ⌥ + u, u

Note: the umlaut can be assigned to any vowel by first holding '⌥' and pressing the 'u' key. It will then wait for a vowel key to be pressed.

These are the only atypical German characters.

Vocabulary

Expressions of Time

Expressions of Time

German	English
die Zeit	Time
die Stunde	Hour
die Minute	Minute
die Sekunde	Second

Time (Zeit)
Hour (Stunde)
Minute (Minute)
Second (Sekunde)

Tag (Day)
Morgen (Morning)
Mittag (Noon)
Nachmittag (Afternoon)
Abend (Evening)
Nacht (Night)
Mitternacht (Midnight)

Gestern (Yesterday)
Heute (Today)
Morgen (Tomorrow)

Common Greetings

Guten Tag (Hello; Good Day)
Grüß dich! (Informal hello)
Tag! (Hello)
Hallo (Hello)
Guten Tag, ich heiße --- (Hello, my name is --)
Wie geht's? (How are you?; How goes it?; How's it going?)

Numbers

Root Numbers 1-10
1-One - Eins
2-Two - Zwei
3-Three - Drei
4-Four - Vier
5-Five - Fünf
6-Six - Sechs
7-Seven - Sieben
8-Eight - Acht
9-Nine - Neun
10-Ten - Zehn

11, 12, and Teens 13-19

11-Eleven - Elf
12-Twelve - Zwölf

• Thirteen through Nineteen are created by combining the first digit number with the number Zehn(ten) as a suffix, pronounced with stress on the first syllable. Note that the "-s" in "Sechs" and the "-en" in "Sieben" are dropped in the combination
  

13-Thirteen - Dreizehn (Drei Zehn, "Three Ten")
14-Fourteen - Vierzehn
15-Fifteen - Fünfzehn
16-Sixteen - Sechzehn
17-Seventeen - Siebzehn
18-Eighteen - Achtzehn
19-Nineteen - Neunzehn

20-90

• In German, two digit numbers are created simply by adding the suffix "-zig" (similar to English "-ty"). There are exceptions however (not unlike English). Note the spelling differences in Zwanzig (20), Dreißig (30), Sechzig (60), and Siebzig (70)
  

20-Twenty - Zwanzig
30-Thirty - Dreißig
40-Forty - Vierzig
50-Fifty - Fünfzig
60-Sixty - Sechzig
70-Seventy - Siebzig
80-Eighty - Achtzig
90-Ninety - Neunzig

• In German, two digit numbers that do not end with zero (0) are spoken first digit first, joined with the word "und" (and), and followed with the second digit number; as though adding them together to make the new number.
  

Example: Twenty-Three (23) would be constructed first digit-and-second digit: "Dreiundzwanzig" (directly translated "three-and-twenty)

21 - Einundzwanzig
37 - Siebenunddreißig
46 - Sechsundvierzig
64 - Vierundsechzig
99 - Neunundneunzig

100, 1.000, 1.000.000, 1.000.000.000, 1.000.000.000.000*

100 - Hundert
1.000 - Tausend
1.000.000 - Million
1.000.000.000 - Milliarde
1.000.000.000.000 - Trillion

• note: Periods (.) are used to divide large numbers into groups of three (ex/ 1.000 = one thousand), and commas (,) are used as decimal points for numbers less than 1 but greater than 0 (1,001 = one point zero zero one, one and one thousandth).
  

In German, the roles of the period and the comma are reversed from American English

Sports

(der)Fußball (Football)
(der)Amerikanische Fußball (American Football)

Important verbs

Verb tables below

• Sein
• Haben
• Modal verbs
• Regular verbs

Other Verbs

• gehen to go
• machen to do
• brauchen- to need
• essen- to eat
• heissen- to be called (as in, "her name is"; "sie heisst Claudia...")
• wissen- to know (knowledge, information)
• kennen- to know (acquaintance)

Assignments

To help you get acquainted with the written language, use this subpage to get in contact with German speaking Wikiversity participants.

Active participants

• Exorcist_bob
• MjVP13
• Daniel M. Roberts
• HappyCamper
• --Smithgrrl 02:38, 5 November 2006 (UTC) Ich spreche deutsch nicht besonders gut aber moechte gerne helfen, wenn ich kann!