Paulina Christensen

All languages have ways of showing what role a noun plays in a sentence. In English, a noun’s position in the sentence tells you how it’s being used. In German, the endings on the adjectives and articles that accompany the noun, which are based on case, tell you the noun’s function in the sentence. Here’s a quick overview of the German cases and the relationship they have with nouns, articles, and pronouns.

Getting your hellos and goodbyes straight in German is a matter of keeping in mind how well you know someone. If you’re on formal terms — in other words, if you’re addressing one or more people with Sie (zee) (you, formal) — then you have one set of expressions. When you’re on du (dooh) (you, informal) terms of address, you go with conversational expressions.

Some German verbs that you use to describe your daily actions have an unusual construction. They’re the equivalent of reflexive verbs in English. Verbs in this group use a reflexive pronoun like myself or ourselves to emphasize the information about who is carrying out the action of the verb. When you say, “Cats wash themselves very thoroughly,” you’re using the reflexive pronoun themselves together with the verb wash to talk about what cats do.

If you travel to a German-speaking country and need to know the time or where something is located, or you just want to get some basic information, a few common questions can come in very handy. English German Pronunciation Do you speak English? Sprechen Sie Englisch? shprêH-en zee êng-lish? How are you? Wie geht es Ihnen?

German grammar has some striking differences to English grammar. One difference that newcomers to German notice right away has to do with word gender. Basically, you have three genders in German — masculine, feminine, and neuter — and although English has the same three genders, they play a very different role in German grammar.

In most German hotels, das Frühstück (dâs frue-shtuek) (breakfast) is generally included in the room price of the hotel accommodation. In smaller towns, if you’re staying at a Pension (pên-see-ohn) (pension) or Frühstückspension (frue-shtueks-pên-see-ohn) (bed-and-breakfast) or at a smaller hotel, you can expect a traditional German breakfast, consisting of the following: Kaffee (kâf-ey) (coffee) Tee (tey) (tea) Fresh Brötchen, Brot, Butter and Marmelade (brert-Hen, broht, boot-er, [and] mâr-me-lah-de) (fresh rolls, bread, butter, and jam) weich gekochtes Ei (vayH ge-koH-tes ay) (soft-boiled egg) served in an egg cup Choice of Aufschnitt and Käse (ouf-shnit [and] kai-ze) (cold cuts and cheese) The larger hotels in cities generally offer a breakfast buffet that includes the preceding items, as well as the following: Cornflakes (cornflakes [as in English]) (cornflakes) Müsli (mues-lee) (muesli) frisches Obst (frish-es ohpst) (fresh fruit) Variety of Brot and Säfte (broht [and] zêf-te) (bread and juices) Note: If you can’t do without scrambled eggs or fried eggs, you may need to put in a special order.

German has three extra vowels: ä, ö, and ü. The German word for those curious double dots over the vowels is Umlaut (oom-lout) (umlaut). Umlauts slightly alter the sound of the vowels a, o, and u, as outlined in this table. These sounds have no equivalent in English. Pronouncing Vowels with Umlauts German Letter Phonetic Symbol As in English German Example ä (long) ai say (“ay” in “say” with spread lips) nächste (naiH-ste) (next) ä (short) ê bet (clipped “e”) fällen (fêl-en) (to fell [a tree]) ö er her (without the “r” sound) schön (shern) (pretty) (remember: no “r” sound) ü ue lure (“ooh” with pursed lips) Tür (tuer) (door) To make your German vowels ä, ö, and ü sound a bit more authentic, try progressing through the ä, ö, and ü sounds, pronouncing the vowels as though you’re getting ready to kiss someone — in other words, round your lips and pucker up, baby!

Getting to know the days and months of the German calendar helps you keep track of your travel plans, German holidays, and engagements. Days of the Week in German English German Pronunciaton Monday Montag mohn-tahk Tuesday Dienstag deens-tahk Wednesday Mittwoch mit-voH Thursday Donnerstag don-ers-tahk Frid

When traveling in a German-speaking area, you need to know numbers for shopping, dining, transportation, and exchanging money. With this list, you can start practicing German numbers. 0 null (nool) 17 siebzehn (zeep-tseyn) 1 eins (ayns) 18 achtzehn (âHt-tseyn) 2 zwei (tsvay) 19 neunzehn (noyn-tseyn) 3 drei (d