#botchannel
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golden cedar
info
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jolly hare
info krankito
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heady bloom
info @golden cedar
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tender trellis
info
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velvet hawk
cefr B
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:heavy_check_mark: I replaced your old CEFR role with Level B.
heady bloom
cefr >9000
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❌ Bad argument: Role ">90000" not found.
tender trellis
You tried
ruby gale
ex resources
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tender trellis
cefr A1
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❌ Bad argument: Role "A1" not found.
tender trellis
cefr A
untold lily
evalin ```py
print([1]*4)
Nola1222
untold lily
evalin
print([1]*4+[2]*3)
main arrowBOT
❌ Bad argument: Missing code block. Please use the following markdown
```language
code here
```
untold lily
evalin ```py
print([1]4+[2]3)
Okay nice
tender trellis
evalin console.log('test');
main arrowBOT
❌ Bad argument: Missing code block. Please use the following markdown
```language
code here
```
tender trellis
evalin
console.log('test code');
❌ Bad argument: Unknown language to compile for: js
tender trellis
Well
Does java work?
evalin
class test{
public static void main(String[]args){
System.out.println("Test code");
}
}
❌ Bad argument: Unknown language to compile for: java
untold lily
help evalin
main arrowBOT
untold lily
@tender trellis kotlin works
tender trellis
Javascript should be supported as well
untold lily
Well the ones who make the bot don't like JavaScript so they see no reason to add it
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: Partnered
: Invite Splash
: VIP Voice Servers
: Vanity Invite
: News Channels
: Animated Icon
37 (16 locked)
8 (3 locked)
603 
463 
192 
11436
Total: 12694
blissful marsh
wtf 12k 
tender trellis
yup
kindred wyvern
JavaScript should be supported 😒
proper ibex
ex search nach
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proper ibex
ex Nach-In-Auf-Zu
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Generally you use the preposition nach when talking about going to countries, cities or directions, for example:
(1) Ich fahre nach Berlin. (I’m going to Berlin.)
(2) Ich gehe nach Westen. (I’m going west.)
(3) Ich fahre nach Deutschland. (I'm going to Germany.)
‼ Note that nach does not work with countries or regions that take an article. In this case you need to replace it with in, for example: Ich fahre in die Schweiz. (I’m going to Switzerland.)
In addition to that you will need to use auf for specific islands, for example: Ich fliege auf die Balearen. (I fly to the Balearic Islands.)
Here you can find a map with countries that take an article: http://i.imgur.com/QRFA2WI.png
🌟 nach is also idiomatically used in nach Hause gehen (to go home)
The preposition zu is used when talking about going to people, or places with a proper name, for example:
(4) Ich gehe zu ihm. (I go to him.)
(5) Ich gehe zum [zu dem] Arzt. (I go to the doctor.)
(6) Ich gehe zu Aldi. (I go to Aldi.)
You use in if you will end up inside a place or location, for example:
(7) Ich gehe in die Kirche. (I go to church.)
(8) Ich gehe ins [in das] Kino. (I go to the cinema.)
You use auf if you will end up on something, or for going to formal events, for example:
(9) Ich klettere auf den Berg. (I climb up the mountain.)
(10) Ich gehe auf die Toilette. (I go to the toilet.)
(11) Ich gehe auf eine Party. (I go to a party.)
🌟 When in doubt, use zu, since you can often replace in and auf with zu, for example:
(12) Ich gehe zur Kirche. (I go to the church.) [but not necessarily inside]
(13) Ich gehe zu einer Party. (I go to a party.)
‼ However, note that you cannot replace zu with in if it would be absurd to speak of going inside:
(14) Ich fahre in die Kirche. (I drive into the church.)
proper ibex
@jolly lintel maybe this helps ^
proper ibex
Try >sub Gaming @velvet hawk
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❌ Bad argument: Group "all" not found.
proper ibex
It‘s >group joinall
velvet hawk
group joinall
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:white_check_mark: Added you to all available groups.
proper ibex
👍
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NateDerSchweder#5919 has skipped the song.
left cliff
faq pronunciation
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The International Phonetic Alphabet is a system for writing sounds regardless of the language: one sound will have only one letter for it, so it's really helpful for learning pronunciation in any language without relying on approximations.
IPA has a lot of symbols, but you don't need to learn them all.
🔸 What are those // and [] I see around?
Symbols in slashes (like /r/) represent so-called phonemes, units of sound. Each phoneme can be pronounced in different ways depending on where it is in the word. For example, the phoneme /r/ is pronounced [ʁ] in most situations, but [ɐ] after vowels. As you can see, square brackets (like [ʁ]) represent actual sounds. Finally, pointy brackets like ⟨r⟩ represent how a sound is written, which can vary from language to language.
Example: ⟨sprechen⟩ /sprεçən/ [ʃpʁε.çn̩]
🔸 So how to learn it?
All you need to learn is the few symbols used by the language you're interested in. For German, you can look up the relevant letters on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA/Standard_German. Notice the Help:IPA/Language_Name pattern in the URL.
There, you will find a table of symbols with an approximation, but you can also click on each specific symbol to learn exactly how to pronounce it studying the Features section, for example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiceless_palatal_fricative#Features
🔸 Which IPA letters are important for German?
Sounds you are likely to have trouble with are ⟨x⟩, ⟨ç⟩, ⟨ʁ⟩, ⟨ɐ⟩ and several vowels. These are all described in the Wiki link above.
You can use this website to transcribe German words if your dictionary doesn't give an IPA transcription:
http://tom.brondsted.dk/text2phoneme/
jaunty wraith
ex gender
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German nouns are sorted in three different genders: masculine, neuter and feminine. These have nothing to do with sex or social gender.
The first thing genders will influence are articles like der, das, die. Each word has its own and you better get it right: some words that look identical can have different meanings depending on the gender they're used with. For example:
die Band = the (musical) band,
der Band = the (book) volume,
das Band = the tape.
Some words, mainly trademarks and loanwords, have multiple acceptable genders while having no change in meaning:
der Jogurt = das Jogurt
das Virus = der Virus
These may vary by region or colloquiality.
💢 But WHY, German, WHY ⁉
Gender is actually quite useful! Since sentence structure is less rigid than in English, grammatical case helps you tell the various elements apart (with some practice), and that works through genders: each gender has its own forms, which makes everything a little less ambiguous. Besides, as you've seen with Band above, it allows us to make up words with different meanings that look the same but are not ambiguous, and if that's not magic, I don't know what is. ✨
🙀 But how am I supposed to tell them apart? 🙀
Check out >explain gender patterns. 😉
jaunty wraith
explain gender patterns
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Unfortunately, many German words don't have immediately clear clues that reveal it, but thankfully, many common words do follow patterns that reveal their gender.
Plural forms always use die and follow plural declension rules, which are the same for all genders (yay 🎉).
Type >explain grammatical gender for an explanation on grammatical gender.
Here's a list of patterns to recognise word gender.
Note that exceptions may apply.
💙 Masculine words (der):
- profession/role names (der Verkäufer, der Lehrer)
- many elements of time (der Tag, der Monat, der Winter)
- cardinal directions (der Norden, der Süden)
- words ending in:
---igder König, der Teig
---lingder Neuling, der Schwächling
---antder Praktikant, der Elefant
---ismusder Faschismus, der Sozialismus
💚 Neuter words (das):
- nominalised verbs (das Leben, das Lesen)
- metals (das Gold, das Kupfer)
- babies and cubs (das Baby, das Lamm)
- diminutives in
-chen/-lein(das Hündchen) - words ending in:
---mentdas Experiment, das Sakrament
---ma(usually of Greek origin) das Komma, das Thema
❤ Feminine words (die):
- many words ending in
-e(die Nase, die Kiste) - words ending in:
---in(feminine professions/roles): die Verkäuferin, die Lehrerin
---eidie Fischerei, die Bäckerei
---schaftdie Mannschaft, die Gemeinschaft
---heit/-keitdie Freiheit, die Gerechtigkeit
---ungdie Bedeutung, die Achtung
---iondie Aktion, die Religion
---ikdie Logistik, die Logik
---anzwords of classical origin: die Allianz, die Toleranz
---urdie Natur, die Kultur
---tätdie Professionalität, die Kriminalität
candid citrus
help
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candid citrus
ex
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❌ Bad argument: name is a required argument that is missing.
candid citrus
ex Perfekt
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FAQ not found. Try >explain all.
Note: This entry has been added to our FAQ idea pool.
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tepid furnace
ex duolingo
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Duolingo is a decent resource to start with if you're a complete beginner, but it's neither efficient nor comprehensive!
What Duolingo will teach you about grammar is very limited, and none of the systems they use will help you practise much of it.
You can learn some vocabulary with it, but their method (based on the concept of spaced repetition) doesn't work for everybody, and the way Duolingo teaches is not very effective compared to the amount of time it requires from you.
So, if you find it useful, by all means keep using it, but remember not to fall for its gamification of language learning, and move past it when it stops being beneficial. Ignore the "streaks".
In any case, keep in mind that Duolingo is not enough to learn a language, ever.
If you're looking for guidance or alternatives, check out >faq beginner in our #botchannel .
tepid furnace
ex memrise
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FAQ not found. Try >explain all.
Note: This entry has been added to our FAQ idea pool.
tepid furnace
explain all
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tepid furnace
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How to get started
The simplest way to learn German is to find topics you don’t understand yet and search for explanations of them. This list provides you with a guide for which topics to learn if you are completely new to German. Type the topic into Google (or YouTube) and start learning!
Introduction
1: Alphabet (especially ä, ü, ö and ß)
2: Basic greetings (hello, goodbye, etc.)
Part 1 - Simple Sentence
1: Noun gender & plurals
2: Nominative case (What are cases?)
3: Nominative pronouns (I, you, he, she, etc.)
4: Verbs in present tense
5: Definite/indefinite articles
6: Accusative case (for nouns)
7: Accusative pronouns
8: Word order of simple sentences
9: How to ask questions
Tips
- Always learn the gender of a noun when you learn a new noun
- Learn to use a translation dictionary (e.g. dict.cc, leo.org)
- Use
>faq resourcesto see our list of German learning resources - For listening and pronunciation practice, try watching movies or videos (incl. YouTube)
- You can listen to pronunciation for words on websites like dict.cc, forvo.com, and others
- Practice writing sentences every day (and asking people to correct them)
- Ask as many questions as possible
- Don’t be scared to make mistakes!!!! If you don’t let yourself make mistakes, you will never be able to learn German
heady bloom
explain all
tepid furnace
explain all but don't delete it
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tepid furnace
explain german keyboard
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Being able to type German letters is quite important!
- Schon = already. Schön = beautiful.
- Mutter = mother. Mütter = mothers.
How to? There are several options.
