🙊Warum du Grammatik kennst, aber trotzdem nicht sprechen kannst (7 Gründe + 7 hilfreiche Tipps)

I know so much grammar, but I can't use it when speaking. Hello and welcome back to my channel. My name is Maria, I am a German teacher and your language coach. Actually, you know all the rules. Perfect and preterite? Sure. Accusative and dative? No problem. Adjective declination? Of course. But as soon as you're supposed to speak, everything is suddenly gone. Why does this happen and, above all, what can you do about it? That's exactly what this video is about. Today we will discuss seven reasons together why you know the grammar, but you can't use it and, above all, what you can do about it. Are you ready? Then let's go! In this video you will get a lot of important information from me. You probably also prepared a piece of paper and a pen. But you don't have to. I have put together a PDF for you that you can download for free. Click on the first link below this video. Enter your name and email address and download it. And now let's get started. It's going to be really exciting. First of all, I want to reassure you. Many German learners are just like you. I also know the problem very well. You learn grammar rules for months and understand the theory. But then in practice, when speaking, everything is simply deleted. And here we are with the first reason. You confuse theory and practice. Understanding grammar is one thing. You read the rules, you recognize the mistakes. You know how the sentence has to be structured. Maybe you can even cross the right thing in the exercise. But then comes the real life, real situations and real conversations. No time to think, no time to go through the rules in your head. Because when speaking, you have to react quickly and be spontaneous. And that's exactly where the problem is. If you only learn grammar passively, so only read, understand and cross, but never pronounce it out loud, you don't train the application. You have the rules in your head, but you don't use them when speaking. They don't become active, they remain passive. So what helps here? Speak, speak, speak. Even if you don't have a private teacher, you can practice with other German learners. I did that too. In my German courses, for example, there is a great community where you can find conversational partners. Feel free to sign up, my method has helped many. By the way, you can also practice without conversational partners. Even conversations should not be underestimated. So my tip for you is to change the theory. How do you do that best? Choose a grammar topic. Find examples and repeat them several times. Then come up with your own sentences in which you use the topic. You should also read these sentences out loud. Repetitions are very important, because grammar has to be automated, and that only happens through active practice. How do you actually put what you've learned into practice? Feel free to write me a comment. Reason number two. You are afraid of making mistakes. You are afraid of blaming yourself. You definitely don't want to say something wrong. Don't make embarrassing mistakes, for God's sake. You know the rules, you could apply them. But you don't dare. You go for it and prefer to use very simple structures with which you feel comfortable. Going for it means being careful, avoiding a risk. Or taking no risk. That's understandable and definitely useful right from the start. But it doesn't get you anywhere in the long run. You also have to apply newly learned structures. My tip? Start with short sentences and then expand them step by step. Here you can build so-called grammar ladders. So start with a simple sentence, then expand it with the desired grammar. It's like climbing. I'll give you an example. I'm shopping. That's a super simple sentence with a separable verb in the present tense. I have shopped. This time I used the perfect tense. I had to go shopping today. Exciting! In this sentence I have already built in a modal verb, namely in the past tense. I had to go shopping today. The sentence is even more interesting. I had to go shopping. The modal verb is here in the perfect tense. By the way, all modal verbs have the auxiliary verb have in the perfect tense. And now watch out! I wouldn't have had to go shopping today if you had shopped yesterday. This is an irreal conditional sentence with the subjunctive 2. I wouldn't have had to go shopping today. I even kept the modal verb. You see? And suddenly you have spoken a long, correct sentence. So you grow bit by bit. You don't have to be able to do everything right away. You just have to start and then expand sentence by sentence. You then say these sentences out loud again to strengthen and automate the structures. The more often you do this, the more natural it feels. A little task for you. I'll give you a sentence right away and you expand this sentence according to the grammar principle. Are you ready? Here comes the sentence. I'm learning German. I'm really looking forward to your examples. Reason number three. You learn too much at once. The subjunctive, the genitive, the relative sentence, the passive replacement forms. Preferably all at once. Understandable. You just want to get ahead. But if you want too much at once, you often take over. To take over means to expect too much, to overload yourself. If you try to have everything