The Secret to Naturally Speaking German Like a Local

Hello and welcome back. Thinking in German is an important goal that brings you a giant step closer to becoming fluent. However, many German learners ignore this fact and when they speak, they translate word for word from their native language into German. Now, German does share grammar and vocabulary with English, for example. But the problem is that more often than not in German, it's used differently. And that's the focus of this section. I'll show you how things work in German so that you can start thinking like a native speaker. Let's start. Hello and welcome back. In this lesson, I'd like to show you how to make a good first impression when you meet people. It happens a lot that when I start a lesson with a new student, I ask, "Hello, hi, how are you?" And the answer I get is good. I am good. However, that is wrong. The root of the problem is that how are you in German translates to how is it going to you or the short form. Now you cannot answer how is it going to you with I am good as you would do in English but you have to say it is going well to me escally good. All right let's have a look at a real dialogue. We'll start with informal German hello. Hello how are you? I'm good, thanks. And you? And here it's important to point out that you don't ask unm also good. Thanks. And a formal dialogue looks like this. Good afternoon. How are you? I'm good, thanks. And [Music] you? Also good. Thanks for asking. So what I recommend is actually not trying to understand the exact grammatical rules that are involved here or translating word by word from English to German, but rather learn the German expressions as they are and then you know that you're saying it right. And that's it. In the next lesson, I'll be talking about another widespread mistake. See you there. In this lesson, I'd like to talk about a mistake that I hear every day, even from advanced speakers. I think it's quite easy to avoid this mistake. You just have to be aware of it, and it makes a big difference. But first, let's have a look at the word order in a typical German sentence. The subject is in the first position. The verb is in the second position. And then comes the object. To refresh your memory, the subject usually performs an action. The verb is the action itself, and the object is affected by the action. I decided to use colors to illustrate the difference between the parts of the sentence in order to make it easier for you to understand what I'm talking about. I eat an apple. You buy a book. Dsteinb you can see that the subject yellow is in position number one and the verb red is in position number two. That's the important rule and I repeat the verb is always in the second position. That's what I would like you to keep in mind. Okay, let's have a look at another sentence. This one does not start with the subject but with an adverb. And do you see what's happening here? The verb and the subject switched places. Why? Because according to the rule, the verb has to be in the second position. So the adverb is here in position number one, the verb in position number two. Then comes the subject and then the object. Today I eat an apple. But what we actually say is today eat I an apple with the verb in the second position. The mistake that I'm talking about in this lesson is that many German learners do not switch the subject and the verb when the sentence doesn't start with the subject and they say in the usual English word order. But unfortunately that is wrong. pizza. My little brother eats a pizza. I chose this example to show you that the first position in a sentence doesn't necessarily mean the first word in a sentence because here the subject is my little brother and it has three words. The verb is is in position number two. And now let's see what happens when I start the sentence with sometimes a pizza. Sometimes my little brother eats a pizza. The verb and the subject switched places so that according to the rule the verb stays in the second position in the sentence. You drank an orange juice. This is an example using the past tense and the conjugated verb here is hust. And if we want to emphasize that you drank the orange juice yesterday, we say yesterday you drank an orange juice. And again and do switch position. The same rule is also applied to model verbs such as which means can or to be able to do something. I can see the mountains. Usually I can see the mountains. Here the change in the word order is triggered because the sentence starts with usually and not with the subject. All right, this was the first part of the lesson and I'll be right back in the second part. Hello and welcome back. In the first part of the lesson, we've seen simple sentences. Now, let's have a closer look at some more complex ones. I read a book or I'm reading a book. In German, there is no difference. I like history. Therefore, I'm reading a book. You see that in the subordinate clause, the verb and the subject switched places so that the verb remains in the second position. She's going for a walk. It's raining. Nevertheless, she's going for a walk. And again, the same thing happens in the subordinate clause. G comes before Z. Tennis basketball. You play tennis. You play basketball. Tennis basketball. First you play tennis, then you play basketball. So we connected the two sentences with first and then. These words take the first position. And that's why the verb has to follow immediately in order to stay in the second position. Now, as you