🔸 US International layout: if you're using a US keyboard or a keyboard based on it, the transition is very easy! Everything stays as you know it, except for some symbol keys like ~, ` or ", which can be pressed to add accents. For example " + a = ä. You can also do RightAlt + s = ß.
To use US International on Windows, look for the Region & Language options and switch your selected keyboard layout to US International.
:small_orange_diamond: Use a program like AutoHotkey to automatically type the symbols you need when you type certain shortcuts: https://www.autohotkey.com/
:small_orange_diamond: Alternatively, you can memorise the altcodes for German characters. Learning them is easier than you might think! Simply hold Alt and type the numbers on your numpad:
ä = 132; Ä = 142
ö = 148; Ö = 153
ü = 129; Ü = 154
ß = 225
:small_orange_diamond: If all else fails, you can use ASCII conventions for the characters: add an e to other vowels, and write ss or sz for ß. For example:
ae = ä
oe = ö
ue = ü
ss = ß
But this is discouraged since it's harder to read and... looks ugly. It is only done in situations where alternatives are impossible (fonts with no unicode etc).
pastel moat
explain beginner
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How to get started
The simplest way to learn German is to find topics you don’t understand yet and search for explanations of them. This list provides you with a guide for which topics to learn if you are completely new to German. Type the topic into Google (or YouTube) and start learning!
Introduction
1: Alphabet (especially ä, ü, ö and ß)
2: Basic greetings (hello, goodbye, etc.)
Part 1 - Simple Sentence
1: Noun gender & plurals
2: Nominative case (What are cases?)
3: Nominative pronouns (I, you, he, she, etc.)
4: Verbs in present tense
5: Definite/indefinite articles
6: Accusative case (for nouns)
7: Accusative pronouns
8: Word order of simple sentences
9: How to ask questions
Tips
- Always learn the gender of a noun when you learn a new noun
- Learn to use a translation dictionary (e.g. dict.cc, leo.org)
- Use
>faq resourcesto see our list of German learning resources - For listening and pronunciation practice, try watching movies or videos (incl. YouTube)
- You can listen to pronunciation for words on websites like dict.cc, forvo.com, and others
- Practice writing sentences every day (and asking people to correct them)
- Ask as many questions as possible
- Don’t be scared to make mistakes!!!! If you don’t let yourself make mistakes, you will never be able to learn German
pastel moat
faq resources
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amber ocean
play lofi hip hop
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:x: At least two members are needed before I start playing music.
amber ocean
play lofi hip hop
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:x: At least two members are needed before I start playing music.
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amber ocean
help play
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amber ocean
play anything
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:x: At least two members are needed before I start playing music.
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❌ Bad argument: query is a required argument that is missing.
amber ocean
play query
main arrowBOT
:x: At least two members are needed before I start playing music.
main arrowBOT
❌ Bad argument: query is a required argument that is missing.
amber ocean
play current
play next
next
play lofi hip hop
clear queue
bad bot
music stop
help
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amber ocean
skip
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Eziome#3244 has skipped the song.
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:x: At least two members are needed before I start playing music.
amber ocean
current
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Now Playing: lofi hip hop radio - beats to relax/study to [-1 day, 23:56:06] requested by Eziome#3244
amber ocean
play alles neu
main arrowBOT
:x: At least two members are needed before I start playing music.
amber ocean
skip
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Eziome#3244 has skipped the song.
amber ocean
current
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Not currently playing anything.
amber ocean
skip
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Eziome#3244 has skipped the song.
amber ocean
skip
main arrowBOT
Eziome#3244 has skipped the song.
amber ocean
skip
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Eziome#3244 has skipped the song.
amber ocean
current
main arrowBOT
Not currently playing anything.
main arrowBOT
:x: At least two members are needed before I start playing music.
amber ocean
current
main arrowBOT
Not currently playing anything.
plain stag
explain beginner
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How to get started
The simplest way to learn German is to find topics you don’t understand yet and search for explanations of them. This list provides you with a guide for which topics to learn if you are completely new to German. Type the topic into Google (or YouTube) and start learning!
Introduction
1: Alphabet (especially ä, ü, ö and ß)
2: Basic greetings (hello, goodbye, etc.)
Part 1 - Simple Sentence
1: Noun gender & plurals
2: Nominative case (What are cases?)
3: Nominative pronouns (I, you, he, she, etc.)
4: Verbs in present tense
5: Definite/indefinite articles
6: Accusative case (for nouns)
7: Accusative pronouns
8: Word order of simple sentences
9: How to ask questions
Tips
- Always learn the gender of a noun when you learn a new noun
- Learn to use a translation dictionary (e.g. dict.cc, leo.org)
- Use
>faq resourcesto see our list of German learning resources - For listening and pronunciation practice, try watching movies or videos (incl. YouTube)
- You can listen to pronunciation for words on websites like dict.cc, forvo.com, and others
- Practice writing sentences every day (and asking people to correct them)
- Ask as many questions as possible
- Don’t be scared to make mistakes!!!! If you don’t let yourself make mistakes, you will never be able to learn German
plain stag
faq resources
amber ocean
faq umlaut
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FAQ not found. Try >explain all.
Note: This entry has been added to our FAQ idea pool.
amber ocean
faq keyboard
main arrowBOT
Being able to type German letters is quite important!
- Schon = already. Schön = beautiful.
- Mutter = mother. Mütter = mothers.
How to? There are several options.
🔸 US International layout: if you're using a US keyboard or a keyboard based on it, the transition is very easy! Everything stays as you know it, except for some symbol keys like ~, ` or ", which can be pressed to add accents. For example " + a = ä. You can also do RightAlt + s = ß.
To use US International on Windows, look for the Region & Language options and switch your selected keyboard layout to US International.
:small_orange_diamond: Use a program like AutoHotkey to automatically type the symbols you need when you type certain shortcuts: https://www.autohotkey.com/
:small_orange_diamond: Alternatively, you can memorise the altcodes for German characters. Learning them is easier than you might think! Simply hold Alt and type the numbers on your numpad:
ä = 132; Ä = 142
ö = 148; Ö = 153
ü = 129; Ü = 154
ß = 225
:small_orange_diamond: If all else fails, you can use ASCII conventions for the characters: add an e to other vowels, and write ss or sz for ß. For example:
ae = ä
oe = ö
ue = ü
ss = ß
But this is discouraged since it's harder to read and... looks ugly. It is only done in situations where alternatives are impossible (fonts with no unicode etc).
amber ocean
@snow compass
nimble hearth
help
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gaunt axle
help
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This command needs a sub-command. Further help:
❌ Bad argument: Group "ouijas" not found.
nimble crypt
help
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heady bloom
info eclus
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Could not convert "user" into Member or FetchedUser.
heady bloom
info @chrome rapids
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tender trellis
<level A
sacred rose
cefr Level C
stark sail
info
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chrome rapids
info @heady bloom
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chrome rapids
info @chrome rapids
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vernal salmon
help
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vernal salmon
cefr C
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:heavy_check_mark: I replaced your old CEFR role with Level C.
vernal salmon
verb ermüden
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lapis seal
np
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Now Playing: NVDES - I Want to Make Out at the Gay Club [AUDIO] [0:02:31] requested by d_extrumi#2719
abstract fox
cefr A
heady bloom
ouija
heady bloom
roll ouija
steel ruin
roll ouija
amber ocean
faq pronunciation
main arrowBOT
The International Phonetic Alphabet is a system for writing sounds regardless of the language: one sound will have only one letter for it, so it's really helpful for learning pronunciation in any language without relying on approximations.
IPA has a lot of symbols, but you don't need to learn them all.
🔸 What are those // and [] I see around?
Symbols in slashes (like /r/) represent so-called phonemes, units of sound. Each phoneme can be pronounced in different ways depending on where it is in the word. For example, the phoneme /r/ is pronounced [ʁ] in most situations, but [ɐ] after vowels. As you can see, square brackets (like [ʁ]) represent actual sounds. Finally, pointy brackets like ⟨r⟩ represent how a sound is written, which can vary from language to language.
Example: ⟨sprechen⟩ /sprεçən/ [ʃpʁε.çn̩]
🔸 So how to learn it?
All you need to learn is the few symbols used by the language you're interested in. For German, you can look up the relevant letters on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA/Standard_German. Notice the Help:IPA/Language_Name pattern in the URL.
There, you will find a table of symbols with an approximation, but you can also click on each specific symbol to learn exactly how to pronounce it studying the Features section, for example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiceless_palatal_fricative#Features
🔸 Which IPA letters are important for German?
Sounds you are likely to have trouble with are ⟨x⟩, ⟨ç⟩, ⟨ʁ⟩, ⟨ɐ⟩ and several vowels. These are all described in the Wiki link above.
You can use this website to transcribe German words if your dictionary doesn't give an IPA transcription:
http://tom.brondsted.dk/text2phoneme/
left cliff
star random
icy egret
love it
proven halo
cefr level a
heady bloom
@proud obsidian I wonder what the conversation was about? ⤴
chrome rapids
@heady bloom #voice-chat ?
onyx cairn
explain beginner
main arrowBOT
How to get started
The simplest way to learn German is to find topics you don’t understand yet and search for explanations of them. This list provides you with a guide for which topics to learn if you are completely new to German. Type the topic into Google (or YouTube) and start learning!
Introduction
1: Alphabet (especially ä, ü, ö and ß)
2: Basic greetings (hello, goodbye, etc.)
Part 1 - Simple Sentence
1: Noun gender & plurals
2: Nominative case (What are cases?)
3: Nominative pronouns (I, you, he, she, etc.)
4: Verbs in present tense
5: Definite/indefinite articles
6: Accusative case (for nouns)
7: Accusative pronouns
8: Word order of simple sentences
9: How to ask questions
Tips
- Always learn the gender of a noun when you learn a new noun
- Learn to use a translation dictionary (e.g. dict.cc, leo.org)
- Use
>faq resourcesto see our list of German learning resources - For listening and pronunciation practice, try watching movies or videos (incl. YouTube)
- You can listen to pronunciation for words on websites like dict.cc, forvo.com, and others
- Practice writing sentences every day (and asking people to correct them)
- Ask as many questions as possible
- Don’t be scared to make mistakes!!!! If you don’t let yourself make mistakes, you will never be able to learn German
heady bloom
@chrome rapids ?
tender trellis
cefr level A
gloomy cove
main arrowBOT
quaint lark
star random
quaint lark
star @quaint lark
main arrowBOT
"@quaint lark" is not a valid message ID. Use Developer Mode to get the Copy ID option.
proper ibex
star random @quaint lark
tender trellis
star random
icy egret
Oh this hurts
barren ridge
faq beginner
main arrowBOT
How to get started
The simplest way to learn German is to find topics you don’t understand yet and search for explanations of them. This list provides you with a guide for which topics to learn if you are completely new to German. Type the topic into Google (or YouTube) and start learning!
