59
votes
How bad does it sound in German *not* to separate separable verbs?
There are separable verbs in English, but they don't work exactly like German ones, so I'm going more by similarity of use and the effect of non-separation:
*I upsign my daughter for a class.
*My ...
- 2,994
18
votes
Why is "Mädel" neuter, if it has a feminine referent?
You simply need to accept one of the quirks of German Grammar: biological and grammatical gender aren't connected - grammatical gender is very often not what you would assume and simply needs to be ...
- 66.4k
16
votes
How bad does it sound in German *not* to separate separable verbs?
Separable verbs correspond to English phrasal verbs, so I imagine getting the order wrong would sound about as bad as getting the order wrong in a phrasal verb. For English, in most cases the sentence ...
- 12k
16
votes
Accepted
What is this font called and how to study it
It's called "Fraktur" in German, or more general, "gebrochene Druckschrift", while in English it's often called Gothic print.
Wikipedia has letter tables that you can use to learn ...
- 28.2k
12
votes
Accepted
I have a very hard time parsing long German sentences
Parser:
This online parser is quite good: https://pub.cl.uzh.ch/demo/parzu/
Another one can be found here: https://www.cis.uni-muenchen.de/~schmid/tools/BitPar/ but you have to download and install it....
- 126k
12
votes
How bad does it sound in German *not* to separate separable verbs?
how wrong? Would a native understand it? Is it irritating the ears of a native speaker? To what degree?
It would sound totally wrong, but we would understand it just fine. It would clearly show that ...
- 488
12
votes
How bad does it sound in German *not* to separate separable verbs?
While sounding wrong in 99% of all cases, this style can be validly (though exceptionally) used in what is called Telegrammstil, where you don't split prefixes in order to minimize word count. This ...
- 5,327
11
votes
Was ist Unterschied zwischen sehen, ansehen, gucken und schauen?
Ein Problem bei der Unterscheidung ist die regionale Variation im Gebrauch dieser Verben:
schauen ist eher süddeutsch; nach dem Atlas zur deutschen Alltagssprache benutzt man es häufig in Franken, ...
- 4,793
10
votes
How can I better learn noun genders?
I've analyzed the data and made a visualization that helps to guide beginners about "guessing" gender of singular German nouns.
Interactive Visulazation and notes, sources, etc
The bigger ...
- 551
10
votes
Accepted
Kann ich bitte sie ein paar fragen? but in a polite form
Hallo, ich bin Peter.
correct
wrong: Haben Sie eine minute fur mich?
correct: Haben Sie eine Minute für mich?
In German all nouns need to be capitalized: wrong: minute. correct: Minute
The ...
- 126k
10
votes
Accepted
The dative case - expressing the action of putting something on a table
German expresses the same thing that English distinguishes between in and into (or on and onto, as in your case) with accusative and dative case.
In case your sentence describes a movement of an ...
- 66.4k
9
votes
Accepted
How should an Indian start learning German whose primary language is not English?
We have an institute called Goethe who's job is to "spread" the German language.
They also have an Indian branch.
I'd suggest you start there.
https://www.goethe.de/ins/in/en/index.html?wt_sc=...
- 2,821
8
votes
Accepted
Problem: listening comprehension improving steadily *except* for numbers
Mit Texttospeach-Software kann man sich leicht selbst Übungsmaterial produzieren.
Beispielsweise erzeugt folgender Befehl zwei gesprochene Zahlen:
echo "1927, siebenhunderacht" | espeak -v de --...
- 23.6k
8
votes
Accepted
Monolingual German learner's dictionaries with small defining vocabulary
There are a few German dictionaries for learners that use a more restricted vocabulary than dictionaries for (adult) native speakers:
Duden - Basiswörterbuch Deutsch als Fremdsprache: according to ...
- 2,592
8
votes
Accepted
Why do only some conjunctions push the verb to the end?
German knows about Hauptsätze (main clauses) and Nebensätze (subordinate clauses).