know, the exception proves the rule. And that's why I'd like to show you some exceptions. The words aba, but un, and then, because are considered position zero. They do not change the word order. London. He comes from London, but he studies in Zurich. I'm calling you because I'd like to talk to you. In all three examples, the word order remains first subject then verb. And last but not least, I'd like to mention that there is another exception. Some words such as th does that, vile, because, and else when in the past tense. These words send the verb to the end of the sentence rather than just switching the position with the subject. But that's a topic for another lesson. So basically, the most important insight that I would like you to take from this lesson is that when you don't start a sentence with the subject, you need to change the word order. If you do this, it shows that you're really taking your German seriously. If you are like most German language learners, you've probably come across the following dilemma when it comes to verbs in the past tense. When do I use the verb habin to have and when do I use the verb zine to be? The textbook answer is that the past tense in German is usually formed by using the verb haben and the past participle. I learned German. And if there is a movement involved or a change of state, then you use I went to Berlin. Now, this is the official explanation and it makes sense, but I've seen that many students are still finding it hard to choose the right verb when forming the past tense. So I came up with the following not so official rule but I think it makes it easier to understand the difference between habin and sign. Okay. So this is how it works. If you can sit in a chair while performing the action you're talking about you use haben. And if you cannot sit in a chair while performing the action you're talking about you use zine. Let's have a look at some examples. And we'll start with I ate the apple. He drank a glass of red wine. We saw the film. It's possible to do all of this while sitting in a chair, eat an apple, drink wine, and see a film. That's why you form the past tense for all these examples with habin. And now I'll show you some sentences with zine. She went home. You ran in the park this morning. You guys got up from the chair. You see that all these things cannot be done while sitting in a chair. You cannot go run or even get up from a chair while sitting in a chair. So here you have to use zine and that's the simple rule to distinguish between haben and zin when forming the past tense in German. In this lesson I'd like to talk about an important difference between German and English. Many people say that English is a very easy language and German is so difficult. Now I do agree that the gender and case system in German makes the language more difficult than English. But when it comes to verb tenses, I think German is pretty simple. Let's take a look at the verb to go. For example, I went. I have gone. I have been going. I go, I am going. I will go. In German, you need only two verb tenses in order to cover all of these scenarios. and present and past. The future can be expressed by using the present tense and a word that indicates future time. So in German, it's perfectly fine to say, "Tomorrow I buy a book." But in this lesson, I'd like to focus on the fact that in German, there is no verb tense that can imply that something started in the past and is still going on in the present like the present perfect in English. I have worked at the bank for 25 years. Now, what this means is that you started to work for the bank 25 years ago and you are still working there. And because of this you would use the present tense in [Music] German. If you say I have worked as you do in English, I would understand that you're not working there anymore because you use the past tense. All right, here are some more examples. I have learned German for 3 years. Many German learners say it's pretty much a word for word translation. Have learned. However, this is wrong because you are still learning German. So, you need to use the present tense. And you see that we say since 3 years and not for 3 years as you would say in English. I have lived in Berlin for 3 weeks. As you might guess, many German students would say, "But now you already know that this is wrong and that you should say in. So, a short recap. In German, the most important verb tenses are present tense and past tense. When something happened in the past, you use past tense. When something happens now, you use present tense. There is no verb tense in between. Okay. Up next, I'll be talking about another interesting difference between German and English. See you there. In the last lesson, I was talking about the fact that there are no verb tenses in German that compare to I have done or I have been doing. It's either I did or I do. Now, in this lesson, I'd like to draw your attention to the fact that German also doesn't have a progressive verb tense. What does that mean? It means that you cannot express that something is happening right now simply by using a specific verb tense such as the present progressive in English. For example, there is no way of saying I am reading or I am eating in German. You can only say I read or I eat. Let's have a closer look. I am reading the newspaper. If you translate this word for word, and that's what many German learners do, you get that looks like an accurate translation, but it's wrong. What you do say is literally I read