Introduction
1: Alphabet (especially ä, ü, ö and ß)
2: Basic greetings (hello, goodbye, etc.)
Part 1 - Simple Sentence
1: Noun gender & plurals
2: Nominative case (What are cases?)
3: Nominative pronouns (I, you, he, she, etc.)
4: Verbs in present tense
5: Definite/indefinite articles
6: Accusative case (for nouns)
7: Accusative pronouns
8: Word order of simple sentences
9: How to ask questions
Tips
- Always learn the gender of a noun when you learn a new noun
- Learn to use a translation dictionary (e.g. dict.cc, leo.org)
- Use
>faq resourcesto see our list of German learning resources - For listening and pronunciation practice, try watching movies or videos (incl. YouTube)
- You can listen to pronunciation for words on websites like dict.cc, forvo.com, and others
- Practice writing sentences every day (and asking people to correct them)
- Ask as many questions as possible
- Don’t be scared to make mistakes!!!! If you don’t let yourself make mistakes, you will never be able to learn German
sour prism
:lillie_is_a_pink_armadillo_man:
tender trellis
Wie löschen meine rol?
sour prism
ex conjunctions
main arrowBOT
FAQ not found. Try >explain all.
Note: This entry has been added to our FAQ idea pool.
sour prism
ex all
main arrowBOT
sour prism
ex so
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The German “also”
This word means “so, therefore”. It is used in the beginning of a sentence to show that what you’re about to say follows from what you said before:
(1) Er war müde, also ging er schlafen. (He was tired, so he went to sleep.)
You can put it in the middle of a sentence too, then it shows that you’re going back a topic or are reminding of it:
(2) Ich habe also mit ihm geredet… (and so/as I said, I spoke to him…)
A very similar use is also to start a sentence with a dragged out aaalso (=aaanyway).
⚠ You cannot use so in these sentences!
The German “so”
So has a few uses. Most of them correspond pretty directly to English “like this/that”. Perhaps the most normal use of it is to answer a “how” (wie) question:
(3) Wie geht das? — So! (How does one do that? — Like this!)
You can of course also use it this way if no one asked you a question:
(4) Er lief so herum. (He walked around like that. [could indicate e.g. walking style or clothing, depends on context])
Together with an indefinite noun it indicates that you care about the properties of that noun, and not the noun itself:
(5) Ich will so ein Haus. (I want a house like that [but not necessarily this particular one].)
Note that here, the proper question is not wie but was für ein:
(6) Was für ein Spiel willst du spielen? — So eins. (What kind of game do you want to play? — One like that)
Another very common way to use it is for emphasizing a size or amount. Just like in English, you may drag out the so for a bit to emphasize it even more:
(7) Das ist so schön! (This is so beautiful!)
The English “also”
English “also/too” straigtforwardly translates to German auch. There is no relation to German so/also here:
(8) Ich habe ihn auch gesehen. (I also saw him. / I saw him too.)
hollow cape
faq all
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ashen kelp
ex Duo
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Duolingo is a decent resource to start with if you're a complete beginner, but it's neither efficient nor comprehensive!
What Duolingo will teach you about grammar is very limited, and none of the systems they use will help you practise much of it.
You can learn some vocabulary with it, but their method (based on the concept of spaced repetition) doesn't work for everybody, and the way Duolingo teaches is not very effective compared to the amount of time it requires from you.
So, if you find it useful, by all means keep using it, but remember not to fall for its gamification of language learning, and move past it when it stops being beneficial. Ignore the "streaks".
In any case, keep in mind that Duolingo is not enough to learn a language, ever.
If you're looking for guidance or alternatives, check out >faq beginner in our #botchannel .
main marsh
explain beginner
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How to get started
The simplest way to learn German is to find topics you don’t understand yet and search for explanations of them. This list provides you with a guide for which topics to learn if you are completely new to German. Type the topic into Google (or YouTube) and start learning!
Introduction
1: Alphabet (especially ä, ü, ö and ß)
2: Basic greetings (hello, goodbye, etc.)
Part 1 - Simple Sentence
1: Noun gender & plurals
2: Nominative case (What are cases?)
3: Nominative pronouns (I, you, he, she, etc.)
4: Verbs in present tense
5: Definite/indefinite articles
6: Accusative case (for nouns)
7: Accusative pronouns
8: Word order of simple sentences
9: How to ask questions
Tips
- Always learn the gender of a noun when you learn a new noun
- Learn to use a translation dictionary (e.g. dict.cc, leo.org)
- Use
>faq resourcesto see our list of German learning resources - For listening and pronunciation practice, try watching movies or videos (incl. YouTube)
- You can listen to pronunciation for words on websites like dict.cc, forvo.com, and others
- Practice writing sentences every day (and asking people to correct them)
- Ask as many questions as possible
- Don’t be scared to make mistakes!!!! If you don’t let yourself make mistakes, you will never be able to learn German
main marsh
faq resources
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np
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Now Playing: Billie Eilish - BELLYACHE (Lyrics) [0:01:05] requested by Atomic Blond#9311
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help Music
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skip
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Skip vote added, currently at [1/4]
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stop
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The Bear Jew#0443 has skipped the song.
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play aurora god is a woman
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Atomic Blond#9311 has skipped the song.
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⭐ 3 #german-only ID: 361572081130930186
Casca 👻
nimble hearth
cefr Level C
tender trellis
ex conjunctions
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FAQ not found. Try >explain all.
Note: This entry has been added to our FAQ idea pool.
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delete a1
untold lily
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⭐ 4 #voice-chat ID: 416095918127841280
ßerg
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help
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: Partnered
: Invite Splash
: VIP Voice Servers
: Vanity Invite
: News Channels
: Animated Icon
37 (16 locked)
8 (3 locked)
1173 497 322 10781
Total: 12773
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stats
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untold lily
stats @untold lily
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Nola1222#2557
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compile
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❌ Bad argument: code is a required argument that is missing.
untold lily
help compile
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light forum
help compile
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light forum
help command
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No command called "command" found.
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cefr
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amber ocean
faq
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❌ Bad argument: name is a required argument that is missing.
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help
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word
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help faq
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faq all
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amber ocean
faq beibringen
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Study Vocabulary
Let’s take a look at differences in meanings between studieren, lernen, unterrichten, lehren and beibringen.
So what does studieren mean? Pfff, to study ofc, duh. Well, NO! Studieren is used only in the sense of studying at a university (or college).
(1) Ich studiere Mathematik. = “I study math as a uni student.”
To study as in to learn, to practice etc. translates to lernen.
(2) Ich lerne Mathematik. = “I’m learning/practicing math (for school).”
Now let’s compare the rest of the verbs - unterrichten, lehren and beibringen. They all mean to teach but are used in different contexts.
Unterrichten means to teach at an institute (school, language school) or some other formal way of teaching (private tutoring).
(3) Meine Schwester unterrichtet Deutsch am Goethe Institut = “My sister teaches German at the Goethe Institute.”
Lehren means to teach but as a tutor at a university.
(4) Herr Arrem lehrt die Kunst der Memes an der Nationalmemeuniversität Wien. = “Mister Arrem teaches the Art of Memes at the National Meme University of Vienna.”
Beibringen is more general, usually used with skills that you learn outside of an institute.
(5) Mein Vater hat mir beigebracht, wie man Fahrrad fährt. = “My father taught me how to ride a bike.”
🌟 Bonus verb üben: to practice is üben in German, not praktizieren.
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Immer gerne, Eziome.
lilac harbor
amber hearth
light forum
translation
compact orchid
cefr
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rough abyss
faq all
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zenith hearth
sour prism
star
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❌ Bad argument: message is a required argument that is missing.
sour prism
help
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help star
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sour prism
star random
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⭐ 2 #resources ID: 347824992219693058
Casca
sour prism
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sour prism
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🌟 6 #german-only ID: 322070699239800844
🌈 Nemoses
sour prism
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upbeat shoal
lk de en Hausnummer
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❌ Bad argument: lang_in is a required argument that is missing.
tender trellis
lk ihr
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❌ Bad argument: lang_out is a required argument that is missing.
upbeat shoal
lk en de hypocritical
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upbeat shoal
lk en de defy
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left cliff
They get money from soros
upbeat shoal
lk en de embrace
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upbeat shoal
lk en de suspend
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small sigil
groups
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Changed player volume to: 50%
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Skip vote added, currently at [1/7]
weary fox
queue
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icy egret
np
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Now Playing: Ryo Fukui - A letter from slowboat (full album) [Jazz] [Japan, 2016] [0:17:06] requested by hecke#6550
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Now Playing: Ryo Fukui - A letter from slowboat (full album) [Jazz] [Japan, 2016] [0:16:39] requested by hecke#6550
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help
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upbeat shoal
lk de en zur Verfügung haben
proper ibex
remind 5h diplo
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Alright @proper ibex, in 5 hours: diplo
echo kayak
cefr Level B
rare sierra
cefr Level C
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:heavy_check_mark: I replaced your old CEFR role with Level C.
runic inlet
cefr Level C
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@proper ibex, 5 hours ago: diplo
https://discordapp.com/channels/221708975698083841/248530603165614080/616233798421446666
ebon light
help
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No command called "role" found.
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help roles
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No command called "roles" found.
rancid ridge
faq swiss german
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What is Swiss German?
Swiss German is the common name for the group of dialects native to Switzerland. It is closely related to the dialects of south-western Germany (e.g. Swabian), and to a lesser extent to the dialects of Austria and Bavaria.
What do you mean, group of dialects?
Because Swiss German is not standardized in any way, there is a lot of variety in how people speak. The differences aren’t large enough to impede understanding, but they are definitely noticable and range from vocabulary over different sounds being used to even differences in grammar!
If I speak German to a Swiss person, will I be understood?
Yes.
All Swiss German speakers have gone through several years of schooling held in Standard German and will definitely understand you without any problems. However, not all Swiss German speakers are very comfortable speaking it themselves, so keep that in mind.
If I want to move to Switzerland, do I have to learn Swiss German?
First of all, make sure to actually learn Standard German. You’ll need it more urgently. But if that’s out of the way, I would advise you to at least learn to understand it. Swiss people really appreciate it when they don’t have to speak Standard German. You don’t have to learn to speak it yourself to integrate. But feel free to try!
Where can I learn Swiss German?
Good question. There’s a collection of resources here: https://www.reddit.com/r/German/comments/abswl2/i_made_a_collection_of_resources_for_learning/
If you find something, let us know. If you have questions, you can always ask in #dialects.
What does it sound like?
It’s been variously described as everything from melodious to throat cancer. Best you just listen yourself:
https://youtu.be/h5-If3WKqfg (Dialect of Graubünden)
https://youtu.be/Gz2S9iggdzM (Slightly over the top comparison)
https://youtu.be/PkGatIgXERI (Classic Bern German song)
See also: >faq Switzerland, >faq Dialects
rancid ridge
faq Dialects
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FAQ not found. Try >explain all.
