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teach myself German - how!?

As the question says... how do I teach myself German? I've been looking at a German exercise book etc and each time I see the various endings I just freak. And each time I try to memorise the endings and the next day I forget it all, and I still don't get how to use the accusative and how to use the dative case :frown:

I have 4 years of forgotten German behind me (that was 3 years ago! GCSE Level with grade C), so starting from complete scratch is simply too boring. But I don't remember enough to actually do anything. The best I can do is something like - Ich habe meine Hausaufgaben gegessen :biggrin:

lol. Or Ich werde in die Stadt gehen. (not sure if it should've been gegangen???)

And I don't know any vocab. And there is no one to teach me! I hope to take up a module of German at uni though.

But yeh - anyone? Tips? Or anyone who would offer to teach me? :redface:

Reply 1

Fleece

15

You need to go through the tenses and learn the formation first. If you can, get yourself some sort of grammar workbook, it helps a lot.

You also need to be able to understand the different parts of language, what it all means - like the different tenses and the cases etc.

Vocab - buy Wort fuer Wort or something similar to get you started.

Reply 2

khil

OP

15

Fleece

You need to go through the tenses and learn the formation first. If you can, get yourself some sort of grammar workbook, it helps a lot.

You also need to be able to understand the different parts of language, what it all means - like the different tenses and the cases etc.

Vocab - buy Wort fuer Wort or something similar to get you started.

What do you mean formation? You mean like, throwing the verb to the end for past tense and flipping verb and erm... the "Ich, Sie, Er" (what's the term? Object?) to reverse order when it followes weil?

I got as far as future tense at GCSE but never learnt the "hat, hatte" stuff.

The cases I don't understand. I have no sense of real grammar so I always get confused about the object and etc. I have no idea how the cases work.

Thanks will try and find that vocab book you mentioned :smile:

Reply 3

Fleece

15

the "ich, sie, er" is the personal pronoun. (see what i mean, you need to learn the terminology too or it gets complicated)

And yeah the stuff you mentioned is all like sentence formation, but just general stuff like how to form the tenses.

So like for the present tense, you take the infinitive so say 'spielen',
then you knock of the 'en' and add the endings

ich - spiele
du - spielst
er/sie/es/man - spielt
wir - spielen
ihr - spielt
sie/Sie - spielen

That sort of thing :smile:

As for the cases, get a simplistic workbook that takes you through how and when to use them.

Most importantly by the sound of it is to learn some terminology before you start, or the books won't make a lot of sense :smile:

Reply 4

generalebriety

16

irisng

The best I can do is something like - Ich habe meine Hausaufgaben gegessen lol. Or Ich werde in die Stadt gehen. (not sure if it should've been gegangen???)

Gehen.

irisng

What do you mean formation? You mean like, throwing the verb to the end for past tense and flipping verb and erm... the "Ich, Sie, Er" (what's the term? Object?)

Personal pronoun... but generally, the noun / subject.

If you want to talk in German, PM me, and we can talk in there or on msn or something. :smile:

I enjoy teaching and talking German (I've taught my own class about 7 times now! :biggrin:

) so I'd be happy to do so.

How to teach yourself German on your own though... fahr nach Deutschland! :p:

As for endings and the dative and blahhhhh... don't worry about it all. :smile:

It all makes sense once you know it, and once you do know it, which you can only ever achieve through practice, you will not forget it. :smile:

Reply 5

Fleece

15

I already explained the personal pronoun :rolleyes:

Reply 6

khil

OP

15

Hahaha go to Germany, eh? Yes, that is why I wanna learn it! There is a possibility that I might go to Germany if me and my bf works out, hence my desire to learn German all over again. It's so stupid cus after GCSE I thought to myself - I won't ever need German again as I never even thought about going to Germany, or France, or wherever, so I'll just forget it all! - then I go and get a German bf :rolleyes:

I should be ashamed of myself though for my lack of knowledge in German - I did take it for 4 years :redface:

lol.

Thanks Fleece - yeh the endings - ARGH the endings! Why oh why oh why! And lol yeh I'll go learn some of those terminology - I don't even know what a past participle is, or an object, or the subject. I can never remember. :frown:

Funnily enough I'm actually pretty good at writing... despite not understanding grammar... :rolleyes:

dunno how that works really lol.

And Generalebriety I'm taking you up on your offer :biggrin:

Reply 7

Wizalaura

3

Hey

I recommend investing in a big thick dictionary - these give you thorough guides to usage and are useful reference for reading comprehension. This grammar book (http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0199123055/202-3148235-8393455?v=glance&n=266239&v=glance) or something similar is absolutely essential - only costs around a fiver and has plenty of space for you to write your answers in. If you do a couple of pages a week it wont seem at all daunting and this book is good because it will aslo introduce you to new and useful vocab. Apart from that I would recommend a GCSE level revision guide and an a-level style text book (shauplatz?brennpunkt?). The stuff you will learn in the textbooks can be gained form online news sites (yahoo.de) though. I would also suggest some way of doing listening practice. maybe you could get some book and tape sets form your local library (Colloquial German is very good, so is Teach Yourself German). Hope that has been helpful and hope you enjoy it! :smile:

ps don't jump in at the deep end with grammar unless it is really your thing and you are really good at it i.e. if you dont think you will gain an understabnding of the case system quickly, then ease into it with a new case every few weeks...

Reply 8

khil

OP

15

Thanks - yeh I've wanted to get hold of a GCSE German textbook but for the life of me I can't remember what we used at school.

Ahh yahoo.de... I might just try and read it (and no doubt fail). lol.

teach myself German - how!?

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