the newspaper. In German, there is no difference between I am reading the newspaper and I read the newspaper. Both are another example. It is raining. This is what I hear a lot. A word for word translation, but unfortunately that's not how we say it in correct German. You say esnet. All right, that was the present tense. Now, let's check out some examples in the past tense because in English there is the past progressive or also called past continuous. He was cooking in the kitchen and the following translation. What do you think? Is this correct exactly? It's not. He was cooking in the kitchen translates to why? Because again in German there is no progressive verb tense such as was doing or were doing. When an action happened in the past, you use the past tense. And in spoken German, that's usually the tense called perfect that is formed within or z and the past participle. were watching TV when he called. A word for word translation would look like this. But of course, this is wrong. And you already know that you should use the past tense in German. And the correct translation looks like this. They were watching TV when he called. You might wonder why is it and not then. Don't worry there will be a lesson on this topic later in the course. Okay. So the next question is I get it in German there is no continuous verb tense but what do Germans do when they want to especially emphasize that something's happening right now? Well, the answer is there is a workaround. We use the verb together with a word you could translate as at the moment. And gad is usually placed after the verb. Can you call me later? I'm eating. Or as we literally say in German, I eat at the moment. I'm drinking a cup of coffee. We're playing basketball. Do you want to play along? Basketball. All right. So a short summary is that expressing the progressiveness of a verb is not possible in German by the sheer use of grammatical structures. I am doing something in English would be translated to the equivalent of I do something in German and I was doing something in English would be translated to the equivalent of I did something in German. Having said that, there is a way of expressing that the action is taking place now and that's the word after the verb. Okay, I think that's it. If you have any questions, please feel free to post them on the discussion board and I'll see you in the next lesson. Hello and welcome back. In this lesson, I'd like to talk about another interesting concept that exists both in English and in German, but it is applied differently and that often leads to confusion among German learners. I'm talking about the word ago. The German translation of a go is for. Now the difference is that in English a go is placed after the time indication and in German for is placed before the time indication. Let's have a look at an example a year ago. If you translate word for word you geta for but that is wrong. The correct way of saying it is form. You might have noticed that for requires the dative case because it's not for but form. In the dative case becomes and becomes. Here is another example. The last game was a month ago. The word for word translation is monat. But now you already know that this is wrong. You have to put the for before and apply the dative case. So the correct translation is let's check out some more examples and all of these are correct. I bought a car a week ago. This is an example with a feminine noun a week. And you see that became, and by the way, you hardly pronounce the R at the end of the word. In London, you were in London a year ago. In London. We arrived at the hotel 2 hours ago. All right. So that was a short explanation about the different usage of a go in German and in English. In English it goes after the time indication a year ago and in German it goes before the time indication form. In the next lesson, I'll be talking a bit more about the German word order, and I'll also show you an easy rule for getting the sentence structure right. See you there. One of the things most German learners are struggling with is the German word order. This is because it's different from English and many other languages. Now, if you'd like to form a proper German sentence, you cannot use the English word order and simply translate the words. What you need to do is understand how it works in German and use that different structures. And the key that makes German word order simple is an acronym called teamolo. In this lesson, you will learn how to use it. It might look a bit complicated at first, but please watch the lesson until the end and it will all make sense. All right, let's break the acronym down. You know every part of the sentence has a specific function. When does it happen is called temporal and the first two letters are t. Why does it happen is called causal and the first two letters are ca. How does it happen is called modal and the first two letters are mo and where does it happen is called localal with the first two letters law. So in German the standard sentence structure is subject verb teamo. Let's take a look at an example in English to better understand what I'm talking about. Today I'm going to Berlin by bus for a wedding. You see that I packed a lot of information in this example so that you can see all of the parts of the sentence in action. But actually most sentences are much simpler than this. Okay. And now we'll identify all the tamos. When do I go there? today or in German. Why do I go there for a wedding? Vegan mo. How do I go