Note: This entry has been added to our FAQ idea pool.
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rancid ridge
faq duo
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Duolingo is a decent resource to start with if you're a complete beginner, but it's neither efficient nor comprehensive!
What Duolingo will teach you about grammar is very limited, and none of the systems they use will help you practise much of it.
You can learn some vocabulary with it, but their method (based on the concept of spaced repetition) doesn't work for everybody, and the way Duolingo teaches is not very effective compared to the amount of time it requires from you.
So, if you find it useful, by all means keep using it, but remember not to fall for its gamification of language learning, and move past it when it stops being beneficial. Ignore the "streaks".
In any case, keep in mind that Duolingo is not enough to learn a language, ever.
If you're looking for guidance or alternatives, check out >faq beginner in our #botchannel .
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Vorgangspassiv
The Vorgangspassiv is formed with werden as the finite/conjugated verb and the past participle of the main verb (or action verb) in the active voice sentence.
For example, when we translate "The man eats the apple.", we get:
Der Mann isst den Apfel.
When this sentence is converted into its passive voice equivalent, several things happen:
- The finite verb becomes the equivalent conjugation for werden.
isst-->wird - The main verb is then converted into its past participle and placed at the end of the clause, when possible.
isst-->gegessen - The accusative object becomes the (nominative) subject.
den Apfel-->Der Apfel - The subject is indicated with the preposition
vonor simply left out altogether.Der Mann-->(vom Mann)
Putting this together, we create the passive voice sentence:
Der Apfel wird (vom Mann) gegessen.
‼ Only the accusative object of a verb can become the subject in a passive sentence. This means verbs that govern a dative, genitive, or prepositional object can never become the subject. Instead, the object remains as it was.
For example, the verb helfen governs a dative object. An example with it in an active sentence would be:
Der Mann hat dem Kollegen geholfen.
When converted to the passive voice, dem Kollegen does not change case:
Dem Kollegen wurde (vom Mann) geholfen.
This applies equally to verbs that govern genitive and prepositonal objects:
Der Toten wurde gedacht.
Über das Thema wird kaum gesprochen.
Tenses & Moods
Present: Der Apfel wird gegessen.
Simple Past: Der Apfel wurde gegessen.
Future: Der Apfel wird gegessen werden.
Present Perfect: Der Apfel ist gegessen worden.
Past Perfect: Der Apfel war gegessen worden.
Future Perfect: Der Apfel wird gegessen worden sein.
See Also:
https://bit.ly/2Quvo8q (Pferd's blog)
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untold lily
group
untold lily
groups
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❌ Bad argument: Group "hidden group" not found.
tender trellis
hm...
proud obsidian
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:white_check_mark: Added you to all available groups.
rough abyss
faq all
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rough abyss
faq ipa
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The International Phonetic Alphabet is a system for writing sounds regardless of the language: one sound will have only one letter for it, so it's really helpful for learning pronunciation in any language without relying on approximations.
IPA has a lot of symbols, but you don't need to learn them all.
🔸 What are those // and [] I see around?
Symbols in slashes (like /r/) represent so-called phonemes, units of sound. Each phoneme can be pronounced in different ways depending on where it is in the word. For example, the phoneme /r/ is pronounced [ʁ] in most situations, but [ɐ] after vowels. As you can see, square brackets (like [ʁ]) represent actual sounds. Finally, pointy brackets like ⟨r⟩ represent how a sound is written, which can vary from language to language.
Example: ⟨sprechen⟩ /sprεçən/ [ʃpʁε.çn̩]
🔸 So how to learn it?
All you need to learn is the few symbols used by the language you're interested in. For German, you can look up the relevant letters on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA/Standard_German. Notice the Help:IPA/Language_Name pattern in the URL.
There, you will find a table of symbols with an approximation, but you can also click on each specific symbol to learn exactly how to pronounce it studying the Features section, for example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiceless_palatal_fricative#Features
🔸 Which IPA letters are important for German?
Sounds you are likely to have trouble with are ⟨x⟩, ⟨ç⟩, ⟨ʁ⟩, ⟨ɐ⟩ and several vowels. These are all described in the Wiki link above.
You can use this website to transcribe German words if your dictionary doesn't give an IPA transcription:
http://tom.brondsted.dk/text2phoneme/
main marsh
faq IPA
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The International Phonetic Alphabet is a system for writing sounds regardless of the language: one sound will have only one letter for it, so it's really helpful for learning pronunciation in any language without relying on approximations.
IPA has a lot of symbols, but you don't need to learn them all.
🔸 What are those // and [] I see around?
Symbols in slashes (like /r/) represent so-called phonemes, units of sound. Each phoneme can be pronounced in different ways depending on where it is in the word. For example, the phoneme /r/ is pronounced [ʁ] in most situations, but [ɐ] after vowels. As you can see, square brackets (like [ʁ]) represent actual sounds. Finally, pointy brackets like ⟨r⟩ represent how a sound is written, which can vary from language to language.
Example: ⟨sprechen⟩ /sprεçən/ [ʃpʁε.çn̩]
🔸 So how to learn it?
All you need to learn is the few symbols used by the language you're interested in. For German, you can look up the relevant letters on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA/Standard_German. Notice the Help:IPA/Language_Name pattern in the URL.
There, you will find a table of symbols with an approximation, but you can also click on each specific symbol to learn exactly how to pronounce it studying the Features section, for example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiceless_palatal_fricative#Features
🔸 Which IPA letters are important for German?
Sounds you are likely to have trouble with are ⟨x⟩, ⟨ç⟩, ⟨ʁ⟩, ⟨ɐ⟩ and several vowels. These are all described in the Wiki link above.
You can use this website to transcribe German words if your dictionary doesn't give an IPA transcription:
http://tom.brondsted.dk/text2phoneme/
amber ocean
help remind
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amber ocean
remind in 2 months
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Alright @amber ocean, in 2 months: something
amber ocean
reminder in 2 months intermediate to advanced deck
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Alright @amber ocean, in 2 months: intermediate to advanced deck
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lucid dust
faq all
north flame
sub Coding, Grammar
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❌ Bad argument: Group "Coding, Grammar" not found.
tribal lodge
cefr Level A
blissful ice
cefr Level B
kindred wyvern
remind list
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karmic peak
remind list
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:x: At least two members are needed before I start playing music.
amber ocean
play mozart halidini
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Skip vote added, currently at [1/4]
amber ocean
No plox, ich höre ihm zu
amber ocean
I didn't even know this was on that's amazing
amber ocean
Sorry Mr music guy
ebon light
sub
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❌ Bad argument: group is a required argument that is missing.
ebon light
help sub
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ebon light
sub Science
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:x: You're already in this group.
timid patrol
blissful ice
sub
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❌ Bad argument: group is a required argument that is missing.
blissful ice
help sub
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blissful ice
help sub
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blissful ice
how do i know what the subs are dammit
tender trellis
lk de en Zeitkepseln
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❌ No translations found for word Zeitkepseln.
tender trellis
lk de en Zeitkapseln
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❌ No translations found for word Zeitkapseln.
tender trellis
wut
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❌ Bad argument: Group "all" not found.
heady bloom
group list
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heady bloom
group joinall
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:white_check_mark: Added you to all available groups.
tender trellis
help
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karmic peak
star random
gaunt cliff
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:white_check_mark: Added you to all available groups.
blissful ice
group
stone oriole
suggest archive
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tender trellis
lk en de the effort
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tender trellis
pine cipher
groups
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pine cipher
groups coding
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proper ibex
.>sub Coding
pine cipher
thanks
amber ocean
Careful he's a hero
silver zinc
group
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:white_check_mark: Added you to all available groups.
grim root
group joinall
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:white_check_mark: Added you to all available groups.
grim root
cefr Level B
tender trellis
cefr a
ionic oriole
group joinall
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:white_check_mark: Added you to all available groups.
mint helm
explain dative
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The dative case (der Dativ) is one of the four cases of the German language. A case affects how a noun or noun phrase is inflected, and indicates the role of the noun or noun phrase in a clause.
🗨 How do I decline in the dative case?
Nouns, pronouns, and adjective declension is completely different compared to the nominative case. See >explain adjective declension for a full explanation.
🗨 When do I use the dative case?
The dative case has a great number of usages, many of which are idiomatic, but is mainly used:
- to mark the indirect object of many transitive verbs (the "indirect object" is that which receives the result of an action):
Ich habe dir ein Bier gekauft.
Sie gibt dem Mann das Buch.
Er zeigte ihm seinen Führerschein.
- to mark the object of some transitive verbs:
Dir fehlen die richtigen Materialien.
Es fällt mir gleich bestimmt wieder ein.
Das gefällt ihr gar nicht.
- after some prepositions:
Ich komme aus den USA.
Komm mit mir.
Ich lerne seit vielen Jahren Deutsch.
The following prepositions are always followed by the dative case:
aus, außer, bei, gegenüber, mit, nach, seit, von, zu
- after two-way prepositions when they do not indicate movement:
Das Bild hängt jetzt an der Wand.
Er geht im Wald. (he is roaming in the woods)
Sie steht vor mir.
- to show possession, mainly of clothing or body parts:
Ich habe mir in die Finger geschnitten.
Er hat ihr die Nase gebrochen.
Die Mütze fiel mir vom Kopf.
- with many adjectives:
Ich war mir nicht sicher.
Ist dir kalt?
Er ist seinem Bruder sehr ähnlich.
upbeat compass
ik en de guess
plush gate
ex beginner
main arrowBOT
How to get started
The simplest way to learn German is to find topics you don’t understand yet and search for explanations of them. This list provides you with a guide for which topics to learn if you are completely new to German. Type the topic into Google (or YouTube) and start learning!
Introduction
1: Alphabet (especially ä, ü, ö and ß)
2: Basic greetings (hello, goodbye, etc.)
Part 1 - Simple Sentence
1: Noun gender & plurals
2: Nominative case (What are cases?)
3: Nominative pronouns (I, you, he, she, etc.)
4: Verbs in present tense
5: Definite/indefinite articles
6: Accusative case (for nouns)
7: Accusative pronouns
8: Word order of simple sentences
9: How to ask questions
Tips
- Always learn the gender of a noun when you learn a new noun
- Learn to use a translation dictionary (e.g. dict.cc, leo.org)
- Use
>faq resourcesto see our list of German learning resources - For listening and pronunciation practice, try watching movies or videos (incl. YouTube)
- You can listen to pronunciation for words on websites like dict.cc, forvo.com, and others
- Practice writing sentences every day (and asking people to correct them)
- Ask as many questions as possible
- Don’t be scared to make mistakes!!!! If you don’t let yourself make mistakes, you will never be able to learn German
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:x: You can't assign CEFR roles if you're a native.
plain helm
xD
tender trellis
cefr Level A
rough abyss
faq all
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plush gate
cefr Level A
bold oyster
faq beginner
main arrowBOT
How to get started
The simplest way to learn German is to find topics you don’t understand yet and search for explanations of them. This list provides you with a guide for which topics to learn if you are completely new to German. Type the topic into Google (or YouTube) and start learning!