in your head at the same time, you block yourself. Here's my tip. Learn one thing, but do it right. For example, focus for a few days only on the prepositions. Practice them intensively, build sentences, dialogues and use them as often as possible in everyday life. This way, a single grammar rule becomes a tool that you can really use and not just another theory in your head. Or take another topic. Today I'll choose verbs with prepositions, for example. Here are a few sentences for you. Please ask me your questions. I'm happy to answer. Therefore, I ask you to ask me your questions in the comments. I'm really looking forward to it. If you want to know more about verbs with prepositions, please watch this video. It will certainly help you. And now choose a topic and write at least three sentences in the comments. I'm looking forward to it. Reason number four. You don't get feedback. You talk and talk, but no one tells you where you might be making mistakes. You can't improve that way. My tip. Ask for correction. Whether in a conversation with German native speakers, in a German course or in a language tandem. Say that you would be happy if others improved you or gave you feedback. Because asking is free. That's such a typical German sentence. Asking is free. That means you have nothing to lose when you ask. And the feedback can of course also be positive. So you also notice what you are already doing very well and where your strengths are. But also your weaknesses. Another tip. Accept yourself. Speak freely about a topic while you record yourself with your cell phone, for example. Listen to your recording afterwards and give yourself feedback. You will be amazed how much you recognize yourself. By the way, in my German courses you can always ask me questions and you always get an answer and also feedback from me. This is also very important because without any feedback it is simply difficult to get better. You can also ask me a question under this video and I would love to give you feedback. Let's go! Reason number five. You do too few repetitions. Let's imagine you learned the topic connectors. Done. By the way, there is also a video about it. So, the topic is done. Tomorrow comes the next topic. Wait a minute. Where are the repetitions? If you don't repeat a topic it is quickly forgotten again. Quickly means very fast. Once learned, unfortunately, does not mean saved forever. So my tip. Think about regular repetitions. Don't just learn something superficially by heart, but really incorporate. Don't stop, but repeat again and again until it finally happens automatically. In another video I have already shown you what such a repetition plan could look like. You will definitely like it. By the way, I set up my own German courses in such a way that there are many repetitions. Grammar and vocabulary should always go hand in hand. Which topic can you, for example repeat today? Reason number 6. You practice grammar isolated. Many learn grammar like math. Read rules, do exercises, fill gaps, done. The problem is these exercises often have nothing to do with real life. You put crosses, fill gaps, sort sentences, but you don't learn how you can really apply grammar. If, for example, you only use accusative or only subjunctive without using them in real conversations, the whole thing remains too abstract, too isolated. Learning intensively. You know what is right, but not when, where and why you really need it. There is a lack of natural context. My tip is to practice grammar always directly in context. So you don't just learn the rules, but also their meaning in real language use. By the way, this is also the case in my German courses. You don't practice grammar isolated, but in real, realistic situations. And how do you actually learn grammar? Please write me in the comments. Reason number 7. Your active vocabulary is limited. Wait a minute. What does the vocabulary have to do with grammar? More than you might think. Because how do you want to formulate a grammatically correct sentence if you can't think of half of the words? How can you focus on grammar when you are constantly missing important vocabulary? If you are looking for the right word in the conversation, there is hardly any energy left to focus on the right grammar. You look for words and forget the grammar. My tip is to expand your vocabulary. I think I've said that very often. The more often you use the word actively, the faster you remember it in the conversation. This way you don't waste any time to think about the correct vocabulary. This way you can focus on grammar. But how do you do that? How do you actually expand your vocabulary? Reading helps a lot here. Do you even read in German? What was the last thing you read in German? If you particularly liked the book, then you can recommend it to us in the comments. So if you sometimes have the feeling I know the rules, but I can't apply them, then you know you are not alone. But you learned something very important today. Grammar needs repetition. Grammar needs connection to real life. And above all, courage to try. Stay tuned, be patient with yourself and give yourself the permission to make mistakes. And please remember the free PDF that you can download directly under the video. Well then, stay busy, take care and we'll see each other again soon in my new video. Take care and bye!