there? By bus. Where am I going? To Berlin. Berlin. And now the whole sentence in German. All right, I said before that not every sentence has all the different parts that I mentioned in my example. Here we have a sentence without temporal and causal. I'm going to Berlin by bus. Mo is how and is where the next sentence has only a and part I'm going to Berlin to shop is why law is where Berlin in. Okay, here is in my opinion one of the most common examples with time and location. I'm going to Berlin tomorrow when Morgan L where Berlin. The next example is the same sentence but in the past tense. And you see that the past participle has its usual place at the end of the sentence. I went to Berlin yesterday when now there is an exception to this rule. If you'd like to make a special emphasis, one of the tamalos can be placed at the beginning of the sentence. The others stick to their order. Here, for example, I put the particle at the beginning of the sentence. Because of a wedding, I'm going to Berlin today. So, I'm really emphasizing why I'm going to Berlin. The other parts of the sentence stick to their order. And as you remember from one of my previous lectures, the verb is always in position two. That's why you cannot say, but you have to switch the subject and the verb and say for. So that is how German word order works. I know it looks confusing at first, but you will get a feeling for it the longer you learn the language. As I mentioned, the most common sentence structure is a sentence with a time and a location. So if there is only one thing you take from this lesson, then please remember that in German, time always comes before location. And that's it. I'll see you in the next lesson. Hello and welcome back. As you probably know, German and English both belong to the same branch of the Indo-Uropean language family, which is called the Germanic languages. Here are some of them. While many English words are derived from Latin and French for historic reasons, about a third of the words are of Germanic and in particular German origin. And the percentage of these words used in everyday conversations is very high. Now, what does that mean? Well, it means that you already know a lot of German vocabulary without even being aware of it. This is just a very short list of similar or even identical words in English and in German. There are many more. And some people even say the total count is somewhere between 1,500 and 5,000 in the standard language. You see, that's a huge advantage when you learn German. However, the similarity also creates a linguistic phenomenon, and you need to be aware of this. It's called false friends. What is a false friend? A false friend is a word in a language that looks or sounds similar to a word in another language, but means something different. And in this lesson, I'd like to focus on one of the most common false friends between English and German, the word will. Let's have a look at an example. fun. You might think, hey, this is easy. The translation is I will go to Berlin. But that's wrong. The correct translation is I want to go to Berlin. V in German does not have the same meaning as will in English. It's a form of the verb volen to want. Let's have a closer look at the conjugation of this verb. I want you sil, she it wants ven. We want volt. You guys want z volen they or formal u want. So if you'd like to say that you want to do something, you use the conjugated verb volen and the respective action in its infinitive form at the end of the sentence. Here are some examples. Berlin, I want to go to Berlin. You see the first person form of the verb volen and the verb to go in its infinitive form. That's the form you find in a dictionary at the end of the sentence. You want to help me. Does he want to come along? All right. Now you know that v in German doesn't describe an action in the future but something you want or want to do. And how does German form the future tense? Well, we use the conjugated auxiliary verb ven and the action verb in its infinitive at the end of the sentence. Let's check out some future tense examples with the conjugated forms of I will learn German. You will live in Berlin. He will work for BMW. We will move to Munich. You guys will buy a car. They will find an apartment. Okay, that's what I wanted to tell you about the false friend V or will. I will also add a PDF file with an interesting list of other false friends so that you can get an even better understanding of this phenomenon. In the next lesson, I'll be talking a little bit more about the verb volen to want in order to show you another important difference between German and English. See you there. So, today I'd like to talk a little bit more about the verb volen to want. In the last lesson, we saw that it's a false friend with the English word will and we had a closer look at the present tense use. Just a small reminder, I want to eat. You see that in this example, the verb volen is conjugated in the first person v and then we have a second verb in the infinitive form at the end of the sentence. Essen to eat. That's how it works in the present tense. And here are some more examples. Do you guys want to drink a coffee? She wants to go for a walk with her son today. Okay. And here is an example using the past tense. I wanted to order a pizza. As you can see, in order to express the past tense, I used the so-called for the verb volen I wanted. Usually in spoken language, we tend to use the present perfect tense when we're talking about something