Introduction
1: Alphabet (especially ä, ü, ö and ß)
2: Basic greetings (hello, goodbye, etc.)
Part 1 - Simple Sentence
1: Noun gender & plurals
2: Nominative case (What are cases?)
3: Nominative pronouns (I, you, he, she, etc.)
4: Verbs in present tense
5: Definite/indefinite articles
6: Accusative case (for nouns)
7: Accusative pronouns
8: Word order of simple sentences
9: How to ask questions
Tips
- Always learn the gender of a noun when you learn a new noun
- Learn to use a translation dictionary (e.g. dict.cc, leo.org)
- Use
>faq resourcesto see our list of German learning resources - For listening and pronunciation practice, try watching movies or videos (incl. YouTube)
- You can listen to pronunciation for words on websites like dict.cc, forvo.com, and others
- Practice writing sentences every day (and asking people to correct them)
- Ask as many questions as possible
- Don’t be scared to make mistakes!!!! If you don’t let yourself make mistakes, you will never be able to learn German
upbeat karma
lk de en boomer
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frank lichen
group ouija
cyan garnet
help
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cyan garnet
groups
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cyan garnet
help
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cyan garnet
faq
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❌ Bad argument: name is a required argument that is missing.
cyan garnet
groups
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amber ocean
play mozart halidini
sterile dune
latex
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❌ Bad argument: latex is a required argument that is missing.
sterile dune
tex
amber ocean
queue
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amber ocean
play best of Beethoven
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No command called "music" found.
amber ocean
help all
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No command called "all" found.
amber ocean
skip
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Eziome#3244 has skipped the song.
amber ocean
skip
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Eziome#3244 has skipped the song.
amber ocean
skip
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Eziome#3244 has skipped the song.
knotty kettle
help
austere dagger
faq pronunciation
main arrowBOT
The International Phonetic Alphabet is a system for writing sounds regardless of the language: one sound will have only one letter for it, so it's really helpful for learning pronunciation in any language without relying on approximations.
IPA has a lot of symbols, but you don't need to learn them all.
🔸 What are those // and [] I see around?
Symbols in slashes (like /r/) represent so-called phonemes, units of sound. Each phoneme can be pronounced in different ways depending on where it is in the word. For example, the phoneme /r/ is pronounced [ʁ] in most situations, but [ɐ] after vowels. As you can see, square brackets (like [ʁ]) represent actual sounds. Finally, pointy brackets like ⟨r⟩ represent how a sound is written, which can vary from language to language.
Example: ⟨sprechen⟩ /sprεçən/ [ʃpʁε.çn̩]
🔸 So how to learn it?
All you need to learn is the few symbols used by the language you're interested in. For German, you can look up the relevant letters on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA/Standard_German. Notice the Help:IPA/Language_Name pattern in the URL.
There, you will find a table of symbols with an approximation, but you can also click on each specific symbol to learn exactly how to pronounce it studying the Features section, for example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiceless_palatal_fricative#Features
🔸 Which IPA letters are important for German?
Sounds you are likely to have trouble with are ⟨x⟩, ⟨ç⟩, ⟨ʁ⟩, ⟨ɐ⟩ and several vowels. These are all described in the Wiki link above.
You can use this website to transcribe German words if your dictionary doesn't give an IPA transcription:
http://tom.brondsted.dk/text2phoneme/
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No command called "commands" found.
No command called "command" found.
No command called "command" found.
No command called "command" found.
soft dragon
runic socket
faq wissen
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The verbs wissen and kennen both translate to know. However, in most cases they are not interchangeably.
You should use wissen with information or facts, for example:
(1) Ich weiß, dass er Peter heißt. (I know his name is Peter.)
(2) Ich weiß nicht, wie alt er ist. (I don't know how old he is.)
(3) Ich weiß, wo er wohnt. (I know where he lives.)
(4) Ich weiß es. (I know it.)
🌟Note that wissen almost always requires a subordinate clause which starts with either dass, wie, wann, wo, wer, or warum.
The verb kennen is used to express that you are familiar with a person, place or simply a thing, for example:
(5) Ich kenne Maria. (I know Maria.)
(6) Ich kenne diesen Fluss. (I know that river.)
(7) Ich kenne das Buch. (I know the book.)
(8) Ich kenne ihn. (I know him.)
🌟 Note that kennen almost always refers to a noun or pronoun.
‼ As with every rule, there are certain exceptions, in which you can use either, for example:
(9) Ich weiß/kenne den Weg. (I know the way.)
(10) Ich weiß/kenne deinen Namen (I know your name.)
Although they are often used interchangeably in this context, the general rules explained above still apply to them.
The wissen sentence is purely about knowing the way/name, while the kennen sentence also means that you already went that way a few times or have heard that name somewhere before.
runic socket
@gleaming arch :^) ^
gleaming arch
exotic rivet
sefr Level A/B/C
amber ocean
sefr b
desert mural
@exotic rivet >cefr Level A
amber ocean
cefr b
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:x: You already have this role.
amber ocean
No need to be sassy mr brooby
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Derrest#3583 has skipped the song.
queen mulch
cefr Level B
marsh pagoda
cefr Native Speaker
wintry depot
cefr Level A
amber ocean
faq stats eziome
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❌ Bad argument: Member "eziome" not found
amber ocean
faq stats Eziome (TestDaF boi)
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❌ Bad argument: Member "Eziome (TestDaF boi)" not found
amber ocean
faq stats Eziome
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Eziome#3244
tender trellis
help
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tender trellis
help role
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No command called "role" found.
tender trellis
help roles
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No command called "roles" found.
knotty kettle
cefr Level C
rancid ridge
cefr Level B
jovial spade
help
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jovial spade
groups
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raven sinew
faq beginner
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How to get started
The simplest way to learn German is to find topics you don’t understand yet and search for explanations of them. This list provides you with a guide for which topics to learn if you are completely new to German. Type the topic into Google (or YouTube) and start learning!
Introduction
1: Alphabet (especially ä, ü, ö and ß)
2: Basic greetings (hello, goodbye, etc.)
Part 1 - Simple Sentence
1: Noun gender & plurals
2: Nominative case (What are cases?)
3: Nominative pronouns (I, you, he, she, etc.)
4: Verbs in present tense
5: Definite/indefinite articles
6: Accusative case (for nouns)
7: Accusative pronouns
8: Word order of simple sentences
9: How to ask questions
Tips
- Always learn the gender of a noun when you learn a new noun
- Learn to use a translation dictionary (e.g. dict.cc, leo.org)
- Use
>faq resourcesto see our list of German learning resources - For listening and pronunciation practice, try watching movies or videos (incl. YouTube)
- You can listen to pronunciation for words on websites like dict.cc, forvo.com, and others
- Practice writing sentences every day (and asking people to correct them)
- Ask as many questions as possible
- Don’t be scared to make mistakes!!!! If you don’t let yourself make mistakes, you will never be able to learn German
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Latex rendering failed: Paragraph ended before \align* was complete.
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left cliff
emojistats
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: 31462 uses (23.4%), 56.3 uses/day.
: 9670 uses (7.2%), 26.1 uses/day.
: 5963 uses (4.4%), 23.8 uses/day.
: 3866 uses (2.9%), 6.9 uses/day.
: 3793 uses (2.8%), 9.2 uses/day.
: 3530 uses (2.6%), 6.3 uses/day.
: 3422 uses (2.5%), 6.1 uses/day.
: 2250 uses (1.7%), 4.0 uses/day.
: 2048 uses (1.5%), 3.7 uses/day.- ❔: 1969 uses (1.5%), 3.5 uses/day.
unreal palm
faq nicht
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Negations or negative sentences in German are formed with either kein or nicht.
You use kein if you want to negate nouns with an indefinite article or without an article, for example:
(1) Ich besitze kein Auto. (I don't own a car.)
(2) Ich habe keinen Hunger. (I'm not hungry.)
‼ kein is always placed right before the noun you want to negate. Also note that you need to decline kein.
If you want to negate anything else you use nicht, for example:
(3) Ich schlafe nicht. (I don't sleep.) [verb]
(4) Ich habe gestern nicht geduscht. (I didn't shower yesterday.) [verb]
(5) Ich gehe nicht gerne schwimmen. (I don't like to go swimming.) [adverb]
(6) Es ist nicht heiß. (It's not hot.) [adjective]
(7) Ich habe nicht dich, sondern ihn gerufen. (I didn't call you, but him.) [pronoun]
(8) Das ist nicht Peters Fahrrad, sondern meins. (This isn't Peters bicycle, but mine.) [proper noun]
(9) Der Zug kommt nicht um 18 Uhr an. (The train doesn't arrive at 6pm.) [preposition]
(10) Ich habe nicht das Essen bezahlt, sondern die Getränke. (I didn't pay for the food, but for the drinks.) [definite article]
‼ Note that nicht almost always comes before the word it negates, unless you want to negate a verb.
If that's the case, it depends on the tense of the verb and on whether there is an auxiliary verb or not. nicht is placed right after the verb if the verb is in present or past tense. For compound tenses or when the sentence has an auxiliary it is placed before the verb.
🌟 Confused by the terminology? See >ex Grammar terms
tender trellis
ping
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:ping_pong: Pong! | 155.21ms
amber ocean
ping
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:ping_pong: Pong! | 157.3ms
amber ocean
Too slow
amber ocean
fewm brzrkr eziome
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❌ Bad argument: Member "eziome" not found
left cliff
shootcat
thick bay
cefr Level A
meager condor
cefr Level A
tender trellis
group joinall
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:white_check_mark: Added you to all available groups.
tender trellis
cefr Level A
hoary dirge
cefr Level A
civic breach
cefr Level A
tender trellis
group coding
outer flare
group Reich
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:ping_pong: Pong! | 130.17ms
upbeat compass
faq nicht
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Negations or negative sentences in German are formed with either kein or nicht.
You use kein if you want to negate nouns with an indefinite article or without an article, for example:
(1) Ich besitze kein Auto. (I don't own a car.)
(2) Ich habe keinen Hunger. (I'm not hungry.)
‼ kein is always placed right before the noun you want to negate. Also note that you need to decline kein.