Hauptsatz
A typical German Hauptsatz, has the verb always in 2nd position (note that this doesn't mean the verb is ...
- 18.6k
8
votes
What would you include in your German first lesson?
The question seems like it may be opinion based, and it's hard to judge whether an answer is correct or incorrect, and it's more about language learning in general than specifically about German. But ...
- 12k
7
votes
Why is "Mädel" neuter, if it has a feminine referent?
Noun gender is a grammatical property first. Inanimate objects occur in all three genders.
der Löffel, das Messer, die Gabel
Conversely, nouns referring to human beings occur in all genders.
der ...
- 27.3k
6
votes
'Jemand hat seinen' or 'jemand hat ihren'?
Beide Varianten sind möglich, können aber je nach Sprechsituation etwas anderes bedeuten.
Zunächst einmal: Mein, dein, sein, ihr, unser, euer sind besitzanzeigende Fürwörter. Welches besitzanzeigende ...
- 22.9k
6
votes
Accepted
Obtaining same-grade German language texts for bilingual child who left Germany
If your friend can name the textbooks her daughter uses, you should be able to just normally order them at any German book store (online or offline). The books used in German schools are published and ...
- 28.2k
6
votes
How bad does it sound in German *not* to separate separable verbs?
As a non-native speaker, I remember my German teacher at school giving us examples of verbs with prefixes where there are both separable and non-separable versions with different meanings.
This is ...
- 271
6
votes
'Nachdem Inge das Fleisch in der Pfanne verbrannt ist, [ ... ].' Why do we use 'ist' instead of 'hat' here?
It's a different subject of the sentence if you use "hat". It might be hard to see for a German learner because of the order of words and because the case of the name "Inge" isn't ...
- 28.2k
6
votes
"abgekatertes Spiel" synonym mit "abgekartetes Spiel"?
Der Postillion ist eine Satire-Website, die erfundene Artikel veröffentlicht. Oder wie die Macher selbst es in der FAQ formulieren:
Stimmt das, was im Postillon steht?
Nein, alles, was im Postillon ...
- 20.4k
5
votes
Accepted
Difference between zuerst and erste
"Zuerst" is used as "doing something first, before something else". It can be shortened to "erst".
"Erste", however, means "the first" and it can only be used if a woman is first.
Therefore, these ...
- 74
5
votes
Accepted
Equivalent of Globish in German
First, I think that those employers were confusing Globish or International English with either Basic English (originally proposed by C. K. Ogden) or Joachim Grzega's Basic Global English.
Ogden's ...
- 2,592
5
votes
Accepted
When can a phrase be put after the "second" verb?
Du musst mir helfen, das zu verstehen.
Du musst zum Geschäft gehen.
You are looking for a construction using helfen as a modal verb. Such a thing exists in German:
Du musst mir verstehen helfen.
...
- 64.6k
5
votes
How to study for certificate B1 exam?
You could start by trying to solve the model papers available on Goethe institute website. Once you know your weak spots, you can then focus on making them better with grammar practice books. It may ...
5
votes
Are there any resources to learn German using the 10000-sentence method?
First a note of scepticims (but not regarding the method, rather regarding the question):
I really sympathize with the method and believe that it can be powerful. However, I think your question ...
- 31.2k
5
votes
When to use viertel vor sechs and when to use drei viertel sechs?
The other answers here are trying to make things far more complicated than they need be for a beginner.
viertel nach fünf
halb sechs
viertel vor sechs
will be understood everywhere in the ...
- 4,458
5
votes
Accepted
What resource should I use to learn enough German language to understand a movie scene?
There's two ways to approach this:
Go to the your local Open University, a commercial language school, whatever, and book a German course. Start with A1, proceed to at least B2 level, then come back ...
- 66.4k
5
votes
Accepted
Difference between "Seite öffnen" and "Öffne die Seite"
The two phrases do not have the same meaning.
The first, "öffnen", is the infinitive. It just describes in an abstract way the act of opening. It is also not a complete sentence but may form ...
- 3,757
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