in the past. In German, it's called perfect and you form it with the verb or z and the or in English past participle. Some quick examples to buy. I bought a car. to eat. You ate an apple. To walk, we went home. This is how you usually form the past tense. With modal verbs, however, you use the and volen is such a modal verb. Let's have a look at the conjugation of volen in the past tense. I wanted you wanted he, she, it wanted via we wanted. You guys wanted Z vultton they or formal you wanted. So when we slightly modify the examples we just saw and add the verb to want in the past tense, this is how it will look like. I wanted to buy a car. As in the present tense, you see the conjugated form of volen, but this time in the past tense and the infinitive form of the second verb at the end of the sentence. Do vultist. You wanted to eat an apple. We wanted to go home. Okay, so that was volen in the past tense. Another way of using the verb to want in English is the following. To want someone to do something. For example, I want you to read a book. Now this also exists in German but it looks different. If you translate the sentence word for word you get I want that you a book read. That's the literal translation. And you see that thus sends the verb to the end of the sentence. Literally, we say he wants that I his parents meet. Another example, I want you to come to my birthday party. Bucks party. And again, if you translate word for word so you get a better understanding of the sentence structure, it will look like this. I want that you to my birthday party come with the verb at the end. All right. Today you've learned a lot about this important verb and now you can actively use it when you speak German. On a side note, I'd like to mention that if you're addressing somebody and ask for something, it's more polite to say rather than as in English, it's more polite to say I would like rather than I want. And that's it. Thanks for watching and I see you in the next lesson. I usually say that German is a very logic language. Yes, there are many rules and many exceptions, a complex gender and case system, long words, and strange sounds, but the language is pretty accurate and does make sense once you understand how it works. Today, however, I'd like to show you an example where German has a bit of a problem with accuracy. I'm talking about distinguishing between a friend and a significant other. Here is a short overview. Definit. And now let's look at an example sentence. I'm going to the theater with my friend. The problem here is that the meaning is ambiguous. It could mean that you're going to the theater with a friend, but it's more likely that people will understand that you're going to the theater with your boyfriend. Why? Because it's become widely accepted to use mine fo is a code for my boyfriend and mine for my girlfriend. Although the literal meaning is simply my friend. For example, isin Martina is my girlfriend. All right, let's get back to our ambiguous sample sentence in the lesson title. I mentioned that one letter can make the difference between a friend and a boyfriend and it's right here. This M. And now see what happens. The M is gone. Minfluent became influent. This is one strategy to avoid misunderstandings and ambiguity. The use of the indefinite article. And this is very common. You can also say or which means a friend of mine. Matina is Martina is a friend of mine and this makes it clear that she's not your girlfriend but a platonic friend. So we thought we found a solution to our problem but surprise it's not as simple as that. You cannot always use this strategy because it might conflict with other rules how to use the articles. Let's have a look at an example in order to understand better what I'm talking about. Yesterday I went to shop with a friend of mine. So far so good. It's clear that she's not my girlfriend. I wanted to buy red shoes, but my friend doesn't like red. And here, Houston, we have a problem. Am I talking about the friend who came with me to shop or is it my girlfriend that wasn't even there? We don't know. Okay, so we just learned use a friend of mine instead. Will that work? Yesterday I went to shop with a friend. I wanted to buy red shoes, but a friend of mine doesn't like red. H. No, this doesn't really work because you will assume that I just introduced another friend that I haven't mentioned before. So, we need to stick to my friend and this is where the story will be ambiguous. You can also use other words than fluent or fluent in if you mean boyfriend or girlfriend. Partner for a man or partner in for a woman for example means partner. Libenskate for a man or libkin for a woman is significant other. Fest is a steady boyfriend and festive a steady girlfriend. The thing is that they sound very formal and are usually used for long-term relationships or when a couple lives together. So that is the problem the German language faces and you need to be aware of this in order to avoid misunderstandings. Now, of course, communications rarely occur in a vacuum, and in many cases, the context will be helpful for understanding, but I also wanted to give you an insight into how native speakers deal with such situations. Thanks for watching. Good job. You just finished the first section of the course and made a big step on your German learning journey. Remember that you can always rewind and watch a lecture again if you think I went too fast. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask and I'll be happy to help.