If you want to negate anything else you use nicht, for example:
(3) Ich schlafe nicht. (I don't sleep.) [verb]
(4) Ich habe gestern nicht geduscht. (I didn't shower yesterday.) [verb]
(5) Ich gehe nicht gerne schwimmen. (I don't like to go swimming.) [adverb]
(6) Es ist nicht heiß. (It's not hot.) [adjective]
(7) Ich habe nicht dich, sondern ihn gerufen. (I didn't call you, but him.) [pronoun]
(8) Das ist nicht Peters Fahrrad, sondern meins. (This isn't Peters bicycle, but mine.) [proper noun]
(9) Der Zug kommt nicht um 18 Uhr an. (The train doesn't arrive at 6pm.) [preposition]
(10) Ich habe nicht das Essen bezahlt, sondern die Getränke. (I didn't pay for the food, but for the drinks.) [definite article]
‼ Note that nicht almost always comes before the word it negates, unless you want to negate a verb.
If that's the case, it depends on the tense of the verb and on whether there is an auxiliary verb or not. nicht is placed right after the verb if the verb is in present or past tense. For compound tenses or when the sentence has an auxiliary it is placed before the verb.
🌟 Confused by the terminology? See >ex Grammar terms
icy egret
play sun go down fat night
tender trellis
help
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tender trellis
cefr Level A
tender trellis
faq begginer
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FAQ not found. Did you mean...
beginner
doch beginner
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How to get started
The simplest way to learn German is to find topics you don’t understand yet and search for explanations of them. This list provides you with a guide for which topics to learn if you are completely new to German. Type the topic into Google (or YouTube) and start learning!
Introduction
1: Alphabet (especially ä, ü, ö and ß)
2: Basic greetings (hello, goodbye, etc.)
Part 1 - Simple Sentence
1: Noun gender & plurals
2: Nominative case (What are cases?)
3: Nominative pronouns (I, you, he, she, etc.)
4: Verbs in present tense
5: Definite/indefinite articles
6: Accusative case (for nouns)
7: Accusative pronouns
8: Word order of simple sentences
9: How to ask questions
Tips
- Always learn the gender of a noun when you learn a new noun
- Learn to use a translation dictionary (e.g. dict.cc, leo.org)
- Use
>faq resourcesto see our list of German learning resources - For listening and pronunciation practice, try watching movies or videos (incl. YouTube)
- You can listen to pronunciation for words on websites like dict.cc, forvo.com, and others
- Practice writing sentences every day (and asking people to correct them)
- Ask as many questions as possible
- Don’t be scared to make mistakes!!!! If you don’t let yourself make mistakes, you will never be able to learn German
tender trellis
help
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FAQ not found. Try >explain all.
Note: This entry has been added to our FAQ idea pool.
tender trellis
explain all
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kindred wyvern
help evalin
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tender trellis
explain all
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tender trellis
help Du vs. Sie
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No command called "Du" found.
tender trellis
help duvssie
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No command called "duvssie" found.
tender trellis
help homework
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No command called "homework" found.
tender trellis
help How to ask a question
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No command called "How" found.
tender trellis
faq questions
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FAQ not found. Did you mean...
Suggestions
How to ask a question
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If you want something corrected, you can put it in a Google Docs and share a link with suggestions permissions in #writing.
Don't ask us to translate something for you outright: that takes professional time and effort and we're not here for that. You can try your luck with deepl.com.
For single words, use dict.cc or another dictionary, it'll be quicker.
If you want to know if/how a word can be used, provide some context to help us understand the situation.
Don't ask us to do your homework for you! Show us your best attempt at something and try to pinpoint what exactly you don't understand.
tender trellis
faq um zu
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Usage of ZU
Zu is a word that has a lot of uses.
As a preposition it means “to/towards”. (see >ex Dative and >ex Prepositions of Place Part 1)
But it can also be used to indicate an infinitive/gerund in a sentence, for example:
(1) Es ist schwierig, Deutsch zu lernen. = “Learning German is hard.” or ”It’s hard to learn German.”
As you can see, the zu is placed before the infinitive verb that has no prefix or a non-separable prefix. For verbs with a separable prefix, the zu goes between the prefix and the verb with no space in between:
(2) Ich habe heute bloß vor, Essen einzukaufen. = I only plan to buy food today.
You can also see it in the um...zu structure, where it means ”in order to”.
The um goes to the beginning of the phrase and zu works the same way as explained above.
(3) Wir sind zum Supermarkt gegangen, um etwas Brot zu kaufen. = We went to the shop (in order) to buy some bread.
(4) Ich lerne Deutsch, um mit Deutschen reden zu können. = I am learning German (in order) to be able to speak to Germans.
‼you can use um...zu only if the people doing both actions are the same. So in the examples above:
• in (3) we go and we buy bread
• in (4) I learn and I speak
❌ *ich gebe ihm ein Geschenk, um er glücklich zu sein - This and other weird stuffs are WRONG!
🌟 Bonus: When you want to say in order to, but the subjects are different, you use the subordinate conjunction damit.
proper ibex
faq beginner
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How to get started
The simplest way to learn German is to find topics you don’t understand yet and search for explanations of them. This list provides you with a guide for which topics to learn if you are completely new to German. Type the topic into Google (or YouTube) and start learning!
Introduction
1: Alphabet (especially ä, ü, ö and ß)
2: Basic greetings (hello, goodbye, etc.)
Part 1 - Simple Sentence
1: Noun gender & plurals
2: Nominative case (What are cases?)
3: Nominative pronouns (I, you, he, she, etc.)
4: Verbs in present tense
5: Definite/indefinite articles
6: Accusative case (for nouns)
7: Accusative pronouns
8: Word order of simple sentences
9: How to ask questions
Tips
- Always learn the gender of a noun when you learn a new noun
- Learn to use a translation dictionary (e.g. dict.cc, leo.org)
- Use
>faq resourcesto see our list of German learning resources - For listening and pronunciation practice, try watching movies or videos (incl. YouTube)
- You can listen to pronunciation for words on websites like dict.cc, forvo.com, and others
- Practice writing sentences every day (and asking people to correct them)
- Ask as many questions as possible
- Don’t be scared to make mistakes!!!! If you don’t let yourself make mistakes, you will never be able to learn German
proper ibex
@tender trellis ^
tender trellis
thanks my friend ❤
heady bloom
@proud obsidian is the name Brooby McBroobface based on episode 2 of star star space?
proud obsidian
No it's based on our friend Broob. @vast radish
heady bloom
totally understandable
runic pagoda
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:heavy_check_mark: I replaced your old CEFR role with Level C.
vast radish
@proud obsidian no
mellow hingeBOT
Could not convert 'gaming' to role
torn rivet
💛
left cliff
ex akkusativ
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Accusative
The accusative case (der Akkusativ) is one of the four cases of the German language. A case affects how a noun or noun phrase is inflected, and indicates the role of the noun or noun phrase in a clause.
🗨 How do I decline in the accusative case?
Feminine and neuter nouns and adjectives are the same as nominative. Masculine nouns, adjectives (and weak nouns) gain an -en ending:
Ich esse den/einen/keinen kleinen Apfel.
Personal pronouns differ for:
ich --> mich
du --> dich
er --> ihn
wir --> uns
ihr --> euch
For a full explanation see >explain adjective declension
🗨 When do I use the accusative case?
The accusative case is mainly used:
- to mark the direct object of many transitive verbs
Ich lese einen Roman.
Er hat die schöne Frau ermordet.
Sie besitzen kein Auto.
- after some prepositions
Danke für deine Hilfe!
Ohne dich kann ich nicht leben.
Sie hatten keine Einwände gegen den Plan.
The following prepositions are always followed by the accusative case:
bis, durch, für, gegen, ohne, um
- to indicate movement in a particular direction in two-way prepositions
Er steigt auf den Gipfel.
Sie hängt das Bild an die Wand.
Ich gehe gleich ins Bett. (ins = in das)
- by adverbials of time and measurement
A definite length or point in time:
Ich habe den ganzen Tag geschlafen.
Sie kommt nächste Woche zurück.
A measurement:
Das Kind ist vier Jahre alt.
Das Tier ist einen Meter groß.
Expressing distance with verbs of motion:
Ich ging die Treppe hinauf.
Ich lief den ganzen Weg zu Fuß.
- in common greetings and wishes
Guten Morgen/Tag/Abend!
Gute Besserung!
Herzlichen Glückwunsch!
Here there is an implicit verb such as 'wünschen', where the greeting/wish is the direct object.
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left cliff
>ex accusative
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Accusative
The accusative case (der Akkusativ) is one of the four cases of the German language. A case affects how a noun or noun phrase is inflected, and indicates the role of the noun or noun phrase in a clause.
🗨 How do I decline in the accusative case?
Feminine and neuter nouns and adjectives are the same as nominative. Masculine nouns, adjectives (and weak nouns) gain an -en ending:
Ich esse den/einen/keinen kleinen Apfel.
Personal pronouns differ for:
ich --> mich
du --> dich
er --> ihn
wir --> uns
ihr --> euch
For a full explanation see >explain adjective declension
🗨 When do I use the accusative case?
The accusative case is mainly used:
- to mark the direct object of many transitive verbs
Ich lese einen Roman.
Er hat die schöne Frau ermordet.
Sie besitzen kein Auto.
- after some prepositions
Danke für deine Hilfe!
Ohne dich kann ich nicht leben.
Sie hatten keine Einwände gegen den Plan.
The following prepositions are always followed by the accusative case:
bis, durch, für, gegen, ohne, um
- to indicate movement in a particular direction in two-way prepositions
Er steigt auf den Gipfel.
Sie hängt das Bild an die Wand.
Ich gehe gleich ins Bett. (ins = in das)
- by adverbials of time and measurement
A definite length or point in time:
Ich habe den ganzen Tag geschlafen.
Sie kommt nächste Woche zurück.
A measurement:
Das Kind ist vier Jahre alt.
Das Tier ist einen Meter groß.
Expressing distance with verbs of motion:
Ich ging die Treppe hinauf.
Ich lief den ganzen Weg zu Fuß.
- in common greetings and wishes
Guten Morgen/Tag/Abend!
Gute Besserung!
Herzlichen Glückwunsch!
Here there is an implicit verb such as 'wünschen', where the greeting/wish is the direct object.
pearl kite
ex begginer
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FAQ not found. Did you mean...
beginner
doch beginner
pearl kite
ex beginner
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How to get started
The simplest way to learn German is to find topics you don’t understand yet and search for explanations of them. This list provides you with a guide for which topics to learn if you are completely new to German. Type the topic into Google (or YouTube) and start learning!
Introduction
1: Alphabet (especially ä, ü, ö and ß)
2: Basic greetings (hello, goodbye, etc.)
Part 1 - Simple Sentence
1: Noun gender & plurals
2: Nominative case (What are cases?)
3: Nominative pronouns (I, you, he, she, etc.)
