
Getting down the basic German skills is the best way to learn German. I've been learning German for 20 years now and to me the basic German skills are:
Knowing nouns
the definite article for each noun - whether its der, die or das the plural form of the noun
knowing verbs
how to conjugate them their past and future forms
knowing the grammar - German sentences behave differently from English sentences and you have to get used to putting verbs at the end of sentences, capitalizing nouns, etc.
One of the most important basic German skills is to understand that nouns and pronouns change, depending on how they are used in a sentence. Its somewhat similar in English:
He gave me the book I gave him the hammer
"He" and "I" became "him" and "me" when they received the action of the verb. These are the nominative and dative cases, respectively. In these sentences, the book and the hammer are in the accusative cases. Here are these same sentences in German:
Er gab mir das Buch
Ich gab ihm den Hammer
You will notice that the pronouns and definite articles change in the different cases. "Ich" and "er" in the nominative are "mir" and "ihm" in the dative.
If you are learning basic German skills, try to get down these basic areas. If they seem difficult at first, just take your time, look up how to conjugate different German verbs and especially research what it means for words to be in the nominative, accusative, dative and genitive cases. This is something you must know to progress to higher German skills.
I have discovered since I started learning German that understanding these basic German skills always comes in handy. Even 20 years later I still come across some difficult sentences and the best way to understand them is to break them down into their basic, separate components. Nailing down these basic German skills is the best way to learn German because you will fall back on them time and again as you continue to learn German.
0 comments:
Post a Comment