Month: April 2016

I. The Disorientating German Word Order (Wortstellung)

Many are of the opinion that English and German have a lot of commonalities. While that may be true (at least to some degree) in terms of lexicon, the differences between the two languages are significant especially when it comes to syntax.

To English speakers, ⎯ especially those who are at the early stages of learning German ⎯ the German word order may come across as chaotic. I certainly was disorientated for a while. All the words and the verbs looked all jumbled to me, as if in disarray. Below are some examples.

I would like to buy his car
(auxiliary/ (verb 2)
verb 1)

Ich möchte sein Auto kaufen
(auxiliary/ (verb 2)
verb 1)

At first glance the two sentences seem to be almost identical, in terms of the place of the subject and the verbs. Now let us add a conjunction to the mix. Conjunctions, as some of you might know, connect two sentences together.

(I have to speak to him) because I would like to buy his car
(auxiliary/ (verb 2)
verb 1)

Not much has changed here; the verbs remain where they are. Again we will do the same in German, which will change the order of things quite a bit:

(Ich muss mit ihm reden), weil/ da ich sein Auto kaufen möchte
(verb 2) (auxiliary/verb 1)

Phew! Conjunctions in German disrupt the standard word order and can be quite confusing at first. And if you think this is complicated, wait until you see what happens when a third verb is added into the sentence. Speaking from my own experience, and others I have taught, I would put this down to our tendency to translate everything word for word. My tip for beginners would be to let go of English grammar when studying German. Try to differentiate German grammar from English and feel the difference! Before you know it… voilà! You will always remember to locate the verbs accordingly when constructing German sentences. Have fun practising!

Natasha

 

GCSE German, AS German, A-Level German, IB German exam preparation advice

#1 Revise word order. One reason why word order is so essential in German is that it explains where words need to be placed in a German sentence. Ultimately, you will have to distinguish between word order rules for main and subordinate clauses and between subordinating conjunctions, coordinating conjunctions and connectors which bring about an inversion of subject and verb. If you should know what I’m talking about but have no clue about any of these, you should contact me 😉

What is the best app for beginners to learn German?

There are several good ones out there. I’ve personally come to think that “Memrise” and “Duolingo” are two of the best on the market, but no app will ever beat flashcards which you write yourself. When I compare those of my students who use flashcards to those who use an app, the difference is quite striking. On average, students who use flashcards regularly know 8 or 9 out of 10 words when I test them, while those using an app know only 4 or 5 out of 10, and usually not for long. Of course, my students and I use and write flashcards in a specific way. For more information on my german lessons, just check my website www.olesentuition.co.uk

Olesen Tuition# People often ask: “Is it possible to learn German in one year?” My answer is “yes, but…”

Having taught German for over 17 years, I have only seen very few occasions where someone would be able to learn C1 level German (the second highest level on the European Framework of Reference for Languages and the Goethe Institut) in one year, yet a significantly higher proportion of students who would be able to reach B2 level, which is upper-intermediate German. Having said that, I teach German in London and via Skype, so my students aren’t immersed in the language in their day-to-day lifes. The latter would obviously increase your chance of picking up the language more quickly, as your contact with the language would be more intense. But even so, the key is commitment to revision outside of lessons, a thorough grammar training in the lessons and (dare I say it) a good tutor. While the class room setting has its own advantages (such as interaction with peers), the intensity that is required to learn German in a year is best created in one-to-one tuition.

My final word of advice would be: be careful when choosing a German tutor. There are several teachers out there who think that German can be taught by virtue of what they call a “conversational approach”. This is bogus. As I try to explain in one of my previous blog posts, grammar is very important in the process of learning German, more so than in many other European languages, such as Italian. And now have fun studying!

German is 75% grammar and 25% words

Well. Like any other generalisation, this statement simplifies things of course. However, getting a good understanding of grammar might be more important in the process of learning German than in many other languages, and paradoxically perhaps, more important than learning vocabulary. Of course you can’t say anything without knowing the words to express your ideas, but once you know a fair share of words you hit the brick wall of German grammar soon after.

One of the most important lessons that students need to learn is thus how to send their ideas through a grammar filter to check what they can actually say in German when translating from their mother tongue and where they need to place words in their German sentence. Ultimately, German is a language in which most sentences work like a composition. A composition, you might wonder. Why a composition? Here’s one example:

Having checked whether they wish to go for standard word order or emphasise any other element in their sentence (such as the time), most of my students think very carefully about the grammatical consequences of the verbs they intend to use and whether they’ll have a second verb at the end, before they figure out the middle bit between subject, the conjugated verb in second position and their main verb at the end. Screening their sentence for an indirect and direct object, for a genitive, the correct tense, prepositions, adjective endings and so on, my students understand that they master the language when they understand its grammar.

Here comes the caveat: German words, especially its verbs, are, for the most part at least, very precise and context-specific. Anyone who ever tried to translate the English word “put” into German will understand what I mean. For anyone who doesn’t: there are more than five different translations of the word, depending on its exact position. So, to argue as I did above that German is 75% words and 25% grammar, might seem false, as there are so many different words to learn. However, having learned the words, it’s still the grammar that determines everything after that.

Is it a challenge? Yes! Yet, is it also rewarding? Very much so. Find out for yourself!