4: Verbs in present tense
5: Definite/indefinite articles
6: Accusative case (for nouns)
7: Accusative pronouns
8: Word order of simple sentences
9: How to ask questions
Tips
- Always learn the gender of a noun when you learn a new noun
- Learn to use a translation dictionary (e.g. dict.cc, leo.org)
- Use
>faq resourcesto see our list of German learning resources - For listening and pronunciation practice, try watching movies or videos (incl. YouTube)
- You can listen to pronunciation for words on websites like dict.cc, forvo.com, and others
- Practice writing sentences every day (and asking people to correct them)
- Ask as many questions as possible
- Don’t be scared to make mistakes!!!! If you don’t let yourself make mistakes, you will never be able to learn German
left cliff
No problemo 👍
pearl kite
ex beibringen
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Study Vocabulary
Let’s take a look at differences in meanings between studieren, lernen, unterrichten, lehren and beibringen.
So what does studieren mean? Pfff, to study ofc, duh. Well, NO! Studieren is used only in the sense of studying at a university (or college).
(1) Ich studiere Mathematik. = “I study math as a uni student.”
To study as in to learn, to practice etc. translates to lernen.
(2) Ich lerne Mathematik. = “I’m learning/practicing math (for school).”
Now let’s compare the rest of the verbs - unterrichten, lehren and beibringen. They all mean to teach but are used in different contexts.
Unterrichten means to teach at an institute (school, language school) or some other formal way of teaching (private tutoring).
(3) Meine Schwester unterrichtet Deutsch am Goethe Institut = “My sister teaches German at the Goethe Institute.”
Lehren means to teach but as a tutor at a university.
(4) Herr Arrem lehrt die Kunst der Memes an der Nationalmemeuniversität Wien. = “Mister Arrem teaches the Art of Memes at the National Meme University of Vienna.”
Beibringen is more general, usually used with skills that you learn outside of an institute.
(5) Mein Vater hat mir beigebracht, wie man Fahrrad fährt. = “My father taught me how to ride a bike.”
🌟 Bonus verb üben: to practice is üben in German, not praktizieren.
pearl kite
ex duo
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Duolingo is a decent resource to start with if you're a complete beginner, but it's neither efficient nor comprehensive!
What Duolingo will teach you about grammar is very limited, and none of the systems they use will help you practise much of it.
You can learn some vocabulary with it, but their method (based on the concept of spaced repetition) doesn't work for everybody, and the way Duolingo teaches is not very effective compared to the amount of time it requires from you.
So, if you find it useful, by all means keep using it, but remember not to fall for its gamification of language learning, and move past it when it stops being beneficial. Ignore the "streaks".
In any case, keep in mind that Duolingo is not enough to learn a language, ever.
If you're looking for guidance or alternatives, check out >faq beginner in our #botchannel .
frozen bison
faq resources
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undone raven
faq beginner
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How to get started
The simplest way to learn German is to find topics you don’t understand yet and search for explanations of them. This list provides you with a guide for which topics to learn if you are completely new to German. Type the topic into Google (or YouTube) and start learning!
Introduction
1: Alphabet (especially ä, ü, ö and ß)
2: Basic greetings (hello, goodbye, etc.)
Part 1 - Simple Sentence
1: Noun gender & plurals
2: Nominative case (What are cases?)
3: Nominative pronouns (I, you, he, she, etc.)
4: Verbs in present tense
5: Definite/indefinite articles
6: Accusative case (for nouns)
7: Accusative pronouns
8: Word order of simple sentences
9: How to ask questions
Tips
- Always learn the gender of a noun when you learn a new noun
- Learn to use a translation dictionary (e.g. dict.cc, leo.org)
- Use
>faq resourcesto see our list of German learning resources - For listening and pronunciation practice, try watching movies or videos (incl. YouTube)
- You can listen to pronunciation for words on websites like dict.cc, forvo.com, and others
- Practice writing sentences every day (and asking people to correct them)
- Ask as many questions as possible
- Don’t be scared to make mistakes!!!! If you don’t let yourself make mistakes, you will never be able to learn German
undone raven
faq resources
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heady bloom
verb heben
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heady bloom
verb reiten
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short tendon
cefr Level B
tender trellis
conj gießen
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tender trellis
sub test
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❌ Bad argument: Group "test" not found.
tender trellis
sub hidden group
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❌ Bad argument: Group "hidden group" not found.
tender trellis
sub codinng
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❌ Bad argument: Group "codinng" not found.
upbeat karma
sub
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❌ Bad argument: group is a required argument that is missing.
upbeat karma
sub help
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❌ Bad argument: Group "help" not found.
upbeat karma
groups
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:ping_pong: Pong! | 134.98ms
tender trellis
conj schleichen
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proper ibex
ex search als
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proper ibex
ex search wie
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No FAQ found.
simple glacier
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In German, there are a few different verbs describing the act of seeing. The most important ones are sehen, schauen, zuschauen, anschauen, zusehen and ansehen.
🔸 sehen (sieht, sah, hat gesehen) is the closest translation to “see”. It indicates an ability to see something.
(1) Ich sehe dich. (I can see you.)
(2) Siehst du das Auto? (Can you see the car?)
🔸 schauen (schaut, schaute, hat geschaut) is similar to English “look”. It indicates that you are actively trying to see something or looking in a particular direction. You usually use it together with some prepositional phrase that indicates the target. Schauen does not take a direct object! The verb gucken means the same as schauen, which one is used is mostly regional.
(3) Ich schaue aus dem Fenster. (I am looking out of the window.)
(4) Sie schaute unter den Tisch. (She looked under the table.)
‼ There are a lot of idioms with schauen, such as nach jmdm. schauen “to look after someone” and auf etw. schauen “to guard sth.”
🔸 anschauen means “to look at sth”. You use it when indicating that you are looking at an object. zuschauen on the other hand indicates you’re looking at an action.
‼ anschauen requires an accusative object, but zuschauen requires dative.
(5) Ich schaue die Landschaft an. (I am looking at the landscape.)
(6) Ich schaue den Kindern zu. (I am watching the children (doing sth).)
🔸 ansehen and zusehen mean the same thing as anschauen and zuschauen respectively.
(7) Sie sehen uns an. (They are looking at us.)
amber ocean
sub all
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❌ Bad argument: Group "all" not found.
amber ocean
help sub
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amber ocean
help join
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amber ocean
sub allgeoups
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❌ Bad argument: Group "allgeoups" not found.
amber ocean
Can't spell
amber ocean
sub gegessen
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❌ Bad argument: Group "gegessen" not found.
amber ocean
help
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amber ocean
I did it before but can't find the command
tender trellis
sub Medicine
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❌ Bad argument: Group "Medicine" not found.
tender trellis
damn it
amber ocean
sub reading
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:x: You're already in this group.
tender trellis
sub fluffyteddybears
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❌ Bad argument: Group "fluffyteddybears" not found.
outer flare
sub all
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❌ Bad argument: Group "all" not found.
outer flare
help
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outer flare
help group
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tender trellis
unsub <Ouija>
outer flare
group joinall
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:white_check_mark: Added you to all available groups.
outer flare
group leave x
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❌ Bad argument: Group "x" not found.
safe grove
help
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upbeat compass
faq gender
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German nouns are sorted in three different genders: masculine, neuter and feminine. These have nothing to do with sex or social gender.
The first thing genders will influence are articles like der, das, die. Each word has its own and you better get it right: some words that look identical can have different meanings depending on the gender they're used with. For example:
die Band = the (musical) band,
der Band = the (book) volume,
das Band = the tape.
Some words, mainly trademarks and loanwords, have multiple acceptable genders while having no change in meaning:
der Jogurt = das Jogurt
das Virus = der Virus
These may vary by region or colloquiality.
💢 But WHY, German, WHY ⁉
Gender is actually quite useful! Since sentence structure is less rigid than in English, grammatical case helps you tell the various elements apart (with some practice), and that works through genders: each gender has its own forms, which makes everything a little less ambiguous. Besides, as you've seen with Band above, it allows us to make up words with different meanings that look the same but are not ambiguous, and if that's not magic, I don't know what is. ✨
🙀 But how am I supposed to tell them apart? 🙀
Check out >explain gender patterns. 😉
upbeat karma
explain gender patterns
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Unfortunately, many German words don't have immediately clear clues that reveal it, but thankfully, many common words do follow patterns that reveal their gender.
Plural forms always use die and follow plural declension rules, which are the same for all genders (yay 🎉).
Type >explain grammatical gender for an explanation on grammatical gender.
Here's a list of patterns to recognise word gender.
Note that exceptions may apply.
💙 Masculine words (der):
- profession/role names (der Verkäufer, der Lehrer)
- many elements of time (der Tag, der Monat, der Winter)
- cardinal directions (der Norden, der Süden)
- words ending in:
---igder König, der Teig
---lingder Neuling, der Schwächling
---antder Praktikant, der Elefant
---ismusder Faschismus, der Sozialismus
💚 Neuter words (das):
- nominalised verbs (das Leben, das Lesen)
- metals (das Gold, das Kupfer)
- babies and cubs (das Baby, das Lamm)
- diminutives in
-chen/-lein(das Hündchen) - words ending in:
---mentdas Experiment, das Sakrament
---ma(usually of Greek origin) das Komma, das Thema
❤ Feminine words (die):
- many words ending in
-e(die Nase, die Kiste) - words ending in:
---in(feminine professions/roles): die Verkäuferin, die Lehrerin
---eidie Fischerei, die Bäckerei
---schaftdie Mannschaft, die Gemeinschaft
---heit/-keitdie Freiheit, die Gerechtigkeit
---ungdie Bedeutung, die Achtung
---iondie Aktion, die Religion
---ikdie Logistik, die Logik
---anzwords of classical origin: die Allianz, die Toleranz
---urdie Natur, die Kultur
---tätdie Professionalität, die Kriminalität
spiral cobalt
help
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❌ Bad argument: lang_in is a required argument that is missing.
❌ German is not a supported language. Use dict info.
spiral cobalt
dict info
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spiral cobalt
help
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spiral cobalt
lookup de en noch
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upbeat compass
faq nicht
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Negations or negative sentences in German are formed with either kein or nicht.
You use kein if you want to negate nouns with an indefinite article or without an article, for example:
(1) Ich besitze kein Auto. (I don't own a car.)
(2) Ich habe keinen Hunger. (I'm not hungry.)
‼ kein is always placed right before the noun you want to negate. Also note that you need to decline kein.
If you want to negate anything else you use nicht, for example:
(3) Ich schlafe nicht. (I don't sleep.) [verb]
(4) Ich habe gestern nicht geduscht. (I didn't shower yesterday.) [verb]
(5) Ich gehe nicht gerne schwimmen. (I don't like to go swimming.) [adverb]
(6) Es ist nicht heiß. (It's not hot.) [adjective]
(7) Ich habe nicht dich, sondern ihn gerufen. (I didn't call you, but him.) [pronoun]
(8) Das ist nicht Peters Fahrrad, sondern meins. (This isn't Peters bicycle, but mine.) [proper noun]
(9) Der Zug kommt nicht um 18 Uhr an. (The train doesn't arrive at 6pm.) [preposition]
(10) Ich habe nicht das Essen bezahlt, sondern die Getränke. (I didn't pay for the food, but for the drinks.) [definite article]
‼ Note that nicht almost always comes before the word it negates, unless you want to negate a verb.
If that's the case, it depends on the tense of the verb and on whether there is an auxiliary verb or not. nicht is placed right after the verb if the verb is in present or past tense. For compound tenses or when the sentence has an auxiliary it is placed before the verb.
🌟 Confused by the terminology? See >ex Grammar terms
upbeat compass
@wet locust
wet locust
Hello
upbeat compass
Hi! :p
tender trellis
sub gaming
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:x: You're already in this group.
tender trellis
@verbal parcel copy the command I wrote
verbal parcel
help
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verbal parcel
group
verbal parcel
group list
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tender trellis
chrome spade
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:heavy_check_mark: I replaced your old CEFR role with Level C.
This command needs a sub-command. Further help:
barren idol
explain subjective
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FAQ not found. Try >explain all.
Note: This entry has been added to our FAQ idea pool.
barren idol
explain all
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barren idol
explain so
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The German “also”
This word means “so, therefore”. It is used in the beginning of a sentence to show that what you’re about to say follows from what you said before:
(1) Er war müde, also ging er schlafen. (He was tired, so he went to sleep.)
You can put it in the middle of a sentence too, then it shows that you’re going back a topic or are reminding of it:
(2) Ich habe also mit ihm geredet… (and so/as I said, I spoke to him…)
A very similar use is also to start a sentence with a dragged out aaalso (=aaanyway).
⚠ You cannot use so in these sentences!
The German “so”
So has a few uses. Most of them correspond pretty directly to English “like this/that”. Perhaps the most normal use of it is to answer a “how” (wie) question:
(3) Wie geht das? — So! (How does one do that? — Like this!)
You can of course also use it this way if no one asked you a question:
(4) Er lief so herum. (He walked around like that. [could indicate e.g. walking style or clothing, depends on context])
Together with an indefinite noun it indicates that you care about the properties of that noun, and not the noun itself:
(5) Ich will so ein Haus. (I want a house like that [but not necessarily this particular one].)
Note that here, the proper question is not wie but was für ein:
(6) Was für ein Spiel willst du spielen? — So eins. (What kind of game do you want to play? — One like that)
Another very common way to use it is for emphasizing a size or amount. Just like in English, you may drag out the so for a bit to emphasize it even more:
(7) Das ist so schön! (This is so beautiful!)
The English “also”
English “also/too” straigtforwardly translates to German auch. There is no relation to German so/also here:
(8) Ich habe ihn auch gesehen. (I also saw him. / I saw him too.)
barren idol
explain Vorgangspassiv
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Vorgangspassiv
The Vorgangspassiv is formed with werden as the finite/conjugated verb and the past participle of the main verb (or action verb) in the active voice sentence.
For example, when we translate "The man eats the apple.", we get:
Der Mann isst den Apfel.
When this sentence is converted into its passive voice equivalent, several things happen:
- The finite verb becomes the equivalent conjugation for werden.
isst-->wird - The main verb is then converted into its past participle and placed at the end of the clause, when possible.
isst-->gegessen - The accusative object becomes the (nominative) subject.
den Apfel-->Der Apfel - The subject is indicated with the preposition
vonor simply left out altogether.Der Mann-->(vom Mann)
Putting this together, we create the passive voice sentence:
Der Apfel wird (vom Mann) gegessen.
‼ Only the accusative object of a verb can become the subject in a passive sentence. This means verbs that govern a dative, genitive, or prepositional object can never become the subject. Instead, the object remains as it was.
For example, the verb helfen governs a dative object. An example with it in an active sentence would be:
Der Mann hat dem Kollegen geholfen.
When converted to the passive voice, dem Kollegen does not change case:
Dem Kollegen wurde (vom Mann) geholfen.
This applies equally to verbs that govern genitive and prepositonal objects:
Der Toten wurde gedacht.
Über das Thema wird kaum gesprochen.
Tenses & Moods
Present: Der Apfel wird gegessen.
Simple Past: Der Apfel wurde gegessen.
Future: Der Apfel wird gegessen werden.
Present Perfect: Der Apfel ist gegessen worden.
Past Perfect: Der Apfel war gegessen worden.
Future Perfect: Der Apfel wird gegessen worden sein.
See Also:
https://bit.ly/2Quvo8q (Pferd's blog)
barren idol
explain verbs word order
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Word Order - Verbs
The placement of the finite verb (or conjugated verb) is very important to the structure of a German sentence. While most other elements in a sentence can be moved, the position of the finite verb is fixed.
🔸 Main clause
A main clause is an independent clause that makes sense by itself. Here the finite verb is always the second element.
Der Mann gibt der Frau das Buch.
An auxiliary/modal verb (e.g. müssen) replaces the original verb (called the main verb) as the finite verb and results in the main verb being placed at the end of the clause. Additionally, the main verb is returned to its infinitive or past participle form, depending on the tense.
Der Mann muss der Frau das Buch geben.
🔸 Questions & Statements
The finite verb is always the first element.
Siehst du den Ausgang?
Interrogative words (or w-words) are considered to be in the zeroth position.
Worauf wartet ihr?
Auxiliary/modal verbs have the same effect as before:
Kannst du den Ausgang sehen?
Worauf habt ihr gewartet?
🔸 Subordinate clause
A subordinate clause depends on a main clause to make sense. It is often introduced by a conjunction as the first element and the finite verb is usually the last element.
Ich bin nicht zur Arbeit gefahren, weil ich krank war.
Du könntest ihm helfen, statt dich nur zu beschweren!
When a single auxiliary modal verb is introduced, it becomes the finite verb and the main verb is placed before it::
Er ist sich immer noch nicht sicher, ob er ihr alles erzählen soll.
If a double infintive is present, it is placed at the end and the finite verb comes before it.
Das ist das Haus, das ich hätte verkaufen sollen.
barren idol
explain nouns word order
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FAQ not found. Did you mean...
word order nouns
word order pronouns
Word Order for Nouns & Pronouns
barren idol
explain word order nouns
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Word Order - Nouns & Pronouns
The placement of nouns and pronouns in a German sentence is dependent on their case and is flexible, but still tends to come in a particular order. When placed outside this "neutral" word order, the noun/pronoun is often "emphasised".
🔸 Nouns Only
Sentence with only nouns: Nominativ -> Dativ -> Akkusativ
Der Mann gibt der Frau das Buch.
Heute muss der Mann der Frau das Buch geben.
🔸 Pronouns Only
Sentence with only personal pronouns: Nominativ -> Akkusativ -> Dativ
Er gibt es ihr.
Heute gibt er es ihr.
🔸 Nouns & Pronouns
Pronouns tend to go before nouns. If a noun is the topic (the focus of the sentence), then it's always the first element in a main clause and the pronoun does not go before it.
Er gibt der Frau das Buch.
Der Mann gibt ihr das Buch.
Der Mann gibt es der Frau.
If something else is the topic, then pronouns tend to precede nouns:
Heute gibt er der Frau das Buch.
Heute gibt ihr der Mann das Buch.
Heute gibt es der Mann der Frau.
‼ However, a pronoun object (i.e. Akkusativ/Dativ) can also go after the noun subject (and only the noun subject) when confusion is possible. Compare these two sentences:
Heute ruft die Journalistin sie an.
Heute ruft sie die Journalistin an.
They will not be interpreted to mean the same thing, so you need to be careful.
🔸 Other Pronouns
Demonstrantive pronouns (das, der, dies, etc.) always go after personal pronouns, irrespective of case.
Heute gibt er mir das.
Reflexive pronouns follow the same order as personal pronouns (Akk -> Dat) and tend to also precede nouns. Sometimes it can be very important to stick to this rule, as seen here:
Gestern hat er sich mir vorgestellt. (He introduced himself to me yesterday.)
Gestern hat er es sich vorgestellt. (He imagined it yesterday.)
tender trellis
@green glade hey
sterile dune
play 257ers - Ti Amo
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amber ocean
skip
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Skip vote added, currently at [1/2]
simple yoke
kindred wyvern
help evalin
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echo quartz
explain all
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dreamy sphinx
explain FAQ
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Q: What does FAQ mean?
A: Frequently Asked Questions.
Q: How does it relate to this server?
A: You can invoke answers to FAQs regarding grammar, geography and culture of DACH or other topics related to GLaD.
Q: What does GLaD mean?
A: German Language and Discussion (a.k.a. this server).
Q: How do I invoke these answers?
A: Type >explain [faq name] (additionally >ex or >faq instead of >explain)
Q: Where do I invoke the answers?
A: Please use #botchannel for the FAQs.
Q: I can’t find an answer to my question.
A: Use >explain [topic name] and the results will either show you related searches, or add your questions to our suggestion list.
Q: I want to write an FAQ entry, how do I do it?
A: Try writing something in the same style as other FAQs and ping Pferd to ask for proofreading.
Q: I found some mistakes/typos in an FAQ entry.
A: Ping Pferd to correct it.
Q: I don’t understand some parts of an FAQ entry.
A: Ask in #questions or ping Pferd for help.
echo quartz
OH
dreamy sphinx
:)
echo quartz
thank you
dreamy sphinx
Np
echo quartz
explain beginner
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How to get started
The simplest way to learn German is to find topics you don’t understand yet and search for explanations of them. This list provides you with a guide for which topics to learn if you are completely new to German. Type the topic into Google (or YouTube) and start learning!
Introduction
1: Alphabet (especially ä, ü, ö and ß)
2: Basic greetings (hello, goodbye, etc.)
Part 1 - Simple Sentence
1: Noun gender & plurals
2: Nominative case (What are cases?)
3: Nominative pronouns (I, you, he, she, etc.)
4: Verbs in present tense
5: Definite/indefinite articles
6: Accusative case (for nouns)
7: Accusative pronouns
8: Word order of simple sentences
9: How to ask questions
Tips
- Always learn the gender of a noun when you learn a new noun
- Learn to use a translation dictionary (e.g. dict.cc, leo.org)
- Use
>faq resourcesto see our list of German learning resources - For listening and pronunciation practice, try watching movies or videos (incl. YouTube)
- You can listen to pronunciation for words on websites like dict.cc, forvo.com, and others
- Practice writing sentences every day (and asking people to correct them)
- Ask as many questions as possible
- Don’t be scared to make mistakes!!!! If you don’t let yourself make mistakes, you will never be able to learn German
dreamy sphinx
help
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dreamy sphinx
explain all
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dreamy sphinx
explain resource list
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snow tartan
cefr Level A
kindred wyvern
help evalin
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kindred wyvern
ex list
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FAQ not found. Did you mean...
Resource List
kindred wyvern
ex listall